Prioritizing

I took an intentional break from writing everyday in order to prioritize something that needed to get done. I had told myself that I wanted to be done with my applications for graduate school by the end of November. I had been working hard on my essays, but they were hard and frustrating for me because I lack the experience and research they are looking for.  I had to try and make myself look good in other areas.  On Sunday of last week though, I knew that I would need to make changes to my work in order to meet my goal of having them done before October was over. I didn’t work out everyday, and I didn’t write any blog posts.  I also didn’t clean my house.  Horrible I know.  One other thing that really helped me was accepting help.  My mom knew that I was trying to get them done and offered to take my youngest daughter for a day so I could work on it.  I took her up on that offer and it was the day I got the most accomplished.

If you want to prioritize, that means you have to let some other things be undone until the important thing gets done.

One other thought is that you can make your own deadline instead of accepting someone else’s.  The applications aren’t due until December 1st.  The problem with that deadline is that it is way too far away for me.  I don’t want to have my brain power and energy drained because I have the application looming over me for that long.  I don’t want to have the worry and anxiety sticking around.  I want to get it done, know that I did my part the best I could, and move on to other things in my life.

So there you go, give yourself permission to leave some things for later while you get something important done, and give yourself your own deadline that works best for you.