For the past several months, I've been living in the space between who I've been and who God wants me to be. The word I would use to describe the experience is "exfrighting" because it's been the most exciting and frightening time of my life.
I've heard many stories about people who've been out of work that reach incredible levels of boredom that leave them wondering how in the world are they going to handle retirement. However, I can say with complete confidence that my biggest challenge during this season of my life is the same one I had in the working world: Figuring out how I'm going to get everything done?
The secret for me has been and always will be priority planning. One thing you can always count on as long as you live here on Earth is next week you will have the same number of hours you had last week. What you do with them will make all the difference on your successes, relationships, fulfillment, happiness, and purpose. Here are some things I think are critical to intentionally consider every week:
When can I set aside time to plan? I recommend you reserve 20-30 minutes each week for intentional planning. It must occur at the beginning of the week, of course, but the specific time is unique to the individual. During this time in my life, Monday morning is a good time for me, however, if your rat race starts at 8:00am on Mondays, you're already too far into your week to be planning. Can you imagine your favorite football team building their game plan after kickoff? (I must admit there are times I thought that's exactly what my Panthers had done.)
How much sleep am I going to get? Rebecca Robbins, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health said, "We have extensive evidence to show that sleeping five hours a night or less, consistently, increases your risk greatly for adverse health consequences, including cardiovascular disease and early mortality”. If you take her research seriously, there's a strong case to be made to reserve the 7-10 hours of sleep each night that's recommended by most sleep experts.
What are my priorities? Brian Tracy famously said, "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing”. What are your most important things? Getting clear on your priorities and putting them to work in your week will make a monumental impact on your success. I created an exercise for my clients that allows them to identify their top priorities. (If you would like a free copy of this exercise, please email me.) They're able to use this list each week to organize the things they need to do by their priorities and ensure that time is reserved for the things that matter most.
What happens when priorities collide? If you're intentionally holding time on your calendar each week for important activities, you'll certainly run into times when unexpected priorities will jockey for the same space. Embrace those moments! If we had never reserved the space to begin with, we would be slaves to the priorities this world wants to give us. By planning ahead, we empower ourselves to choose the best use of that moment.
Making intentional planning a priority in your life will give you purpose and direction no matter what season you're in. And, it'll lead you, as I know it will lead me, exactly where God wants you to be.