Time Squared: Spending your most valuable resource.

It will seem like the longest six months of your life.  Photo-legaljuice.com

Time Squared: Spending your most valuable resource.

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” Diane Ackerman

The Shooks begin with the corniest of stories, but one that certainly hits the target.

After being told that he only had six months to live and that no experimental drug or treatment was available, the man asked his doctor, “isn’t there anything I can do?”

The doctor thought for a moment and replied, “Move to the country, buy a farm and raise pigs, and marry a widow with a dozen or more kids, and all of you live together in an undersized farm house.”

The man replies in disbelief, “And that will help me live longer?”

“No, but it will seem like the longest six months of your life!”

We all have experienced time flying by and time dragging on. If we are being honest with ourselves on this month long journey, we have probably also wasted more time that we can count.

How much more clearly would we prioritize how we spend or invest our time? Would we really put in all those extra hours at work in the hope of getting a promotion that we wouldn’t live to enjoy? Would we ever watch a television rerun again? Would we leave the house in the morning without thanking God for the very day in front of us?

 

The make it count moment from this chapter is: What consumes most of your time each day? Be as specific as possible. General terms such as work don’t give much insight into if what we are doing is meaningful. Consider if what we spend most of our time on satisfies us. Does it help others? Do you feel fulfilled?

 As we proceed in this day’s devotion, we are asked to consider the 80/20 rule. Some might call it Parkinson’s Law. You know it, even if by another name. Twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work. Twenty percent of your activities produce eighty percent of your results. Twenty percent of the people you spend time with, produce eighty percent of the joy and happiness in your life. 

The question to consider is who and what makes up that ever so productive twenty percent?

Many of you have read Stephen Covey’s, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Among other things, Covey examines a seventh habit called Sharpen the Saw. Among the activities in this most crucial habit are rest and recreation. We are created for more than existence, for more than work, for more than productivity—we are created to live a full and pleasing life in the sight of God. The concept of rest and recreation came from our Creator. In fact, he said to set aside a full day for rest each week. 

As we look at how we spend our time, we need to step back from the “effort in/product out’ mode into the live life to the full mode. We need to invest our time in living instead of spending it on whatever is next.

Here are the make it last challenges for today.

Go ahead and do the stubby pencil drill for today, or if you are up to the challenge, for the week. Jot down how you spend your time and what you produce—what you accomplish. When you are through, rate the cost effectiveness of your day or your week.

What was your biggest time waster?

What activity produced the biggest return?

Consider you life and associate it with a season. What would you call your current season? Is your life in the middle of a freezing winter? Perhaps a blossoming spring? Is it fall and time for harvest? Are you in the summer of your life? Have some fun here. Ponder this question and decide which season it is most like.