Episode 1178: Interest, Importance, and Priorities - Time

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,178 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Rich Lewis: I'm Rich Lewis. I challenge you to invest in yourself and invest in others. Develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to listen to the voice of God is key.

[00:00:22] One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer

[00:00:29] Scott Maderer: It's about really stepping back and evaluating and saying which of these things move the needle, which of these things get me further along the path that I'm trying to go on, which of these things build my relationships, which of these things build by business, which of these things. Take care of my health, which of these things take care of my finances and which of these things take care of my time.

[00:00:57] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the [00:01:00] inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true. In the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world

[00:01:23] in today's episode about investing in yourself by stewarding your time. I talk with you about how the three prongs of interest importance and priority help make decisions about. I talk about what each of these means and doesn't mean. And I also talk about how understanding how your relationship with time is governed by these ideas helps you reflect and plan according.

[00:01:48] As we talk about stewarding your time. Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired [00:02:00] stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission will come back to support the show.

[00:02:06] Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/. Have you ever had something that you really know you need to do? It's something that's important, something that has value to your life, but maybe it doesn't really hold your interest.

[00:02:30] It's not something that you want to do. It's not something that you enjoy doing. And it's really easy to not make it a priority and not end up getting it done. Oftentimes, whenever I work with people on setting and getting things done on working on productivity, we discover that there's items that are hanging around on their list.

[00:02:52] That sometimes just they're important. They're things that they really want or [00:03:00] know is needed to get done, but they just don't ever get it done. It hangs around on the list for weeks or weeks and months and sometimes even years. And yet nothing happens. On that now the truth is when you think about it, you have this idea of interest, importance and priority.

[00:03:21] And there, there words that we use all the time when we're talking about getting things done, when we're talking about productivity, when we're talking about our calling and yet they don't really mean exactly the same thing and they fit together in a rather unique way when we're making decisions about our time.

[00:03:42] Your interest is something that is of interest to you. Something that you enjoy doing, something that you find of entertainment, value, something that you find that captures your attention in a way that you [00:04:00] in like this thing. It's interesting. Think about it. We use that word, all the. and think about it.

[00:04:08] When something is interesting to you, you have a tendency to want to spend more of your time with that thing. You spend more of your time doing that thing. You spend more of your time on that thing. Sometimes those interests are things that are beneficial. Sometimes it official, sometimes those interest, maybe things that aren't the best thing for you to spend your time.

[00:04:33] But you spend your interest on them and that makes you spend your time on them. And we talked before also about the Eisenhower matrix of urgent and important. So that brings us to importance. There are things that we all know are important for us to get done. There's things that should be done. They're valuable.

[00:04:56] They serve a good purpose. There's something that [00:05:00] help us in some. and then of course, priority, we've talked before about how we try to make that word plural, but that word really means the thing that comes before. The thing that is put prior it's looking at the things that are of interest and importance to you and almost rank ordering them.

[00:05:19] What should come first? What should come second? What should come third? What should come fourth? What should come 15th? That's the idea of prioritization. What is the first thing. And then what is the next first thing? And so on we use these words all the time, but they don't actually mean anything when it comes to our values.

[00:05:45] It doesn't actually mean anything when it comes to our productivity, even until we start thinking about how we're going to actually take these things. And allow [00:06:00] them to help us make decisions. They're the things that we look at and we say, yes, this is interesting to me, but it's not as important as this other thing.

[00:06:11] And maybe I shouldn't make this my first priority. It takes maturity and it takes intentionality. It takes making a decision to say, this is what is first. This is what is second. This is what is third. Not just because of the things that are the most interesting, but also the things that are of importance.

[00:06:33] It also allows us to make decisions about where we should spend our time to quote, get bang for our buck. The truth is when you spend your time on things that are of interest to you and also of importance is when you are most likely to get into those flow states and really get something done.

[00:06:54] those are things that oftentimes can be turned into service [00:07:00] opportunities or business opportunities, the things that are important and interesting to you and to others, oftentimes turn out to be the very things that we spend our time on and get a great amount of benefit. Plus, we enjoy that time. It's really easy to make those things a priority, and oftentimes we should.

[00:07:24] what's the problem is when something's important, but not interesting to us, or when something is interesting to us, but not important because oftentimes we will make the interesting, not important thing, a higher priority than the important, not interesting thing. It's about really stepping back and evaluating and saying.

[00:07:47] Which of these things move the needle, which of these things get me further along the path that I'm trying to go on, which of these things build my relationships, which of these things build my [00:08:00] business, which of these things take care of my health, which of these things take care of my finances and which of these things take care of my time.

[00:08:10] So that I'm being a good steward of what I've been given. Because it's on reflecting and looking at how you've spent your time in the past, and then using that to plan and thinking about it. Am I spending my time on the things that are important or am I only spending my time on the things that are interesting?

[00:08:31] What am I making a priority in my life? Cuz all too often, when you actually reflect on it, you discover that you're making a priority things that you really shouldn't. Simply because they capture your interest. Things like Facebook and Netflix are set up to capture your interest and there's nothing wrong with enjoying your time.

[00:08:54] There's nothing wrong with having leisure. Those things are important, [00:09:00] but it's also important to make a priority. Those things that are of importance to you that maybe. Aren't always the most interesting. That's really how you can change your life. Thanks for listening.

[00:09:17] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time [00:10:00] until next time invest your.

[00:10:02] Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.