Clarify Your Priorities

Within each day's 24 hours, we are gifted only 1,440 minutes; coupled with the fact each minute can be invested once, time is the most limited and valuable resource of all.

Saying "yes" to doing one thing is inherently saying "no" to doing something else, and you have to choose wisely in what activities you invest each minute in your limited inventory.

When a dollar is invested, it is with the hope that you will get more dollars in return. When a minute is invested, it is with the hope of an alternative return on investment, and what return you are seeking depends heavily on your priorities. Only when you know what matters most can you align your actions with those priorities to achieve your greatest goals.

Photo: Children's Ministry Magazine

Think of each day as a jar with limited space to fill. In that jar, you'd like to stuff tons of rocks, pebbles and sand. If you start with the sand, you may be able to shove in some pebbles, but you'll never be able to fit all the necessary rocks. Alternatively, if you start with the rocks, you can fill the spaces around those rocks with the pebbles and still fill the sand in amongst the remaining space. Comparing this to your day, think of the rocks as your highest priorities, for which you need to make time in your schedule first; then, the pebbles are lower priorities while the sand is even less important. Only by allocating time to your priorities first can you fit everything that matters into an already busy schedule.

One of the most effective methods for determining priorities is to consider the ramifications for completing each task versus leaving it undone. Depending on how well doing the task fuels your desired results, you can more easily rank that as what needs to be done first instead of later. Rather than getting swept up in what is urgent or on fire, focus on making time for what is most important.

What are your rocks or top priorities? How can you make sure time in your schedule is allocated for addressing those first, working the pebbles and sand into what time remains afterward?