Prioritizing the Priorities
What’s that sound? Listen – do you hear it? {QUIET}
It’s a rare sound around these parts, but this week the boys are spending time with Brad’s parents at Bible school (Bless You, Grandparents and VBS volunteers!), and we are getting a nice dose of quiet.
We’re taking this time to work uninterrupted, catch up on a few house things, purge some toys (shhhhhhh!!), eat some grown-up food, and REST, but we also wanted to have some time to chat about how we can make our home run even better.
I have been super inspired by Crystal Paine’s book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. And it’s challenged us to re-evaluate our priorities.
How can we manage our time better? What things are taking our energy? What isn’t getting done? Where are we failing miserably? What are we getting right?
Yesterday, wrote out all of the things on our plates and our weekly commitments by category. I had a page, Brad had a page, and then we had a together page.
It was so nice to see everything in written form, listed out, and organized. Was it a tad overwhelming to see it all and wonder how to make it all work? Sure, but much better seen than thrown together without a plan.
I don’t want to look back on our lives and just see BUSY.
I want our lives to be intentional, meaningful, and with purpose.
After we listed and categorized our commitments, we took a good look at what we could possibly cut out, what was being neglected, and committing time specifically to each task.
Next we set goals we need to accomplish from our re-prioritizing.
Examples:
- Schedule a monthly date night. (We know this is something that’s not only good for our sanity, it’s needed for our marriage, but we’ve neglected it in the busyness lately.)
- Exercise 3x a week. (We have to plan to exercise or it’s not going to happen.)
- Have a quiet time daily and hold each other accountable.
- Meal plan and grocery shop on Wednesdays. (I find myself stressed out most when our fridge is bare and I don’t have a plan for dinner.)
- Set a time each week to pay bills, budget and go over finances.
I cannot tell you how great it feels to prioritize the priorities again, and reevaluate how we are running our home. I think it will make a huge impact on our productivity, self-discipline, and peacefulness in our home.
Now back to some housework catch up and maybe even a couple of chapters of my book before the munchkins return!
Great post! My husband and I just today finally set up a weekly budget meeting. We’ve been budgeting for over 7 years, but lately have struggled with keeping up. After I just worked through the monthly budget again today, we finally decided on Monday evenings for our weekly meeting.
Bought this book on your recommendation and read it in one day! The advice is so sensible and not overwhelming. I really like her idea of leaving 2 unscheduled hours every day for when “life happens.” I encourage anyone who feels like they are overwhelmed and not getting to the stuff that matters to give this book a read. I find it interesting that the advice applies equally to someone like you with a busy family life, lots of home responsibilities, and a blog– and someone like me who has a busy job (late in my working career) and few home responsibilities. We all have dreams about where we want our lives to head!
So glad you devoured it too! =)
I would die without meal planning! I don’t know how I ever got through our first few years of marriage without it.
Why do I fight it when it makes our entire week run smoother?
I’m just catching up on summer blog reading so I am coming late to this. BUT – we have a weekly budget discussion. We have been on abudget forever but we weren’t talking about it and I have found that we both do better when we communicate it. We meal plan and grocery shop and meal prep on Sunday. Meal prep is essential for us since we both work full time outside the home. We also schedule down time regularly when we make sure no plans are made so we can just be home. Good luck implementing! You will be much more at peace. Our biggest struggle lately is making the time to workout. Schedules are not routine right now so extra effort needs to me made. We are working on it though.