Prioritization

[beatdream]

Hey guys,

Currently I am a bit lost on how to prioritize some things in my life. The things that I am pursuing right now (in no particular order)

1) Running: I run in a running club twice a week, and extra 2-3 times by my own: rough time requirements per week (RTRW): 10 hrs

2) Language course: I take language course twice a week (I live in a foreign country now), and have to do some homeworks RTRW: 6 hrs

3) Reading: I have tons of books laying around all the time which I am dying to read, but do most of my reading on the metro only..RTRW: 6hrs

4) Writing: This is one of my dreams that I have been procrastinating for so long. I recently started writing about half an hour daily... RTRW:4 hrs

5) Dancing: I take dancing lessons, but due to time limitations, I dont go out to practice (most of the practice nights are on week days)

6) Gym: I try to go to they gym two to three times a week (sometimes combining it with the running, if the weather is not good to run outside) and recently I have been getting injured from running and the physios have stressed that I should do strength training if i want to stay injury free...RTRW:5hrs

7) going out: to meet friends, bars, clubs, etc...RTRW: 8 hrs

8) and I really want to start Yoga and daily meditation :-)

that is more or less the things that take my time (oh I forgot to mention that I work full time, 40hrs). I think I am doing a bit too many things and have to prioritize some over others and might even have to drop some.

If I was living my dreams, a typical day would go something like this:

-rise early
-kiss wife, or girlfriend, or the girl whom I am sleeping with good morning and go for a long run followed by yoga/meditation
-write for about four hours
-read something nice for a couple of hours
-meet some friends for dinner/drink
-spend an hour or two doing some volunteering (either physically or some online activity)

so now that you have a bit idea of my dream life/day, any suggestions on how I start prioritizing stuff in my life towards that end?

thanks!

[Clint Cora]

I don't think the things you want to do are unrealistic. You just might have to learn how to schedule them into a daily/weekly hourly schedule. This is what I do. This way, you get some order in your days, especially with respect to the higher priority items - and yes, even though you do have multiple items, you still have to set priorities and only you can decide which ones are the higher items.

[Steve Boyd]

You've obviously got a pretty type A personality so you'll never be bored :-) Cutting back and dropping stuff is healthy in your position because it means you'll just spend more time and focus on what's left

My best guess from what you're posted:

Cut back on running, it's easy to overtrain and get injured. 4-5 a week is crazy IMO, should be more like 2 so you have time to recover

Drop dancing, you obvious don't enjoy it as much as other things because you're already unconsciously prioritising other things over it

Try heaps of different things at the gym until you find something that you enjoy (machines / dumbells / barbells / etc). Most people get bored with the gym and find it hard to get motivation to go. It honestly doesn't matter what you do there, important thing is that you find it genuinely fun so that you actually go.

Depending on the culture at your job, try and leave 30 minutes earlier each day (and work slightly harder for the time you are at work so you still get everything done). Leaving work just 30 minutes earlier makes a huge difference to your after work productivity and enjoyment I find

[beatdream]

thanks for the suggestions!
I specially like the idea of working 30 minutes less. I work in research and the time is pretty flexible, I can even have 1 hr less (30m in the morning and 30 in the afternoon). And I think I roughly waste at least 1 to 2 hrs browsing non work related stuff, gmail, facebook, etc...

So trial from next week: no email (except work email, which I must check constantly due to the nature of my work), and no browsing except for searching research articles and work related stuff online and in company website. I will do that for one week, and report:-)