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Where Did My Time Go?

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Image from images.all-free-download.com

In a previous post I posed the question Where Did My Money Go? and realized a few days later that I could pose the same question about my time.

Time seems to sift through my fingers like the sands of, well, time.   If time is constant, but seems to fly by, and if time flies when you’re having fun, then logic would determine that I am having a lot of fun.  However, at the end of each week, I don’t necessarily find myself reflecting on what a fun week I had.  Most of the time I am trying to figure out:

  1. where the time went,
  2. what did I actually accomplish, and
  3. what did I not do that I ought to have done (like exercise or call my parents)

So what if we budgeted our time like we budget our finances?  We all get 60 secs per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, or 168 hours a week.

Sleep = 50 hours/wk on avg
Work = 50 hours/wk on avg
Eat     = 15 hours/wk on avg
Commute = 15 hours/wk on avg (including errands, etc.)
Exercise = 10 hours on avg (including travel time)

That’s 140 hours out of 168.  What do you do the other 28 hours?  A quick Google search turned up this news article discussing the 2012 Neilsen survey figures showing that the average adult watches about 34 hours of television per week.  Whoops! That’s more time that we had left…

So, if your typical week looks like this one your time is pretty much spent for the week.  Did you get done what you wanted to accomplish?  If you did, what, if anything did you give up to get it accomplished (lunch, tv, exercise, sleep)?  If you worked more than 50 hours this week, was it worth what you had to sacrifice doing elsewhere (lunch, tv, exercise, sleep)?

There are a lot of theories out there on how to be more productive, but the one I think is most valuable is the practice of setting specific time limits on different activities.  Time limits force you to focus and get things done, where without a specific time, we tend to procrastinate or stretch a task out to fill up the time we have – see this earlier post for a great quote.

I have started scheduling my day with this concept in mind – setting limited times to produce a blog post for instance.  It is my “Ship it” deadline ( a concept I learned from author/blogger Seth Godin).  Speaking of which, my deadline is up, so I hit publish.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

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Creating Your Personal Life Plan

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Creating a Personal Life Plan

Do you have a plan for your life?  Author and blogger Michael Hyatt has a life plan, and wrote a FREE eBook to share the process he uses to develop it.

Michael Hyatt suggests three reasons for why you need a life plan:

  1. It will give you clarity about where your life is headed.
  2. It will keep you in balance when things get crazy.
  3. It will give you peace of mind, knowing you are are addressing those aspects of your life that matter most.

You can read more about creating your life plan in Michael’s blog post and get your free copy of his eBook, Creating a Personal Life Plan, when you sign up for email updates from Michael’s blog.

Check it out.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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There is no Security

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“Remember the words of General Douglas MacArthur: ‘There is no security on this earth.  There is only opportunity.’  Empty your days of the search for security; fill them with a passion for service.  Empty your hours of the ambition for recognition; fill them with the aspiration for achievement.  Empty your moments of the need for entertainment; fill them with the quest for creativity.”

-William Arthur Word
(as quoted in John Maxwell’s “The Winning Attitude.”)

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Where Did My Money Go?

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Have you ever reached the end of the month and asked yourself where all your money went as you scramble to pay your rent or mortgage?  You know you’ve been working hard, you know your paychecks were deposited or the cash was in your hand and in your pocket when you were paid.  So where did it go, and why does the same thing seem to happen every month?

Sounds like you could use a budget.

 

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“A Budget is simply telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”
– John Maxwell

It’s Easier Than You Think…

The real problem with budgeting is that is rarely given sufficient priority.  Think about it.  You go to a job to work mostly because you need to eat and pay rent and perhaps be able to go out for coffee or a drink with friends (hopefully you enjoy it on it’s own as well – but that’s a topic for another post).

What if you couldn’t do any of these things without first putting together a budget?  Or, what if that special someone you were just dying to go out with required you to have a working budget in place before going on a date?

I think a lot more of us would be doing budgets.  It’s definitely easier than some of the effort we put in to get all the things listed above.

Budgets require basically the following information:

  1. Income
  2. Expenses

Told you it was easy.  Furthermore, YOU are the one who has the most control over each of these categories.  You can learn more, work hard, gain experience and thus increase your ability to earn income.  You can watch what you buy, put limits on your wants, and prioritize saving to decrease your expenses.

Once you have these two amounts totaled up, subtract your expenses from your income.  The goal is to hit Zero – where every dollar you make is given a purpose, or “spent on paper,” every month before you bring it home.

If you came up with a negative amount, you may need to decrease your expenses in the short term and work to increase your income in the long term.  Use an envelope system with cash to help limit spending on food or entertainment, for instance, or cut back on amenities like cable and underused or unnecessary phone or other services.  You can always get them back when you begin earning more.

If you came up with a positive amount, you need to tell this surplus money where to go.  Preferably this would go towards outstanding debt, an emergency fund, or if both of those things are taken care of, to savings for purchases, investments or retirement.  If you don’t do this up front, you’ll be wondering where it went at the end of the month.

