Do You Have the Time?

Do you guys all know that object lesson involving rocks, sand, and a jar? Or I've also seen it done with marshmallows, sugar and a jar (yummier that way)? You know the one that's supposed to teach you the importance of prioritizing your time, and if you get the big stuff in the jar first, all the little stuff fits around it?

I hate that object lesson.

Because, unfortunately, time doesn't actually work that way. If I spend 22 minutes writing in my journal, I don't have those 22 minutes to watch a sitcom on Hulu. I can't go back and fill in the cracks of time when I was staring at my journal page deciding what to write with the sitcom. Or say I go to work for eight hours, and of those hours there are 22 minutes that I was doing something other than working. I can't compile those into a sitcom either. You get 24 hours and it passes you in a linear fashion, you don't get to go back an fill in the cracks.

I mention this, because I have not been able to do all the things that I want to do every day, and so I've been thinking about time management a lot lately. Here is a list of things that I would do every day in an ideal world.

• Work out for an hour
• Shower and dress 
• Sit down and eat three meals a day
• Go to work (well, this obviously would only be M-F)
• Write in my journal
• Seriously study the scriptures
• Spend quality time on my knees in prayer
• Visit with friends
• Read
• Watch a TV show
• Practice the piano
• Start practicing the viola again
• Clean my house for 5-15 minutes
• Call a family member
• Find an opportunity to serve someone 
• Sleep for eight hours

And that list doesn't even include all the things I would like to be engaged in that are not daily things, such as finding a guy, planning a menu and preparing food, budgeting and balancing the checkbook, attending Church and church activities, post entertaining things on this blog for your entertainment, and so on.

I've never been able to do all of the things on that list in a single day. Minutes slip by you while you're driving to and from places, they get lost in the walk from the car to the house and all of the coming home rituals (hang keys, take off shoes and coat, stash the purse, etc), they get used on other things like going to the bathroom. And even more than all the minutes that you spend transitioning between activities or whatever, there's the mental fatigue. I don't think I could be "on" enough to stay focused and actively engaged the entire 16 hours I'm awake.

So everything becomes a tradeoff. Do I practice the piano, or do I go to bed on time? Do I call a family member, or do I read a novel?

I think overall, I've figured things out and I lead a pretty balanced life. I look for opportunities to serve others, I schedule time with friends, I get to the gym, and I make sure that I get some down time. And I feel like I make sure that I'm getting the most important (to me) things done. But I can't help but be a little sad about all the things that I just don't have the time to be doing that I'd like to be doing (e.g. I would totally be a way better housekeeper if I didn't also have a full time job). 

So how do you do it? How do you decide which things are the Best Things and which are the Good Things that can get cut off the to do list when time runs out?

My Rating System

So I did a terrible job of recording what I read after about August last year, and that's a shame, since I have to be honest, I read so much sometimes that I often either can't remember what I've read at all or I can't remember many specifics about what I do remember reading, and occasionally, not very often, but occasionally, I can't remember how I felt about something I've read. Maybe some of you are like "Why bother reading if you can't remember anything about it" to whom I say "Do you remember every episode of every TV show or movie you've ever watched?" because reading is my TV time. Basically. I also watch TV and movies, but usually given a choice I'll read.

Anyway. It's a new year and that means that it's a great time to start over with things, and so I'm going to get back in the "record and review what you read" game. I decided that I wanted to be more systematic in how I rate my books, though because I feel like I'm kind of fickle in awarding stars on Goodreads, I don't want to be a fickle person. Therefore and herewith is my new rating rubric:

5 Stars

This is a book that I loved reading, that I'm still talking about, and that I will recommend to and/or buy for friends. Must be both well written and in some way profound.

4 Stars

This is a book that I enjoyed reading, that I may talk about, and that I will recommend. It is well written, but does not have a depth requirement.

3 Stars

This is a book that I liked reading and that I will endorse if you're already reading it, but will not actively recommend.

2 Stars

This is a book that I did not actively dislike reading, but would tell you not to bother reading.

1 Star

This is a book that have an active and specific dislike for.

And there you go.

New Year!

Here's the run down on how I have spent the first week of 2013.

Tuesday, 1 Jan: Rang in the new year by folding laundry and watching the new Star Trek movie, wake up yoga session, saw Life of Pi and had lunch with Reed, read for a bit and then had dinner and saw Les Miserables with Tim. Good day.

Wednesday, 2 Jan: Had my first real day at the free medical clinic I'm volunteering at. It's been a bit of a hassle trying to get everything in order, but I very much enjoyed finally starting to make a contribution.

Thursday, 3 Jan: Ballet. Love.

Friday, 4 Jan: Nothing. I know this is lame, but everything felt so busy all week that an evening of nothing was quite welcome.

Saturday, 5 Jan: Bought cruise tickets. I need to get out of the cold, but I'm trying to save my leave for the awesome UK trip Loo and I will be taking this summer, so a weekend cruise to the Bahamas seemed like an excellent choice. Super excited!

Sunday, 6 Jan: Obviously, today hasn't really happened yet, but I plan to spend it cooking up meals for the week and attending church (which doesn't start until 2pm. So late!)

Anyway, I've heard from a lot of people lately that they don't believe in New Years resolutions, and that's fine. I kind of love them though, with the caveat that I prefer to call them goals and not resolutions. I know that seems like a nitpicky thing, but I feel like goals better expresses what I mean. Anyway, I looked back on my resolutions for the last few years so see what my track record was, and I'm pleased to report that it's about 50%. My trend is meet one goal 100%, meet another goal about 50%, and pretty much just not meet a third goal. Which isn't bad, I think.

Last year I tried to do a yearly theme, and that pretty much just didn't work out for me at all. I was insufficiently mindful of the theme -- especially when my life started exploding around April/May -- and so it didn't really do me any good. I accomplished some good things that were related to the themes that I had settled on, e.g. I was probably the most consistent about gymming last year than I have ever been, but it wasn't because I was mindful of it.

So I've spent the last few weeks pondering and praying about how I wanted to approach 2013. I realized that I needed to think in terms of who I wanted to be along with thinking about what I wanted to do, and I've settled on three things that I want to do this year that will help me become the person I want to be.

1.) I want to be a person who communicates with God, so I will strive daily to pray mindfully.
2.) I want to be a person who recognizes and catalogs the blessings in her life, so I will journal daily.
3.) I want to be a good housekeeper, so I will spend at least 5 minutes a day cleaning my house.

There are other things I'm working on and doing, but those are the ones that I want to be most mindful of and the ones that I want to focus on all year. I feel like my life will definitely be enriched by meeting at least one of those 100%, as is my wont

Have you made goals for the new year? What are they?