FAMILY PREP #2: Time...

In

A teacher walked into a classroom and set a glass jar on the table. He silently placed 2-inch rocks in the jar until no more could fit. He asked the class if the jar was full and they agreed it was. He replied, “really,” and pulled out a pile of small pebbles, adding them to the jar, shaking it slightly until they fill the spaces between the rocks. He asked again, “Is the jar full?” They agreed. So next, he added a scoop of sand to the jar, filling the space between the pebbles and asking the question again. This time, the class was divided, some feeling that the jar was obviously full, but others were wary of another trick. So he grabbed a pitcher of water and filled the jar to the brim. He then said, “If this jar is your life, what does this experiment show you?” A bold student replied, “No matter how busy you think you are, you can always take on more.” “That is one view,” the teacher replied. Then he looked out at the class making eye contact with everyone, “The rocks represent the BIG things in your life – what you will value at the end of your life – your family, your partner, your health, fulfilling your hopes and dreams. The pebbles are the other things in your life that give it meaning, like your job, your house, your hobbies, your friendships. The sand and water represent the ‘small stuff’ that fills our time, like watching TV or running errands.” Looking out at the class again, he asked, “Can you see what would happen if I started with the sand or the pebbles?”

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In all five blog categories on this page you will be asked, what are your "rocks" or priorities. Where do you see the most important thing in your life? Not where do you currently spend your most time but what will make the most difference to your life and each family member's life. Figure out what that is and that is where the majority of your time should be.

One way to figure out how much time you should spend on you priorities, let's find out how much time you actually have:

Step 1 - In one week there are 7 days, each with 24 hours, (7x24) 168 hours in total. 52.5 hours on sleep (7.5 hours x 7 nights) (we will talk about sleep later) - 40/week on work and 5 hours of commuting (we will work on this later). This leaves you with 70.5 hours of "free time".

Step 2 - Now you really SHOULDN'T adjust your sleep time. As of right now you don't control your work time completely or your commute. What are your priorities in life?

A. Family - We may need to break this down a little more:

1. Spouse - After the kids go to bed, I want to spend 1 hour just me and my spouse.

2. Children - I want to be active in their lives and so spend 1 hour just on them.

3. Family Together - I could spend 2 hours a day just eating meals.

4. Saturday/Sunday - I want to spend about 5 hours more in addition to that above.

4. Total Family Time - Those above total to 4 hours a day x 7 = 28 hours + weekend days = 38 hours. You may cut it back but in total this seems fairly reasonable.

B. Eating/Hygiene - If you add eating to time with family that takes care of two birds with one stone. Between showers, bathroom trips, brushing teeth, etc, two hour a day should cut it. Especially if you don't bring a screen or book into the bathroom. Remember also that when you bring something into the bathroom, you will extend the time you are in the bathroom. The idea of two birds with one stone in the bathroom does not apply. Just get in and get out so you can spend your time more wisely. Total time needed = 14 hours.

C. Reading/Personal Development/Workout - Considering you are reading this blog, you must be interested in personal development (PD), which means you probably want to read, listen to podcasts, and other things to help make your life better. How much time each day would you like to spend on this? 1 hour a day normal time and then listen to podcasts during your commute? That means you only spent 1 hour of your available time on PD, the commute time is already counted into your schedule. This mean you spend 7 hours a week on PD. While this could be thought of as Personal Time (PT) its dedicated to this one thing.

D. Personal Time/Hobbies - If those above are your priorities then that leaves your with (70.5 hours of available time - 38 hours family time - 14 hours hygiene time - 7 hours on PD = which leaves you with 11.5 hours of on other things. Could you spend 1 hour a day on hobbies, or 7 hours on Saturday alone.

E. Miscellaneous Time - (Friendships/Television/Facebook) Considering you are down to your last 4.5 hours of the day and you should really use about 30 minutes to wake up each day, you may want to cut out the unnecessary time used in FB, Television, and other things that aren't important and spend it on those that make you happy and produce lasting friendships.

Now I am not promoting setting everything on a minute to minute schedule, but I am promoting taking time to look into the areas you put your most time. By understanding where your time goes, you can be more intentional in where you want to spend your most time. There is always time to get things done but you really need to see where you spend most of your time so that you can clean up the wasted time so you can be more intentional in your life.

ACTION ITEM:

1) Go through your schedule and ind out how you use your time. Find the wasted time and eliminate it. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. One side write down how you currently spend your time and on the other side write down how you want to spend your time.

2) Be more intentional in your life.