Warning: this may not entirely be a food-related post, but will encompass lifestyle support which I’m also all about.

How do you go about setting priorities for your day, week, or month ahead? Are you someone who plans your life out to the max, leaving no room for spontaneity, or the opposite — one who forever finds yourself procrastinating on tasks and wishing that you had more time in the day for the important things in your life?

I’d like to make it clear that I’m not claiming to be a life coach or any expert in goal setting and avoiding procrastination, however I do want to share some tips that help me in achieving my work, health and fitness, and other general life goals.

Identify Your Goals & Create a Priority Heirarchy

It seems obvious to me that in order to achieve your goals that you’ll need to create some sort of priority hierarchy. I think you’d agree that most people know that they should prioritize going to work over playing hooky and hitting up the beach/bar/mall/(insert any fun distraction here), but maybe it’s not that simple. In my work, as a nutrition consultant and holistic lifestyle & wellness coach, I sometimes have the discussion with clients about how their week was (in relation to food and meeting their health goals). Often times a barrier to their success is not “having” the time to cook their own meals, leading to making poor food choices at a restaurant or skipping meals entirely. When asked why they didn’t have time to cook more meals, they will then sometimes answer, “I didn’t go grocery shopping and had no healthy food in the house”. Ok, so you can see where this is going. Let’s break it down:

LITTLE TO NO HEALTHY MEALS EATEN AT HOME ——> DIDN’T GO GROCERY SHOPPING ——> DIDN’T MAKE TIME FOR GROCERY SHOPPING —–> MADE TIME FOR EATING OUT AT A RESTAURANT INSTEAD or SKIPPED MEAL

I know what you’re thinking…”It’s never that simple and there were circumstances that prevented me from making the grocery trip”. I’m not saying that life doesn’t throw obstacles in our way — it does. However, we can’t prevent those things from popping up from time to time, so I suggest making plans, creating goals, and setting your priorities in order to ensure that you’ll do the best you can. As I’ve said before, we’re not striving for perfection. Trying the best you can, however deserves a pat on the back.

So that being said, here is my personal non-perfect plan-of-attack for a typical week of my life. These tips might seem obvious to some or may be very useful for others — no one of us is the same and what might work for me may not apply to you or benefit you in your life. So, keep that all in mind before drawing any conclusions.

A typical week in my life

Goals (in no particular order):
– Go to gym/exercise (3-4 times/week)
– Practice drums (4 times/week)
– Grocery shopping (varies, but at least 1 big trip/week)
– Work on my business (currently this varies in terms of the amount of hours I’m putting in as I have a full-time day job as well)
– Have some fun (mostly on the weekend, Saturday or Sunday or maybe both)
– Cook dinner at home (varies but on average MON-FRI is at home)

Prioritizing those goals:
Ok, so from my goals listed above, I then construct and prioritize them based on how my week will unfold. I usually have a good idea of how my work week, personal obligations, social commitments, band practice (yes, I’m in a band!), and drum lesson will look like by Sunday so am able to plan for the upcoming week.

So, here I am thinking out loud….as I script my personal life schedule (this is where a simple calendar will do the trick as you write each goal down):

“If I have to work Monday-Friday, 9-5pm-ish that leaves me nights free and so far all day Saturday and Sunday wide open. Pretty simple. Drum lesson is Weds. night always for 1 hour. And there’s band practice Thursday, usually taking up the majority of that night (after dinner). So, that leaves Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Sat., and Sun. to check off the gym and practice drums. Mon-Tues-Fri-Sat: I can practice drums for 1 hour and still do the gym on 2-3 of those nights as well, since drum practice is just 1 hour and the gym is usually 1 hour. Sunday is free, so I force myself to visit the gym that day. No negotiating that if I want to hit my quota of gym days. Sunday I also prefer to go grocery shopping to stock up for the week ahead. Any leftover hours in the day if I’m not making time for a fun activity or social gathering, I will try to work on my side job/business.”

Ok, I won’t bore you with other details, but the point I’m trying to make is:
There usually is time in the week to work on some of your goals. It’s all about prioritizing and ranking them as significant on your daily to-do list. Instead of saying, “I have no time in the day for that”, instead ask yourself, “Am I making time in the day for that so-called significant goal/dream/resolution or instead prioritizing something else over that goal?”

I could easily have a free night after working and stay at home and watch TV or attend trivia night at the bar with friends on a Tuesday (sorry, guys!), but I choose not to on those weeks where my goals are important in achieving. I know that if I do opt for the night out then I will fail at meeting my personal goals set forth for that week. This isn’t to say that I never will cancel plans with my goals or just let loose sometimes. There’s a time and place for simply relaxing or vegging out on weeks where my goals don’t seem as urgent. For me it’s not that I don’t enjoy hanging with friends; it’s more about knowing my limits and being in tune with my physical and mental body and what works for me and what doesn’t. For instance, exercise does wonders for my mental state. It reduces stress, allows me to sleep better as well as conditions my physical body. I feel happier, more positive, and more productive when I maintain habitual exercise patterns. If I don’t make exercise a priority, I tend to feel more depressed, sleep suffers, my muscles dwindle, and I just feel like crap for a lack of a better word. Having the positive mental state then goes a long way. I am able to focus and produce better quality work (in both jobs) and am more likely to achieve my other goals of drumming, cooking yummy meals, hitting the farmer’s market, etc.

Call To Action

Identify your #1 goal on your weekly list that will yield the highest reward (happiness, reduce stress, make you more $, become healthier, etc.) and do it first or allot more time for that particular goal.

Obviously this reward will differ for all of us and hence our priorities will not always align. And there is nothing wrong with that. Maybe I don’t spend enough time socializing with family and friends? For some of my friends, that would be their number one goal for their week. For me, eating healthy meals and cooking a fair share of those is surely a high priority, as well as exercising. Though I support everyone’s goals and priorities, I’d argue heavily that making food a priority will yield maximum benefits, enabling you to reach many more of your other goals —  but I digress.

There will be plenty of food talk in future posts. For now, I encourage you to start goal setting and prioritizing your goals/tasks for the week. You’d be surprised at how something as simple as writing them down or plotting out a simple Monday-Sunday chart (like what I’ve sort of illustrated above) can really help. We all have X amount of time in our days, it’s just a matter of how we choose to spend that time. Are you using those extra few hours after work to hit up happy hour, go for a jog, or play on Facebook? It’s your life, you can choose the path you so desire.

I hope you found this post useful and would love to hear about priorities and goals in your life and tools or methods you use or implement that help you to achieve them and thwart any obstacles that may come your way.


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Please note:

I am a nutrition educator/consultant and not a physician.  As such, I do not diagnose or treat disease, rather I support lifestyle balance and health with my work.

Please understand that any information provided on the relationship between nutrition and health is not meant to replace competent medical treatment for any health problem or condition.

 

 

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What I Get Asked the Most When I Tell Others I’m a Nutritionist: 21 FAQs 

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