So this week I was going to talk about your ability to say no to people, mainly at work, and how that actually ends up benefiting you and your boss because you’re more productive in what you do take on…and don’t go off with stress.
However, after a quick google search, I realised everyone already seemed to know this valuable piece of information – there are articles on it everywhere, and rightly so, it’s a really important thing everyone must learn at some point in their lives, but what then, was I to write about?
The answer hit me as I was busy planning my working week on Friday. Every Friday I make a plan for the following week; what I’m going to be doing each week. I’ll put in meetings, deadlines and anything else I ‘need’ to do. Then I’ll fit in what I want to do around the time I have left.
Surprisingly enough, I rarely have time to fit in what I want to do. Even when I do schedule in some time, invariably a meeting runs over or some minor crisis occurs and it falls by the wayside, to do ‘another time’.
So what I decided on Friday, looking at my weekly planner, is that actually, the only way I’m ever going to get what I want done, instead of only what I need, is to give my self permission to do this, then act on it.
What I mean by this is consciously saying to myself, ‘this is something I need to do for me. Therefore I am making it essential and it is being scheduled in to my week as such. If I have to move things around to do it, so be it.’
This way, some of the other ‘essentials’ might get moved down the list of priorities but actually, I feel OK about it, because I know now, that this week, I finally will get done all the things I’ve wanted to do for a month.
I don’t know whether I thought that my priorities weren’t as important as everyone else’s, or whether the stuff I needed to do for work couldn’t possibly be changed and therefore I was the one that had to sacrifice my learning or development to ensure things kept running smoothly, but actually, your development (or whatever keeps being pushed down your to-do list because you don’t feel you can make it important enough to be a ‘need’) is necessary.
It is vital to keeping you happy and productive and working positively, so give yourself permission to do the things you want to do this week.
Allow yourself the time to need.
Make it a priority.