Do you often have the nagging feeling that you ought to be managing your time better or working harder? It can often feel as though you’re awash in a world that is always sending the message that you could be doing a little better, and while sometimes this can be motivating, it can also be discouraging. The steps below can help you drill down to the basics of what you need to be doing and enjoy your life a little more.

Triage

This is not a tip for how to live your life all the time because you’ll burn out if all you do is run from emergency to emergency. However, if you are struggling with feeling like you are falling behind, there is probably at least one big thing that you need to do that you keep putting off. Maybe it’s updating your resume, or perhaps you need to sit down and file your taxes. Whatever it is, figure out the biggest pressing external problem that you have, sit down today and do it.

For example, if your spending is out of control and you are going deeper into debt, you can go online right now and look up refinancing student loans with a private lender. It doesn’t take long to find out how your monthly payment might be lowered. With that task done, take another step to solve your problem, like downloading a budgeting app. Concrete steps to solve stressful problems nearly always make you feel better and ratchet down that panicked feeling of having too little time for anything.

Prioritize

Once you have identified the biggest and scariest thing that you need to improve, you’ll probably find it’s a lot easier to think about the other things that you want to do. Start by writing down everything that you think you should be doing in a typical day or week. Try to be as thorough as possible, down to noting time to shower and sleep. If you’re like a lot of people, you’ll realize that you are literally trying to accomplish more things than there are hours in the day or days in the week.

This is where you need to prioritize. You have to do things like go to work, and you probably want to spend time with your family. But is there really no one else who can do that volunteer gig? Or can you outsource walking the dog to one of your kids? Be ruthless. In the end, you should only have two categories: the things you absolutely have to do and the things you absolutely want to do.

Enjoy

At this point, most self-improvement articles start telling you all the other ways you can make yourself a smarter, fitter, more efficient person. In fact, what you should do now that you’ve taken these big steps and gained all this insight is give yourself a break. Self-improvement doesn’t matter for its own sake. It is only as good as its ability to improve your life and the lives of those you care about. Instead, take a look at the things you absolutely want to do list, pick one of your favorite items and do that.

KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.