How do you manage your time?
The subject of “time management” is an important one if we are going to truly “leverage our lives for the glory of God”.
The title of this post is a little misleading…is it really “your” time? For Christians, our lives are not our own, we’ve been bought with a price. Our entire lives, everything we are and everything we do and everything we have is a matter of stewardship. Management. The question is not if we manage, but how we manage. Wisely? Or foolishly?
How do we know if we’re managing our time effectively? How do we know if we are wasting our time or living foolishly? Let us be clear, Scripture is not silent on this subject. Do we view procrastination, wasting time, laziness, foolishness in this area of our lives as a SIN issue? An area we need to work at in order to grow in grace? (Sounds paradoxical doesn’t it…)
I can remember right around the end of my high school days that I began realizing the need for a serious and disciplined approach to managing my time. That’s when I began to use a planner. Of course I managed my time before then…or I should say mismanaged my time. I was a 4th quarter performer. Procrastinate, crunch time, produce a ton in a flurry, get high marks (and a rush), crash…repeat.
For the record: That’s not good. It not only reflects immaturity, but at its core, it is sinful.
And sometimes I wonder - Have I grown up? Have I grown in grace in this area?
I can honestly say that in ways, I believe I have…but there is much…MUCH…room for improvement. And without a doubt there always will be. I’m committed to learning, examining, evaluating, applying and accomplishing more in this area of my life. And it starts with repentance and then requires effort and accountability.
As we begin to get serious about managing time well, our lives begin reflecting more wisdom. This is why Psalm 90:12 says “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
So, I’m curious, how do you manage your time? Do you have a “system” you use? What do you use to keep track of appointments/schedule (iphone, blackberry, planner, sticky notes, nothing)?
Aside from sleep and work or school, what do you do with the other 1/3 of your life? How do you decide what to do?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences. This is a crucial area for all of us, but youth in particular.
Tags: time management
February 27th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Wow! that is so crazy… Lately I have really been feeling god tell me to stop “letting time pass”… It’s so weird, I’ve always had an excuse that I’m too tired or I already have done enough in the day, but the spiritual battle is twenty-four seven. I can’t just take time off. God has really been convicting me of that and I’ve been praying for him to help me fight the urge to be lazy in free time, and he has. I’ve lost the desire to watch television or do any of the things that are “time wasters”. It’s funny to see where I’ve come, it might not be a big deal to any of you but, my sister holly and I used to watch American Idol EVERY NIGHT it was on last year. I mean we didn’t even miss Wednesdays…(youth group… we would record it) But ever since Holly went to RockSolid and I truly decided to give my life to god and stop being a hypocritical Christian, we don’t have any desire to watch it anymore… Our lives have changed from, “We have nothing to do, so lets just waste time (doing nothing)” to “look at this opportunity God has given us where we have time to talk, lets talk about something biblical with each other or mom and dad and see what God has taught us about it.”
February 27th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
sry… I accidentally pressed the “submit” button:) but yah, before I never realized how much extra time I had and now even if it’s for five minutes, my whole day can be changed by five extra minutes in God.
Thanks for the post, it was exciting to read…-luke
February 27th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Right on, Luke! I will pray the Lord continues to fuel the passion in you and spread the passion through you to “make the most of every opportunity”… Personal and corporate revival always bear the mark of hunger for God and trivial/trite things fall by the wayside. If we are bored with God - WE DON’T KNOW HIM! Where we find our enjoyment, how we “rest”, and how we “entertain” ourselves are important matters of our spiritual well-being and growth.
February 27th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Ah time management….I’ve always been relatively good at this in a wordly sense.
Over the last few years God has shown me that time management isn’t enough; it’s got to be BIBLICAL/HOLY time magagement. I may spend the majority of my time doing “good” things, but if I don’t do those good things for God and resolve to spend personal time with Him then I’m actually wasting ALL of my time.
With all this in mind- what do I do??
Well, I have a basic schedule that I try to stick to. There are God times, meal times, work times, school times, serve times, sleep times, personal care times, etc. set up for each day.
The key for me is to discpline myself to make sure the important things of each day get done while remaining flexible with the rest so that I can be available for the needs of others.
