Several of my mentors have said “show me your calendar and I’ll show you your priorities”.
When I first heard this, I wasn’t in the habit of scheduling things in my personal life. Only items from my professional “to-do-list” and meetings went on my calendar.
As a gym owner, I never scheduled my workouts. I never scheduled dates with my wife either.
Both of these things were important to me and I argued that just because they weren’t on my calendar, it didn’t mean these didn’t matter.
Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to meet the personal coach for one of my mentors.
This lady from Texas shoots it straight and completely changed how I view my calendar.
If it’s important, it deserves an appointment.
If Everything Is Important, Then Nothing Is Important
If I had a nickel for every time I heard this, I’d have a bunch of nickels without any additional clarity.
Essentially this statement means that something has to take priority.
Before opening No Limits Fitness, I had a boss that regularly told me he was an “And” person and not an “Or” person.
Regardless of the number of balls I was juggling in the air, everything was equal and he couldn’t distinguish between critical, urgent and normal levels of importance.
Performance and results declined under his leadership.
When it comes to your personal and professional priorities, if you don’t take control of your schedule, somebody else will.
If it’s important to you, it deserves an appointment.
Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Early in my career, I was able to hustle and somehow get everything done.
But I refused to work by a calendar.
I worked harder and more hours than my peers. I mistakenly believed that these were the most valuable traits because it’s all I knew.
Despite the successes I had before opening the gym, nobody had taught me how highly effective people prioritized and scheduled their day.
The day I learned how to effectively plan my week lifted an incredible amount of stress off my shoulders.
I slept better knowing that all the important things had a place on my schedule.
There wasn’t a need to play Tetris with my life every day trying to make things fit as I ran out of time.
As I continued to improve the skill of scheduling my days and my week, the tasks of lesser importance also became clear.
If it’s important to you, it deserves an appointment.
Are You Making Time For The Most Important Things?
When you begin your day, do you know your Most Important Task?
This is one of those simple but not easy concepts.
I’ve written about The Ultimate Productivity Hack before but it bears repeating.
When you identify YOUR most important task of the day and get it onto your calendar, you significantly increase the likelihood of this task being completed.
If you’ve never attempted this before, making this a habit will help you become more productive than you’ve ever been.
If you take this one step further with quarterly rocks that determine the top 3 things for your weekly and daily calendars, it will change the direction of your life.
It all comes down to what matters to you…individually.
If it’s important to you, it deserves an appointment.