“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise…” Ephesians 5:15 NIV
Sometimes, 24 hours never seems enough to get work done. With looming deadlines and goals to achieve, we start to indirectly wish that the sun would stand still just so we can complete the tasks ahead and feel accomplished. Sometimes as nighttime approaches and other responsibilities call for my attention, I can get agitated because there’s still work to do. But I’ve realised that it’s all just deception.
We deceive ourselves into thinking we can do five hundred tasks in a day. We deceive ourselves that 24 hours isn’t enough, yet distractions are entertained. We deceive ourselves into doing busy work while the real work that gets results is sidelined because it’s boring. We deceive ourselves with elaborate plans and strategies when all that’s needed was just one small step, which we would have known if only we just prayed. Deception everywhere!
Eventually, time gets used wrongly and what’s left of it looks like gold, so we enter scavenger mode. How then can we redeem time?
1. Set time aside to meditate
Having a few minutes to an hour of just being still and allowing divine inspiration to flow through you can be the hack you need for an easy day. A clear head won’t work out of confusion.
2. Have a to-do list for ALL tasks
This includes insignificant ones. I once did a training on creating to-do lists and mentioned that house chores shouldn’t be on your daily to-do list. I need to retake that training because now I have tasks like “Pick my daughter from school” on my list. I dare not ignore it. Even a visit to the bathroom takes time, so add it.
3. You don’t have to finish it all
If you made a mistake creating a monster to-do list, then know that you must be a monster to finish it. If you’re not one, then you can’t. Sometimes life happens and my attention gets diverted. At the end of such days, my to-do list is usually still long. I have now come to learn how to sleep even with unfinished tasks, after dealing with urgent tasks by either requesting an extension or just moving them forward. I then wake up the next day with an acute focus on what’s undone.
There are periods where a radical imbalance is the only way to get things done and you just must finish that project in record time. But if that’s the norm daily, then understand that anything done in excess never leads to positive results. Be wise.
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