Time Management - Making the Most Out of the New Year
I spread myself out on a well used sofa at Ridgedale mall and pop my headphones in. Just the people walking from store to store feels like absolute chaos to me. Being burnt out from the week previous, I just wanted to hide in this city of over 300,000 people.
For those curious about ever moving to a big city I caution you to stray from a spirit of isolation, but also on of overcommitment. In the same time Masonand I have been learning to get out there and meet new people, establishing relationships and adding value to others, we have also been learning the important of "no".
Terri Savelle Foy, a highly successful motivational speaker, writes- "Your effectiveness in life will be determined by your ability to say 'no' to most of the opportunities and options that come your way."
In this season of my life I am in the business of learning how to balance my life out between opportunities for growth versus opportunities that produce an idle and negative mind. Saying no to certain experiences does not mean that you will become successful by hiding out in comfort and away from people, turning down every opportunity that comes your way. It just means measuring what is truly important to you and striving towards those things instead of other experiences that do not help you grow into a better person or point you in the direction of your dreams and goals.
It means calendar management!!
Earlier this week I had noticed that the time I used to spend with the Lord each day has been replaced to do something else "productive". I still had the same hours in a day that I had before, I was just using them differently. The things I was doing were still important, but what is more important than renewing your mind? With this red flag, I had to re-organize my days.
In this time in our lives hours are significantly hard to come by. We are unable to connect with everyone 3+ hours away, let alone see them. This does not mean that we don't want to. It means that we owe it to the world and ourselves to grow for the sake of other's motivation and growth in the future. We are willing to put the short term on hold so that we can serve long term.
We are learning to be most effective in the time that we have.
To some this will sound prideful, to others it will be the words they have needed to hear for a long time. There will come a day in everyone's life, however, where we must make the decision of what is most valuable to us and whether or not we are willing to put other things behind in order to make time for what matters most.
For me that is . . .
- time with God
- laughter with my husband
- adventures with my family/friends
- at leas half an hour to breathe each week with no commitments
- taking care of my health and body
Take Away
What would your calendar management look like if you chose to maximize your time with people who you want to be like, including your future self?
I encourage you to take the time and dig deep within your self to identify what is truly important to you and strive towards the things that will make you grow.
What are some ways in which you are learning to preserve your time for what matters most?