Priorities

Now that the leaves are turning red here in CA I finally have time to return to my site and post this short update. Both work and life have keep me busy since my last post.

By the way, this is the view out my office window. I’m lucky to work mostly from home.

I’ve been juggling multiple clients and projects, a personal life, and activities that were a higher priority than writing an update for this blog. Now the blog gets my attention.

There are two key elements to priorities: making them and acting in accordance to them.

Making them can be a topic of its own but the key thing is that they should align with what is most important to you. Once you choose what is important, you need to make sure your actions reflect those priorities.

I use a paper TODO list to keep track of what I need to accomplish each day and over the week. I have an additional column for items I know I should do but I consider too low to make it onto the list. I still track them but let them wait until I have time to let those items move onto the actual list of things I’ll get done.

I have several categories that each have their own TODO items. These include: each client, my business itself, fitness goals, musical goals, and most importantly the personal section which includes relationships, friendships, and making sure there is time for fun, downtime, and activities of daily living. I have learned to not have too many things on my TODO list. My goal is to actually do most of them and still have unscheduled time for life or life’s surprises.

Juggling client priorities is interesting when you have more than one client and they may have more than one project. I use a calendar to help with that process to make sure I can meet each deadline I’m committed to. I used to spend a lot of time worrying about that and over time I’ve learned that it usually works out. I worry less and focus on working and tracking their dates and any changes or hints of changes in those dates. Since I don’t schedule myself too tightly, I have time to flex to make sure I can do the things that are truly a priority.