LUKE-
Way to go! I just finished reading C.J. Mahaney’s “Cross Centered Life” and was feeling convicted about making sure that my “free time” isn’t spent doing “nothing”. It’s not uncommon for 9 or 10 o’clock to roll around and I’m ready to unload in nonthinking activities (like watching movies). I realized how dumb that is, it’s only that way because I have conditioned myself to expect that time. Granted, watching a movie every now and then isn’t wrong but being a “movie gluton”…ya, that’s a problem!
I’ve decided to work towards spending little to no time on those wasters and begin using that time to pour into others, pray, etc.
You probably didn’t mean to challenge us - but you challenged me!
~Victoria
February 27th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Thanks Victoria…good stuff!
March 1st, 2009 at 8:44 pm
as i read the other comments posted here, they are SO encouraging. a while ago i felt convicted that i have all of two years left in high school…yet if i were to leave right now, would anybody know i was missing. and sadly, the answer is probably no. i have had this intense desire to honor God fully with my last two years in high school, so that he can use me to impact others through this time. the comments posted here really gave me some wonderful ideas. thanks guys!
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I’m just OK at time management. I think that even though I manage my time, I’m not performing at the production possibility frontier, and that can be frustrating because there is so much that can be done in a day! I am hugely thankful for my iPhone, I set that thing to go off for every appointment, birthday, and to-do that I possibly can; and its amazing how much I can forget about without that thing ringing me! But ultimately, I think when it comes to spiritual time management, there are two things that are most important. The best time to spend time with the Lord is when you’re at your best, and having a “prayer closet” or somewhere secluded to go is imperative. The second is routine, making things a habit and having the discipline to make it so, is huge.
Those are the things I say to myself every morning in the mirror!
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Great stuff, Ratch…
March 5th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Thus far, I see some pretty strong, Biblical evidence in support of getting an iphone…
Well, Adam, you’ve told me I should be the worst sinner I know, and it is true for time management, as well as most every other sin. I just ended a pointless 3 minute online game (the incredibly absurd and pointless content of which I shall refrain from specifying), and was about to head to bed, but searched your blog before doing so. And now that the Holy Spirit has nudged me onto rsgeneration, it won’t let me sleep till there’s a thorough reexamination-repentance-resolution-restoration session completed.
I completely agree with Victoria’s statement concerning the 9,10 o Clock time that rolls around and presents itself to us to be wasted, free of charge. It has become the American Teenager’s right to waste a certain amount of time daily: relaxation, chillaxation, unwinding-call it whatever. This is a mold I find myself slipping into all the time. It’s a very hard one to break.
In the post, Adam talked about his procrastination. I am confident I beat him too. Freshman year it was absurd, but senior year, it still happens, the clock rolls past midnight, and my pen’s still rolling across paper. There’s a certain debonaire quality of being fashionably late–of having better things to do. I like that debonaire–or rather, I liked that debonaire. When you go to the root of it, like Adam said it can be treated as nothing less than sloth, on of the seven, highlighted, deadly sins. It truly takes courage to overcome sloth and fight the good fight, but I believe the first step is removing the cool from procrastination and staring at its unadulterated face clearly. Only then can we expel it from the temple that is our body.
As I thought hitting submit right there, I scanned the posts again, and Mr. Whitehouse’s post asked me, “Will people miss you?”, and I naturally answered myself, “why yes, silly boy, you are the life of conversations all across campus”. And to such to arrogance came quickly the conviction, “but what kinds of conversations are these? Who’s glorified? What do you walk away remembering?” And I answered my conscience that I remember laughter and the girls smiling and the men and I exchanging nods and a couple awkward sentences which brought amusement to the lunch table. There was nothing to glorify God there except a couple hypothetical questions about the church that we’ll be debating in a couple weeks.
The resolve from the rambling being, we don’t just waste time in front of our computers and our TVs. Time misused is wasted; is to be counted as lost or worse. Like it is with most great things in the world, neutral time does not exist; there is a delicate balance, a fine line to walk in order to achieve productivity, on one side, you overextend and burn out, damaging yourselves and those who depend on you; on the other side, you are gluttonous in desire and consumption of leisure, doing nothing.
Thank you, Adam, Luke, Victoria, Tyler, Ratch. You are all used by God and have helped me immensely.
March 5th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Alessandro - praise the Lord…good reflections. Thanks for sharing!