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Mom of five lovely daughters, wife of one dashing man. Born in Utah, grew up in Oregon, live in Georgia.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Value centered living

On Friday night David and I had the opportunity to go to a time management workshop for one of our enrichment activities. It was given by a man in our ward who does corporate training for Franklin-Covey. I'm a pretty organized person and wasn't sure how much I would get out of the workshop, but I walked away with some important and helpful insights. The first thing he talked about was the importance of value-centered living. In order to determine what our governing values are he gave us about 90 seconds to jot down our core values. The core values I listed were:

  • Family
  • Charity & compassion
  • Faith
  • Integrity
  • Humility
  • Gratitude
  • Beauty & order
  • Accountability
  • Temperance
  • Tradition
  • Health
  • Knowledge
The second thing we talked about was the Time Matrix. It divides activities up into four quadrants measuring their importance and urgency. After thinking about which quadrants I spend most of my time in it was helpful for me to see that I spend too much time on things that are "not important". I'm working on focusing a little better so that I'm doing things that reflect my core values (ie., read my scriptures before I read blogs!)

Right now with the seasons changing and Emily starting pre-school I feel like I have the opportunity to set some new goals and to make some new habits. Right now I'm trying to figure out exactly what areas I want to focus on (because there is so much I want to improve!!!).

What things have been successful in helping you focus on reaching your goals??

5 comments:

Michelle Pyne said...

I like your core values! I think my list would be very similar to yours. I think the two categories of "urgent" and "important" are good to distinguish from each other. I think my life is filled with many things that are urgent but not important, and too often the important things get pushed aside by the urgent ones. (i.e.Scripture study, prayer, helping others,etc.) When I make those things that are eternally important "urgent," then I am on the right track!

MiandMiksmom said...

Very interesting! And, on your last post...we were at that game too with our girls! So fun!

Sally F said...

I think some sort of accountability helps me focus better on my goals. Whether it's to my husband, or sister, or friend, or a chart, or Heavenly Father, if I have to report to someone, I'm more likely to succeed.

Kami Hall said...

I've found that when I deny myself the things I want to do until the things I need or should do are done I accomplish more. If I set a time limit for myself to finish, it helps me to stay on track. Like I'll say, I'm going to have this done in an hour so I can watch this show on tv, I have to work harder to get it done.

Kimberlie said...

I'm with Kami..that has worked for me. I also like to have only one NEW goal to work on. I don't like clutter in any sense of the word. If that makes sense.