If You Don’t Prioritize Your Life, Someone Else Will.
It can be difficult to decide what you want to do in your day. It takes a dedication and foresight that overwhelms many of us. The problem is, if you don’t prioritize what you want to do with your time, soon someone else will find something for you to do that you might not like.
As noted in the Harvard Business Review business blog, one of the classic examples of this idea is the workplace. If you don’t draw clear lines in the sand and let your employer know that you won’t be working on weekends, you will quickly become overworked and unhappy. This is great if you want to be active in the company. To a lesser extent, if you have other priorities that you are not ready to defend against. HBR describes what it looks like with a woman named Jin-Jung, whose story seems familiar to many of us:
Jin-Jung never negotiated with his manager. She would simply say yes, even if it brought her life into temporary turmoil, as has often happened. She spent incredible hours completing every request and task, diligently delivering them in neat and complete packages despite the sacrifice.
The site goes on to explain how Jin-Jung set and adhered to certain boundaries with her employer. Of course, many employees do not need to come up with such a plan since they have established working hours or hourly schedules. However, you can still decide when you will be free or will not work overtime. This may mean that your boss is unhappy, but if you have other priorities besides making the boss happy, you should stick to them.
Prioritize Your Life Before Your Manager Does It For You | HBR