How Do You Decide How to Spend Your Time?

I’ve heard it said before that time is the great equalizer. We all make or have different amounts of money. We all have different gifts, talents or abilities. We all come from different backgrounds and live in different family dynamics. But… we all have 168 hours every week and 24 hours per day.

We have no shortage of demands on our time. Opportunities at church, sports for kids, activities in marriage and more than enough to do in our jobs. We all want more time but we cannot create or find it.

In addition, tyranny of the urgent strikes and we become overwhelmed with commitments we made and new opportunities in front of us. How can we best discern how to spend our time and make decisions?

A few weeks ago, some friends and I took some time to develop a decision-making template/grid to help us discern how to best utilize our 24 hours per day and 168 hours per week. For someone like me who struggles with saying “yes" to everything and not wanting to let anyone down, I needed this exercise to help me figure out how to best steward my time and best lead at home and in my job.

So how do you determine how to spend your time?

Much has been written on this topic (I’ll list a few resources below). What I want to do in these brief words is help give you a process for making decisions in the future.

Why is this a big deal? I am tired of making the same mistakes over and over in my life. Rather, I want to say “no" to people-pleasing and overcrowded schedules and instead say “yes" to stewarding my time and schedule well. I want to choose intimacy with God and leadership of my family over my insecurity of not pleasing others. I will either choose to follow the world’s plan for my time or the Lord’s plan for my schedule and calendar.

Here is the process of how I developed my decision making template.

1. List out all of my current commitments in the mornings, evenings and weekends.

   • What are my ongoing/recurring commitments?

   • What are my upcoming, non-recurring commitments/opportunities?

2. Ask yourself:

   • What do I need to re-process in my current schedule/responsibilities?

   • Without backing out of a commitment, is there anything I can stop now?

   • What future opportunities do I need to say “no" to?

   • What are my real motivations for saying “yes” to an opportunity? Am I choosing to please man or please God? (Galatians 1:10).

3. Ask yourself and write out:

   • Who/What are the most important people/things in my life?

   • Read Matthew 22:37-39. How can I best love God and love others? Who are the most important others in my life?

   • Read Matthew 6:33-34. How can I choose to seek first His kingdom and righteousness?

4. If I add something new, where will I borrow/steal time from?

5. If I add something to my schedule, will I just show up and check the box? Or will I work wholeheartedly? (1 Corinthians 10:31).

6. Discuss with your family, community and wise others in your life. What are the most important things in my life? Ask your community/family what changes they think you need to make.

Here is an example of what I came up with. My job is to:

• Love the Lord - Matthew 22:37-39

• Love my wife - Ephesians 5:21-33

• Love my kids - Deuteronomy 6:4-9

• Disciple others - 2 Tim 2:2

• Live in authentic community - Hebrews 10:24-25, Prov 27:17

• Work in my job with excellence - 1 Timothy 5:8, Colossians 3:23

• Honor God with my body (eat, exercise, sleep) - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

• Be a good neighbor, share my faith - Luke 10:25-37

• Nourish my soul (i.e. reading, writing, play, watching football)

If an opportunity falls within these parameters above, then I will consider the opportunity. If it does not, I will be much quicker to decline.

I am so grateful for wise people in my life who help me process my schedule and the decisions we make as a family. I run every time commitment by my community group. I don’t trust myself to make decisions about my schedule. I am also grateful for wise mentors like Kyle Thompson (one of the elders at Watermark Community Church). The decision making template is Kyle’s idea and much of the inspiration for this post comes from his model and example he sets before those he leads and shepherds at Watermark.

Resources:

Do More Better, by Tim Challies. My favorite book on productivity. This book provides a biblical and practical guide to productivity. You can read my review of the book here.

When Work and Family Collide, by Andy Stanley. One of my favorite books of all time. Check out the post I wrote on this book or you can check out the book.

What’s Best Next by Matthew Perman - really helpful book (What’s Best Next) and a great website, chock full of resources.

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think -  by Laura Vanderham

Here is a PDF of my template. Look over if you’d like an example of what one looks like. This is very much a work in progress.