The Virtue of Prudence – Don’t Let Them Control You!

How Responding to Life With the Virtue of Prudence Rather Than Reacting Can Save Your Time and Your SanityEntrepreneur Dean Jackson warns people against what he calls “reactive activators.” What he means by this is that we are conditioned to react to certain stimuli in our lives. In our current world, these stimuli mostly come from communication tools – email, cell phones, instant messaging, social media. Our conditioned response to these stimuli causes our brain to treat the stimuli as “urgent,” even though most of the time there is no great urgency involved. So we will interrupt what is truly important (like driving) in order to focus on what is most likely unimportant (the cell phone) because our brains give it a high level of urgency.

Other reactive activators might include people at work who stop by to discuss “urgent” business or “urgent” ideas that flood into your head while you’re trying to focus on something. One reactive activator for me is when I remember something that I have to do. If I’m working on a project and I think of a task that I forgot to do, I’m very tempted to stop in the middle of my project to conquer the quick “to-do” item so I can (write it on my list and then) cross it off my list. This little habit keeps me from getting projects done.

The Virtue of Prudence Can Handle Reactive Activators!

How do we handle reactive activators? The best way to oppose any automatic reactions or bad habits we’ve acquired is with planned response. We can retrain our brains to focus and not to react. This requires a bit of strategy, but it’s not as difficult as you might think.

For example, I picked up a planned response to my “todo” reactive activator from Catholic strategist Dave Durand. Dave talks about creating a “tomorrow todo list.” So whenever I think of a task that needs to be done, I open my task manager (Toodledo) and add the task to the list. Then I forget about it. At the beginning of each day, I plan out my day. I look at the task list and schedule the most urgent tasks in the morning. Then I schedule my projects for the afternoon. Again, if I think of another task it goes on the list and waits to be scheduled. It’s amazing how much this little habit saves me in productivity during the day! This sort of planning is an example of the virtue of prudence in action.

Another strategy that I use for email is to use a service called Unroll.me. This service allows me to manage my email subscriptions by listing them all in one place and giving me the option to unsubscribe with one click, or to roll all of the daily emails into one daily digest. This is awesome because it means that instead of getting 140 email a day (that’s the average, by the way), I’m now getting about 10. Again, I can choose when to read the daily digest. I can scan all of the emails in one page, choose the ones I want to read more carefully, and be done with them in 15-20 minutes. And the inbox is not constantly distracting me during the day.

Wait . . . Isn’t This Site About Spirituality?

Now, if I’m sounding more like a productivity coach than a Catholic spirituality coach, that’s because I’ve borrowed many of these tools from the productivity market. But that’s only fair. The Catholic understanding of human nature is the foundation of most productivity principles. Click To Tweet While we do share with animals a physical body that responds in predictable ways to physical stimuli, we also have free will. We can overcome these automatic responses in order to consciously respond in ways that are better for us.

So what are you reacting to in your daily life? What’s causing you to automatically shift your attention from what’s important to what seems “urgent”? What are your reactive activators? Would you please share in the comments?

Then tell us what planned responses you can try to overcome them. Let’s just see if we can’t take back some of our time, energy and attention.

If you find this strategy helpful, you should really consider registering for the full Planning for Grace course. The Reactive Activators are just one of the self-analysis exercises we go through together in this course. You’ll discover a lot about how you use your time – and how you can make better choices about where you focus your time, energy and attention during your day. This isn’t just about being more productive during the day, either (though people who take the course do tell me their productivity increases). It’s really about using the virtue of prudence to take control of your time so you’re not so burned out. It’s about establishing some margin in your life so you can choose to focus more on what is truly important – your relationship with God, your family and friends, and your personal growth.

I’d also like to invite you to take your next step with From the Abbey. Our online courses can help you learn your faith. Our online spirituality programs like Planning for Grace can help you to live your faith. I’d love to have you join us so we can grow in our love and intimacy with God together!

Brought to you by Jeffrey S. Arrowood at From the Abbey, dedicated to helping you rediscover the JOY of learning and living your faith so you can grow in intimacy with God.

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