Prioritizing your values helps efficient time management

Establishing our goals and values is definitely a head start in the process of time management, but merely listing them is not enough.  You must also rank them in order of priority.  If we do not rank them accordingly then we will not know  which of our goals and daily activities are most important. 

I will use myself as an example: One of my values is that I maintain a healthy nutritious diet and a vigorous exercise regimen.  Another value listed on the same paper is that I am a devoted husband and a loving father.  I also have other personal values like reading for one hour each day something that is educational to me.  Another is to spend a certain amount of time with my children each day.  All of the above values of mine can typically be accomplished without overlapping each other, but what if it did?  What if I had to choose between spending time with my kids or reading my most important career educational material?  Which do I choose?  Well if I did not set priorities then I would probably choose the one that would be the most fun, which is reading my books.  But being a loving father is a top priority, and I wouldn't even have to think about it.

If we do not prioritize our values, we will inevitably wind up with conflicting goals and daily activities, as well as the constant need to make perplexing decisions.  Allow me to illustrate another example:  Another two values that are on my list are to be financially secure, and to be honest.  Now let's assume that I am having bad money problems and my family is struggling financially.  All of a sudden a friend comes along and approaches me with an opportunity that is one hundred percent guaranteed to make me enough money to take care of my family for the rest of our lives.  But there is one catch – it is illegal.  Now although I would never get caught, I am facing a dilemma of values: Financial security Vs. honesty.  What do I do?  What would you do?  Well, this answer depends on which value is more important to me.  And on my personal list I have placed honesty way above financial security.  What this means is that I must be honest with any dealings of finances, even if it means passing up on an opportunity like the one presented above.

The point here is that if you do not rank and prioritize your values, and are unsure of what is important to you, then you will be hard pressed to effectively get anything done in your life that matters each day.  Your time management will never progress to the point of making fast and productive decisions based on the priorities of your values.