In an age of abundance, the optimists in us believe we can achieve everything and anything we desire. So, we found ourselves with incessant lists of need-to-dos and want-to-dos but never enough time.
When I was experienced this, I constantly felt like I was coming up short or just scraping by. Externally, I was confident. Internally, I felt like a failure. To shake off these unfounded feelings, below is the framework I came up with to ruthlessly prioritize my life — starting from my goals, my tasks, to even my thoughts.
Ask yourself: Which of the five categories below does the task I’m about to do, or the idea I’m currently contemplating, fall into?
uninteresting + un-useful = DISTRACTION
uninteresting + useful = OPERATION
interesting + un-useful = RECREATION
interesting + useful (you) = PASSION
interesting + useful (you and the world) = VOCATION
Now, we reduce:
5. Throw out the distractions. Don’t do them, don’t even think about them.
4. Operations: Don’t do them, but make sure you can.
3. Recreation: Doing them helps you do more of the following.
2. Passion: Find time to do this. When you want to.
- Vocation: A singular thing to dedicate every minute and thought you have to. Do the Operation tasks if they help this cause.
