2. Knowing What Matters MOST To You

Time. It is something that many of us fear. Something that we may worry about.

We feel that there is never enough time, or that we cannot control time.

To get past these fears and anxieties about time, we must ask ourselves “how can I make my time matter to me?” Because time is finite or non-renewable and we must pay careful attention to how we use it. We cannot fill up our time with things that do not matter to us.

Doing things just to get things done is wasted time. And wasted time cannot be brought back.

Once time is gone, it’s gone.

Aligning our time with our values helps us feel like we have the right amount of time and some control over our time. And productivity is all about getting done the things that matter to you. Having this values-centered approach decreases our antagonism with time and shifts our mind from fearing time to savoring it.

So, what is a value?

There are many definitions of value, but my favorite is “one’s judgment of what is important in life.” In other words, a value is a principle or standard that weighs a lot on your personal life scale.

We often say that scales do not lie. If I weigh myself on three different scales, although it would be great to be 20 pounds lighter on at least one of them, the reality is that my weight is going to be the same regardless of which scale I use. However, values are not like that.

Because you determine the weight of a value, it will weigh differently on your scale than mine. In addition, we are evolving beings who are – hopefully – growing and learning from life experiences. So, the weight we place on some values may change with time. My top three values are: faith, family and community. Community has always been an important value for me, but it was not in my top three until a couple of years ago. Now it is the primary driver for my research career.

The quote “values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ‘em all over everything you do” is attributed to Elvis Presley. This is incredibly true. When we show up, our values show up.

Our values leave an imprint on the things that we do. They influence our desires, motives, actions and decisions.

Our values help us to know what to say “yes” to and what to say “no” to. Identifying our values will give us the focus we need to make decisions about our time. We live in a culture where we are pulled in multiple directions and have many demands on our time, knowing our values help us preserve our time for what matters to us.

Do you want to work on defining your values? Subscribe to receive a free workbook made exclusively for Time Matters.