A: Thinking about the post I wrote yesterday, I wanted to add a few thoughts. I have people ask me all the time how I do it all. The answer is…. I don’t! Nobody can.

Unfortunately, there is a limited number of hours in a day, and the older I get the more I realize how fast time flies. It is easy to feel like there is too much to do. It’s easy to look at your life and see all of the hundreds of things that you could be doing but are not, and think that you’re not accomplishing anything. It can be very overwhelming. I’ve felt that way so many times and still do. I used to think that I was just plain lazy.

Now I know better. I think that being overwhelmed is misdiagnosed for laziness all too often.  If we just know what we want and then list how that needs to happen and have a focus, we are a lot more likely to get up and do the things that need to be done in order to get us there.

So, here’s what I do. I make goals. But not in the traditional way. I don’t think about all of the things that I need to do better. That method is too negative and then I don’t feel like doing anything to reach those “guilt goals”.  I think about the things that I want. I make a list of the 5 things that I want most. This way, the goals are something that I am happy to work toward.

Then when it comes time to make my list of things to do, I line them up with my goals. If they don’t do anything to help achieve those goals, they are pushed to a lower priority. The things that need to be done that match up with those goals are put on the top of my list. This is how I “do it all”. . . I don’t. I do the things that are the most important and if I have time, I’ll do the lower priority things.

It’s impossible to do everything. You just have to figure out what is important to you and do the things that will help you get there. Don’t waste your time trying to do everything that comes along. Life is short. Make everything you do worthwhile. My wise grandpa had this verse written on a card in his scriptures and now I have it hanging on my wall.

“Let all things be done decently and in order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40