The Art of Prioritizing
Every one of us at some point or another has experienced being overwhelmed. Unfortunately, life is made up of many different parts, and each one of them bears more importance than another at different times, forcing us to constantly re-evaluate and choose between them. It isn’t always easy. Because most of the time we are the ones assigning the “order of importance”, we often have trouble determining what goes where. I know that this has been an extremely difficult task for me in recent months, as I am frequently torn between what I feel is best for my body and baby, my commitment as a wife and partner, and my duties and responsibilities as an employee at a company I am very invested in. Obviously, all three of these things are important to me, but at some point, you have to force yourself to make a decision and follow through with it.
So how do you do that? You find a common factor that affects each one and base your decision on that. For me, it was about time. Because each thing seemed to be of equal importance, I thought about them in terms of how long I would have to focus on them. I plan to be at my job for as long as they’ll have me, so I knew I had a lot of time to continue developing my skills and improving my efficiency. As far as my husband is concerned, that should be obvious. “Til’ death do us part”. Neither one of us are going anywhere, so I have my whole life to make sure he knows how much importance I place on being his wife. That left my body and the baby. My baby depends on me to make sure she enters this world safe, happy and healthy. And I only have one chance to get it right, so I made it my priority.
Once you’ve gotten that far, you’ve still got maintenance to consider. In other words, now that you know what you want to make a priority, how do you make that happen without everything else falling apart? The honest answer to that question is that sometimes, you don’t. It would be dishonest to say that everything always works out perfectly. But what can help is communication. In my situation, I was open with my employer about how I was feeling, and while he doesn’t always love the situation, he knows that I have simply prioritized my pregnancy for the time being, and not because I find my job less important. He understands that my commitment to my job has not changed, and so he trusts that what needs to be done will get done. And it does.
What can also help is foresight. If you anticipate the challenges that might arise from your new situation, you are often better equipped to handle them. I wracked my brain over how we would handle my maternity leave. While I know that the company can survive without me, I also understand that a successful business is a well-oiled machine, with all of its components working together to produce the desired end result. Without my input, a part of that machine would be less productive, and neither my co-workers nor myself wanted to see that happen. So we anticipated the potential obstacles and planned for them. I would work from home, and to maximize what I’d be able to accomplish from the new location, I would simply move my office. And as long as I maintained communication on a daily basis, I wouldn’t lose my grasp on what was going on with clients or in the office.
We have a few clients who could not only use some help with prioritizing, but would also benefit greatly from utilizing these tactics. It isn’t unusual that we work with businesses with cash flow issues; many of them are owned by people who won’t even cut themselves a paycheck or whose personal finances are at stake along with the company’s. If the common factor for most of these businesses is the need for debt relief, and they have hired us to help them achieve it, it would make sense to prioritize payments for our services. This means communicating with employees and vendors about their situation in an attempt to gain understanding and cooperation, and anticipating the problems they may face as a result before they become unmanageable. Of course, this is by no means a simple thing to do. But when it comes to the end result- whether or not it is the assurance of a healthy child or the security of a financially sound business, it is certainly necessary.
