How to set your life priorities right. When is the table stable? Or how to prioritize

One monk kept all his belongings in one small suitcase. With a beaming smile on his face, he said, “If every three months I don’t review my things and get rid of those that I don’t need, then my suitcase will fall apart, or I will have to buy myself a second one. We need to do the same with our lives.We regularly need to carry out such cleanings. Otherwise, if we… otherwise, we will either destroy our life or live it uselessly and then get a new body with even stronger attachments.”

What this monk meant to say is: prioritize your life, focus on what is most important to you and give you strength, and know that if you do not do this, problems and difficulties await you.

Lack of the ability to prioritize puts us in a state of paralysis. When we lose our natural ability to distinguish between what is more important to us and what is less important to us, we lose the main foundation of life and get confused in life. The first thing we forget and therefore become unable to act in the right way is that we are all eternal particles of God, the Absolute, full of happiness. From the standpoint of eternity, nothing in this world, good or bad, is worth falling into slavery.

There are two simple techniques, which I use to prioritize: I stop again and again and ask: what am I not doing at the moment, but should be doing that will change my life for the better?

When I find an answer in, let's say, a certain area, I start to look at others - like health, relationships, spiritual practice - and ask the question again. The results of this technique are amazing and very inspiring for me. In my mind, I imagine the end of my life and from this position I consider the present. When we are surrounded by a thousand little things, we tend to see only what is right in front of us. We are like a person who walks in a beautiful forest, but looks only at his feet until he hits his head on a large branch hanging low. When I look at my life in terms of death, I only care about the most important things: relationships, moments that allow me to forgive, feel uplifted and show compassion.

Life is gradually reduced, reduced, and, in the end, there are moments. And everyone chooses what he will do in these moments. And what is amazing is that everyone focuses only on the relationship. And everyone remembers that this, this is the most important thing. This is a very interesting one. Everyone is talking about relationships. That is, everything narrows down so much, and in the end we understand where, what is important.

“This is something we need to focus on while we still have the strength, the mind and the open heart. Of the millions of opportunities that life sends us, we need to single out similar, more important things. The benefits we get from prioritization. Prioritization creates two kinds of power within us: the first is the power to say no to everything that is unimportant and to discard it like the junk it is. This is the first power - to say "no" to everything unimportant.

Ask yourself, what do you really want in life? You can even write down your desires on a piece of paper, then analyze them. Desires may be different, but they have one thing in common - having achieved your goals, you will feel truly happy.

It is happiness that is the main goal of any person - even if he himself does not realize this. Therefore, the prioritization in life must necessarily take this moment into account. If what you are doing now is not bringing you closer to happiness, something needs to change in your life.

The mentioned point is very important. The road to happiness is hard and there is not much time. Therefore, every step should lead to your goal. Everything that takes you away from the chosen path, moves you away from the goal, must be discarded. Or at least relegated to the background.

Other people's interests

For many people, the most important priorities in their lives are the happiness, health and well-being of loved ones. At a minimum, many will say that they have everything the way it is. However, this is a mistake. Yes, people should take care of their parents, brothers and sisters, children. They must be ready, if necessary, to give their lives for them. At the same time, you need to understand that even the people closest to you cannot, have no right to deprive you of your dream - whatever it may be.

A person can live for others - if this is his way, his choice. If it makes him happy. But if, because of a sense of duty, responsibility, a person deprives himself of his dream, this is already wrong. People come into this world to be happy. To deprive yourself of happiness means to live life in vain.

That is why do not let anyone, including people close to you, manipulate you. You have your goals, your path. Help loved ones, take care of them. But don't let them deprive you of your dreams.

Prioritization

Some people have many items on their priority list. This is wrong - you can not embrace the immensity. If you've made such a list, cross off all but the top three items. Which items to leave is up to you. But there shouldn't be more than three. It is on these three priority goals that you focus all your attention.

Why only three points and not more? Because these are the realities - a person cannot effectively work on more than three tasks at the same time. If there are more of them, work efficiency drops sharply, as a result, it is not possible to achieve anywhere good result. So something has to be sacrificed. Learn to discard the superfluous for the sake of the main thing.

