Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: Put first things first means prioritizing your most important roles and relationships over urgent but less important tasks – like choosing to spend time with your kids when they interrupt your work, because they need regular daddy time more than they need tons of time.
It’s a beautiful day – 61 degrees up here in Minnesota! Our habit for today from The Seven Habits is “put first things first” – prioritizing. What do you do first? How do you organize and structure your time? How do you discipline yourself to do that?
What?
One of my favorite books that builds on The Seven Habits is “Deep Work,” which talks about having deep work sessions as part of your routine. Many books discuss time blocking, but The Seven Habits specifically talks about your roles and goals.
Here’s how it works: You list all your roles down the side of your calendar – Christian, father, business owner, husband, car owner, homeowner – all those roles that have important tasks for the week. Next to each role, you put a goal or the first thing that needs to be done in that area for the week. Then you plug it into your calendar and protect that time.
Make appointments with yourself. “I am going to the gym. I am going to write this article.” Protect that time as if it were with someone else. One thing we do as humans is degrade ourselves by saying, “Oh well, it’s just me.” That flexibility can be good, but if I move that block, I definitely move it somewhere else so it doesn’t get lost. Remember the pillar: “bless yourself”.
Why?
I used to think, “It’s just an appointment with myself. I’ll give that up to serve and bless others.” But then I’m just not as good as I could be.
In past seasons, I put work first. I remember turning around from my desk while writing and creating, facing one of the kids and saying, “Oh, go away. I’m busy. We’ll talk at dinner time.” Later I learned by experiment that putting them first, because they don’t need tons of time – they just need it frequently. They need that daily (or more) dose of daddy time.
I found that if I can just turn and give them my attention, play with them for 20 minutes, I’ve put first things first. Then I can come right back to work, and they feel valued and loved. We become more connected.
Lesson
Yesterday our 11-year-old was doing the lawn and getting tired after each section. We’ve got multiple lawn areas – front, back, sides, around the garage, by the chickens, the drain field – and each section wears her out because we have a lot of grass covered by a bunch of sticks.
Sure, I wanted to work on closing my books on Saturday and do other business tasks. But I took that time with her to help with the sticks and wood chips. Our 9-year-old was working on wood chips too, so we worked on a bunch together.
For the wood chips set the definition of done AND that each of the trees needed to be done by Friday when grandpa comes to visit: four rules: no chips on the outside, no green on the inside, no sticks on the inside, and no weed barrier showing – everything covered with nice wood chips.
Apply
Setting aside that time and really doing it with him made the difference. My son said, “I’m gonna do more today because I get to do it with daddy!” Now he’s capable of doing it on his own and gets paid commission for it, but that shared time was what made it special.
It was really good quality experience in life – first things first in action.
Where are you at with putting first things first? What’s the one thing that interrupts that the most? What keeps you from prioritizing your most important roles and relationships over the urgent but less important tasks that demand your attention?
Remember, your family doesn’t need tons of time – they need regular and frequent time. Your most important work doesn’t need perfect conditions – it needs protected time. Put first things first by identifying what truly matters most and protecting time for those priorities.
Where are you at with putting first things first? What’s the one thing that interrupts your priorities the most? Share in the Doobly Doo below and let’s help each other stay focused on what matters most!
You be blessed!
Habit 3: Put First Things First – The Power of Kingdom Priorities
