#prioritising

Hi girlies🐩💗 So yesterday i was incredibly lazy and unproductive and pathetic. I didn’t do any work and i was mostly on the screens. The worst part about it is that it was unintentional. Meaning that if it was planned as a “off day” bc i did a bunch of work that week, it would be fine. But it wasn’t planned. And it felt utterly horrible.

So i decided to take control of my life because i have no one to blame but MYSELF. I am in complete control of myself so now i am going to use that to my best advantage. It’s time to…

✨prioritise what matters✨

This is a step-by-step guide to how to prioritise what actually matters to you and then acting on it. So without further ado, lettuce(random pun sorry) begin :)

Step 1: figure out whats important to you/ your goals.

What’s important to you in life? Is it being online and scrolling on your phone all day? Or is it getting good grades, staying healthy and happy? What is it? Identify this first.

For me, its:

Time with loved ones

Enough sleep

Good grades + being smart & educated

Looking and feeling good + taking care of myself

Having hobbies & skills

God

This is the first step to learning how to prioritising things. It’s not about doing a bunch of hard work for something that you dont even care about, it’s so that you can do a bunch of hard work for something you do care about, so you’re working towards a goal.

Step 2: make an action plan to achieve/ accomplish these.

So now that you know whats really important and what matters to you (aka your goals), create some bullet points/ things you can do to achieve those goals.

For example;

Goal: spending more time with loved ones

Spend time with my sibling

Talk more to my parents

Call grandma / friends

Goal: getting high grades + being smart & educated

Study study study. Study for tests at least a week in advance

Read a lot. Not just what you normally read, read outside your comfort zone! (So for me this would be history, classics, arts & fashion, etc.)

Listen to podcasts about different things

Goal: feeling & looking good + taking care of myself

Wash hair 2x a week

Skincare

Pamper yourself + self care days

Exercise

Going outside/ walking

Posture!! (Calling YOU out)

Final: execution

Once you know these mini goals/ habits/ steps you need to take, then its time for the most important part:

Execution.

Doing all this, is completely USELESS if you don’t apply it to your life. So now it’s time to actually do it.

“B-b-but i dont have time!”

Um okay.. but you have time for scrolling? Use this thing i once heard called “time stealing”.

Whenever you catch yourself scrolling or doing something unintentionally unproductive, then stop yourself and use that time instead on doing something that moves you towards your goal.

Having the steps you can take to reach those goals written down somewhere means that whenever you feel bored or need something productive to do, you have those things to go to!

Step 0: The Non-negotiables

These are things you need to remember to prioritise above anything else. These are things that people forget about sometimes, especially in times of stress.

Sleep

Drink water

Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner (don't just have little snacks, you need at least 2-3 proper meals)

Take breaks - you need to take breaks as you're working. You can use the pomodoro method if you want, or something else. I like to do 1-2hrs of work and then a 30-40min break.

Make sure that you prioritise these first! Now that we have that out of the way, let's begin with step 1.

Step 1: What are the most important things?

Figure out what things need to be done now and cannot be put off. These are things that need to be done today, tomorrow, or within the next 3-5 days. If you want to write a to-do list, these are the things that should be at the top and should be done first. It might be a bill you need to pay, it might be some homework you need to do, it might be a test you need to study for, or an email you need to send. Whatever it is, start with these things, do them first, get them out of the way, and that will relieve a lot of your stress. If it's something big that will take a lot of time, then that might be the only thing you do today, and that's ok. Whatever it is, make sure you get it done before you even start thinking about anything else.

Step 2: What are things that need to be done soon?

After finishing the immediate things that need to be done, you can start thinking about the things that are coming up. These are things that need to be done in 1-2 weeks. You can either start it if you haven't already, or write a plan on how you are going to finish it. I personally don't like to plan out how I'm going to finish something, I prefer to just start and do a little bit every day, but everyone is different. The point is to at least start thinking about it to avoid stressing in the future.

Step 3: What are the things you can let go?

After doing the things you need to and starting the things that are coming up, you can now figure out what things can wait for later. These are things that are not urgent and can be put off until later, or things that are due in more than 3 weeks. I know that when you're stressed, your brain wants to worry about every little thing possible. But after you do the big things, then you can think about what is actually important and what isn't. For example, if you're worrying about doing your laundry, ask yourself if it really needs to be done now or if it can be done later. If you usually go to the gym and you're stressing about it, maybe that's a sign that you need to take a break from it today so you can focus on other things. If you're stressing about an assignment that's due months from now, remind yourself that you have a lot of time and you don't need to be worrying about it now. However, if you try to put these things out of your mind and you still find yourself stressing about it, maybe that's a sign that you need to start it or do at least a little bit of it just for your own mental health. Sometimes when we try not to worry about things we worry about them even more. This last step is meant to help you stop worrying about the little things, and if your way to do this is to get them out of the way, then you can do that! Just make sure you don't burn yourself out by doing too many or use these little tasks to procrastinate on a more important task.

Step 4: Prioritise You

After you finish the big assignments, get a head start on future projects, and get rid of the lesser important tasks, it's time to recharge and prioritise yourself! You've done so well keeping up with all these things you need to do, now it's time for some me time! Do whatever it is you need to do to relax, wind-down, decrease your anxiety, and just forget about the pressure of life for a little bit. It could be watching a movie or some videos, playing a game, reading a book, writing something, enjoying some self care, eating some tasty food, whatever it is. It's important to remember to worry about yourself after you've spent a whole day worrying about your work.