20 Minute Life Checkup to Get Your Priorities in Order
by Andi · 59 things on NewTwos
- How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
- This is a simple exercise you can use to assess the alignment of your behavior and your priorities. The images below are just examples. Yours may include more data points.
- You can do this as you go throughout the week, at the end of every day, or looking back on the week as a whole. Write down the different ways you spend your time throughout the week. If you use a calendar, use that as a jumping-off point. Group activities into categories for the initial assessment. But you may want to split up bigger categories into smaller parts later on.
- (I personalized these based on my personal priorities or habits I want to work on)
- Social media: X minutes
- Work out: X minutes
- Creative hobbies: X minutes
- Journal: X minutes
- Work at job: X minutes
- Read books/articles: X minutes
- Listen to podcasts: X minutes
- Socialize: X minutes
- Watch TV/shows/movies: X minutes
- Make food, eat food, think about/plan meals: X minutes
- Contact with nature/outdoors (unplugged): X minutes
- Meditate: X minutes
- Organize behavior by time-spent
- Take all of the activities, and reorder them from “Least Time Spent” to “Most Time Spent".
In Step 1, if you keep track of what you do as-you-go, make notes of how much time you spent doing each thing. You don’t need to be super precise. But keeping track of the time helps. You may be surprised by how much/how little time you spend on certain activities.
- (Copy and reorder according to time-spent) ⬇️
- Social media: X minutes
- Work out: X minutes
- Creative hobbies: X minutes
- Journal: X minutes
- Work at job: X minutes
- Read books/articles: X minutes
- Listen to podcasts: X minutes
- Socialize: X minutes
- Watch TV/shows/movies: X minutes
- Make food, eat food, think about/plan meals: X minutes
- Contact with nature/outdoors (unplugged): X minutes
- Meditate: X minutes
- Add a secondary axis priority
- Map how you spend your time against how important those things are to you.
So, keeping the activities in their place on the X axis, move them up or down depending on how big of a priority they are to you.
- Evaluate what needs to change
- Once you have your 2×2 diagram filled out, identify what you can shift.
- Identify what to spend less time on (start with the bottom right quadrant)
- Identify what to spend more time on (start with the top left quadrant)
- Make a plan to make changes
- This breaks down into three parts.
- A) Start doing less of what isn’t a priority:
- Inquire into why you spend time on those things now. There may be something worth preserving.
- Identify what (if anything) you want to maintain. When I wrote this, I was spending more time than I wanted surfing the internet and on social media. Surfing the internet helps me read and learn. Social media helps me connect with friends. But neither are the best way to go about achieving those goals.
- Brainstorm a better way to meet those needs: Reading books is a better way to learn. And phone calls, texts, and video-chats are stronger ways to connect with friends.
- Make a “do this, not that” list with this knowledge in mind.
- WOOP it! Use the WOOP tool to shift yourself to these new habits. When you catch yourself falling into old habits, you’ll know what to do instead.
- B) Start doing more of What is a Priority: By spending less time on unimportant things, you create space for the important things. This area requires careful consideration. It’s easy to fool yourself into thinking something is a priority.
- Be honest with yourself about what matters most right now. And set time on your schedule to do those things.
- C) Start evaluating new opportunities: When considering new ways to spend your time, ask yourself: Does this align with my priorities?
- Now that you have your worksheets filled out, use them for reference! They can help you decide if taking on something new is the right move.
- Remember that values and priorities are dynamic and unique to you
- When working with matters of our priorities, it’s important to remember two things.
- A) Your priorities are dynamic: This isn’t a “one and done” exercise. Priorities change over time as you enter different stages of life, and as unpredictable life events happen. Come back to your charts every 6-12 months and re-evaluate if your priorities have shifted.
- B) Your priorities are unique to you: You are the only one who gets to decide what matters to you most. When you were growing up, your family had more influence over that. But that doesn’t last forever. At the end of the day, nobody can answer these questions but you.
- Source: Use the 20 Minute Life Checkup to Get Your Priorities in Order
By Patrick Buggy