When I talk about 3 ways to make time, I am not talking about sexual encounters or getting to a destination quicker. I’m talking about dealing with the pressure of feeling like you need more time.
We often talk about needing to make time for things like our marriage, our kids, our friends, our hobbies, our health, our (fill in the blank.)
There are several reasons why we often feel we don’t have enough time to do what we need to do…
- We get distracted to easily and too often. Like Dug, the somewhat ADHD dog in the Pixar movie “Up,” we see squirrels that easy distract us from what we need to be doing.
- We get bored and look for distractions. We go looking for squirrels because what we’re doing isn’t something we find enjoyable or cut out for.
- We have trouble setting priorities. Someone once said, “When everything’s a priority, then nothing’s a priority.” If you don’t prioritize what needs to be done, you spend too much time on the less important things and not enough time on the important things.
- We don’t set and protect boundaries. We need to set boundaries on things like: how much TV we watch, how much we’re on Facebook, when we will go to bed and get up, etc. You’ll be surprised how much time you can find by setting clearer boundaries.
- We put a bigger premium on relaxing. I know…someone out there is saying, “Life’s too short. Shouldn’t we be more relaxed about life? We don’t want to become too obsessive about this.” I would agree to a point. But if you’re struggling to get important things done and you find your stress level rising because of it, then “taking it easy” isn’t making it easy on you.
How do you change this? I’m not going to give you steps to better time management. There are plenty of tools and resources to help you with that.
What I want to do is give you 3 ways to make time. I know people say you can’t “make” time, but I disagree. There’s at least 3 ways to make time. You can…
- Make time precious. We don’t like to think about it, but we only have a finite number of years, months, days, hours, and minutes. Once it’s gone, that’s it. On top of that, we don’t know how many years, months, days, hours and minutes we have. Our time could last till we’re old and gray, or it could be over tomorrow. Time here is like water in the dessert. It’s limited. So we need to make time precious.
- Make time count. Because our time is limited, we can’t afford to waste it on lesser things. There will never be enough time to do everything, but there will always be enough time to do the important things. You can make time count by making sure the important things are at the top of your to do list.
- Make time last. Some of you are saying, “Wait a minute. You just said our time is limited. There are only so many hours in a day. How can we make time last?” You make time last by doing things that will have lasting impact and live beyond you. I’m not talking about earning a Nobel Prize or curing cancer. I’m talking about using your words, your actions, your love, and your example to making a difference in the lives of others. If you want to make a seed last, you invest it in the soil and it produces more seeds that live on. If you want to make time last, invest it in the soil of people and it will produce seeds that live on past you. (For more on this, check out my post on Good Funeral Stories.)
Time is our most valuable commodity. So don’t let chasing squirrels keep you from making time!
But let’s take this to another level…
In the Scripture, God has much to say about making time. It makes sense that a God who’s eternal would know a little something about time. Amazingly, God also speaks to making time precious, making time count and making time last. Check out the Scripture below.
- Make time precious. (Psalm 90:12) – “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
- Make time count. (Eph. 5:16) – “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”
- Make the time last. (Prov. 13:22) – “A good life gets passed on to the grandchildren…”
Finally, when you’re making time, don’t forget to make time for God. (Ps. 5:3)
Leave a comment and tell us about the ways you’ve found to make time. (We all need the help.)
Copyright © 2014 Bret Legg