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PROGRAM D-8110
What does God think about your busy life? As we complete this topic, I wonder if you have some bad habits that are making matters worse, causing you to be unnecessarily busy, eating up your time, and keeping you from doing all the good things God wants you to do. Here are some of those things that can exacerbate our busyness:
- Poor time management
If you’re not good at managing time, here are four things that will help you:
- Whatever you have to do today that you don’t want to do, do it first. Believe me, this will help you immensely. We all tend to put off what we don’t want to do, and then it piles up on us. You will be amazed at how it will free your mind and your energy to know that the thing you didn’t want to do today is already done!
- Eliminate as many interruptions as possible. If others interrupt you frequently, think of ways to minimize those interruptions. More importantly, stop interrupting yourself. Stay on task. Set goals for yourself, give yourself rewards for staying on task. . .whatever you can do to eliminate interruptions will save you much time.
- Finish one job before you start another, if possible. Jumping from one task to another always wastes your time. If you can finish one thing before starting another, you’ll eliminate a lot of “start-up time.”
- Always have a plan for your day in writing. Whether you use a to-do list, a calendar, your smart phone or computer, as long as you make a plan for your day, with some sense of priorities and time frames, you will see great improvement in the use of your time.
- Procrastination
A simple cure for procrastination is this: “Do it right and do it now!” If you have to do it, don’t put it off. Believe me, living by this simple principle will bring remarkable changes in your life.
- Negative attitudes
Get rid of them! Negativity drains your energy and slows you down. Paul wrote to the Philippians that we are to rejoice in the Lord always. That leaves no time for complaining, griping, or being negative.
How does God feel about your busyness? Let’s recap what I’ve shared on this topic:
- Are you busy for the right reasons?
- Has busyness become a point of pride for you?
- Do you set appropriate boundaries on your busyness?
- Do you stay busy to avoid confronting issues in your life that need to be changed?
- Is your busyness an obstacle to your spiritual growth?
I hope these thoughts will cause you to think twice about your own busy life.