Another week has flown by, and what have I achieved? Simultaneously a great deal and very little. Is this a feeling you can identify with? I'll bet it is. Prioritization is something I constantly do - and frequently fail at it; there is a trade-off between 'urgents' and 'importants' that is never fully resolved, in my experience.
I am continuing to promote my (excellent, in my opinion) motivational book, Motivation: The Manual, I am finalizing content for its release a few weeks from now, I am taking on a new role with The Bikeability Trust, helping to develop their (also excellent) provision so that they can help create safe and responsible road users for decades to come, I'm trying to be an engaged and supportive data and all that entails, trying to be a source of support for my mum and dad whenever they need me, continue to apply for research funding and write high-quality academic papers, be a supportive colleague and supervisor, and somehow complete various bureaucratic tasks along the way. And, oh, did I mention trying to manage my physical and mental well-being by taking regular exercise and downtime?
So, what's my priority? Hard to say, to be honest! However, experience has taught me that playing the long game - keeping 'one eye on the prize' - is a useful generic strategy. That said, it can also be a draining strategy, as you effectively set yourself up for doing more, being better, getting things done faster, etc.; does that feel as tiring to read as it does to type?
This is where increasing my comfort level with multiple competing goals is key: there can be multiple priorities, in different life domains (e.g., family, health, career) - and it is possible to toggle between them fairly effortlessly with practice. It often requires a highly attuned 'sense check' occasionally.
I'll come back to sense checking in a later blog...
Comments