Time

It is Friday morning, I am closing a week that has been sort of rough on me, and I am thinking about last Friday when the rough week started. I got a call Friday morning from my aunt, who had news to share that I was sure of as soon as I saw the caller ID. She called to inform my that my Granny had passed away that morning, something that we had been anticipating for a few weeks. I spent the past weekend with family I haven't seen in a very long time, and I had the pleasure of introducing them all to my daughter. We sat around talking about Granny's life, the difficult days leading up to her death, and strumming banjos and guitars and singing old southern hymns. It was a bitter-sweet time, and after her funeral on Tuesday I returned to work on Wednesday to get back into the swing on my daily to-dos.
One of those daily to-dos is reading the posts for the blogs I follow, a fairly recent one of those is Michael Nichols' Grow on Purpose, today his post was on time and life and what to do with the small amount of time we have, which just fit perfectly with where I am at right now.
We all have a point, I have reached this point many times in my life (and I am only 20), where we think about all of the things we have done so far with our life, failures as well as achievements, and we think that there is so much more we could be doing. Then we wonder HOW, how am I going to fit in an hour of exercise when I can hardly manage dinner most nights, how am I going to squeeze in a early morning devotional, when I hit the snooze button repeatedly most mornings, and the hows go on and on.
I am a very organized person, I love agendas, and I am an avid planner; sure I can be spontaneous when the moment calls for it, otherwise I am structured and planned out. I know how tough it can be to find extra time in your day, there is always something that I wish I could have worked on when I go to bed at night. It is in those times that I slow down, unwind, and remind myself that it isn't about what takes up my time during the day, but the reasons behind why I do the things I do.
This is why I review my agenda on a regular basis, to re-evaluate myself. When I can find the time in my day, I like to whip out one of my many notebooks and take some time to have a little heart to heart with myself, I ask myself some of these questions.
What are the things filling up my time? Why am I doing those things? Are the things I am doing productive? Is there anything I can cut out? Is there anything I would like to add to my schedule? Am I spending plenty of time with my loved ones? Am I doing anything just for fun? Do I have any off time to take care of errands or for down time? Do I have a back up plan, in case anything unexpected happens?
These questions, among other questions, are the things I like to think about when it comes to my time management. It is very important to make sure that you are being productive and taking care of the things that need to be taken care of, but it is also important to remember the people that matter in your life. Make sure you take time to enjoy your family, they are there for a reason. Take time to encourage the people around you, be passionate about something, take up a hobby (and make time to enjoy it!), relax, and learn to fall in love with things.
We all have a clock around us, at any minute the battery can go out, and our time can run out. Make sure that the time you spend, is time that means something to you. Forget about mundane living, I know that we all must work to pay the bills, put other before ourselves, and there are going to be rough patches, and down hill stumbles; but you must find the bright side, and learn to smile, because even if everything is going against you, you still have time.