PRIORITISING

Dealing with overload and regaining a sense of control is all about working out what's most important to us and taking care of the priorities. In my opinion I think priorities can either be everyday priorities or long term priorities.  What I may consider as an every day priority may not be in your priority list at all due to our varying lifestyles, but let's assume everyone has a job, family and friends. So bearing this assumption in mind every day priorities can be activities like responding to important phone calls at work/text messages/voice messages in a timely manner, or weekend grocery shopping or getting home to be with family, hanging out with colleagues after work, etc.  Long term priorities I believe are those activities or things you place most value on that make you feel good, examples attending religious meetings, Visits to spas and beauty parlours,  volunteering in charity works or Any work events, going on holidays, enjoying special nights out etc.
I will be giving you some tips and strategies that can help you work out your everyday and long term priorities as well as how to create time for them. 
EVERYDAY PRIORITIES: when we become used to dealing with whatever seems to be urgent by ignoring everything else, eventually everything will start to feel really urgent. If we can maintain a calendar system and develop the discipline to separate the urgent tasks from non urgent ones, you will begin to feel in control of your time a lot more.       
Making a to do list and keeping a calendar help me to keep track of my everyday priorities. People are different which means a planner can work for some people while  a writing pad in your

The kitchen or your work desk may work for some others better. Whatever type of to-do list you use or are using, these tips I'm about to share with you can help you.
Work out a calendar system that suits your lifestyle:  as a mum, I use one calendar with colour coded entries for home running and work purposes.  The colours help me to avoid conflicts between home and work. A wall calendar placed in a central location in the house has always been used by my mother which I've adopted and still works for me. It's better to experiment with different systems in order to make informed decisions as to what works better for you.
Avoid one to do list, keep two instead for home  and for work:  combining your to do list can be overwhelming and confusing, notwithstanding, it is still better to Have these to do lists in one organiser or writing pad. This is because it helps you to have all your information in one place for easy reference throughout the day.
Your to do list should be arranged in the order of importance/priority: let the so called critical tasks be on top and things that can wait lower down.
Reviewing the week ahead: can help you update or amend your list as well as your calendar.    
Spending some time before your day starts at work and prior to work closure  to make a prioritised to do list always pays off.  This habit helps you to organise your day according to your priorities.  I normally get mine sorted on the train to work.
LONG-TERM PRIORITIES: It's a shame that often times we tend to lose sight of our long term priorities caused by overload! Our long-term priorities are those people and activities that   make us happy,  those things that really matter both at home and at work. Not making time for these priorities makes us feel unhappy and unfulfilled leading to more stress and overload. As I said in the beginning of this post, we are different likewise our priorities. Some of the long-term priorities include spending time with family and friends, career advancing, starting a family,  looking good and taking care of your self through healthy eating and exercising, holidaying and many more. Whatever your long-term priorities are, you feel better and more fulfilled when you make time for them. 

Start practising some of the tips you think will work for you and your different priorities and see how you get on. They have worked for me and are still working. you can also review the improvements any time, say in one week or two, that way you be certain to imbibe a particular tip or not. 

Let's get into this habit of prioritising! XX