There will always be something vying for our time and attention. And inevitably we will have to choose between one option and another.
One thing I’ve found helpful is to actually rank the different areas of my life in terms of importance. Meaning, writing down what’s most important in my life right now (perhaps a specific area or relationship or goal that I need to focus on), what’s the next most important, and so forth.
Ranking them can be hard. We often have several important things that merit our attention. But determining which ones are most importance does have its benefits.
It provides better clarity when it’s time to make a decision about how to spend our time. If we’ve already identified what things are more important, we’ve already done the hard work of figuring out where our time should go first.
And as we give priority to these areas we’ve identified, there’s a peace that comes from knowing we’re investing our time wisely in the things that matter most — regardless of whether they seem urgent in the moment or not.