On Prioritization and Filling the Right Buckets

All humans eventually fall into the same trap. A hidden snare that latches on to you and you probably don’t even know it.

“I am too busy”.

The four words that stop you from seeing your parents every year. The phrase that keeps you away from your best friend or significant other.

We don’t know what we spend all of our time on each day, but we know we don’t have enough of it. In the end, we’re the ones that suffer most.

So, how do you escape the trap that’s holding your time hostage?

Prioritize the important things.

Pretend that in front of you are a bunch of buckets and you’ve been given 100 balls to place in the bucket of your choosing.

These buckets are labeled after different priorities in your life like:

• Career

• Friends

• Family

• Sports

• Travel

• Love Life

• Distractions

You begin to throw balls into each bucket based on activities you do in a day. After about 50 tosses, you recognize that a surprising amount of balls are being thrown into the distractions bucket.

In fact, 10% of your balls end up in there because of activities like watching Netflix alone or scrolling through Instagram. On the flip side, the career bucket is eating up almost 70% of your time and your Friends/Family buckets are barely getting 10%.

With prioritization comes balance. That’s the real goal. The ability to throw your balls in equal amounts into the right buckets that will fulfill you.

For the next week, focus on filling up the buckets that bring you joy and take more balls out of the distractions bucket.

See what happens.