I have a good friend who wakes up every morning and says, "Let me see what the day will bring". Anytime I ask her to share her plans for the day or the next day, this is always her response. You mean to tell me that there are people who wake up every day with no plan? You mean to tell me that unless there is a doctor's appointment, or an occasional oil change scheduled that you have nothing planned for the day? Say it isn't so! And please tell me that this is not your testimony. No plan for the day basically means that you have no working plan for your future or your life. You may have some dreams and wishes, but how in the world will you turn the desires of your heart and mind into lived realities without a plan on how to achieve them?
In a previous post, I explained how time moves swiftly and how we will miss out on living our God given dreams if we do not prepare for it. James 4:14 reminds us how short life is. "Your life is like a mist {vapor: puff of smoke}. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away." For some reason, we take time for granted; always believing that time will always be here for us. The problem with this thinking is that time will always be here, but we will not!
There have been several times during prayer when God has warned me about the importance of maximizing the time that He has given me. It is quite insulting to God for us to keep putting off things that He wants us to do with the idea that we will have time to do it later. Anyone who lives from day to day knows that anything can happen in a moment's time that can change the whole trajectory of an entire week! How many times have you put off something that you could have done today for the next day, only to find that the next day came with a grocery list of unforeseen tasks that took precedence over the things you procrastinated on the day before? Now, the thing that you should have done can't get done. And when things are left undone, stress is invited into our lives. That stress will soon be compounded with regret because not only are you facing unfavorable consequences behind your poor time management, but you also reflect back on the days before when the time was plenteous, and you blew it on nothing. We must stop fooling ourselves with the matter of time. The biggest lie people repeat to themselves daily is: I HAVE TIME. Yes, you do have time, but it is moving. The time you have now, you will not have tomorrow.
If we didn't learn anything else this decade, we should have grasped the concept of how rapidly time flies and things change. In the course of 24 hours, the world was completely shut down due to covid. Many things that we were planning to do were put off indefinitely. That's the way life works. You have to navigate your time for your advantage and one of the best ways to keep a productivity system that saves you time. Below are some general tips to get us started on a productivity system.
Make a list of everything that you do. EVERYTHING! I once had a prophecy given to me about managing time and the strategy was simple: write everything down.
Set some personal goals for yourself to include where you would like to see yourself within the next few years. This is important because your goals are an extension of your dreams. What is the point of living life with a to-do list of things that you must spend your time and energy doing if they don't include what will make your life worth living? Knowing where you want to see and writing some goals allows you to integrate the things you need to see this happen into the daily routine. Not only will you be getting life's mundane tasks done, but you will also be working on your better future.
Take inventory on where your time is going right now. What are some of the things that take up your time? For me, it's talking. One of the things I love to do is share with others in conversation verbally or messaging. What I have learned is just how much this love of mine robs me of my time. Becoming aware of the things that causes you to blow the time you need to be doing something more productive is the first defense in reclaiming your time.
4. Give tasks a time assignment. If you are going to reach certain goals, you have to become very intentional about the way you spend your time. The same way you have a home for each item in your house to keep the space organized and clean is the way you should have a day and time designated for tasks you must complete. Writing everything down is not enough when it comes to creating a routine. You must map out blocks of time in your schedule.
What makes a dream routine a dream routine is the fact that you have incorporated things that you must do in order to achieve your dreams into your daily schedule. Never let your life be full of tasks on a boring and meaningless list that has you ripping and running to everything for everyone else. Your daily life should always include things that allow you to move forward in reaching your desires and activities that allow you to pour back into your self-care cup. The routine allows you to target specific things during specific times. There's no way to become what you want or have what you want sitting around waiting on something good to happen. Don't be like my friend who is waiting to see what they day brings. You be the person who always brings something to the day.
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