Time Stealers: How to Make the Most of Your Days

Help!  What Happened to My Day?

Have you ever had one of those days when you get up, poised to make the most of your day and be super productive in all that you accomplish...only to find that before you know it, it's 5:30 p.m., you've washed and folded one load of laundry, checked Facebook, and you haven't even thought about making dinner let alone accomplished much for the day? (tell me I'm not the only one who's done that!).

Can I just let you know, it's not you!  You probably didn't set out to get distracted and sidetracked, but that is just what Satan intends for us so that he can keep us from completing things in our day that turn back to praise to God!

Last week we talked a little about some time stealers and how we seem to turn from our daily goals fairly easily.  With children, getting distracted is not difficult.  In our homeschool, I created a daily schedule so that we would know what subject to be working on at any given time during the day.  The problems would begin when I went to bed later than I expected to so I got up later.  That set our whole day behind!  Then I would have an unexpected errand that had to be run during our schooling time which got us further behind.  Next, we would find ourselves out and about during lunch time, so we settled for eating on the run and going to a fast food restaurant.  This of course put us even further behind in school and snowballed out of control as I found myself returning home just in time to start cooking dinner and having finished only a few things in school with my children.

Do you know that this isn't just a problem for homeschooling families but for a lot of people!  One thing sets off another which sets off another and so on.  We get sidetracked, distracted from our daily goals.  I used to fret about these things all the time, but for homeschoolers we can combat those times when we're out running around by pre-planning for them.  For example, I have a Galaxy Tablet now and have downloaded a variety of educational apps for the kids to work on while in the car.  It's a lot easier than bringing their books if we have to run errands.

Here are some ideas to help you make the most of your days:

• Schedule EVERYTHING!  If you want to make time for Facebook, put it on the schedule.  Time for homeschooling, put it on the schedule.  Time for your vision or calling, exercise, coffee with friends, a date with your husband, put it all on the schedule.  
• Meditate on health and healing.  By refreshing and renewing your soul, mind, and body, you can re-energize yourself.
• Visit your vision board regularly.  Don't get frustrated with what isn't done; pray about the timing.  Pray for the next day and the next, too.
• Stick with the tasks you're supposed to do now.  Often we get so busy trying to get things done when they really could wait.  Focus on the tasks that are for now.
• Finally, ask the Lord to restore the time that Satan has stolen from us!  Ask and it will be given to you (Matthew 7:7).