Never Have Enough Time? 3 Principles of Prioritization
Being a woman has historically been very challenging. Women were not allowed many of the same rights as men for a very long time, and have been chronic victims of abuse of power. Living in today’s age and culture, we have a lot more privileges than those who came before us, but with those privileges come a multitude of other difficulties. One such difficulty is the opportunity and even expectation that we can “do it all.” Career, family, hobbies, self-care, etc. While we could do any of those things, it’s nearly impossible to do them all!
As a result, we often feel like there’s not enough time in the day to do everything. And guess what? You’re right! There’s not enough time in the day to do everything! But there is enough time to do everything that’s necessary, everything that’s a priority. You simply need to learn the art of prioritizing.
When it comes to your health, you may actually not have the time to spend cooking three different meals a day and spending 10 hours in the gym every week. It can be easy to watch fitness influencers on social media post a “what I eat in a day” video or “my current workout routine” and feel like you could never be able to do that. What you need to realize is that that is their full-time job.
It IS possible to prioritize your health without spending endless amounts of time on it. How do I know? I’ve helped hundreds of busy women - with families, successful careers, and busy travel schedules - prioritize their health without spending all their free time on it.
If you feel like you just don’t have enough time to focus on your health, this blog post will help you regain some of that lost time and give you some tips for how to prioritize your health, even when it feels impossible.
Priority: the Root of the Time Problem
“I just don’t have the time right now.” “I’ll have the time to work on myself after the kids are out of sports.” “Work is just too busy right now.”
I hear things like these all the time. I get it - life is busy, you’re being pulled in a thousand different directions, and it just feels impossible to add one more thing. I hear you. And trust me, I am no stranger to the craziness of life. (sincerely, a mom of 2 kids, wife to a busy husband, part of a blended family, business owner, friend, and continuously learning and being coached myself).
What I’ve found over the years is that you will eventually drop the ball. We all do - it’s impossible to prioritize everything all at once. You might drop the ball on your health some days and that’s ok! Just make sure it doesn’t stay on the floor.
However, when people tell me they don’t have time to work on their health, it breaks my heart because what they’re really saying is, “I’m not a priority in my life.” You may feel like you don’t have time to invest in your health, but truthfully other things are taking priority right now.
People don’t prioritize their health because often it doesn’t feel URGENT. Until it becomes urgent - and by then, sometimes it’s too late. Don’t wait for a diagnosis, an injury, or an emergency before you take your health seriously. Preventive care is always easier than fighting fires later down the line!
How to Gain Extra Time
A few years ago, I came across the question: what would you do if you had an extra hour each day? I laughed to myself and said, “Sleep, of course!” And then it hit me: why don’t I just go to bed an hour earlier? So then I thought I would get around to reading those books on my shelf. And it occurred to me that instead of spending an hour on social media, I could use that time to read instead. The more I dug into how I would spend that extra hour, the more I realized that I had more time during my day than I actually realized.
It started off as a silly question, but I’ve taken three principles from it that have helped me discover extra time throughout my day and prioritize it better.
Number 1: The Art of Noticing
Want to know what you are prioritizing? Look at how you’re spending your time. Noticing where you’re spending your time is the first step in evaluating your priorities. How long do you spend getting up in the morning? Are you snoozing your alarm and scrolling social media in bed? How much time is spent on chores or meals? How much time is spent doing things you love?
Every day you’re given a budget of a certain amount of time. It’s important to take an accurate assessment of how you are spending it.
Number 2: Becoming the Architect
Now that you know where you’re spending your time, it’s time for decisions. Here’s the thing I want you to hear: You have more control over how you spend your time than you think. You can become the architect of your life: it just takes a little creativity.
Generally there are four categories:
Keep - these things you absolutely must continue to do. (hygiene, meals, work, quiet time, etc.) these things are either necessary for survival or things that fill you up.
Outsource - these are things that could be restructured to make your life easier or cut down on the amount you are spending on tedious things. Outsourcing may look like hiring a housekeeper, doing grocery pickup orders, buying pre-chopped broccoli, delegating more tasks to a partner or age-appropriate kids. Are there apps or services that can automate your bills, your to-dos, your grocery lists? Get creative and find ways to make these parts of your life easier and quicker. Your time is precious.
Pause - Sometimes there are things that you want to do but it is taking up too much time in the present. Allowing yourself to step back and press pause on these things - even for a season - can give you the little extra time you need to invest your time into your health. Gradually, as your new lifestyle becomes easier and takes less mental energy, you may be able to add other things back in little by little.
Let go - finally, some things are simply not as necessary as you feel they are. Whether that’s unrealistic expectations you put on yourself, or areas that just aren’t serving you like binging that latest HBO show, there is almost always something that people do that isn’t necessary and isn’t giving them value. Identify and drop as many of these as possible. Note: this does not mean letting go of anything that isn’t productive. Humans aren’t meant to be productive 100% of the time. You need things that give you rest and that fill you up. Just make sure that you’re being intentional about those things so you don’t fall into doom scrolling or filling up your time. Sometimes you need to let go of something “productive” in order to prioritize rest, instead.
Number 3: Rinse and Repeat
Once you take a look at how you’re spending your time and implement one or two changes, give it a few weeks and then pay attention: were those changes effective? If yes, great! Keep it up! If it didn’t free up as much time or energy as you were expecting, maybe try something else.
Finding a balance and structuring your life takes a lot of time and a lot of trial and error. Eventually you will find things that work for you and you will be able to release those things that don’t.
Make a List - and Check it Twice
Now, you can read blogs about time management and prioritization all day, but it won’t actually help you until you do something about it. So here’s what I want you to do: take a piece of paper and list everything you do in a day, from the moment you wake up to the moment you turn your phone off and go to sleep.
With a green highlighter, highlight everything you need to do in order to function. This may include things like sleep, work, eat, drive kids to school, shower, etc. Anything that’s necessary for your day to keep going. With a pink highlighter, highlight everything that fills you up: is it quiet time? Reading? Going out with friends? Hiking? Mani-pedis?
Anything that’s green, ask yourself: How can I outsource this? What can I do to make this easier? Even if you don’t think you would outsource it, write it down anyway.
Anything that’s pink, ask yourself: which ones of these can I prioritize now, and which ones can I cut back on or pause until a later time in life? Write down which ones you are choosing to prioritize now.
Anything that’s not highlighted, ask yourself: does this thing serve me? If yes, you might need to highlight it green or pink. If not, you may need to consider letting it go.
This exercise will give you a good preview into how you’re spending your days and what things are actually important to you.
Empower Yourself to Prioritize Your Health
Despite what society tells you, you do NOT have to do it all. In fact, it’s better if you don’t! And what may feel like a lack of time might simply be a lack of priority. The good news is, you have more authority over how you spend your time than you might think! You can make time for your priorities. All the other things can fall to the side, at least for a season. You need to become the architect of your own life and choose what you will prioritize.
I want to encourage you to really examine your health and what it means to you. Is your health and quality of life worth it to you to invest in or improve? What might life look like in five years, ten years, or twenty years if you do not choose to prioritize your health now? It is not too late to make your health a priority today, and it’s definitely never too early. Preventive care is always easier than running damage control later down the line.
The bottom line is, nobody can choose your priorities for you. You have to decide what is important to you. You have to decide where to spend your time! If you want help figuring out how to prioritize your health in the midst of a busy lifestyle, join my FB group: Holistic Health for Busy Women. We celebrate each other, share resources, and learn how to navigate life while healing ourselves from the inside out!
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