Organize, prioritize, satisfy your life

Make your to do list, prioritize, set your goals, do time management, organize, get up earlier, don’t waste time, don’t waste your talents, do more, do it faster, use your gifts, don’t waste your life, reach your potential. What all these expressions that I just said boils down to is one thing: Be productive. But what I’m telling you tonight instead is stop focusing on being productive, Just throw all this productivity crap out the window, and replace with something a lot more satisfying, which I will tell you about shortly.

Being productive is seen in our culture as a incredible virtue and perhaps in some of your families as well, certainly in mine as I come from a family whose every member accomplishes great things such as profitable businesses, to writing books, to being an artist, to helicopter skiing in powder, AND being gorgeous all at the same time. Sounds good does’t it,

But the problem with it is when we are not as productive as we want to be, we can get very disappointment in ourselves or start to feel inadequate.
I’vie experienced this lately a lot myself, and have been feeling a bit anxious about all the things I have not yet accomplished. The reason I wanted to talk about this tonight is perhaps some of you feel this way too. And so I have come across some ideas that I want to share with you which could help. What we need is a whole new way of looking at getting things done. So what is it?

There are three important steps.
The first is to Focus on Fulfillment. The first shift is to switch from asking how many things can I get done to what actions can I take that will make me fulfilled. Just this slight alteration is totally revolutionary. For example some things that make me feel fulfilled is having a cup of tea first thing in the morning in my favorite china cup and journaling, or spending time with my husband somewhere in nature, Now it doesn’t’ seem like I’m getting much done, I’m not checking off all my to do list, but I’m creating a lot of positivity feelings inside myself which brings me to the next very important step which is:

#2. Create value: Creating value is much more meaningful way to view how effective you spend your time, than just being productive and crossing off lists. If you are always focused on productivity, get it done, quick faster, move on to the next easy to lose focus of the value in what your doing. When you think of Value think about asking three questions is it creating value for you personally, is it creating value for your family or partner, or is it creating value to the community or world.

For example, I could of chosen not to do this speech today which would of freed up a lot of time to work on many of the other things on my to do list like my web business, but I choose to do this because I felt that exploring this topic had value for me, it resonated with me and appeals to what I’m going through and hopefully it has value for my community, you the toastmasters and the guests here as well, as perhaps it resonates with some of you and so. And so when you are deciding what to work on choose it based on how much value it has, not on whether it has to be done or not.

3. The third important step in all of is called following your natural rhythms. That might sound a little airy fairy. But it is an intuitive way of living. It requires some flexibility. It means paying attention to how you feel. Nature functions within the laws of expansion an d contraction, growth and death, and we forget that we are part of nature and there are times to create and times to withdraw.

And the beauty of this system is when you are fulfilled and you do things that have value, and follow your natural rhythm then guess what? surprise you are very productive and accomplish many things!

These steps may seem impossible and unrealistic if you work in a company and someone else dictates your time, but perhaps you can bring just a smidgeon of these ideas even into your day. Remember the 3 important steps when approaching that long to do list #1, focus on fulfillment, Second, Create value, and lastly pay attention to your natural rhyums.

Throw the idea of being more productive out the window, cancel that time management class you were thinking of taking, and replace it with doing action that creates fulfillment and value. Bringing these practices into your life will bring more joy and contentment and This is truly what is most important. Thank you.

Leslie Kuster (my daughter)