Prioritize Your Life for Success

Today, it is hard to open an e-mail newsletter, a website, or an offline magazine and not see someone talking up the importance of time management.

The time management gurus are going out of their way to teach us how to set priorities in our work week, how to organize those priorities, and then finally stick to our priorities to get more done. I applaud their efforts.

Yet in all of the dozens of articles that I have read that speak of the importance and power of priorities in our work day, I have yet to see one person apply this principle to our lives outside of our jobs.

Let me show you how this is important. There are in fact 168 hours in a week. Of those 168 hours, we spend about 40 of them working, and we spend about 4 hours a week in transit to and from our jobs. As a result, we are spending just over one quarter of our lives taking care of business.

We spend approximately another 56 hours each week sleeping and another 7 hours grooming ourselves each week. Add to this the 7 hours we spend eating, and we are left with 54 hours in our week that no one is talking about.

I find it truly startling that people fill volumes talking about how to manage just over 25% of our week, and completely ignore another 33% of our week that is left to our free time pursuits.

Most times when I count down these numbers for people, they are dumbfounded to realize that they have more free time available to them than they spend actually working! Work seems such a prevalent portion of our lives that we fail to realize that we have lives beyond work.

So let me ask you a question. One third of your life is devoted to non-work related activities. What priorities have you set for yourself during these 54 non-work hours available each week? Okay, now let me take that same question one step further. Are you acting on these priorities each day? If I asked your children what priorities you have set for your own life, how would THEY respond?

So many people recognize a need to set priorities on the job. Yet most of these same people fail to place priorities on their lives. Why do people recognize the need for one and not the other? Some would say that the problem is rooted in not having God in their lives. But, even that falls far short of the truth.

Even Christians fall into this same rut. That seems to cancel out the argument about a lack of God in our lives.

The only argument that bears out in fact is that we pay more attention to giving our priorities lip service, than we do to finding the strength, determination, and integrity toward defining and then honoring any real priorities in our lives.

The Christian knows to place his priorities in the order of God, spouse, family, job and then finally hobbies. Yet human nature guides him down the road that lays waste to any priority he may set for himself while in church on Sunday mornings. Most of the other religions of the world teach these same principles as well, and still people of all faiths stumble down this same road without fail.

Priorities, like God, require a commitment in our lives. We must commit ourselves to establishing our priorities and then to meeting them one at a time. God, of course, should be the number one commitment you make to yourself. As through God, you will find the strength and fortitude to establish and meet each of your other priorities in life; priorities of spouse, family, and job, each in their proper order.

Romans 12:2 NIV

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

It is not enough to sit in church on Sunday mornings and pledge to make God the priority in your life. You must go to the further extreme. You must make a commitment in your life to make God the number one priority in your life. And then you must follow through on that commitment. Then and only then, will you find the abilities within yourself to reach beyond what you ever thought you were capable of doing, to commit yourself to setting priorities in your life, even outside of the work place, and to follow the commitment to your priorities with the fulfillment of your goals.

If you do not have God in your life, I encourage you to meet Him so that you to may experience the joy and fulfillment of the renewing of your mind, as so many of us have experienced. If God is only in your life on Sunday mornings, I encourage you to reach into your heart, past the lip service that you are offering, and finally make the commitment to put God as the top priority in your life.

In conclusion, I applaud each of you who make the commitment to manage your time and priorities in the work place. It is my hope that this article has opened your eyes to the part of your life that is bigger than work, the 33% of your life that is spent doing non-work related activities. Spend them well.

About The Author

Jan Wallen is the owner of http://www.StraightPaths.com/ a site dedicated to helping Christian business people conduct their businesses based on Christian principles. Her free bi-monthly newsletter, the Straight Paths Ezine, is filled with sensible, practical advice to help you in the work place. Subscriptions are available by visiting her website or you may send a blank e-mail to straightpaths@aweber.com

---

Measure Your Time Against Active Inactivity

We don't realize many things we do until we draw... Read More

Pacing Yourself Through Change

OK...let's assume that you're truly motivated to change. Great. But... Read More

5 Result-Getting Time Management Tips

How often have you tried to manage your time in... Read More

Time is Money?

Not 1 in 10 people can tell you where money... Read More

The WIT to WIN

What are the most important things you should accomplish today?... Read More

Living on Purpose: Achieving Balance Between Work And the Rest of Your Life

Many of us get so caught up in day-to-day pressures... Read More

How To Manage Your Time

I would like to touch upon a subject that it... Read More

9 Business Time Management Skills You Need To Succeed

Do you have plenty to do, but don't have enough... Read More

What To Do When Youre Short On Time And Long On Need!

Everyday life can present us with opportunities to make us... Read More

Todays Overload: Tommorrow

Whatever providence has in store for us tomorrow is not... Read More

TIME, The Undervalued Resource

We are all born equal! We all have the same... Read More

Keeping Time

What keeping time really means is...being on time!You know, there... Read More

Time Management: Eliminate Time Killers to Gain More Hours Every Day

There are two types of time killers in everyone's life.... Read More

Time Management - The Ultimate Oxymoron

Get a grip. Is it possible to manage time? Can... Read More

How to Minimize Trips to the Grocery Store

Still awaiting the birth of my baby (I am overdue),... Read More

Will Your Epilogue Be ? I Got All My Emails Done?

Work life balance is the new Holy Grail; that search... Read More

Time Management

Isn't it amazing that some people can produce huge results... Read More

Looking At Time With A Capital T

I keep a fossil on my desk at all times.... Read More

Spend Less Time at Work and Get More Done

Sounds too good to be true?It really isn't!In fact, studies... Read More

Organize Your Time

Most people want to start a home-based business to make... Read More

What to Do When Your Alarm Clock Doesn?t Wake You Up

Tring ? Tring the alarm rings?but did you fail to... Read More

Keeping YOUR Calendar Full

When do you want to make time for a networking... Read More

Time Management Doesnt Exist! So What Can You Do?

There is no such thing as time management. You cannot... Read More

The Power of Limited Time

The most powerful resource that we have is time. Everything... Read More

How To Pack 48 Hours Into Your Day

Too much to do, too little time, constant stress. Most... Read More

What is ?Life Balance? and How Can You Attain It?

We all face decisions that involve doing things that affect... Read More

How to Conquer the Five Major Time Wasters?

* spreading yourself too thinTaking on too many things at... Read More

Emergency Living

There are times, when I am driving in my car... Read More

Low Tech Time Management

A simple kitchen gadget is transforming my life. I don't... Read More

Hows YOUR Productivity?

Microsoft wanted to know how individuals around the world were... Read More

Time Management: Which Advice to Follow?

There are so many books on Time Management published every... Read More

Prioritize Your Life for Success

Today, it is hard to open an e-mail newsletter, a... Read More

Time Management: A Non-Renewable Resource

Benjamin Franklin wrote: "If you want to enjoy one of... Read More