Change of priorities

It is important to note that priorities may change over time. This is normal - a person grows up, his values ​​\u200b\u200bare changing. At the same time, a change of priorities, if it occurs, must be of an evolutionary nature and correspond to the spiritual growth of a person. And it is very bad when a person just rushes through life, not knowing what he really wants. In this case, you need to go back to the very beginning and ask yourself: what do I need to be happy?

Never forget happiness. You can acquire a huge fortune, and at the same time be a deeply unhappy person. Money provides opportunities, but cannot replace happiness. Therefore, consider them as a tool, nothing more. Do not chase prestige, career, fashion - look for your own path. The one on which you will feel inspired, full of strength and energy. If you are happy to meet every new day, if you clearly see the goal and go towards it, no matter what, then you have set your priorities correctly and are on the right track.

It is vitally important for each person to be able to correctly place accents both in work and in personal life. Priority goals and objectives are those things without which life becomes dull, gray and meaningless. Unfortunately, in the flow of everyday affairs, it is sometimes extremely difficult to place such accents. We're just running through own desires, aspirations, goals, not noticing or not wanting to notice how your own subconscious screams in all ears: “Pay attention! Don't pass by! Wait, you!” And we are in a hurry, in a hurry to do what we promised someone, to do what we were forced from outside. Correct this situation will help correct prioritization.

Make time for yourself

There is one very simple and interesting exercise to get out of the routine and see life from a new angle. Every day for a week, whether you're at work or at home, give yourself one minute. Set a timer and think about what you can do in this minute that will change your internal and external state for the better? What action can bring some warmth and comfort into your life? Perhaps you will drink a glass of water, or perhaps open a window or go outside. These are the little things we usually don't pay attention to: Fresh air, drink more fluids - it seems that all these prescriptions are for impressionable girls, and not for adults. However, it is health is one of the most important priorities in the life of every person.

Next week, try to increase this time, set the time for 5-10 minutes a day and pay attention to yourself. You will notice that you will try to spend this time on things that you previously did not have enough time for, which seemed unimportant, but now significantly improve your mental and physical condition.

Wash the car, read a fairy tale to your child at night, lie in the bathroom with pleasure, read your favorite book. If you summarize these activities, you will see that they revolve around several major areas in your life. Family, health, education, self-improvement, financial well-being, love, new experiences, friends - these are the "pieces of the pie" called "life".

In the stream of everyday affairs, worries and responsibilities at work and at home, we often forget about these priorities, content with miserable crumbs of satisfaction from fulfilling parental or socially imposed prescriptions. And what is the result? And in the end, "excruciatingly painful for the aimlessly lived life." In order to avoid this, it is enough to start living proactively. Avoid the aimlessness of existence. If you are already “going with the flow of life”, then go with a specific goal, for example, like the Japanese samurai who chose the path of service.

Easy prioritization and harmony in the soul is determined by mental purity or the absence of mental debris. What is mental trash? It: negative emotions, psychological complexes, emotional trauma, limiting beliefs, negative attitudes, addictions and other rubbish. Freedom from this rubbish gives energy, determination and clarity of thought, which is critically needed both for setting priorities and in modern life generally. .

Priorities: 5 Ways to Better Emphasize Your Life

It may seem strange, but for each person, priorities are something peculiar only to him, unique. This is due to the different alignment of values ​​in each of us. For someone, the well-being of the family is important, someone puts their whole soul into friendship, and for someone, work comes first. But we can all balance our lives so that values, priorities and responsibilities are in harmony (by the way, it allows you to see how harmoniously you are moving through life). And you need to start with the balance of today, in which it is correct to place accents using the methods of prioritization.

The ancient Indian poet Kapidasa said that one of our days contains all the beauty of the world. And indeed it is. If you want to make your life more balanced, balance your day with these simple tools.

  • 1. The easiest way

Make a to-do list for the day and think about which one is the most important? Which task from this list, if completed, will give you the greatest sense of satisfaction? Next to this case, put the letter A. You may have more than one such case on your list, so rank them in order of importance, indicating them with numbers, for example: A1, A2, etc. Throughout the day, follow the received sequence of cases (without fanaticism, of course). Sum up in the evening. Try to use this prioritization method whenever you are feeling tired and frustrated.

