Your Priorities

This is awesome , so exciting . So in today's podcast , I'm going to be giving you some major concepts around time management and I'm kicking off a series around the course that I've created , labeled gain 20 hours in your week without giving up any of your commitments .

So this series of podcasts is going to be an overview of the concepts from that course , and I've basically designed it for Muslim women , physicians with families or other working Muslim women with families because , let's face it , that's where I drive my expertise from right . But the strategies that I teach in this podcast are going to apply to everyone .

So this podcast is for people who are always saying they don't have enough time . They are so busy . They always are functioning from a lack of time . I was that person and from that mindset I went to feeling fulfilled , having accomplished a lot and never feeling busy again .

And to accomplish that , we're going to start with setting priorities , and for this you're going to have to dedicate some time in figuring out what exactly those priorities are , and you're going to go from global priorities to more precise priorities .

And you're going to go from global priorities to more precise priorities , meaning , let's say , your priority is being healthy . Now , what among being healthy is more important to you ? Is it weight loss ? Is it sleep ? Is it working out ?

Once you've identified your most important priority , then you're going to start giving it unequal attention , meaning you're going to give it more attention compared to the rest of the tasks in your life . At this point , your brain will offer you well , how can I do that ? What about the rest of the things I'm supposed to be doing ?

And that , my friends , is your lower brain trying to confuse you . Because once you set a priority and you pay your full attention to that priority , you have more chances of achieving that and you're also gaining a meta skill that you can then apply to achieving the rest of your goals .

For example , my priority in medical school was studying and gaining skills and learning . That was definitely an imbalance of tension . When you're going through medical school , you can't pay the same attention to a hobby , even though a lot of people try , and that's okay to do that , as long as your number one priority remains your studies .

In some cases people will say , well , that's easy to do because you're paying so much money to go to med school . But it's the same concept . You can apply it to other things .

So set priorities number one , two and three and pay unequal attention to priority number one and don't listen to your lower brain trying to confuse you that you have to pay attention to everything , because that's a way to definitely not achieve any goals . Now , from here , I'll point out a few mistakes people commonly make .

Number one mistake people commonly make is that they make a number one priority , which is what I call a should be priority . Let's say you think you should be spending time with your kids and you make that your number one priority , and that in itself seems like a very noble goal .

Everyone wants to spend time with your kids and you think that you should be doing that too .

But if your T-line in that priority is that I should be spending more time with my kids , then deep down inside that will create feelings of resentment , and action following that line of feeling of resentment will only create a confusing result when you'll be thinking well , I should have been spending more time with my kids , but why am I not feeling fulfilled ?

That's because you're operating out of a should-be priority , and that is just one example . Look at your life and figure out what it is that you should be doing versus what it is that is important to you and you want to be doing . Differentiate the two and , of course , very importantly , only concentrate on what's important to you .

Now , another mistake that people usually make at this point is not being able to tell the difference between urgent and important priorities . Phone texts , social media alerts , whatsapp messages all of these are classified under urgent priorities . Just because something demands your attention in that moment does not mean that it is important . And now don't get me wrong .

If your teenager set out for the night and told you that they were going to text you once they got to their friend's house , that becomes an important priority and you should definitely be checking your messages for that . But most of the time , things that are demanding our attention from social media and from our phone are urgent , not important .

So a lot of times when we set out to reach our priority that is important to us and we keep getting distracted by these urgent but seemingly important messages . It takes up a lot of our brain , space and energy and a lot of fuel that we could otherwise be utilizing to reach our important goals .

And then we don't reach our important goals and then we wonder why that happened . We feel disappointed at that time and then we internalize that problem and think that we just weren't meant to reach our goals . More urgency in life means that we've spent less time planning . The more you plan , the less urgent you'll feel .

For example , meal planning will take out urgency of having to run to the grocery store because you ran out of eggs the last minute . Or if you've planned for a work meeting , it will give you less surprises when it actually comes time to execute that meeting . So you've taken the urgency out of the task .

When you're planning for something , you've employed your higher brain to perform the task , and urgent tasks only employ the lower brain . So at the end of the day , while you had planned a lot of things , you come out feeling exhausted and you haven't accomplished anything .

