ONE Secret to Living a Life of Peace…IT'S ABOUT TIME!
It doesn’t matter:
WHO you are or who you know!
WHAT your current state or condition in life is!
WHEN you were born!
WHERE you have come from or where you are going!
What does matter is:
HOW you spend it or manage it!
We ALL have this in common
…TIME!!!
Each of us has 1,440 minutes in a 24 hour day, 365 days of the year!
I heard a financial planner say that if I were to show him my check register, he would be able to know what matters most to me by seeing where I spend my money.
I believe the same is true with the way that we manage or steward the TIME that we have been given each day. My priorities, responsibilities, integrity, and ultimately my success in any of these areas are directly affected by the way that I manage my day to day schedule. Even more importantly, the way that I use my time directly impacts the PEOPLE in these areas of my life and reveals a lot about my character.
Once I got control in this area of my life, I found that I felt less overwhelmed, was more productive, forgot things less, and disappointed others less. I knew when I could say yes or no to opportunities! I stopped double-booking myself and feeling overwhelmed.
One secret to living a life of peace is to not only purchase a good day timer that fits your needs but to use the day timer. It does you or no one else any good if it remains on the shelf, in the car, or is used as a doorstop!
If there is something that is important enough to make it on my calendar, I make it a priority to SCHEDULE IT AND PROTECT IT! NO ONE or NOTHING gets on my calendar unless I allow it!
Here is how I put it to work:
Prioritize!
I start each day by transferring my (and my husband and kids) appointments or scheduled events for that day to the DATE page in the appropriate time slot (make sure to allow for travel to and from appointments).
In my priority list, I include God Time, dusting/vacuuming, laundry, lesson planning, meal planning and grocery list (so I know what I ammaking for my family to eat and what I need to get to make it).
I set aside scheduled times to return phone calls or messages, and block out times that are to be protected for family time or a date with my husband.
This basic discipline enables my priorities to line up with my scheduled commitments. My relationship with God and my family were the first things to be scheduled and protected, and they know they are valued above all else!
Pray!
After mapping out the day I start the day praying for myself, my husband, my children, and the people of my appointments, events, and phone calls.
Prayer is essential for God’s grace to lead me in each commitment! As I pray over the details of each day, including unknown opportunities, I become a better listener and more focused in conversations because I don't worry about the unknowns in my schedule! It opens the door to deeper and more meaningful relationships!
Practice!
I use my calendar daily!
I keep my calendar with me (remember no one or nothing gets on my calendar unless I allow it).
I compare my calendar weekly with my husband and children to make sure we are all aware what the family priorities and commitments are.
I make decisions that reflect my priorities and that helps to keep peace in my home! I am more productive, less forgetful, less stressed, and disappoint others less!
Just as it is true that CHAOS brings confusion, so order brings PEACE and that honors God!
Nearly thirty seven years ago I started on this journey when our oldest daughter was a baby and I decided to be a stay at home wife and mom. I began with just a plain spiral bound notebook and every morning I would write out a list of tasks that I wanted to accomplish for that day. As I completed tasks, I would check them off - it was very satisfying for me to see my progress! The culture of that day deemed stay at home wives and moms as women who would spend their day watching soap operas and eating bon-bons, I didn’t have time for that and I could prove it!
When we had our second child, and the schedule of our lives were getting busier, my husband bought me a Franklin Planner. It was far more organized and thought out than my spiral notebook. It enabled me, along with my task list, to include school lesson plans, phone calls that I needed to return, appointments that needed to be kept, a note section, and a month at a glance page to write in events.
Now that this has been my way of life for so long, I recently realized just how helpful this had been to me. Even with the detailed planner that I used there were still some important things missing that would have helped me tremendously. So, after much thought and a lot of failed attempts, I am now in the process of designing a planner to do just that and hope to have it available for the 2023 calendar year!
For me, one key secret to LIVING A LIFE OF PEACE is still the same as before, and now I want to share it with you:
TIME MANAGEMENT IS THAT SECRET!