Time Management

Yesterday I was reading a chapter for Bible Study this week from a book called "Small Changes for a Better Life" by Elizabeth George. The chapter was called "Manage Your Life" and it deals with learning how to manage your time wisely according to God's priorities. While I was reading the chapter I realized how much of my time I spend in useless pursuits that, whether or not they are "bad", are simply a waste of the time that I have been given. So many times instead of doing something useful or profitable, I spend my time doing things that are mindless or foolish. I have gotten into the habit lately of watching movies every evening. My husband and I are enumerating for the city census and we mostly work in the evenings but when we get home we have to sort through the papers from the day and we usually end up watching a movie while we do it. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with watching movies but I find that movies get in the way of stuff that needs to be done. I end up sitting around, often snacking, and stay up later than I should. Not to mention the fact that a lot of movies are not even worth watching. Its so hard to find movies that are good in plot and in rating and many times I end up watching movies that are not beneficial to me in any way. This is just one example of a way that I tend to waste time instead of using it in a profitable way.

In the chapter, Elizabeth George talks about the importance of priorities and managing our lives. She lists three main steps to living out God's plan for our time.
First of all, we need to "Own the Management of 'our lives'. We need to realize that we are responsible for the time we have been given and form the correct priorities in our lives.
Secondly, we need to Prioritize our time. She lists eight areas of our lives that we need to make regular time for. 1. Time with God, 2. Time with your husband (if you have one!), 3. Time with your children (again, if you have them!), 4. Time for family and friends, 5. Time for yourself, and 6. Time for the unexpected, 7. Time for planning, and 8. Time for work.
The first four points are relatively self-explanatory but I want to talk about the next two a bit. Time for yourself is a priority that sometimes seems like it is just being selfish but it is important to have time to be able to be strengthened, stretched, and rejuvenated by God. If you are run down you will be less able to complete your tasks successfully and often this also translates into being less patient and loving with others as well. Our spiritual, mental, and physical wellbeing is important in order for us to be strong, healthy, productive people. The 6th point that Elizabeth George makes is a very interesting and challenging one. Time for the unexpected is being flexible, being able to say "today I want to accomplish these things, but if God has a different plan for my day I will be graceful and accomodating, as well as available. Time for the unexpected is being able to take time out of your expected day to babysit for the neighbour when she has to go to the hospital, or using the afternoon to visit someone who is sick or making food for a needy family. Anything that God puts in front of us as an alternative to our carefully planned days.

The third step is Learn What's Important. This step involves learning to be effective(or efficient) in the things that we do with our time and learning to eliminate things that are not helpful or as EG says "things that don't contribute positively and constructively to God's plan and priorities." Our priorities will change as we go through life and we need to continually reassess our lives and whether we are effectively using our time.

If we learn to manage our time wisely by developing godly priorities and plans for our life God will bless us and make us more effective servants for Him. Let us desire to be better stewards of our time and work toward that goal knowing that only things that are done for Christ will last!