Discipline and Flexibility – Two Essentials for Prioritization

It is through discipline that I find flexibility.

Our lives are busy and supercharged with activity. Time is my most valuable resource (when the day is gone, it is gone), so I am conscious about how I spend it. If I am not intentional about how I spend my time, time runs me instead of me running it and I experience overwhelm. With seven kids in different schools and sports, being organized is required, not optional. Add my sanity into the mix, and being disciplined about our schedule is imperative to our family attitude and success in executing the week the way we want and need to.

I have a loose idea of what our year is like, a little tighter handling of the quarter, am pretty confident of how a month looks, and weekly, we are dialed in. Sunday is my day to take a little time to make sure we have everything good and planned for the week. Taking this approach allows us (me) to relax into the week, know everything is covered, and be more present with what is happening.

Obviously, things come up; someone needs a shoebox for school, a toothache needs a trip to the dentist, and another needs a little more mom time.  With the core of everything established, it is easier to find chunks of time to squeeze in life’s randomness in stride.  A key to that is prioritization. Two key practices help me make priorities obvious:

1.     The 6 Most Important

Every morning, I complete an empty sheet of paper titled “The 6 Most Important.”  ONLY six items are allowed on the list each day, and they get done no matter what. If I get through the six, and I have other things on a broader “to-do” list, I can start to pluck away at those, but only after my key six are done. This helps me because sometimes I can get on a roll with “tasks” and “checking boxes.” Tackling little non-essential items for that particular day in the name of productivity can often lead me away from the most important priorities.

2.     Daily Mantras

I start each day with my mantras for the week. Am I living those? If not, do I need to change things up to be living them through my actions?  Maybe someone needs to skip practice, or I take someone to lunch during their lunch break.  Perhaps a workout gets cut in half. Or, instead of a trail run, I get to run around the neighborhood near a soccer practice. If my actions match my mantras, I feel in alignment. When I hold the mantra mirror to how I’m spending my time, I can quickly reset if something is off.

Bottom line — when I set strong intentions of how I want to show up for the week, I get focused and specific. I can then effectively run the calendar to get the “doings” of life done. Yet, I still run everything across the filter question: “How am I being?” These two daily practices help me be the person I want to be, get the things done I want to get done, and quickly reset if I’m off.