Monday, March 31, 2008

Random Thoughts About Schedules

I hope y'all had an encouraging Lord's Day, and have already had a quiet time with your Lord this morning, to get you ready for the day.

Today I was going to do a post about defeating clutter, but I took a look at my sewing area and decided I'd better...um...get the beam out of my own eye first.

So here's some random thoughts about scheduling, that occurred to me as I was walking our dog on Saturday. (The fact that I was walking our dog really has nothing to do with it, except for the fact that it's a good time to think.) :)

~ Schedules that divide all tasks up in 30-minute time slots and leave no room to breathe have a 99.99% failure rate - at least with me.

~ It works much better to have only 3 divisions: morning, early afternoon, and late afternoon. Then I can flexibly flip-flop things within their third of the day.

I already know what time of day I am most likely to do certain things. For example, I know that when I postpone my devotion time to "some time later today," it never gets done. So that is always in my morning (first thing). And I know that washing the lunch dishes must be done in the early afternoon...but if I need to make a phone call or fold a load of laundry, I don't feel like a criminal for not getting the dishes done by 12:31pm. As long as I get them done in the early afternoon I'm okay.

I found that when I was trying to stick with an impossible schedule, I got discouraged and quit - and followed no schedule. I hardly got anything done. Though the "thirds of my day" schedule seems much looser, I actually get more done when I follow it.

What about you? As a young lady who is preparing to run a home of her own someday, I know I must learn to run on an efficient schedule - one that gets things done, not the one of my dreams, performed by Super Woman.

What have you discovered that helps you accomplish many things in one day? A curse of my generation is young people who waste their time. You older women who read this can attest to that, I know. We fritter away at this and that, and at the end of the day we wonder "what did I really get done?" Perhaps we have things too easy. Perhaps we don't think it matters if we take our time.

But it does matter, young ladies! As women of God, we know that our time is His time. Think of the frailty of life! It's a vapor. We only have so long to get things done. And there is SO MUCH to be done. Let's get busy and make every second count.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very thought-provoking~~
thank you for encourageing us other young ladies, Amber!

Anna

Meredith Ivy said...

I agree that your post is very thought-provoking. Thanks for sharing. Have a great week!

Anonymous said...

In regards to accomplishing my usually long to-do list, I sometimes think of Hebrews 12:1 -- "Let us lay aside every weight ..." It's a good reminder to stomp on those activities (weights) that would dittle away the time, and help me to remember to use time wisely and stay focused on the chores at hand.

May the Lord give us sensitivity to use each moment for His glory!

- a sister in Christ in NY