Time

I keep a bullet journal to manage my time. I am the mother of 4 and the manager of my very busy household. Even though my oldest 2 are in college and no longer living at home, I find that my days are just full and most days, if I get 2/3 of my scheduled tasks completed, I am pleased. Most days I struggle to do half. 

This pandemic has taken much away from us, but it has given us back some things. One of those things is time. This seems like a silly statement because the amount of time available has not changed. There are still 24 hours in a day, 365 days a year (or 366 for leaps). But now with so many things shut down or cancelled, many of us are finding ourselves with a lot of free time. 

I like using this circular stencil and color system for my scheduling because it lets me see where my time is going. Green shows the time I spend driving my kids to their activities and it takes up a lot of time! Light green shows time set aside for “spiritual” endeavors, like Bible study and writing this blog and I’ve only committed 30 minutes per day to it! 

Not shown in the schematics is the time that I waste. Now, if I actually documented that, it would probably take up more wedges than the green. I am easily distracted and my vice is the screen. I don’t watch TV or play video games but I love internet surfing, online shopping (though not necessarily buying), “researching” and playing games on my phone. A lot of the screen time is legitimate—I am really researching the best books for homeschooling and getting recipes and the like, but truth be told, when I am doing legitimate things, I get sidetracked by less legitimate distractions. 

With the pandemic, I thought I would have so much more time to get projects done, but sadly, I find myself with just more time to waste. I have to really grit my teeth and discipline myself to fill up my time with things that will bear fruit. Things that bear fruit: Bible study/reading; regular reading; writing—this blog or other things; praying; hanging out with my husband and kids. I am grateful that one of my hobbies is cooking because then I can kill two birds with one stone—household managing and hobby. :-) 

But anyway—I think that this pandemic has given us back some of the time we were either outright wasting or maybe using for things that don’t bear life giving fruit. I am learning to spend my time more wisely, and the only way to really do that is to ask God upon awakening to guide my time. 

May we all seek Him first and ask His counsel for our time.

“I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.”—Eccl 3:10-14

PS--please let me know if you are interested in bullet journaling! I'll be happy to show you my system and tools. And no, you do not have to do all this coloring and artwork. I do it as part of my creative outlet but as you can see, I really don't have any artistic talent so I use (and love) stencils. Also, if you're curious, June 23's wheel has a lot of white space because my husband was home and helped me with the driving that day!