6 Questions to Help You Simplify and Focus on What Matters This Fall

6 Questions to Help You Simplify and Focus on What Truly Matters This Fall

“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.”
Charles Richards

There are many important things in life.

Your family and friends. A hobby perhaps. Working out and staying healthy. 

The most important relationship in your life. And reading, learning and growing as a person.

But finding the time for what is most important in life is not always easy. It sometimes feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day.

But even if it may not feel like it, there are often ways to improve how you use your attention and your time.

This week I’d like to share 6 of the best questions I have found for doing just that and for shaking yourself out of a rut.

1. What are the top 3 most important priorities in my life right now?

With a lack of focus on what is most important in your life it becomes easy to spend too much time and energy on aimless actions or work.

On things that aren’t really that important but you do out of old habit or because of other unhelpful reasons.

To keep your attention in the right place it is essential to remind yourself every day of what is truly most important to you.

So ask yourself: what are the top 3 most important priorities in my life right now?

Write those three things down on two notes and put one in your workspace and the other one on your bedside table.

2. What are the 1-3 most common distractions that keep me from doing my work in a focused way?

Figure out how you can prevent those things from distracting you. It could be by:

  • Shutting the door to your office.
  • Putting your phone in silent mode.
  • Having notifications for your email or an instant messaging program/app shut off.

3. What are the 1-3 most common distractions that keep me from having quality time with the people closest to me?

The answer could for instance be your smart phone, TV-shows you just watch out of routine and not because you like them very much or bringing your work back home.

Then figure out how you can reduce or eliminate those distractions.

4. What is one healthy limit I can start setting in my life this week?

One of the smarter ways to simplify your life and to free up time is to set limits.

Here are a few key areas that you can set powerful and healthy limits for:

  • Your daily input. Reduce the number of blogs, newsletters, magazines, book clubs, podcasts, TV-shows etc. you follow. Just keep the ones you are really getting something out of.
  • Email. Just check and process your email during one chunk of time once per day. Instead of checking it 10 times or more each day.
  • Social activities. Write down a list of the social activities you are involved in after school or work. Maybe you are involved in a club or an activity that it is not as fun or rewarding as it used to be. Maybe you want to rearrange your priorities a bit to focus on something else this fall.

5. How can I minimize or eliminate one thing I may have missed?

What else can you eliminate or minimize?

Some meetings at work or in school? Redditing or some social media channel you hang out in a lot?

Really question and reconsider your own daily and weekly habits regularly instead of moving along in the same old tracks just because it is what you usually do.

6. What is one piece of unnoticed or misused piece of free time during my regular day?

There is often quite a bit of open travel- or waiting-time during a year.

What will you use such time for as we go into the fall this year?

Perhaps you would like to read more while riding the train or while waiting for a meeting to start.

I, for example, often listen to podcasts while I’m out and about or while waiting for a meeting.

Even if you only have 10-20 minutes of commuting time each day you still have a many, many hours in a year that you may want to, at least partly, use in a new way.

 

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About the Author

Henrik Edberg is the creator of the Positivity Blog and has written weekly articles here since 2006. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Gothenburg and has been featured on Lifehacker, HuffPost and Paulo Coelho’s blog. Click here to learn more…

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • I too believe in prioritizing. There are many distractions in our lives, we being unaware of them will continue to give time (rather waste our time) on them. But prioritizing helps you to be loyal to yourself and to be happy no matter what you are doing.

  • I really like your 3rd point to eliminate distraction. I totally agree with it as being an entrepreneur.

  • Setting up those healthy limits are great way to gain extra time for things I really care and like. Following your blog for a while. You are doing real great job, Henrik! Dont stop!

  • Francesca

    I think the thing for me with distractions is my finances (or stress about them.) I get so wrapped up in trying to make money that I forget what is most important to me. By the end of the day, I feel so sad and defeated. I want to change and your article was very helpful. Thank you for sharing these great tips!

  • Mary Ellen smith

    I love this post..so sensible..so true..so doable

  • champika.

    The articles which u publish in your blog are amazing. They are very helpful as well. Keep it up.thank u very much

  • Nikunj Panchal

    Hi Henrik
    I really like your all blogs. It’s motivate and boost every day.

  • Prioritizing what’s important is challenging. I talk about having clarity in one’s focus in several of my blog posts, including this one – http://www.sobeit32.com/32-in-32-mow-your-lawn/

  • Great post Henrik, thank you for writing this up,

    I particular like point 1 – the top 3 things approach means we can get our priorities straight. The difficulty lies in correctly identifying those top 3 things.

    I generally find it helpful to understand my purpose in life and what I need to do today to get me closer to achieving that purpose.

  • Nicely written. Hobbies can be really helpful but staying away from the distractions are really difficult even after we are able to identify it still its difficult to stop them. Appreciate if you can do another post on how to stay away from the distractions.