Look back and see how much of it was addressing urgent tasks versus pre-planned tasks and you'll know the difference Now . At this point I want to mention that . It doesn't mean you can't work on multiple priorities over a period of time . You just can't work on multiple priorities at the same time .

Let's say , your top three most important priorities are spending time with your family , personal development and your career . These are my current priorities and this doesn't mean that you have to dedicate one whole day , week or any specific period of time to just one of those priorities and you can't do anything else during that time .

With appropriate time management , you can learn to adjust your schedule so you can spend time during each day to one of those priorities . So your day is divided into chunks of time dedicated to one priority and during those times you'll have to give an imbalanced attention to one of those priorities .

Meaning , if you're at work , that's what gets your imbalanced attention and nothing else . If you're having dinner with your family , that's what gets your imbalanced attention . Not charting , not returning phone calls , not multitasking .

We take so much pride in multitasking , but science has proven that the brain is incapable of paying attention to more than one task at a time . We are not wired to do multitasking . When we're multitasking , we're actually shifting attention very quickly from one task to another , and that shifting attention quickly back and forth in itself is extremely draining .

I used to take so much pride in my ability to multitask but always felt tired and overwhelmed and didn't get anything done . So imbalanced attention is very important to conserve mental energy and actually feeling fulfilled . So , basically , be present in the moment that you plan for that is it . That is the big secret behind time management .

But , my friends , this is much easier said than done , especially when our career demands so much multitasking . But that is a topic for another podcast . Even though I consciously know from my intelligent brain that I should not be multitasking but that is a topic for another podcast .

Even though I consciously know from my intelligent brain that I should not be multitasking , I fall in that trap all the time and I have to correct myself . And it is through this correction of yourself over time where you'll develop a practice not to multitask . When you can learn this skill , you're on solid grounds to reach any priority you set for yourself .

At this point I'll touch a little bit upon passive and active tasks and where there's actually some wiggle room to multitask . Passive tasks are the everyday , mundane tasks that you perform on a routine basis , so much so that they become automatic and you don't require any conscious effort to perform them .

For some people it's cooking , baking , cleaning , for most of us it's driving or things like that . A lot of people choose to multitask when performing passive actions like listening to a podcast while getting ready for work in the morning , and that is not at all what I'm talking about here .

The clash comes when one or both of your tasks during your multitasking effort demand active attention , and the take-home point is that our goals and priorities are not passive tasks . If they were , that would mean that we're doing them on a daily basis and that they are second nature to us .

And that would mean that we're doing them on a daily basis and that they are second nature to us , and that would mean that we would have already gotten the results we wanted , and that would mean it's not a future goal . So , by definition , the priorities you set for yourself are not passive tasks .

You cannot multitask your way through to your goals , so stop trying . Do yourself this favor . You are only wasting your time . You'll thank me later and you're welcome . I learned it the hard way , so I'm teaching you . So this briefly outlines one of the aspects of my course Gain 20 Hours in your Week .

Of course , there's so much more to the course , and you can learn more about it by going to islamiclifecoachschoolcom . All one word Subscribe to the email list and I will send you more information . You can make an appointment with me for one-on-one free coaching , because I mean , how can that be ?

How can you gain 20 hours in your week without giving up any of your current commitments , right ? Well , that is my claim to you , and all you have to gain is 20 more hours in your week . That is a lot of time , my friends .

I am also in the middle of creating a workbook for this course that will also be available to you for free , but during the course , of course , I'm going to be offering it in much more detail , and it will be a personalized plan around your schedule and your daily needs . Part of the workbook that helps you narrow down your priorities .

So , in case you are confused about what it is that you want , you can definitely check that out and it will help you gain some insight . I will send you that workbook once you subscribe to the email list .

In the next podcast , we will be talking about scheduling in time for the priorities you've set so far , and that also is a part of the course . Gain 20 Hours in your Week .

Like I said earlier , all of this is a part of the series of podcasts highlighting what I have to offer , but in the course , I go much more in depth and the course is for people who are trying to achieve results that take them to the next level .

And with that , I pray to Allah , subhanahu wa ta'ala , that he gives us clarity to identify our priorities , give us insight so we can tell right from wrong and make his religion a priority , and I also pray that he gives us strength , intelligence and the tools to carry through to those priorities and see real results .

With that , I will leave you to ponder and think about it more . We have talked about a lot of deep issues today and we will discuss more next time .