Setting Priorities

I desire a life where I’m in control of my time, can explore the world (both places and ideas), and am generally content (notice I didn’t use the word happy, I don’t believe chasing happiness is healthy). I want to function at a pace that allows me to absorb and reflect on the world around me, as well as myself, every step of they way. A multifaceted approach is required to make this a reality, though for me the foundational strategy has been setting priorities.

Why set priorities?

Our time and mental capacity have limits. Sometimes the harder we push ourselves the less we achieve. It’s easier than we’d like for a gradual feeling of burnout to creep into our lives: too many e-mails, too many tasks, too many expectations. With too much to do it becomes impractical to do anything well, or for those experiences to nourish us mentally and emotionally.

My task list was (and sometimes still is) a great example of overload. It frequently contained a tonne of overdue tasks: themselves a long enough list that it was impractical to tackle any one without feeling overwhelmed by them all. The same was true of my inbox full of many hundreds of e-mails: many actionable, and even more I didn’t need to receive (group discussions, notifications, meeting minutes, file-sharing links, industry news, etc.). Not only was I overwhelmed with things I needed to due but I couldn’t tell them apart from all the junk.

I was stuck in a state of anxiety and overwork, all while the quantity and quality of what I was accomplishing was being constrained. I didn’t have the mental space to take care of my own health or improve my relationships with others. Whatever I was doing wasn’t sustainable. I needed to cut down on the number of things taking my attention, while simultaneously increasing what I was capable accomplishing.

What priorities to set?

The priorities I set are few, reflecting the most high-level outcomes I want from life. They very specifically are not a way to break out employment from personal life, break up projects, or similar. They are a distinct and parallel tagging system.

First priority: mental health. Though I try to give each priority equal waiting, it could be argued this one is the most important. I want to enjoy the time I have. For me, this means being present, calm, and collected: able to make the most of any situation I’m in. Over the years I’ve come to the realization that getting to that next place, that next objective, isn’t what I need to be happy. Once an objective is accomplished I would just replace it with another and the cycle of anxiety continued as I never felt I was in a state of having met me goals. Now I realize that I don’t achieve my objectives to be content. I must be content first, then I can work toward my objectives. Anything that helps me feel content and supports my mental health is worthwhile, and is tagged as “Mental Health”. This might include things like hobbies, socializing, cooking, grooming, cleaning, napping, organizing photos, watching a good movie (not mindlessly streaming Netflix), writing this blog post, as well as anything that enables activities like these.

Second priority: physical health. It feels great to be in a state of good physical health. It can help us enjoy our time by supporting confidence, feeling more energetic, protecting against certain injuries, and better managing things like blood-sugar levels. Improved physical health may even provide more time to enjoy, not just more enjoyable time. Things tagged with “Physical Health” may could include exercising, getting some sun, going for walks, eating well, cooking, maintenance of health conditions, doctor’s appointments, improving the safety of your environment, and anything that supports these types of activities.

Third priority: financial health. In today’s world it feels like this might be the most important priority, though I think it should be on equal or lower footing to the others. It should be thought of as an enabling priority rather than an end-goal itself. Financial health doesn’t mean making as much as possible. To me, it means making enough money to comfortable live the life I want, while also being resilient to any financial shocks or stresses. Though there is often pressure to do so, it is essential not to sacrifice items that support mental health or physical health for items tagged with “Financial Health”. These could include paying bills, planning investments, renewing your driver’s license, etc. Though, the vast majority will probably be made up of tasks related to your employment or other income-generating initiatives. Balancing time spent on financial health activities will encourage you to optimize them, improving their effectiveness and weeding out activities with low value.

Keen readers (or those prone to overthinking) might ask “Doesn’t exercising also improve mental health? What about cooking: it’s relaxing, helps me eat healthy, and saves money? These categories are bullshit!” Well, I suppose they are. There isn’t any universal truth to the priorities identified above or the activities they are applied to. Each person’s experience may be different. What is important is that you use priority tags that honestly reflect the primary reason why you are doing a certain activity. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

The real value here is observing when an activity doesn’t fit strongly within any of your priorities. This might sound selfish, and it’s supposed to be. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to help others. Helping a friend move may be emotionally rewarding, but if it’s not then don’t do it. Helping an older family member with tech support may provide a meaningful social interaction (or the improvement in their life may impact you mentally or financially). Taking on a request from a coworker or client might feel necessary, but if it’s not something you would enjoy doing or not clearly a financial benefit to yourself, then say no. If an activity can’t be given a priority then reject it: it’s not worth your time or mental capacity.

How to implement priorities?

How prioritization of tasks is implements on a day-to-day basis will be highly personal. I like to tag each task with the appropriate category, but not permanently break the tasks out into separate silos. This gives the option to work on a variety of priorities throughout the day based on due-date, without providing too narrow of a view on one priority or the other. However, if I am feeling burnt out I have the option to hide all financial tasks and focus on those specific to mental health. If I’ve been sitting at my desk too long, I’ll filter my list by physical health tasks. Again, the priority tags are an additional approach to categorization on top of how ever else you organize your to-do list.

Some might choose to work on a certain type of priority for a specific number of hours each day or week. I don’t currently do: mostly because I don’t have a good tool to support this within my current processes with creating undue complexity. I utilize a more flexible schedule based on how I’m feeling in the moment instead. The more you can limit complexity the better. Any tools used to support the improvement of routines and habits should be as seamless as possible as not to further add to your time and mental overhead.

A work in progress:

Like most everything else this is an evolving process for me. At a minimum, prioritizing my activities has helped me reflect on the things I do every day: on what is valuable and what isn’t. It’s provided a mechanism to more easily minimize effort or entirely drop things that aren’t providing value. This frees up time for what is important. It’s also helped me identify what activities support my mental health, and not feel guilty or anxious about doing them because they are just as important as “work”.

Where I’m still trying to find more value from this method is with physical health tasks. For example I have a task to complete different types of exercises each day. However I still feel like I can’t get to these until I’ve completed everything else. More practice and habit building might be enough here.

Overall this process has helped me plan my priorities, untimely informing how I spend my time. There are many other approaches I apply toward achieving my goals, and priority setting serves as the foundation.