An Inkling
More thoughts on last week’s blog pursuit: being busy with what matters most as servants of Jesus… Wanting to be busy with what matters most, and actually living in a way that makes this possible, are not the same thing.
That’s how it works with money too. We want to use this finite resource wisely. Yet it’s amazing how few people actually have a plan to make that desire practical – i.e., a budget. Some folks think budgeting is fun. I worry about them! But fun or not, it’s a simple tool to bring sanity and purpose to one’s financial life.
Back to time. Time can also be budgeted. Of course if you’re going to budget time, you have to have some sense of how you’re using your time. Two tricks for that have been helpful to me.
The first is to spend a month keeping track of how you use time. Do you have any idea of how much time you actually spend in a week watching TV, or surfing the internet, or working, or doing ordinary chores, or exercising, or studying scripture and praying, or conversing with your family, or sleeping, or serving others? For almost all of us, the answer is “No.” Not no, we don’t do all of that and more, but no, we don’t have any real idea of how we apportion our time and energy. We spend less time than we would guess on some pursuits, and more than we would guess on others.
Why guess? Set aside a month to keep track of how you’re using your time. Create a chart with your major activities (you’ll have to add some as you go), and then every 2 or 3 hours, stop and jot down what you’ve been doing in 10 or 15 minute segments – before you forget. Then add it up at the end of the day. Then add the categories up at the end of the week. And since weeks vary, do this for a month and get an average for how you’re using your time.
Then look at what you’ve learned. Is this how you want to use your finite amount of time? If you want to be busy with what matters most to you as a servant of Jesus, are these time choices furthering or frustrating that ambition? What needs to be trimmed? Dropped? Expanded? Added?
These are hard choices. But until you know how you’re using your time, you’re not really choosing to be busy with what matters most. You’re simply busy.
Next week I’ll write about the other trick, which helps with discerning which of your activities is really about what matters most.
Blessings,
Keith
