The summer that I was sixteen, I cleaned my room every day. Everything had to be in its proper place. That’s how I like things, but organization has always been the first thing to go when I get busy. That fall, I got a job have worked ever since. I also over-extended myself with various extracurricular activities and advanced classes. That became the pattern for me. I would add as much as I could possibly fit into my schedule. I wish someone had said to me, “Pick five things you care about. Then, focus on those things.” I needed limitations. I needed someone to tell me that I couldn’t do everything well. By trying to do it all, I was only doing mediocre at best.
Sometimes, life is just busy. There is so much to do and so many things that demand our attention. If we don’t keep a focus on the important things, they will quickly become neglected. I have been increasingly aware of this. My boyfriend Mark tells me to look at my week in terms of what I accomplished, and not at what I did. What concerns me most right now is that I when look back over the last few weeks, I’m not sure what I have accomplished. What have I been doing with my time?
There are only 10 weeks left to this year. I really want to start making a better use of my time now. Today, I pulled out my almost unused planner for this year. I bought it because I really liked the design with both monthly and daily pages along with lined and graphed pages for notes each month. Yet I have barely opened it all year. I was too busy to make a schedule, and yet life would have been much less hectic if I had planned better.
I know God would not have me be so neglectful of my time. I am going to spend my afternoon reflecting on how I am using my time throughout the week. I intend to commit my schedule to prayer, and to make preparations for a better week.