Time management

It's amazing what can happen if you have enough time.

This year, God has been working new principles of time management into my heart. I don't know about you, but for a long time I felt like I never had enough time. And at times, that's probably true. There are days or weeks where no matter how hard I work, it seems like I can't get it all done. But that's an opportunity for God to work on my desire to please others and on my ability to walk in His grace.

But something interesting happened this summer - I had a couple of weeks where I basically had nothing to do. (This was during the Olympics). Now I love summer and the freedom that comes with no art schedule. But I was amazed at how little I actually accomplished during that time. I might have had just one thing to do that day and I wouldn't even come close to getting it done. I realize that part of that is my personality (it usually takes a deadline to motivate me). But it's still astounding at the direct relationship I've found between how much I get done and how much I have to do. The more I have to do, the more I get done. The less I have to do, the less I get done. So as a result, I've learned to love routine. That doesn't mean I'm good at developing my own routines, but I appreciate them. Perhaps another appropriate term is discipline.

I'm learning to love being disciplined.

A recent discipline that I've instituted is related to TV. The Olympics revealed to me just how much power I've let TV take over my life. So what I've done is this: I've disallowed myself television before work (which makes my morning way more focused on God - I pray and read my Bible. Such a simple blessing.) I also turn off the TV at 9:30 every night. And I allow myself no more than an hour of TV a day. I used to leave the TV on while I'd cook or eat or whatever. Just kind of like background noise. But TV seems to hold an unexpected degree of power (over me at least). Once it's on, it sets the bar for my day/night. And it's a really low bar of expectation. Being disciplined about turning off the TV has left me with an extra hour or two each day. It's required me being really intentional about what I watch. I'm not just watching stuff that's on. But I'm watching just those shows that I really want to watch. I have cut out a bunch of shows that we're wasting my time. And I'm not re-watching the same shows over and over (seriously, how much of your life has been wasted by reruns?)

So what's happening with all this new found time?

I'm teaching myself how to play piano. I'm spending more time taking care of my church (people and building). I'm doing more schoolwork (of which there is plenty). I'm reading more (maybe not as much as I want to, but more than it was). I'm taking care of a lot of projects I had started but never finished. Writing blog posts. :) It's been great.

It's amazing what you can do when you're willing to be disciplined and intentional about your time. There's all kinds of scripture about this. I highly encourage you to be really intentional about your time. Decide what you want to do. Let your time reflect your values. Let your time leave a mark.

I'd love to read your thoughts. Leave a comment.