The “DON’T Want” Priorities List: 15 Ideas for Setting Priorities

Lately, I’ve been getting all caught up in the “thick of thin things” when it comes to my priorities, and I was just sitting here in my local Chick-Fil-A for lunch thinking about what’s important to me and what my priorities should be.

DON'T Want Priorities List - Negative Spaces

Journal entry from my “Whatever Happens, Happens” journal on February 6, 2015

The “DON’T Want” Priorities List

All of a sudden I wondered, “I know what’s important to me and what I want, but what about what I DON’T want?”

It’s easy to get so mixed up in life that you begin to grasp for the obvious solution; however, sometimes, like the negative spaces in a drawing, it’s in the not-so obvious that the real solution lies.

That being said, here’s my list of things that I DON’T want…

I DON’T Want…

  • To be overwhelmed with too many tasks
  • For my time to be monopolized by my work or by other people
  • To feel rushed all the time
  • To miss out on the good things in life—away from work
  • To be stressed out
  • To not have a clear path of direction
  • To lose track of who I am by pleasing others; even my audience, thus resulting in a lack of authenticity
  • To keep finding myself back at square one
  • To lose track of my goals by getting on the tracks of less important—even—insignificant things
  • To doubt my self-worth or the worth of my business, products, advice, etc.
  • To forget where I came from and those who helped me get where I am today
  • To keep comparing myself with others who seem more successful than me. Wealth is measured in much more than money!
  • To continue procrastinating on what I know in my soul I should be doing
  • To gauge the worth of a task simply by the level of urgency with which it presents itself
  • To discover, at the end of my life—this priceless gift which God has privileged me with—that I had not truly lived

Keeping Your Priorities in Perspective

I’m sure there are plenty of other things I could think of that I don’t want. The point is that now I have a template to work with. It would do me well to print this list and keep it nearby as a reminder when these “don’t”s start creeping in—which they tend to do on a daily basis, in some form or another.

For now, I’m off to do some work. And you can be sure I’ll keep this list close by.

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Question: What are some of your “DON’T Wants” when it comes to setting priorities?

Leave a comment below and tell us all about it.