Identifying Your True Priorities

Your schedule doesn’t always reflect what matters most to you in life—or does it?

A person's schedule reflects their priorities, whether it's long days at the office or weekends devoted to family. Geber86/Shutterstock

They say if you want to know what your priorities are, look at your calendar and your bank account. What you spend your time, energy, and money on are the things that you are, in practice, putting first in your life—whether intentionally or otherwise.

Of course, not everything will show up in those two locations. If your daily morning routine consists of prayer and exercise, you might not have written those things down on your calendar, and they may not show up as expenses in your bank account. Nevertheless, you’re dedicating your time and energy to those things on a consistent basis, so you’re clearly acting in a way that prioritizes them.

Honestly assessing how you’re allocating your money and spending your time can be enlightening. Often, we believe our priorities to be something else entirely than what we’re dedicating our lives to doing.

Priorities Gone Awry

It’s one thing to declare our priorities. For example, we may say our priorities are spending time with family, practicing our faith, building our business, improving our health, traveling, or contributing to our community. But if our resources are actually allocated to running errands, scrolling through social media, answering endless emails, reacting to other people’s demands, and keeping up with housework—then there are few resources left for our so-called priorities.

Too often, we allow urgency to trump what is essential. We go about our days and weeks reacting rather than proactively determining what should and should not be done. As Charles E. Hummel, author of “Tyranny of the Urgent,” put it, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.” Everyone has responsibilities, obligations, and commitments. But if they are totally misaligned with the ideals you believe you should be prioritizing in life, then it’s time to reassess.

Getting Back on Track

If you want to live intentionally and in alignment with what’s most important to you, you need to proactively allocate your resources to those things first. Author and speaker Stephen Covey once said, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

Take time to decide what most deserves your precious resources. If you want to travel more, for example, you might need to cut back on spending in other areas. If you want to maintain fitness, you might need to schedule more time for exercise and meal preparation. If you want to spend more time with family, you’ll need to block time in your days to devote to it. If you want to contribute to your community, you might commit to a local organization a certain amount of your time. If you want to build your business, you might need to replace the time you spend on your phone or watching television with focusing on just that.

Late 18th-century writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” The demands of life will always be there. It’s up to you to decide whether they warrant your time and attention and whether you’ll choose to act in alignment with what you believe to be most important.