Make the Most of your Time
If you want to have an effective life, you’ve got to learn how to manage your time. Ecclesiastes 8:6 says, “there is a time and a way for everything”
Many people go through life frustrated by time. Their calendars are full of activity, but they seem to be running out of time before they run out of week. The problem with your time is not the clock. The problem is not even time itself. The real issue rather is how you are using your time. Getting mad at the clock is like getting mad at your scale after you weigh in. It’s not the scale’s fault that you don’t like the number it gave. Like the scale, time is simply a measurement. So we must learn how to manage it better.
People often struggle with the questions: “How do I balance all that I've got going on at work with all that I’ve got going on at home and still find time to get involved at church?” Unfortunately, many people cut church out of their lives before they ever consider getting ahold of their time.
We all have the same amount of time – 168 hours a week. The only question is, “How am I investing it? Each moment is a moment we can never get back again. That’s why it’s critical we don’t waste time. We want to learn to invest it wisely so that we won’t be like the guy in Isaiah 49:4 who said, “my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose..” For some people, this is becoming their life verse!
So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Ephesians 5:15-17 (NLT)
Ephesians 5:15-17 offers three steps to understanding how to manage your time better:
1. Analyze Your Lifestyle
Verse 15: “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.”
Pay close attention to your schedule. Carefully evaluate it. Seriously consider how you live. Be on the lookout for time robbers. Don’t be in the dark. Don’t say, “I wonder where all my time went!” That’s unwise. People say, “I’d like to be involved in this particular ministry, but I just don’t have the time.” You have the same amount of time as everybody else. It’s just how you use it. So analyze your lifestyle.
In order to save time, you must first know how you lose it. Look for the leaks and figure out where it’s going. We need to look at our lives and realize that sometimes what we think is right is a big waste of time. If we look seriously at a lot of the things that we think are really good, we'll see they're just not worth much. Aristotle said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Sit down and make a time log: “How did I spend last week?” Or, over the next 7 days, keep a record of how you spend your hours. Look at them one at a time. Where does your time go? Just by keeping a record, you’ll use your time better. Whatever you record, you’ll manage better.
2. Maximize the Moment
Verse 16: “Make the most of every opportunity”
The Bible says we’re to take advantage of today by capitalizing on opportunities. Be alert to the possibilities each day brings. The best time to manage your time is right now – not tomorrow, not next week, not next year… NOW!!!
Vince Lombardi once said that many football games are often won in 10 or 12 crucial decisions. These choices make or break the game. When you utilize the present, you’ve analyzed it and you take advantage of the opportunities as they come up. You capitalize on those advantages.
How do you make the most of the present? Two things:
- Do it now. That’s the best time advice I can give you. Three little words: Do it now! Don’t procrastinate. If you had a bank account and I were to tell you that every morning someone was going to put in $86,400 into that bank account - you could spend it any way you wanted to, but at the end of that day, whatever money you had not spent in that account, you lost - do you think you’d try to spend it? Or do you think you’d let it go to waste? But guess what? You have 86,400 seconds every day! You’ve got to draw them out. You’ve got to take advantage of them. Utilize the present by doing it now. Sometimes I get stuff in the mail that says, “For a limited time only.” We should write that over a lot of possibilities in life, because they are for a limited time only.
- Eliminate time wasters. 1 Corinthians 10:23, “I may do anything, but everything is not useful or constructive.” Paul says, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial.” He’s saying that many things in life are not necessarily wrong. They’re just not necessary. You’ve got to eliminate the time wasters.
Time wasters tend to be unique to all of us. It's amazing how creative we get when we have a job to do that we don't want to do. We creatively put off things we really need to do by quickly getting a bunch of other stuff done.
3. Prioritize What’s Important
Verse 17: “Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”
When you talk about time management, you’ve got to do what God wants you to do. That’s the secret. Doing God’s will. I call it living out your “God idea.” You have just enough time to do God’s idea. If you settle on doing the “good idea” you’ll miss out on your God idea.
If you do not have enough time right now, it means one of several reasons:
1) You’re doing something God never intended for you to do.
2) You’re not doing what God intended you to do.
3) You’re doing the right thing in the wrong way.
You have a responsibility to live out God’s purposes in your life. So, live life on purpose. You DO have enough time if you use it appropriately. If you don’t have enough time to do everything you “need” to do, it probably means your wasting time in activity that doesn’t line up with your God idea, or you’re doing things God didn’t expect you to do at all.