time

last year, I had the privilege of spending a couple weeks in Latvia as part of a 7-week missions outreach trip to Europe (2 weeks in Estonia, about 2 weeks in Latvia, 3 weeks in Norway).  we got to stay with this amazing family in Latvia and one of their daughters, Anda, was our contact and point person.  I love this girl.  she’s a ball of fire, with so much energy and passion to share the love of Jesus with people.  I remember one conversation with her, she was telling me how she had gone thru a phase where she hardly slept because she just had so much she wanted to do that she decided there wasn’t time to sleep.  she wanted to get the very most out of her days.  eventually she realized she needed to at least get the minimal amount of sleep to fully function. :)

I totally know what Anda was talking about now.  there is so much I want to do that I get up early and stay up as late as I can (which isn’t very late…because I get up early…).  I’ve decided I need a minimum of 6 hours of sleep to function, 7 to fully function.

I’m only working part-time right now, just enough to support myself while I’m doing this internship with Continuous Worship Ministries.  I am so blessed.  I get to work for my dad’s company back home in Florida by connecting remotely on the computer.  I set my own hours.  i. am. blessed.

I have this problem though.  for some reason, I have the hardest time getting 4 hours of work in each day (my goal is a 20-hour work week…I think I met that goal once or twice since starting this working-remotely thing in January).  I don’t know where my time goes!  seriously?  20 hours a week is NOTHING.  which has led to some math problems (yes, Dad, I’m doing math…be proud). 

there are 168 hours in a week.  let’s say I sleep 7 hours a night, for a total of 49 hours a week spent sleeping.  168-49=119.  so out of 119 hours of potential productivity time, how hard can be it be to squeeze out 20 hours of work?  that would leave me with 99 hours to do everything else.

99 is a lot.  it’s the # of sheep the Shepherd would leave behind to find 1 lost sheep (see Matthew 18:12).  it’s also the beginning of an incredibly long, annoying song (99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beeeer…oh you’re so singing in your head now, aren’t you?! :) ). 

all this to say, I have come to the realization that I have no idea where my time goes each day.  I had this realization about my money a few months ago, and so I started a budget.  and wow – was that eye-opening.  ok so someone might spend more $ on coffee and food than they do on gas each month…I’m just sayin’…this may or may not be true.

ok, the truth is, at any given moment, I can almost guarantee that if you walked in on me, I’d be eating something and/or drinking water, vitamin water, or coffee (probably decaf).  I actually have 3 different drinks sitting here at the computer with me… ok, confession time is OVER!

wow, ok – back on topic here.  keeping a budget for the 1st time in my life has really helped me see where my $ goes and that, in turn, has helped me be a better steward of it (still growing in that area).  so why not keep a budget of my time?

so.  for the next week, I am committing to keeping track of my time.  I’m talkin’, specific.  I want to know how much time I spend working.  how much time I spend sleeping.  how much time I spend doing ministry.  how much time I spend practicing guitar.  how much time I spend staring off into space (hey, it happens).  and yes, how much time I spend eating (aka in the kitchen).

it’s going to be annoying to track everything.  but I know it’ll be eye-opening.  and maybe I’ll be able to start finding the time that I feel like gets lost every day.

 

on a different note, today I was driving thru town with my window down.  and I nearly drove into the other lane because I was thoroughly thrown off by this moaning sound I heard as I drove past the “sale barn”.  the sale barn is where they sell livestock…I think.  and the moaning, I eventually realized after the noise was gone, was the cows.  I’m sorry.  I’ve spent my entire life living either in city suburbs and on an island.  “mooing cows” is NOT something I’m used to hearing out my car window.