Have you ever found yourself thinking this? Have you ever wondered why it has become a relatively big, important question?

Not that long ago, I found myself asking this question numerous times, within a fairly short period of time. I don’t think I had been so aware of it before and for a while I wondered why it had become a large, recurring question.

Well, it finally dawned on me that I needed to explore what else was happening in my life, if I was to find an answer. You see, it would have been too easy to just get and remain annoyed, angry and frustrated because I felt it was my turn to have a say and have someone listen to me. But how far would that get me? Really/ Probably as far as putting other people on the defensive, pushing people away and still holding on to unresolved anger!

So, if you feel this way sometimes - or often - and wish it was your turn to be listened to, this is what I recommend you do……

• 1. Have a good look at what else is going on in your life. Often other stresses can influence a new or unexpected reaction to something or someone. And these other stresses can go quite unnoticed as our natural coping mechanisms kick in.
• 2. Be really honest with yourself. What else is affecting you need to be listened to instead of you always seeming to listen to other people’s needs?

• 3. Ask yourself a new question, “Why is this so important to me?”

When I reviewed my current status in life, I realised that

• a. I hadn’t had a holiday for quite a long time
• b. I was trying to juggle too many new projects at once and
• c. I was dissatisfied with my job situation

So when I heard myself say (to myself) for the third time “When will someone listen to me for a change?” I realised this was an extension of these other influences. For me, it was a turning point in what I did to do something about my current situation. You see, in my job, I was mentoring other staff; that was the core role of the position. But I wasn’t getting any mentoring for myself, and this was starting to take its toll. I realised I needed some consistent mentoring, just for me.

Once I had clarified that this was a key issue, I could then take a constructive step to resolve it.

Now in your situation, it may be at a more personal level or it may be work-related. If you don’t find out what is underlying your frustration or discontent, you will probably find yourself still feeling justifiably un-listened to!

Whichever scenario, you may be feeling at a crossroads or turning point in your life; you may want to change things. I can offer you two solid options through Positively You^TM. My e-book “Dare to be You and Create the Life You Want” offers a range of topics relevant to the focus of this article, as well a whole host of practical strategies. Also, I provide an online mentoring programme, individualised to your specific needs in the area of personal development.

Come and visit my website at http://www.positivelyou.com/ and have a browse through the products and services available for you.

Are you spending your time on what you believe is important? On what you want to be doing?

Allocating priorities to your activities and tasks can be a really useful techniques to help you identify what you want to be doing and how much time you want to invest.

Prioritising your activities and tasks is useful if you

• Find yourself under pressure to get a number of tasks completed
• Want to achieve some key tasks in a set time-frame
• Find yourself spending more time in some areas of your life when you would rather be doing so in other areas (e.g. work commitments taking over your time with family or your social life)
• Are juggling a whole lot of things
• Have other people’s expectations included in your own targets and goals

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar to you?

So, what are some ways to put priorities on your list of activities? Here’s a method I use all the time that certainly works for me and takes the frustration out of feeling like I never really achieve anything as I want to, when I want to…….

1. First, it can really help to create a list of all the things you are involved in trying to complete and your ‘want to do list’. In fact, split these lists into two separate ones, to make this task of prioritizing more manageable; so that you end up with a “Task List” and a “Wants List”.

2. Deal with one list at a time, then be prepared to look at both of them to see how you need to organize your achievement of each item on each list. For example, your Task List may have very work related items (work = paid, voluntary or home) while your Wants List may include more personal items - just as important in your life but with a different emphasis and focus to your Task List.

3. For each list, read through the items and decide which are urgent and important - that is, those items that really need to be done now or very soon. Highlight these items.

4. Now, take those highlighted items and rank them, again in order of urgency and importance (for example, starting with 1 as ‘most important/urgent’). It can give you a sense of planning and being organized rather than reacting to whatever comes up during the day

You see, if you know what you want to achieve and how you intend to do this (the rankings you allocate from 1 to whatever), if you get interrupted, for example, you can decide how to manage this.

That is, if you are asked to do something that is not on your list, you can let the person know whether you are able to help them today or whether you need to schedule a time to help them the next day or later in the week - when you know you will have completed your planned task/activity.

So, get started on your own lists - your Task List and your Wants List - and allocate some priorities to each item you list, on each, so that you can begin to feel more in control, more organized and certainly feel as though you are achieving and making headway with your goals and aspirations.

For additional practical time management strategies I’m sure you will find useful, check out my website at http://www.positivelyou.com/