September 29, 2021

Notes by Dhruva Shreejay

Review of last class 

What is prioritization? Prioritization is our ability to figure out which tasks are most important in our life among other activities.  

Why is prioritization important? It helps us avoid regret. Regret is looking back on a situation and thinking you shouldn’t have done something or should have done something else.

Story 1 – The Goose and the Golden Egg 

There was a poor farmer and his best friend was his pet goose.  He took good care of the goose, but he was having trouble providing for himself and the farm.  The goose felt bad for the farmer so one day when the farmer was saying good morning to the goose, the goose had laid a golden egg.  The farmer was very happy.  He sold the egg and repaired broken parts of the farm.  The next day, the goose laid another egg and the farmer sold it too.  The farmer decided to repay the goose by building it a nice house.  The goose kept laying golden eggs every day, so the farmer was fearful that if the goose wasn’t safe, it would be stolen or go missing so he put a lock on the door.  Later, he thought of why he should wait every day to get a golden egg from the goose.  So, he decided to cut the goose open.  After that day, the farmer regretting cutting the goose because he had lost his best friend.  He realized his mistake and was filled with regret.

Story 2 – Middle school

Another example of regret is a story from Shankar ji’s experience in middle school.  

There was a new kid at the middle school on the first day and Shankar ji was sitting with his friends.  When the kid came to their table and him and his friends were uncomfortable with that so they moved to another table.  Shankar ji regretted that day because he avoided the new kid.

Procrastination also leads to regret.  

Practice

To prioritize, start by planning your day. 

The 3 Lists of Prioritization 

List 1: What we need to do – 

• Brush our teeth
• Take a shower
• Sleep
• Eat 3 meals a day
• Etc.

List 2: What we should do – 

• Assignments
• Read
• Study
• Exercise
• Going to bed at a decent time
• Etc.

List 3: What we want to do – 

• Playing games
• Watching TV
• Taking a nap
• Etc.

To become better at prioritization, we should focus more time is List 2 because these are important but not urgent activities. We should schedule these activities so that we do them and be better.

RAW (Reflection Adventure of the Week)

Make a schedule for all the activities in lists 1, 2 and 3 for the week. Set a wake up time and sleeping time for each day.