Time Management

I'm sure I've written about this before, but as it continues to be a problem for me, I continue to try to figure out how to address it.  I am a huge procrastinator, and I am also a say yes to things even when I know that I shouldn't type person, which means that too often I'm stretched thin and feeling like I'm a loser.

At the beginning of the year, I started keeping track of my time.  I knew that I wasted a lot of time on Facebook, Pinterest, twitter, reading, etc., and I wanted to try to cut some of that out.  I kept this up for a while, but eventually got too busy to actually do it.  Then, last week, as part of an exercise for a workshop I attended, we were asked to try to estimate how much time our students spent driving, studying, working, in class, etc., and it made me conscientious of my own time once again.

We each have 168 hours a week.  I've been thinking that I need at least 8 hours of sleep a night... I really do feel better when I get enough sleep.  (I've also figured out that my best sleep comes from about 4 AM to about 10 AM, which has worked out great since I've been teaching evenings.  This may be an issue next semester when I go back to 8 AM classes...) So, 8 x 7 is 56, leaving me 112 hours to do all that needs to be done.  I'm scheduled to work 37.5 hours a week (that's figuring a 30 minute lunch), but I usually average at least 40 hours a week (and that is lowballing it.  I stay online a lot, and grade late into the night.  But we'll go with 40).  That's 72 hours left... to eat, read my Bible, walk (at least 30 minutes 5 days a week = 2.5 hours).  Church on Sunday and Wednesday... family time... and then there is all that time wasted. 

Anyway, I've tried compartmentalizing my time, and that just doesn't work.  I can say I'm spending so many hours grading care plans, when in reality, I may have my computer open and be checking out Facebook every couple of minutes.  I also started out the year saying, "I need an hour a day, plus Wed. and Sunday churchtime."  How dare I put my time with God in a box?  On a schedule?  What I realized today, as I walked, is that He numbers my days.  He owns my time.  I should eat, breathe, and sleep Him.  If I do this, everything I do will be to His glory.  When I make Him my focus, the other things demanding my time sort themselves out.  And if they don't, well, maybe it wasn't His will, after all.

Are you managing your time well?  Why not stop worrying about being a manager, and give your time to the Greatest Manager of all?