Claire Edwards

Transcript:

A couple months back I realized I was starting to feel super overwhelmed and burnt out. My calendar was pretty full, and that was even with saying no to some things. I would sometimes wakeup being like “uh I don’t want to do today,” or go to bed being like, “wow I’m so done with today.” I didn’t like either feeling and it was a wakeup call to myself that I clearly wasn’t happy or proud with how I was spending my time. So, I started doing a weekly check in practice with myself to if my time and energy were matching my priorities. It has provided a lot of clarity to me on how I want to spend my time, what changes need to be made in my life, and has made me feel happy and proud to how I’m spending my time. And I want to share this practice with you because maybe you will find it valuable too.

For a while now, I’ve been doing weekly check ins with myself if my time and energy is matching my priorities. I do them on Sunday nights after the week is over and I call it my pie piece check in (I haven’t come up with anything cooler to call it but if you have something better please let me know). My pie piece check in is exactly what it sounds like. I draw a circle, break the pie up into pieces, and put a priority or aspect of my life I want to focus on in each piece. I have limited myself to about 8 pie pieces to focus on so that they’re actually priorities and not just a list of all the things I want to do. I label each piece, and then in it, put 2-3 things I did that week to contribute to that priority. When I say contribute to the priority, I mean write down an action item that I did this week. For example, in my take care of my body pie piece, instead of writing “ate well,” I may write “meal pepped my lunches” so that I would eat healthier. Or in my family pie piece, I may have “called Grammy” written down. Once I have all the priorities down and my action items that contributed to them in that week, I have a good look at how my energy and time was distributed this week. This picture I created for myself gives me a lot of good information.

First, some pieces may have more than others, which is ok because I can’t give everything 100% all the time and not everything can be perfectly balanced. I like to think if I have 1 thing in each piece than I’m still making it a priority.

Second, sometimes a pie piece is empty and that is a good indication for me to consider if that is actually a priority for me. Do I need to be more intentional about putting energy and time to that priority, or do I need to not consider that a priority any longer? Its ok to add and change priorities because they do change over time. Realizing a pie piece is empty is a good indication to me that action needs to be taken by either realigning my energy/time or reassessing my priorities.

Next, looking at these pie pieces is also a good indication of where I could use some growth. Am I putting the same things week after week? That is ok if I am because that means I’m sustaining my priorities and what I’m doing. If I want to grow in any of the areas though, putting different things each week can be a nice growth check for myself.

Also, doing this exercise is also a good indication where I’m blindly going through life. I may think I’m putting time and energy towards what I care about, but when you write it out, you can really get a full picture.

Lastly, I use this picture I’ve created to help me make decisions, what to say yes and no to. Does saying yes to that contribute to my priorities or help me grow them? If not, then it’s something to probably say no to. If you’re upset about saying no to that, then maybe you have different priorities than you thought and that’s ok. We change, evolve, and learn.

It just all comes down to what you really want and who you want to be. No one can tell you your priorities as that is up to you. What are your priorities and are you going to have your time and energy mirror them? Doing this practice has left me feeling proud of how I’m growing and how I am spending my time, and I wanted to share because I think it could make you feel proud too.