It's NOT Just About Time; It's About Life!

I recently followed #OurDayGodsWay Twitter posts, which offered the following helpful tips.By way of disclaimer, I'm working on these; I've not yet experienced mastery.

#1. God begins the day.  First things first. We need to fellowship with God at the beginning of the day and let Him dictate the agenda for our remaining wakeful hours of time. By starting our day with God, it’s likely we’ll continue to enjoy Him throughout the day. When I spend time with Jesus first thing in the morning, I don’t have that “I’ve got to hurry up with my Bible reading so I can….” feeling. Sharing intimacy with Him sets the tone for my day. I’m more likely to be singing than screaming! When God is not first in my day, He’s likely not center of my world. Therefore, I can clutter up my time with things that are meaningless and unproductive, and I can become easily frustrated. I’ve always said that life is like a paper plate. If it’s soggy and folded in half, then we’ve loaded it up ourselves. God’s agenda is perfectly proportioned to our time. In fact, I have found that I actually accomplish more after spending unhurried time with God.

Tip/Tidbit: @LaDistrictWomen suggests the following: set the clock 10 minutes early and spend those minutes with God. Then, set your phone timer to go off throughout the day as a reminder to keep God #1. Take a moment to connect with Him at each interval.

#2. Put the big rocks in first. Doing the things that are most important, the things that are most unpleasant, and the things that are time consuming can actually free up our time for more enjoyable things. I find that when I deal with the things stressing me, I can actually do a better job on the tasks I need or want to do. For example, if I have writing projects I need to work on, but I also need to deal with a marketing issue, I want to procrastinate on marketing because it is the part of the industry I dislike. But on those rare occasions that I do go ahead and take care of the mechanics of business, then my creative juices flow more easily and I get more accomplished in the time allotted for writing. 

Tip/Tidbit: make a list of the things you need to do but keep putting off. Tackle one of those projects today!

#3. No multitasking.  What!!!???  I used to be under the impression that I most closely resembled Wonder Woman when I was multitasking. I still tend to feel gratified if I get a lot done in a little bit of time. However, statistics show we aren’t truly giving attention to what or who is at hand if we’re doing a juggling act.  My son recently shared a funny video clip about this topic. A person whose was supposedly able to multitask was asked to identify certain objects during an interview. The short version is that when he was distracted, he missed those objects even though they were presented in an incredibly obvious way. We miss meaningful moments with family, delights of nature, and God-speak whispers when our minutes are cluttered.

Tip/Tidbit: Use your minutes wisely. Practice mindfulness (truly paying attention to things and people around you) This is one I will definitely have to work on....sigh....

#4. Break the BUSY habit. So many times in God’s word, the Lord tells us to be still or to stand still or to rest… yet we are usually set on spin cycle, whirling frantically through life. We can get addicted to the adrenaline rush of busy. I am a task-driven person, so this is a real pitfall for me. Unless someone is my “task” (a person I need to visit in the hospital, etc..) it’s hard for me to sit down and be simply BE, but when I make myself SIT!! and truly enjoy the people in my life, I feel so enriched, and “my people” respond positively as well. It’s much easier to navigate through differences with others when good, meaningful and fun moments have been shared. In addition, when I give myself permission to bask in a moment rather than requiring myself to accomplish something, I experience long-term benefits. Those moments of stillness can be a fueling station to replenish me physically, spiritually, and emotionally.  I admit I struggle with this and have, in fact found "relaxing" stressful (So much to do!! So little time!  Why sit?) The result? Burnout. Frustration. Meltdowns. A NON-abundant life. Not the life God intended. Doing REST God's way is part of doing LIFE God's way. 

Tip/Tidbit: Evaluate your agenda. Are you too busy to “BE”? If so, make time for doing nothing but sitting in the quiet with God. I've actually enjoyed a cool breeze and the flight of humming birds this morning, and the peaceful result is incredibly refreshing. Hey! This may become habit-forming!

#5 No deathbed regrets.  Too often there are things people wish they’d done but ran out of life to do. Though bucket lists are common, most often it’s not an incomplete bucket list that causes remorse when someone faces debilitation or pending death. Regrets most often involve failed relationships or lack of spiritual pursuit. Sometimes they lie in fulfilling a purpose or calling. We’ve heard the phrase, “Live life intentional,” and it’s so important that we do. If we don’t make time for the people in our lives and the things that are important, then time can be wasted on the non-essential. Instead of fulfilling a destiny, we devote our time to meaningless pursuits and become entrapped with the mundane. If we don’t purpose to stay connected with God and with people, it's likely we will find ourselves with more distance than we'd like between us and them. If we don't make the time for that heart-yearning, it's likely we'll accomplish what we feel like life demands rather than what our true being would like to be or to do. It's not always about getting the perfect results. It's more about knowing we made the effort. 

Tip/Tidbit: What are your values? Are you living them? Who is important to you? Are you connecting with them?  What do you want to accomplish in life? Are you setting goals to make that happen? Oh…and about that bucket list…Is there something you’d really like to mark a check beside? Get started today living the life you were meant to live.

***To view the these tips in the format that I read them, visit @LaDistrictWomen or @EatThisBook on Twitter. Tweets include pertinent Scripture passages, additional tips, and relevant resources.