How to Prioritize Everything You Need to Get Done – Part 1
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Hey Friend!
How do you create boundaries in your life and prioritize everything? How do you take a holistic approach as busy working moms, feeling like you’re drowning? And, how do you create prioritization rules so you can partner with God to bust out boundaries in your life and get more done in less time? I am talking with Sasha Star Robertson on her podcast Intentional Abundant Life. We are bringing you a boundary blueprint on how to prioritize and create those necessary boundaries to get more done in your day.
Three Steps to Learning How to Prioritize Your Life and Business to Get It All Done
We need to have discernment and awareness that there are reasons behind each season. God takes us through a journey of seasons throughout each year and throughout our lives. As I look back on my life I can see pockets of growth that I thought were so difficult and painful, but that season was really refining, learning, and growing time. I have also noticed that through each big season, there are micro seasons we go through.
Learning how to prioritize allows us to use our giftings fully
God has created us all with very specific giftings. I have always been a leader, the girl bossing everyone around. It is really interesting that in the crazy seasons of my work, businesses, failed business, and now a thriving business, at the same time God has been refining these other pockets of my life that aren’t specifically the big gifting areas He has for me. If you are unsure of your giftings or how God may be wanting you to use them to serve others, check out my course Clarify Your Calling.
I am a mom, but motherhood is a piece of who I am, it’s not all that I am. During this big growth business season, I have been in which has been three years long so far, God has also given me these whispers that I need to do less and trust Him more because He is refining my motherhood. He has been teaching me lessons about how He wants me to be as a mom and how being a mom is teaching me to be more like Jesus.
He is also doing the same thing in my marriage. The big underlying link with all of them is this question of trust. God is asking “do you trust me to keep growing your business while you trust me to cultivate and grow you in motherhood and marriage?” There are cultivating, refining, and waiting times just like with gardening. God will give you what you need to prepare for a season of harvest.
Allow God to use your seasons
As we go through the different seasons, it is common to resist. Instead of trusting the process, trusting that what needs to happen will happen, we try to force the blooming process. Maybe it is in your business and you think that if you share it in three more places you may finally have the growth you want. Or in your marriage and you try to force this awkward communication instead of cultivating it to grow and mature naturally.
We try to force the transformation that has been promised.
– Stefanie Gass
Oftentimes, as women of faith, we hear God’s promises so far in advance from when they actually come true. Our job is to create boundaries in ourselves, our hearts, and our physical nature, where we trust Heaven’s timing. We trust God to make things happen, which means we need to actively control ourselves on a daily and weekly basis. In order to actively control ourselves, we need boundaries.
3 steps to prioritizing so you can grow in the season that God has prepared for you.
1. Prioritize your values
- Create a list of your values or overarching priorities in your life. (For example, mine are God, marriage, children, and home/business in this order.)
- Establish your daily priorities (One day may be heavy on business, then maybe another day is heavy on family.
- Do a discernment check each week to make sure you have your overarching priorities straight throughout the week. If not, that’s ok, ask God to help you straighten them out.
- Sit down on Sunday with a planner and prioritize the top priorities that have to happen. Begin with God. Where does He fit in your day? Are you serving at church? Then plug in family time.
- Highlight your top (or non-negotiable) priorities in a certain color. (For me, top priorities like God, marriage, and children I put in yellow highlighter so they stand out.
- Add in your time-scheduled events. Where do I have to show up this week?
- Plug in your work blocks wherever your schedule has open spaces. – These will be where you take focused action on what you need to get done in your business which are now prioritized around your most important values and priorities.
When I went through my prioritization this way, I viewed my full week and priorities in the planner, and I noticed that my husband wasn’t anywhere on my week’s schedule. Looking at boundaries, I needed to pull from what I am naturally good at, and I pulled two hours from my work block on Friday and asked my husband if he would go on a mountain bike ride with me.
If you don’t look at the bigger priorities, so much can come our way as busy moms and we will always have requests from those surrounding us. If we aren’t in control of our calendars, people are going to find a way to fill up our time.
Everything in your life is a partnership with God, but it takes action, discernment, and strength on your part to experience the abundance God has for you.
– Stefanie Gass
2. Create simple time blocks in your schedule
- Color code your blocks.
- Time blocks need to have a start and a stop or they bleed together.
- It is a visual alert to not cross a boundary. We can only do one thing well at a time so time blocks need to happen with full intention and presence.
- This takes a lot of practice. It’s not perfect, it’s not set in stone.
For those of you that struggle with a certain time block taking up too much time or getting ignored, you need to be aware of this and surrender it to God daily. It’s not easy, but He will help us reset our schedules.
Actively converse with God everyday to help you determine how to prioritize best and which time blocks should be represented in your day. It takes partnering with the Holy Spirit in your choices and in your surrender everyday all day.
3. Communicate your priorities and time blocks
- If we don’t communicate with others about our priorities and boundaries, there is no accountability. Talk to God about your boundaries.
- Communicate it with your husband and kids.
- Having communication will keep you accountable. If you are really struggling, find an accountability partner with someone that is in the same space as you.
- Accountability is key!
Sis, I want to hear from you! What are some ways you have learned how to prioritize with God and your values in mind? Answer in the comment box below.
I pray this blesses you!
Xo,
Stef
P.S. Listen to podcast episode 452 for the full training on how to prioritize everything so you can get it all done and find true success in the kingdom of God!
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Frequently Asked Questions
What type of organizer do you use to keep track of your schedule?
I use a hard-copy planner so I can color-code my time blocks. This allows me to see if I am representing each of my values enough within my daily and weekly schedule. My favorite planner is by Horacio Printing, and you can save $10 with my code found here.
How do I make sure to keep my business from taking over my schedule
First, fill in all of your personal commitments and time-blocks into your day, week, month and year schedules. Look at the open spaces within your daily and weekly schedules and fill in your business time blocks where you see open spaces. This assures you are living out your most important priorities first.
Why don’t you use a calendar app on your phone?
I do use my calendar app on my phone for important events, so I can use the reminder features. I also use alarms throughout my day for starting and stopping points in my time blocks. This allows me to put my phone to the side and know I don’t have to keep checking the clock.
How to you stay motivated when you get to a time block you don’t feel like doing?
First, I would pray and talk with God to discern if this time block truly should be a priority. If you feel God is asking you to honor it, then choose obedience. You can always ask God for motivation. You may also need to reduce the amount of the time block in more manageable chunks if it’s too daunting. Really get honest about why you are not motivated, and work out your thoughts with God and also a life or business coach if needed.
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