Mar 18

Mar 18 What Are Your Top 3 Priorities?

Hi, I'm Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

When your head hits the pillow at night, are you thinking:

‘Ugh! Another day of spinning too many plates and watching them fall! There aren’t enough hours in a day! How will I ever catch up?’ And then you wonder why you have a hard time sleeping ☹

Or, do you think:

‘Wow! What I productive day! I achieved all my goals and more. Woo hoo! Great job!’

Many of my clients are torn between wanting to add self-care habits for themselves and the realities of their day-to-day life: dishes, laundry, caring for kids, walking dogs, and, oh, let’s not forget, full-time jobs. Ha!

They have long daily to-do lists that, instead of grounding and supporting them, actually increase their stress and self-recrimination because they rarely, if ever, complete them.

Many struggle with the story or belief of not enough time and not enough energy to achieve what we truly want.

Several salient points have emerged after coaching my clients in the situation of mile-long to-do lists and spinning and crashing plates.

First, people consistently do not allow enough time to get each chore done:

For instance, grocery shopping actually takes 2 hours if you take into account traffic and putting all the groceries away.

Or, the project for work? Not one week to complete, more like two because your coworkers are juggling kids at home and are slower with producing their part of the presentation.

Tasks take the time they take, and it doesn’t serve any of us to think it takes less time. It’s setting us up for failure and disappointment.

And second, our discernment is skewed by what we want to do, not by what we have to do. You may want to dig in and complete that fun creative project for work, but no, you have to make those dentist appointments and take your kids to tennis lessons.

Many of us have a hard time facing that some days the next right thing to do isn’t what we want to do it's what we need to do.

So what's the antidote to the mile-long to-do list given we have the propensity of underestimating how long it takes to complete tasks, and we naturally prioritize the chores we enjoy instead of the mundane must-do’s?

The antidote is discerning your top 3 priorities each day.

What, I only get three? I won't sugarcoat it. This can be challenging. Ha! Even more problematic for my clients because I make them 😉 put their wellness goal, the reason they hired me, on their top 3. That means they only have two other goals for their top 3.

OK, so the first thing is establishing your top 3 priorities. Then write them down. Please don't leave them rattling around in your head. Write them down, and I suggest a whiteboard that can be erased and reused. Next, draw a dotted line and add your following three priorities. You can only complete priorities 4, 5, and 6 if you’ve tackled your top 3. On the days you achieve the top three goals acknowledge the heck out of yourself. The day is a success when you complete your top 3 goals and the second three goals, 4, 5, and 6, are a bonus.

The clients who use this system text me every morning with both a picture of their current day's priority board and a picture of their completed whiteboard from the day before. Then I get to celebrate their achievements right along with them!

My clients say this simple process of winnowing their mile-long to-do list into a top 3 with one being their wellness goal and a bonus three daily goals, writing them down and using me as accountability and support is game-changing. You may not have a coach, but how about finding a friend to be your top-3-priority support buddy. Why not?

This process centers my clients on what’s essential. It sets them up for success. It keeps their main wellness goal, why they hired me, front and center. And lastly, it grants them a new awareness and appreciation for the mundane tasks that may not thrill them or ring their creative bell, yet they deserve a place on their priority list, and they merit the time it takes to complete them.

Set yourself up to win the plate-spinning-contest each day by writing out your top 3 priorities and your 3-bonus to-dos. Then when you complete your tasks, acknowledge the heck out of yourself. Finally, put your head on your pillow each night, relieved that the day went well, knowing you completed your three most important tasks. Tomorrow you will complete your next top 3 and so on and so on. That’s how you keep your first things first, and that's how you climb the mountain of any large project.

I’m Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and thank you for reading this blog about discovering your top 3 priorities each day, crossing them off your list, and acknowledging your success. If you have any questions about this blog, about health and wellness, or wellness coaching with me, please reach out via my website at lizmosercoaching.com