"What have I been doing all day?"
"There's just not enough hours in the day."
"I don't have time to, ____________ (have a quiet time, to exercise, to cook healthy meals for my family, etc.)"
Sound familiar? Well, if not, then good for you, but I think the majority of us have asked one or more of these questions at least once in our lifetime. I think the majority of us have used time as an excuse to get out of things we are not personally motivated to do, even the ones God is calling us to do.
I was getting frustrated at myself, and in turn irritated at the kids, and even Josh, when I wouldn't get the things done in my day that I wanted to. I would have this same attitude when my time would be distracted away from my family, my role as a mother and wife and ministry worker, and instead my time would be spent elsewhere.
But where was that time being spent? It was kind of like that feeling at the end of the month when you can't figure out where the heck your paycheck has gone!
So, I started to keep a Time Journal. Over the past few weeks I have been logging my hours and recording my activities throughout the day. Just like when Josh and I started our financial budget. We simply started just recording where our money went. Every minute is allotted for, just like every penny was allotted for. The results in both cases were astonishing, embarrassing even!
Notice I'm not sharing my results, ha, but I will tell you that I have come to realize that I'm addicted to "doing". Doing anything that keeps me occupied. I find it hard to just sit and play, sit and read, sit and meditate. Down time has been my enemy, even that is what my end goal always is. I "do" so that I can just sit, but when the sitting time comes, I find something else to "do".
I feel like my time is just as much a blessing to me as the money that God has allowed us to have so I decided to give myself a "Time Budget". I'm not cutting myself off from cleaning, organizing, reading blogs, checking stats on the computer, etc., but I am limiting that time so that I can focus on the important things like brushing Barbie's hair with Areyna, writing secret clues for Zeke making faces at Micaiah and just being available to Josh.
Now, I definitely don't have it all down yet, like I said, I'm addicted to these time waisters, but I'm working on it. I have a plan...
So, where has YOUR time gone lately?
3 comments:
Great thought. Very interesting to me. Just like it hurts to see where you are spending your money, I'm not sure I want to see what I am doing with my time.
Wow, this sounds like I could have co-wrote this blog. The first part, not the actually doing-something-about-it-part. Actually, just today I cried about it, so, that's like, the very opposite of doing something about it. HA! Anyways, great insight, Tasha, and a great reminder of some practical ways that financial budget can overflow into other parts of our lives as well. Great blog post.
such a GREAT post - thanks for sharing!
I feel the SAME way so many times - what have I done with my day and I feel so guilty for not doing certain things, especially around the house. But I also feel like I put too much pressure on myself to be supermom sometimes.
Then there are the times when I've gone the entire day without spending time with God and I am totally embarrassed - how in the world did that happen? I mean, I had time to cut out my coupons and bake cookies but no quiet time? ......something I'm tryin to work on for sure :)
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