…But It Takes Time

A quick Google search will tell you that the time to learn a new habit is about 3 weeks.  Budgets are generally done monthly, so it may take about 3 months to become a habit since repetition is a key factor in learning.  There are numerous resources on the web for help on the details of doing a budget, and I highly recommend the resources on Dave Ramsey’s website.  I’ve included a few specific links below to get you started.

“You will either learn to manage money or the lack of it will always manage you.”
-Dave Ramsey

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Pericles Quote

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“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.”

-Pericles

How does your attitude towards your work and your finances relate to this?  Are you seeking an engraved stone monument (that will gather moss and erode) or are you weaving into the lives of others to leave a legacy of influence that can change the world?

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A Chance for the Church

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My friend Ben Corey posted an interesting blog last week entitled, “Let the Government Shut Down Indefinitely (here’s your chance, Church).”  Ben challenges the Church to step up and show that it can provide for the poor, the widow, and the marginalized in our society, during a time when the government no longer can.  Check it out Ben’s blog here.

If those who attend church regularly actually gave 10% of their income, there would be somewhere around $48 billion more each year for the the church to use to impact the world (See Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don’t Give Away More Money by Christian Smith, et al. for more on this).

How awesome would that be?

 

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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Giving & Tithing

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Would you tell your landlord, utility company or mortgage lender that you’re only going to pay them if you have something left over in your budget?  Or would you tell your family that they only get to eat if there is something left over?

Of course you wouldn’t (I hope!).  But this is exactly what we tend to do when it comes to giving or tithing.

Giving and/or tithing (which means one-tenth) is an important part of any financial plan.  The problem is we tend to do it as an afterthought, with whatever might be left over.  The problem of doing it this way is that it robs us of any blessings that come from giving purposefully.

The prophet Malachi wrote the following to the Israelites while they were in exile and had not been giving a tithe to the Lord:

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.  You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.  Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.  Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.  Malachi 3:8-12

 

God tells us that purposeful giving or tithing will bring blessing!  In fact he says if we do this he will rebuke the devourer for us!  If we faithfully return to God a portion of what he has given us to manage,  He will bless us so that our needs are met as well as protect us from those who would steal from us.

Do I Have to Do a Tenth?

For now, the important thing is to start. With any amount.  What matters is that whatever you give, you give it willingly and joyfully and with thanksgiving.

Give whatever you decide is appropriate for you (praying about it doesn’t hurt, either!) and just start putting aside that amount to give every month as part of your monthly budget.   If it’s $10 or one tenth isn’t as important as the change you will feel in your heart and in your attitude towards the income you earn as a result of giving intentionally.

In time I encourage you to incrementally increase your giving at scheduled intervals, and test and see if God doesn’t provide what you need in order to do so.

 

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

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Photo by minthu courtesy of photovaco.com

There is an old nursery rhyme that  goes something like this:  “Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?  With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row.”  I’ll leave it to you to interpret what the actual meaning behind this rhyme is or was meant to be, as for now I am only intrigued by the the question, “How does your garden grow?”

This morning my pastor preached a sermon about the garden of Eden called “The Good Life: Phase 2,” explaining how God had created this incredible garden for Adam and Eve to tend to and enjoy.  Likewise, God has planted a garden for each of us to tend to and enjoy.  However, we too often find ourselves looking for contentment elsewhere.

The Well Nurtured Garden

Picture a well nurtured garden that you have seen.  This is easy for me, having grown up on a small farm, with parents who carefully tended their gardens; my dad tended the orchard and crops, while my mother maintained a stunning array of flower and herb gardens, which occasionally even drew newlyweds for photo opportunities.

There is growth, vibrancy, blossoming, potential, tranquility, beauty and love expressed in a well tended, nurtured garden.

The Neglected Garden

Now picture a neglected garden that you may have seen somewhere.  I have seen these as well, gardens left untended as generations passed away, gardens overgrown due to inattention by owners caught up in the busyness of life.  Weeds are everywhere, choking out the plants that formerly thrived, vines and shrubs and various grasses growing out of control everywhere in haphazard fashion, giving the garden a run-down look.

There is choking, anxiety, depression, unrest, ugliness and the pall of death expressed in a neglected, abandoned garden.

The Inner Garden

Now, pause and reflect on your own life, your inner self, and picture the garden planted in you.  How does your garden grow?  Does it grow more like the one nurtured or the one neglected?  The good news is that your actions right now, and each moment of your life can affect how your garden grows.  You can begin tending it and bring it back to life and vibrancy, or you can get lazy and begin to neglect it allowing it to fall into an ugly, weed infested mess.

Tending Your Garden

Even better news?  You aren’t meant to tend your garden on your own!  Our friends, family and community all feed into our garden, and most importantly, our Awesome God provides the living water and fertile soil we need to grow strong and be satisfied, which reminds me of a quote from John Piper: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him” (see John Piper, Desiring God).

Are you content with your garden?

Finally, learn to be content with and in your garden.  If you are always searching for a better garden somewhere else, who is left to look after yours?