As you all know, I’ve been reading this book called 168 hours: You have more time than you think, and I’ve been making practical baby steps toward my journey of living a more balanced and more abundant life.
One person mentioned in the book was Theresa Daytner, owner of Daytner Construction Group, a seven figure revenue company whose twelve-person payroll she is personally responsible for meeting, AND a mom of six. Not only that, she manages to sleep at least 7 hours a night, coaches soccer, is planning her 21 yr old daughter’s wedding, all while growing her business, and somehow she manages to fit in daytime hikes and Jodi Picoult novels.
Seriously?! I could barely work and wedding plan at the same time. I would die if you threw some kids in the mix. I don’t know about you, but I find that incredibly fascinating that this woman is able to do so much with the same 168 hours that we all have. The more I read, though, the more I realized it’s something that’s actually achievable for everyone, even myself.
Now here’s the breakdown:
56 hours of sleep if you want to sleep 8 hours a night
50 hours of work a week if that’s what you desire
168-106 = 62 hours
62 hours filled up with only the things that deserve to be there. Every minute of that is a choice. People like Daytner don’t say ‘I don’t have time to do X,Y, Z’. Instead, they say, ‘I won’t do X, Y , or Z because it’s not a priority’.
In addition to this book, I’ve been listening to a sermon series by Andy Stanley called TIME of your life, which Hsiao sent to me. Thank you, Hsiao! From which I learned: Priority determines the capacity of your time. Just look at the illustration below:
Sadly, for many – me included, the mass of small pebbles represent facebook. When the small pebbles go in first, you can see that not everything fits into the jar = your time. However, when you put in the big rocks (the non-negotiables/the what and who is most important to you), somehow you can manage to fit it all in. That’s pretty fascinating too.
Relationships make up some of my big rocks, and because I know that busyness can destroy the intimacy of relationships, it’s important to guard my time and make sure I make (not have) the time to nurture the relationships that are important to me. Fitting the pieces together takes some work. And I’m not gonna lie, the process of making this lifestyle change can be rather painful. Sometimes it means cutting out or cutting down on certain habits that neither bring meaning or pleasure to your life, which is different for each one of us.
What are your Big Rocks? Mine:
- nurturing my relationship with God
- nurturing my relationship with family – which involves date nights.
- nurturing my relationship with community & friends
- nurturing my business
- nurturing self - exercise, reading books, etc
What are some of the pebbles that need to go in your life? Mine:
- Facebook/googlereader. I’m limiting myself to 1 hour a day. 30 minutes at the beginning and 30 at the end of my work day. I realize it’s important to keep updated with people and answer messages, but at the same time I can’t live on there.
- TV/youtube/hulu, which a lot of times results from fb newsfeeds. One thing always leads to another time-waster. I’m limiting myself to glee and big bang theory, because those two shows certainly do bring me pleasure. :)
Here’s Part 1 of the journey if you’re interested: What would you do with 15 more mins of your day? Thoughts?
