Getting It All Done

This morning on my Twitter feed, someone posed a question: How do you get it all done?  How do you balance work, and life, and family, and a passion project and, and, and?  I nodded sagely, said “Amen, sister,” and kept scrolling, wishing I had some easy advice.

The truth is, getting it all done is something I still struggle with daily.  I have three passion projects, a demanding job, a business of my own, and a family (they’re around here somewhere, I think).  It can be a real juggling act.

I really didn’t know how to respond to the question, because it’s not as simple as ‘wave your arms in the air three times’ (though that might help… let me know…).  It is a real challenge and one that I am far from overcoming, but as I thought about it, I realized I have gotten a lot done in my short little life.  So, let me share with you the number one habit I use to keep it all balanced (ish).

Set and Accept Priorities

Time may be a construct of the human condition, but it doesn’t mean we are any less bound by it.  Or our need to sleep / eat / poop / etc.  It is not possible to do everything in one day.  Sorry, nope.

On a good day, I may be able to achieve something in a maximum of four life arenas, but not all of them.  I can exercise, work, write, and build my business, but I can’t do all of those things and work on my website, and design graphics, and organize date night, and, and, and.  So, I pick and choose.  Something always has to give.

The key is designing your days so that you still feel satisfied at the end.

Every week, I come up with a priority list.  What do I want to get done this week?  (I also do daily, monthly, and yearly priority lists, but the once a week is probably the most helpful.)  This priority list comes from two different places.  The first is have-tos, hard deadlines that must be met.  The second comes from prioritizing different arenas of my life.

We all have many different arenas in our lives: places where we have responsibilities and passions such as work, family, friends, personal project, spirtual, health, other.  I list mine out: husband, real job, real business, writing, blogging, graphics, taking over the world, the dog, the horse, the cats, exercise, eating healthy, cleaning the house.  One of the most important is relaxation (or as I prefer to call it, mandatory recharge time).

With my complete list of arenas, I go through the list and determine which places I’m satisfied in, which I’m making good progress in, and which I am not satisfied in or feel I should be doing more in.  Sometimes I do this on paper, more often I do this in my head.

If I know I have a deadline coming up, that has to be a priority.  If I feel that one arena has been neglected and it’s stressing me out, that should be a priority.

I do not need to spend equal time in all of my arenas.  I just need to feel that I am doing what I want to be doing, that I am satisfied.

For example, I go out to see my horse once a month, but he’s retired now and lives in a magical field with all his horse buddies — I’m happy seeing him once a month, and I believe he’s happy not to be working every day.  On the other hand, I make an effort to write something every day, because that’s the thing that keeps me the most grounded.  The other stuff varies week to week and month to month.

Once my priorities are set, I have a good idea of how much time I want to spend on each arena in the following week, and I can set a daily plan from there.

I like this system a lot because there is so much room for flexibility.  If I want to work on every one of my arenas in a week, I can, it just means I can’t work on them as much.  If I want to focus entirely on one aspect of life, I can, and I can do this knowing that the next week, I’ll be able to reset and refocus.  If I decide not to work on an arena one week, it’s much easier to let it go and not feel guilty, knowing that I can make it a priority the following week.

Coming up with priorities and, more importantly, with a plan, allows me to commit to that plan, to focus on the priorities I have set, and not worry that I should be working on something else.  In other words, I can allow 100% of myself to work on a task, because I have already done the hard work of deciding that I should be focussing on it and not something else.

Some other tips:

I also keep a daily To Do journal, where I also write positive affiirmations and gratitudes whenever I think of them.  As much as possible, I balance physical with mental or computer-based tasks (because I know from experience that I need to be moving approximatley half my day to be happy, and we all know how important exercise is for keeping blood flowing to the brain, right?).  And I never, ever let myself forget the importance of my support pillars (family) and the importance of being easy on myself and allowing relaxation.

How about you?  How do you find balance and get it all done?