  • 2. Role based approach to prioritization

Make a to-do list for the day. On another sheet of paper, write down all your significant, priority ones for you personally. social roles, for example: “I am a friend”, “I am a mother”, “I am a daughter”, etc. After that, divide your cases into the received segments and arrange them within each of them in order of importance. Throughout the day, consistently perform the most important tasks from each segment, gradually descending to lower and lower levels of importance.

You need to start, of course, with the most priority segment for you. As you complete tasks, pay attention to your inner state. You need to track how correctly you have prioritized. Perhaps, while performing some action, you will notice that at this moment your “soul hurts” for something else, or maybe, on the contrary, the day will pass like clockwork. Pay attention to such subtleties, draw conclusions and, when making a list of tasks for the next day, shift priorities in favor of those that turned out to be most important to you. Prioritization is a purely individual matter.

It happens that in the morning or during the day it is no longer possible to make a to-do list and rank it in order of importance. As shows life experience, the days when this happens cannot be called particularly successful. To get things back on track, you can use a tool like the Eisenhower square.

To do this, draw a square on any sheet of paper, which is divided into four equal parts by two vertical segments. Label the top two horizontal sections as "Important" and "Not Important", and label the two vertical sections as "Urgent" and "Not Urgent". Thus, you have four cells. If we mentally combine the vertical with the horizontal (as in chess), we get four categories of tasks: “Important and urgent”, “Important, but not urgent”, “Not important, but urgent”, “Not important and not urgent”. Whenever you take on a task, mark it in the appropriate box. The category “Important and urgent” is, as a rule, “burning” projects, tasks that had to be “performed yesterday”.

“Important but not urgent” are proactive tasks that are important for future well-being. “It doesn’t matter, but urgently” - all kinds of tasks that others are trying to “hang” on us. “It doesn’t matter and it’s not urgent” - an empty pastime, hanging out in social networks, smoking breaks, etc. Obviously, it would be good to completely exclude the last two categories from your life, and after clearing the rubble in the first category, pay maximum attention to the second segment.

This prioritization allows you to quickly put things in order during the day and not fall victim to a morning that did not work out.

  • 4. GTD system ("Getting Things Done" or "How to put things in order")

In principle, the GTD system is a wide range of actions aimed at optimizing all tasks associated with the life of a single person. But David Allen presented his own principle of prioritization in a very interesting way. Everything is very simple. First you need to "unload" all the cases and tasks from your head and write them down on paper. After this process is completed, you can start ranking. All cases are divided into four categories.

In order to correctly divide into segments, ask questions: “Can I do this business in one step? How long will it take? Maybe this is no longer needed? Can I delegate this matter to someone? etc. As a result, you will receive a clearly ordered list of tasks, half of which you can solve in the next fifteen minutes.

  • 5. Prioritize Based on Goals

Describe your ideal day. Mark every detail: what kind of family do you have, what kind of relationship do you have, how much do you earn, where do you live, what do you think about, where do you go, what do you live? Dream thoroughly, let it be a small school essay on the topic “When will it be good for me to live?” After that, imagine yourself in this day, think about what advice you would give yourself? What aspects of life would you be asked to pay attention to so that your life becomes the way it is there in the future? Starting from this image of the future, make a list of things that would bring you closer to materializing it. Order it and start gradually implementing it.

All these prioritization methods do not require a lot of time. They demand attention and respect for themselves, and this is the most difficult task for many.

However, all efforts will pay off if one day you decide to live consciously and proactively, making time for the highest priority tasks and finding your own. native method setting priorities.

In the life of each of us constantly there is a mass of cases of various degrees of importance. What to do first, what to leave for later, and how to save precious time at the same time is a task that is akin to art. And to solve it, it is not necessary to study multi-volume time management manuals. It is enough to correctly set your priorities.

How is this done and what does it mean to “prioritize”? The literal translation of the word priority means "first". In other words, it is a priority task or action. Often there are several such tasks for the whole, and many are lost in how to complete all the important things and not lose sight of anything. In addition, there are more global goals from a number of life goals. Therefore, the second important question for many is how to arrange life priorities? In both of these cases, only a well-established scheme or technique can help. And, fortunately, there are.

