Be Visual 37: If Everything is a Priority ...
Hey! Elliott here.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and are gearing up to take on the New Year!
As I ease back into content creation from my eye-opening & personally productive break, I realize that as much as I would like it to work out, I cannot do everything I want to do in the 24 hours given to me every day.
As I stated in the last issue of ‘Be Visual,’ I balance a full-time job, content creation, a small business, parenting of 3, husbanding of 1 (lol), and some military duties every once in a while.
My time to work on cool projects is extremely limited with everything going on. And so the ideas I come up with often come in faster than the rate I can start them, let alone complete them.
With that being the case, the list of cool projects I want to work on is growing exponentially, creating some anxiety in me. This is especially so when I see other creators doing incredible things that I had the idea for but didn’t have the resources (i.e., time) to complete.
At the end of the day, I have to come to terms with that. I cannot create more time by adding hours to my day. I can certainly try to be more efficient with my time, but that can only shave so much off my plate.
There will be opportunity costs. This only means the things I choose to work on will be incredibly important.
Not Everything Can Be A Priority at Once
Not everything can be a priority at one time. Something will have to give. Opportunity costs will have to be incurred.
This idea of opportunity costs, I feel, will be pivotal for me in 2023.
I need to learn to let go of all new ideas to help open up the mental capacity needed to excel in the things I felt were important enough to prioritize.
And so, to help with this, here are 3 things I will be doing in 2023:
Now that I have a better structured day, I can start taking advantage of my calendar and scheduling my priorities without worrying that kids or other external factors will throw the entire thing off too much.
Scheduling something on a calendar makes it all the more likely the task will be completed. By breaking my goal down into daily tasks, I should be able to schedule them in 30-90 minute blocks.
I will allow new ideas for projects to surface in my mind and hash them out on a very high level via Google Docs. These hashed-out projects will live in a “Future” folder, waiting to one day be crowned “The Priority.”
Hashing ideas out will give me peace of mind that the idea will not be lost as time passes and open up the mental capacity I need to complete the project or priority I’m working on at the time. By keeping it in a “Future” folder, I can be confident that I’m not saying “no” to the idea but that I’ll visit it sometime thereafter.
(This idea was from Derek Sivers. I heard him talking about this in the “Creative Elements” podcast by Jay Clouse.)
I will write out my project goals on paper. This will allow me to ask myself on a daily basis if what I’m working on that day aligns with my goals. If not, then I know it’s a distraction. If I continue to put off what I should be doing in accordance with what I deemed important for a week or more, that will be my cue to revisit and revise my priority list/project goals.
I need to be real with myself and understand that I’m prioritizing whatever action (or inaction) I decide to do at any given time. With that top of mind, I should be able to cue myself to recalibrate.
I’ll keep you posted on how well this plan works out.
What are you looking forward to in the new year? Reply to this email; I’d love to hear from you!
Have a very Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Elliott