Tag: priorities

Revised Priorities Plan

Can you believe it is already past the midway point of January? January for me so far has absolutely been jam packed, as I try to tackle my top three priorities:

  1. Focusing on school
  2. Maintaining a consistent fitness routine
  3. Building maintaining community especially on social media

I shared priorities with a former teacher, and friend recently and she suggested maybe I was tackling too much. This idea kind of shocked me. I mean really, it’s only three goals. But as I reflected on the past weeks, I realized that my energy levels were almost at an all time low. Although I was hitting every point I had aimed to check off, I was not doing it in a sustainable way.

I know for sure that I do not want to feel like I could always use a nap. I want to be energized and revving to go for whatever a day may throw at me. So that means I need to readjust and revise my plan to meet my priorities for January.

On realizing this, I downloaded some new podcasts to listen to in my car, that I knew were inspiring, but would also offer something tangible I could apply in my life. I downloaded a few of Gary Vaynerchuk‘s, Tim Ferris‘, and the Harvard Business Review.

In a recent HBR podcast, 505, Tara Mohr, shared an idea of letting go of fear, but also of praise. This is not something I’ve really thought about before. But it really made sense to me. If you’re a high achiever you might recognize this in yourself. Where you make decisions based on what you can achieve and the praise you will receive. Mohr, suggests that this can hold us back, similar to how fear works.

Another HBR podcast, 504, Heidi Grant Halvorson, shared a new idea to goal setting that really clicked for me. She suggested to frame you goals as if….then….statements. It makes your decision making regarding your goals a little bit easier. And it can also incorporate backup plans. For example, if I have two or more classes on a day, I will do an evening workout.

I definitely suggest downloading those two podcasts. They will explain these ideas much more fully.

Based on these ideas, I’ve revised my January to plan to look like this:

  1. If I have one class, I will exercise in the morning.
  2. If I have two or more classes, I will do an evening class, or a take a rest day.
  3. If I have a test up coming the next week, I will only meet with one person during the week.

*I also want to be really focused on improving my energy levels. The first two weeks of January, saw me meeting my 3x weekly spin classes with 6:15am or 7:15am classes. But then I immediately noticed I hit my first wall of the day midway through my 10am class. This was supporting my fitness goal, but was not positively supporting my academic goals. So I am making this energy level idea a higher priority this month.

I am first addressing this by shifting the timing of my classes, outlined a bit more in my goals above. I am also going to book a consulting appointment with a nutritionist who can help me figuring out if I am fuelling properly.

Did you set new priorities or goals for the new year? Let me know how they are going. Leave a comment below or shoot me an email stephaniepamelafowler@gmail.com. I’m taking Devon Brooks‘ lead and supporting my community to be accountable.

 

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Narrowing My Focus

Going back to school this past September, has really opened my eyes to a sense of balance. There are four main areas that are top priority for me:
1. School-doing well
2. Personal relationships-maintaining them and treating them properly
3. Wellness-taking care of my health through physical activity and proper nutrition
4. Financial-my back account desparately marks it’s level of importance in my priorities

What I’ve really been noticing is that I am not managing these areas very well. Physical activity has absolutely fallen to the wayside. Nutrition, is creeping its way back up, especially with the support of my boyfriend. Financial, absolutely forced it’s way back in. Personal relationships are currently coasting, I’m not putting an extreme amount of energy into it but they are holding strong. And school. Well school is needing the majority of my time and energy, but it is not getting as much as I want to or need to give it.

I read a post last week, from where I cannot exactly remember but it was from Elizabeth Gilbert, that esentially examined where her energy goes. She originally identified as a low energy individual but upon reexamining her life she found that she was just putting energy into places that were absolutely draining.

This got me thinking. I have also identified as a low energy person. I love my naps. I always have thought there was something wrong with my physiologically causing this. At first, poorly controlled diabetes. Then I got on top of that so it couldn’t be the cause. Then I had low, but not anemic levels, iron. I haven’t addressed this, because I am very inconsistent with medication that requires me to take pills. But as I’m not anemic, I’ve deduced that the level at which I preseve my energy levels to be is far too extremely low to be attributed solely to this. My energy levels are a constant staple in my mind, but often at the very bottom of the priority list of things I need to address. So when I read this post from Elizabeth Gilbert, I stopped and looked at where my natural level of energy was going.

I don’t drain my energy obviously, to myself. I devout most of my time to school. I’m an older student now and realize how I best study, and the enormous amount of time that is needed. But even so, I realize I’m not the most efficient with this time. I need to commit to figuring out a better strategy to retain and understand the most information but also have energy remaining to address the other areas that are a priority for me.

This thought process has really shed light on where and how I spend my time. Have you heard of that saying “We all have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce.”? Well I am working on figuring out HOW to be as efficient as possible. It is more of an ongoing process, now that I’m focused on a goal at school. Hoping too that the learning curve is quick as I wrap up my first semester back.

Have you thought much about where your energy goes? Are you spending your time on your top priorities? Leave a comment, I would love to know!

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