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(This is the second part of the post I started yesterday.)

So.  You have your list.  Now what? 

I recommend taking the top five people or activities on that list and really making time for them in your life.  The next five you can keep there as time becomes available.  And the rest, you slowly and consciously stop making time for.  You say no.  You let the membership expire.  You let it go.  You move on. 

This will open up space in your life, space for those top five priorities.  Those activities and relationships that are so important to you, that give your life meaning. 

This list-making exercise is also really helpful for those times when life seems to be happening all at once.  When the demands of your life start to conflict, you can look at your list and remind yourself that your husband is more important than your job.  Your mother comes after your kids.  Television is way down there at #39 and your husband wants to talk. 

Decision-making becomes a whole lot easier when you know what’s important.  Guilt becomes less of an issue when you know that you’re choosing your most important over your sort of important.  You can’t be two places at once, so you go where you most need to be and let yourself off the hook for everything else.

This is not to say that you will never watch TV again.  Or that your number one priority will get all your attention all the time.  That tends to scare people.  And there will be lots of times when priority one wants to do their own thing.  Without you.  That’s fine.  That leaves time for other people and interests.  Or catching up on your sleep.

This is not about perfection or ‘always playing your A-game’ .   A-games are exhausting.  Lots of times your B-game is plenty good enough.  Sometimes your Q-game is all you have in you.  It’s OK.

This is just a way of ensuring that what’s important to you gets covered.  That you don’t neglect yourself or your loved ones in favour of some committee or hobby that you think you should be spending time on but that, really, you have no interest in.

I made my list nearly twenty years ago.  It has helped me make so many important decisions.  I was able to guiltlessly abandon the B & B my husband and I were running when my sister was dying.  We took a sabbatical when my mother needed care and whenever I begin to squinch up about the financial fallout from that decision, I go back to my list and calm the heck down.

It’s a bit of work to come up with the list, but it can lead to a life that makes that effort so totally worth it.

Please tell me your thoughts.  Do you think consciously ordering your priorities will make it easier for you to make time for what gives your life meaning and let the rest slide?  Or will it still be difficult?

Today’s photo: Above York Street