Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
If you’ve read Perfectioneur: From Workaholic to Well-Balanced, or have watched my TEDx Talk The Burden of Busyness, you know how important it is to narrow focus as a driven professional in order to get things done. Our very nature is to come up with dozens of exciting ideas that we want to implement right away, which doesn’t always work well with balancing homelife, relationships, and rest. So how do we take those passion projects and make them a success? We learn to prioritize.
Start by writing down all the personal and professional goals that come to mind for 2023. You may have a couple or literally dozens depending on what you are thinking about.
When you see the list, begin to narrow it down based on what’s most important. If your word for the year is family, we would expect to see something related to family on the top 10 list, like planning a family vacation, visiting family in another state, learning something new as a family, having regular family dinners, etc. If your word for 2023 is growth, as just another example, perhaps you have a goal to learn a new skill or attend a new training that fills this need for you.
The challenge for most of us who aspire to a lot, is to hold ourselves to a limit of 10 goals at any one time. Once one goal is accomplished, another can be added, but only when something is off the list!
Part of this is psychology, part of it is retention. If our list gets too long, we forget what we are working towards. Just like a grocery list, if it gets too lengthy, we might lose track of what we are at the store to buy, and hopefully have a written or digital list to consult. The brain can only retain 7 +/- 2 things at any given time, so having a goal list of up to 10 things is ambitious and is above the maximum of we can expect a person to remember as they go about their lives.
Keep your written 10 goals handy as you jump into 2023. If someone approaches you with an opportunity or a project, ask yourself if it’s in alignment with your top 10 priorities. If it is, you can accept the opportunity with heaps of enthusiasm. If it’s not relevant to your top 10 in this moment, you would want to decline the invitation or hold off, asking them to reconnect with you at a later date.
Saying no is the hardest part of having a list of top 10 priorities. Not just to ourselves, but having to say no to opportunities or to other people. Consider practicing your “nos” and have them crafted in an email draft, making it that much easier to say no when the time comes. You’ve got this!
Identifying your Top 10 Priorities can be an empowering, challenging activity and you don’t have to do it alone! In fact, I just crafted my 2023 list amidst my two favorite entrepreneurial colleagues at our annual working retreat! We were able to reflect upon our progress on our 2022 goals and began to form our goals for the next year together, which I really enjoy. Who can join you in this endeavor? Who do you trust to hold you accountable?
By taking on the task of identifying your Top 10 Priorities, you are saying yes to focus, productivity, and a streamlined year of meeting your goals free of distraction! Grab the free Perfectioneur workbook for all 22 of our ideas for work-life balance for driven professionals at perfectioneur.com. I hope you’ll share what you come up with for your 2023 year!