Peace of Mind Organizing

The power of knowing what's important to you

26 May 2022

My dad and me in his new apartment

In our podcast, Getting to Good Enough, my co-host Shannon Wilkinson and I talk a lot about the importance of knowing what’s important to you in order to figure out when something is good enough.

I find the question of what’s important carries through to every aspect of my life. It’s become a touchstone of sorts for me.

Case in point: I was in Walla Walla, Washington, earlier this month helping my 91-year-old father move into assisted living. It was a happy move: he’d agreed to it (after encouragement from me) and he’s a very amiable guy. So compared to many, it was relatively stress-free. And I’m happy to report that he really likes it!

I was there for only nine days and during that time I also needed to get his condo ready to put on the market. Thankfully, he didn’t want to move too much stuff, which made the move much easier. But that meant I was faced with a whole lot of stuff that needed to be given or thrown away in a very short period of time.

I started to stress about not being able to get everything done. And then I got in touch with what was important to me: Spending time with my father and making sure he’s comfortable in his new digs. Once I acknowledged that, it helped me figure out ways to delegate some of the things that needed to happen at his condo. And I even allowed myself the possibility that I might not get everything done before I left town and so it might take longer than I’d like to get the condo on the market.

As it turned out, I got to have my cake and eat it too. I was able to get my completely settled in AND I was able to get the condo emptied out. It went on the market just four days after I left town. (Bonus! I got him to agree to stop driving and I sold his car.)

The moral of this story: When you are torn between priorities or you’re having trouble making a decision, think about what’s important to you and use that information to guide your decision. Sometimes it’s surprising how clear things become when you know your why!

Tagged with: family, priorities, self care, stress, task management, time management

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