I Need More Hours in the Day!
How many times have you uttered those words, wondering what happened to your day?
Well I’m getting married in less than 60 days, so my to do list is beyond long. I need to pack up my apartment in preparation for union, finishing planning the small details of my big day, write blog post, complete task for my new business, work my 9 hour day at work, workout, and meet my commitments to church. Typing this list made me exhausted all over again.
If you’re anything like me, there are moments in life where you just feel there aren’t enough hours in a day.
I’m praising God that the word stressed hasn’t creeped into my vocabulary. So how am I able to manage it all? Great question!
Method to the Madness
A few weeks ago, I found myself asking God to help me figure out my schedule, as I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. At this point, He reminded me I prayed the same prayer last year and had already created a schedule for my ideal day. Clearly I had strayed away from the plan and it was causing my frustration.
The Ideal Day
Last year after countless hours on Pinterest, I stumbled upon the bullet journal craze. While creating my many custom pages, I fell in love with the ideal day concept. The ideal day is a schedule that reflects how you would like to spend your time minus any surprises that may arise.
Using this concept I was able to establish a regular prayer time in the morning and carve out 2-3 hours in the evening to work on my many projects and goals. The beauty of the ideal day is it gives you a blue print to strive towards. And while each day may not be the perfect-ideal day, it gives me a great starting point and I can make adjustments based on that days needs.
Having this structure helps keep my stress to a minimum as I can easily see how much time I have to allocate towards different task. I’m so relieved that God pointed me back to this schedule.
How to Create Your Own Ideal Day
In order to create your ideal day, you need to take an inventory of how you currently spend your day. You can write this out in 30 minute or 1 hour blocks starting at time you wake up until you go to bed. Once you’ve mapped out your typical day (understanding for some there may be some variation), you can identify areas of waste for example excessive time being used on social media or watching tv.
After taking inventory of how you currently spend your day, you can start making adjustments to reflect how you would prefer to spend your time. This may include adjustments to your wake up time for prayer or the gym.
To further enhance my use of the ideal day, I work to incorporate my goals into the ideal day. For instance, I had a desire to increase the number of books I read; so during my commute time, I marked out that I would read during that 30 minutes on the train.
I hope that you will take the time this week to map out your ideal day.
“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Luke 18:28
Your Feedback
I would love to hear from you. Let me know in the comments below if this post was helpful. If so, I’ll try to incorporate more practical post to help you balance your life with Christ.
This was so timely for me. I have been struggling with how to fit everything into one day. This post has helped me to prioritize my day so that I do not get overwhelmed with all that I have going on. Thank you so much, and congrats on your big day, business and all that God has in store for you!
I’m happy this was helpful. Several people asked me questions around time management last week, so I knew others probably had the same question. And thank you, God is moving this year I’m just trying to keep up.
I’m going to try this! I’m definitely at the point of feeling like my schedule is out of control and then adding Jai’s in the mix…yikes. I believe mapping out the ideal day concept, will help me feel less overwhelmed, keep me on task, and be more productive. Thank you!
When you add another person’s needs in the mix, life can definitely get more complex. I’m excited to know you’ll try the sheet. I have two ideal days and I try to make one of them work depending on my life at the moment. But also know if the ideal day flies out the window dust it off and try again. It takes time to establish new habits and routines.
Why would I balance life with christ, why not balance life on my own
We should balance life with Christ because the troubles of life can be heavy and weigh us down. But, Jesus promises his yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matthew 11:30), meaning He will carry most of the load. Doing life with Christ doesn’t erase the burden or responsibility of life but it definitely makes it lighter. Doing life on your own requires you to do all the work.
God also says comes to me all that are heavy burden (stressed out) and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).
Balancing (doing) life with Christ, relying on Christ, gives you wisdom, direction, and peace you can’t find anywhere else.