The method for streamlining your time so you can do less and have more.

The greatest method to streamlining your time, life and business, is to focus on one main priority. I’m going to share with you exactly why it will benefit you to have only ONE priority at the time and how using the power of priority approach will allow you to take back your time. (And what to do if you're like me, and you love to have multiple projects, books, focuses on a go at one time!).

When everything is important, nothing is important.

This results in not being intentional with what you spend time on and what you consider important. If everything is important to you, you are probably lacking clarity on what your intentions are.

Why should we even focus on identifying our priorities; and not just identifying the general priorities, but your top priority right now? If you want to create more time and space in your life for what is truly important to you, it’s crucial to get intentional.

The key is here to create a clear focus.

Once you determine the main task, goal, or activity you want to be spending your time on, you will begin to see progress.

Let’s use three different examples.

You're an entrepreneur: 

If you want to sign on three new clients, launch your group program, and start a podcast, you will not be able to give your full time and attention to those things to actually see sustainable results.

On top of these goals, you might also be downloading all the freebies, watching all the free webinars and doing three courses. Your time itself does not have a clear focus if you’re constantly being pulled in different directions.

You're a professional:

You have so much on your plate as you are carrying a lot of responsibilities and have a lot of projects on the go that you feel solely responsible for. 

Even though such a situation may feel like using the power of priority method is totally out of your control, it will allow you to identify where your greatest amount of time and energy needs to go. Even at your job, not everything has equal importance... and if it does, then we have another conversation to have about boundaries.

Your personal goal/dream/health/family related: 

 I've seen the lists I, myself, and my clients have; You want to have a morning routine, and work out, and learn an instrument, and read this massive list of books, and spend intentional days with your kids, and loose X amount of weight, and write a book, and move into your dream house... there are a LOT of things you want as an ambitious human, in your life outside of work.

And that, my dear, is freaking fantastic!! However, if you try to do ALL of those things at once (whilst also having a a job of any kind) is going to make doing all the things which are meant to be fun, feel totally exhausting. And it will be harder for you to achieve them (or even one of them).

The result of focusing on too many things at once is you feeling burnt out from working long hours, overwhelmed by a long to do list, and scattered with where to start.

What you might be feeling right now, is that nothing is really truly moving forward the way you want it to be. If you are anywhere on this spectrum of having lots of different things on the go equally, then it’s time to hone in on your top focus.

Priority as Singular 

If you aren’t already convinced, let me tell you a bit more about why you can only truly have one priority.

Priority is actually singular. It means “the most” important. There can only be one thing can take center stage.

Why is having a singular priority SO crucial? 

Where focus goes, energy flows. 

When you have clarity on what EXACTLY you want to be focusing on, you will actually start moving the needle in the direction of achieving that goal. Identifying your top priority means knowing exactly what tasks you need to do and which ones are most important for that main goal.

Having clarity surrounding your priority will prevent you from showing up with a scattered mind, wanting to work on everything. Or simply not knowing where to start, doing a little bit of everything, and not truly creating momentum in any direction. 

What about the other priorities?

Honing in on your top priority does not mean other tasks or goals do not exist. The importance of the power of priority method is to create a clear focus towards one goal that you want to achieve FIRST, so that you actually move the needle and see sustainable results.

As I mentioned before, other tasks and priorities still exist and can still be important overall; however, they don’t take first place.

The Key to the Power of Priority Method

When you focus on your top priority, you know what vital tasks need to be done to move the needle towards that goal. After having clarity on the actions you need to take and doing them for an extended period of time, they will start becoming natural.

You have created a habit around these actions.

You have begun streamlining the tasks related to this priority, because you know what works and you do it without a lot of effort. This is when you can go back to the longer list of priorities and things that are important to you, and decide on your next focus. 

Let’s take health as an example of your top priority:

You want to run a marathon, however, you first need to train. You currently don’t have a set workout schedule and you know you will need to show up consistently to reach this goal (like with any goal). You also want to pivot your business by launching a new program.

Even though these two goals are in different areas of your life (and you can have separate priorities in different areas), starting both at the same time will make it more difficult to get to the place of habit for each.

Let me explain. If you are not in the habit of waking up earlier every morning to train, it will take some time for you to create that new habit.

If you are launching a new offer, it will take you some time to master the tasks you need to do to create content that converts and identify what actions you need to take to get your desired number of clients into the program.

You will be more successful focusing on one goal first, solidifying it as a habit, and then moving onto the second priority.

Implementing the power of priority method will enable you to sustain the changes you want to create in your life.

Of course, real life can become more complex than this and identifying your main priority at any given time can be a difficult task.

Take the time to really reflect and identify the various different commitments you have and how you can use this method to take back control over your time and overwhelm.

Releasing the Excuse of Time

Implementing the power of priority method will release the excuse of not having “enough” time.

Time is an abstract concept. Often we sit in the perspective that time is out of our control and being busy is a celebrated act.

The reality is that you will find more fulfilment when you are in alignment with how you want to be spending your time.

Perhaps that does mean working a lot of hours, or maybe it means streamlining your business so you can prioritize time with your family. The main idea is that you will have the control. 

The power of priority method gives you back this control, because it is a system of creating boundaries.

Creating Boundaries 

When you have your MAIN focus, you will have clarity on what you need to make time for first. 

First, the result of this is that you will be able to be more productive by doing less. By this I simply mean, you completed what actually moves the needle FIRST, which allows you to reassess the other to-do’s you’ve compiled. 

Time will no longer be an excuse for not being able to do things.

Second, knowing your top priority (and the priorities following), will provide you with the criteria for when to say “no.” When you have clarity surrounding your main priority will provide you with a criteria for implementing boundaries since you know what is important to you and how you want to be spending your time.

Remember, if everything is important, nothing is important.

So, what’s your top priority? 

Share it with me in the comments! If you want some help implementing this strategy, click below to book in a zero pressure discovery call so we can chat about what that can look like for you!