Prioritization Methods

First of all, the ability to prioritize lies in the competent distribution of tasks in order of importance. And at this stage, many problems begin. At first glance, many tasks do not seem as important as they really are. Numerous ways of setting priorities are called upon to determine this degree. Let's consider the most effective of them.

1. Eisenhower principle. One of the most frequently used in the definition of primary and secondary tasks. To understand how to prioritize, create a questionnaire for yourself to learn how to separate the concepts of importance and urgency. For example:

  • you want to get back to work on the goal you set for the year. However, you cannot do this. Is it important or urgent?
  • on the mailbox received several letters. Is it important or urgent to read them right now?
  • You have decided that you will visit the doctor every six months. Exactly six months have passed, but you still have not gone to him. Is it important or urgent at the moment?

Correct answers:

  1. Important
  2. Urgently
  3. Important

This principle is based on a combination of only two options, which allows you to analyze and classify all upcoming tasks. Thus, you will get a hierarchy of tasks that will allow you to understand what needs to be done and when.

2. S. Covey quadrants. A method that allows you to understand how to prioritize work. According to the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, all tasks of people can be divided into 4 parts:

  1. important and urgent
  2. Important but not urgent
  3. Not important but urgent
  4. Not important and not urgent

According to S. Covey, successful people focus on Quadrant 2 first, and this saves time on other tasks. However, everyone decides for himself which tasks are more important - from quadrant 1 or 2.


3. A similar principle of how to properly prioritize is in method "ABV". But the tasks in it are divided into 3 categories.

Home, work, hobbies or friends - all this is far from full list components that make up our lives. It would seem that it is difficult to pay attention to each of these categories. That's right, but you also need to clarify everything so simply, exactly until the moment when one of these factors gets out of hand. What to do then? The balance is broken. At such moments, willy-nilly, you start to think, were my life priorities right? Or did I make a mistake somewhere? Yes, and how to prioritize in life. This short work is devoted to this vital problem.

Without prioritization, everything seems equally important

Sergey Moskalev

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"Family, duty, honor" - in that order?

The problem is in right choice priority is relevant at all times, regardless of the season, political views or religious beliefs. The question of how to prioritize in life is the most frequently asked question to oneself since the beginning of a conscious age. The very concept of priority implies the paramount importance, the primacy of your aspirations and desires. The main thing here is to listen to yourself, your own desires, on the basis of which such a sequence is built.

To date, eight components of any complex priority model are distinguished:

  1. Spirituality and its development- it's your inner world, moral structure, as well as awareness and acceptance human values. This is the so-called moral side of a person, his inner world;
  2. A family- your relationship with family and friends: friends, relatives, loved one. Your desire to please them and make them happy;
  3. Healthy lifestyle- your attitude to sports, outdoor activities and, of course, your own health. Ability to take care of yourself;
  4. Financial aspect- satisfaction with their financial situation, as well as the desire for wealth or luxury. Your ambitions are material;
  5. Career- self-realization of one's own ambitions on a professional basis, achievement of career heights. The desire to become better than others in the professional as well as labor field of activity;
  6. Relaxation- the name speaks for itself - the ability to relax after a hard day's work or simply from the hustle and bustle of the world;
  7. Self-development- the ability and desire to develop in areas of interest;
  8. society- the people around you, their relationships and your reputation in their eyes. Your desire to please completely unfamiliar or unfamiliar individuals.

Each person is individual

As you can see, such a classification is very complete - it affects all aspects of life of any person, from work and family to leisure with a hobby. Any of us has the opportunity to prioritize in life using such components. The only question will be which of this list will be at the top of the chart, and what will be at the very end. The main thing is not to condemn those whose alignment is different from yours. Remember that each person is individual, which means that by default, they are not obliged to adapt to anyone, even if it is family or close friends.

As already mentioned, the main priorities of life will be placed in the top three, thus showing the main aspiration of a person - in other words, his life goal currently. With age, the priority scale can change significantly, for example, not career, but personal life or family will be put in the first place.

