Prioritizing and Trade-offs

Whether you call it,

• Planning

• Prioritizing

• Trade-offs

• Time blocking

• Choosing

• any number of other possibilities,

the simple truth is… When you choose something, you give up the opportunity for something else.

Some simple examples:

Choose the red dress, you can’t wear the cute tank and capris outfit

Choose a car, no motorcycle for you

Buy a house. Hmm, no it’s not renting. You are giving up the many things that mortgage money could have bought.

Since I run a Planning & Priorities workshop, let’s look at some time choices.

We all know there are only 24 hours in a day. If you spend time doing one thing, you have lost the opportunity to do something else, at that time. Every decision we make on how we spend our time, is a trade-off.

Do you realize TIME is something you never get back? Scary to think of it that way, isn’t it? You may have the opportunity to do something you chose not to do, at another time, but the actual time spent on something is never seen again. Just gone. That is why determining your true priorities and planning the best use of your time is so important.

Does that mean you must plan every moment of every day into a rigid timeline and get freaked out if something doesn’t happen when you had planned it to? The obvious answer to that is, No. You want to allow a little wiggle room in your schedule by not squeezing so much in that you don’t have any breaks. Not only for our physical and mental health, but to allow a little flexibility in our schedules.

Prioritizing is the key. Living out your values by making the things you value a priority can help with this. If you value family times, are you making time for your family? You want to stay healthy by exercising, are you making time to exercise? You want to be financially secure and debt free, have you stopped spending frivolously? What steps are you taking to make that happen? You need to live out what you say is important to you.

Aligning your values with your priorities, and planning how to use your time wisely, can be a great way to relieve some stress. It all comes down to choices and trade-offs.