You will not have time for it all, so...

(Click on the title of the post to see the entire post.)

The most elementary truth of productivity is that you will not get what you want out of life if you try to do everything that comes into your life or is available to do.  

Duh!

But we continue to violate this simple adult reality and fail to apply the most important principle of all productivity:  Put in first what you most value and just keep doing everything that is of the next highest value - and try not to go into being unconscious about it, for being unconscious about it is being unconscious and irresponsible about your whole life - this is about the degree to which you are simply wasting your life!

Well, now, a pretty normal response to this is "I already know the first things first rule."  A few people might ask "well, now, what do I do about this so that I can have more value in my life?"  (This is discussed in Importance Vs Urgency.)

The first thing is to do some version of answering the question:  What is of the most value in my life?

You simply do a quick list, right now, in, say, 20 minutes, on a page entitled "What is of the most value in my life".  

Then you put them in order of value.  

Then you review the list every day for the next 30 days at least and make sure those things are inserted in your day before you insert anything else in your day.  (And you keep such lists in a referenceable location/file.)

Further refinements of this that I recommend, if you value your life highly enough to really master the using of your life:

Write down what sucks up your life or what uses it up with no real value.  An example might be something like a remote "friend" who calls and talks for hours about what he/she wants to talk about that has no real value to you - the catch here is that you need to stand up for yourself and devise a way to avoid or stop such calls - we must stop letting ourselves be victims of what other people want and victims of circumstances and the demands of life - that is part of growing up.  (If a person doesn't do this, the person has simply chosen to remain in the child-victim role in life to the extent he/she does the non-adult behaviors.  Duh!)

Anyway, you should end up with a list of what to not allow into your life.  While you're at it, you might as well decide who are the top 10 (up to maybe 20) most significant people to associate with and/or the bottom 20 of people who you should no longer spend any time on (or minimize time with).

Although there are many levels of detail you can go into this, to make finer distinctions and more refined decisions, it is mandatory for those who want to live good lives that your hours in the day should be allocated ahead of time on purpose based on the high value items being inserted first.  

Those who live good lives do this.  Those who live lives of regret don't do this.  That's it, period!

I know that most of you already know all of this, or think you do.  But, if you don't act on this, then you really do not know enough to live a life of value....

______________________________

To go deeper:  

Highest Value Activities In Life - Review these and then decide which links to follow to get a deeper understanding of how to live the life value mindset that always leads to a great life. 

You can choose which of these to do (all have extra value in and of themselves - each will add value to your life):

Keep a time log, or do by memory, to see what is taking up your time that is not of true value, then do a "this is what I will no longer do in my life" list or "this is what I'll do less of" list.  (If you delete the lowest value things in life, you are making room for the highest value things in life.  Those who are foolish with their lives, live their lives backwards, as they do everything that comes up and then see what time is left over for what is of the greatest value - and keep on having no time left over for doing that which is of high value - sad...)

Don't forget to put down things like "dawdle" around in the morning, "blowing my best hours..."

Look at all of your obligations and regular activities and decide if they really have the heartfelt value that is worthy of your time.  Slash and burn, be ruthless, for this is a matter of life and death (death with regard to time is getting no life value from the time!).

Once you decide who to primarily associate with and be around and what is of value to do in your life, write out a simple plan of steps to take to get the greatest value from them.  This would include, obviously, what you need to learn in order to get the most value out of these things (use the search engine on the site).   Incidentally, those without a written plan are failing to really take charge of their lives at a high level - they are failing to predetermine what their life will be like - and they are leaving their lives up to the agendas of others and of circumstances.  [You would select a simple or medium plan format, initially, from Planning Forms Links.)

You could also observe what your 5 biggest obstacles in life are and/or your 5 biggest problems in life and then learn and do all you have to do to solve those, so that you will be able to have more life value in your life!   See Problem Solving, use the forms to follow.  

There are lots more things to do on the site.  You'll have to explore for yourself and decide for yourself what to do, allocating time in your week to being a student of life doing Effective Learning.