Factors influencing the main priorities in a person's life

It would not be desirable, but in order to prioritize in life, one must also take into account the influence of a number of factors that imperceptibly, but nevertheless, strongly influence our life position and views.

The first such factor, however trivial it may sound, is time.

Let's be honest, which of the young people, aged 20-25, thinks about health, proper nutrition or the creation of a new unit of society? If 5% is typed, then this will be a very good indicator. What about older people? Everything is already completely different there - health, family, in essence, a complete revolution of the world upside down. However, you should not be indignant now and say that something or another state of affairs is wrong. On the contrary, each of them is right in his alignment of interests, you just need to take into account such a phenomenon as youthful maximalism and old man's anxiety. In this case, there is no erroneous or non-erroneous thinking.

The second factor will be all those key events that have occurred in the life of any individual

It is they who make it possible to correctly prioritize in life, based on their own experience. This experience can be both joyful and sad, but its main task is to allow a person to look at life in a different way. certain situations which he has already passed or what he has already dealt with. For example, for a young family, taking care of their child will be a priority, and only then will rest go.

Difficulties in one or more areas of life - also helps to prioritize life. Even more, it is this factor that is key. However, there are two possible scenarios. This area becomes the leading one, for example, failures at work make you strive even more for the desired result, or vice versa - a person puts it on the last line of his personal chart. This is very common in personal life. Fear of rejection or previous failures force one to drastically change one's own desires, as the person becomes vehemently convinced that in this field, he will not achieve the desired success.

As you can now see, life priorities are not a fixed value or a kind of axiom, by no means, it is something inconstant, a moving and changing direction phenomenon that can be in a suspicious calmness for no more than 5-10 years.

In order to learn how to prioritize in life, all you need is to take the time to analyze your own thoughts and your own desires.

The secret is quite simple - take some time for yourself, and then think about a series of questions such as:

  • What do I want?
  • What are my goals?
  • What am I willing to do to achieve them?
  • What can I give up for the next 5 years?

Such seemingly simple questions, however, will help you to fully understand the importance of some of the components that were cited earlier. Answering these questions, a person, perhaps without realizing it, already knows how to prioritize in life: what should be placed in the top three, and what can be completely abandoned.

Ask the big questions at least once a year

But you should not do this procedure once, because life does not stand still, which means that what was relevant for you now may turn out to be completely unnecessary the very next day. Make it a rule to do this kind of introspection every six months, and then record the result of your session in applied psychology. After a certain period of time, you will have the opportunity to analyze possible changes, which will only play into your hands in the future. Since the change of priorities does not just happen, but only under the influence of the three factors described above.

Start managing your calendar by prioritizing your tasks, first the most important ones that can't be delayed, and then the secondary ones that can be delayed. Submitting his daily life to this kind of planning, each person will easily be able at the moment of changing his life position not to get lost, but to apply the same skill in deeper plans for much longer periods.

With any prioritization, the only thing that should worry a person, the main thing that needs to be guided in the first place, is their own inner thoughts: “What do I really want?” or “Is this really what I want to strive for?” Ask yourself a few questions of this kind and you will understand what better strategy you choose how to prioritize your life. The main thing is to maintain a kind of balance, and not go from one extreme to another. Ideal option, of course, there will be a uniform temporary return, although this is something from the realm of fantasy, it is impossible to achieve this in principle. good advice it will also become that you can use your own experience to realize your own desires, which undoubtedly affect priorities. Experience is the advantage that makes it possible to make those decisions that are simply not available to others. Do not give up the desire to be the best, just learn to act tactfully and, most importantly, do not forget to remain human in any situation.

Stay with your interests no matter what

The main thing I would like to emphasize is that in order to set priorities in life, the main thing is to remain yourself, without falling under the influence of so-called advisers. You need to understand that the correct, and most importantly, harmonious choice of priorities is the key to success in any endeavor, since you yourself know exactly what you want to achieve.

The final touch will be that, despite the advice of friends or various trainers, do not try to try on the mask of who you are not. If you are a workaholic and a misanthrope, then relationships and social communication will obviously not be a priority for you. Follow your own aspirations and then everything that you plan for yourself will surely be achieved.