Time Management

Last week Matt at Becoming Last posted an interesting article about time management. First he suggested we take a time inventory of our lives. Write down how much time you spend on different areas of your life for a week: work, sleep, preparing and eating food, driving, leisure (tv, games, hobbies), working out, church activities/volunteering, internet, etc. Then he posed this question,

“Does the way we use our time match what we claim to value?”

I thought for a while and came up with a list of things I value in my life; things I want to be a priority. It was hard for me to put into words the things that I value. As I’ve said in previous posts, the main goal for my life is to live missionally. But that is a little broad for this list, so I broke it down a little. I managed to come up with 4 things that I want to be priorities in my life.

Loving and serving my family
This includes any quality time that I spend with my family; going for a walk, watching a movie with them, sitting and talking with them. It also includes any time I spend serving them: making their dinner, folding their clothes, giving them a massage.

Loving and serving others
This includes any time I spend serving other people; giving someone a ride, verbally affirming my friends, or serving at a soup kitchen.

Increasing my knowledge of God
This includes any time spent in prayer, reading my bible, attending church, or leading bible studies.

Taking care of my mind and body
This includes any time I spend doing things like exercising or gardening.

Starting this Sunday I am going to keep a rough estimate each day of how I spend my time. At the end of next week I will share my results, and see if how I spend my time matches what I value. If it doesn’t, I’ll try to determine what I can do to change that.

What about you…how do you think you spend your time? What do you want your life to reflect about your priorities?