Yesterday we talked about how, on your busy morning, you should find the time to do the things that are important to you. Today I want you to think about what you should and should not do in the first hours of the day. This is an important thought that you should think about. So often we get stuck in a rut or routine and do things because it is what we have always done. We do it without really thinking about whether or not it is the best use of our time.
It is not about packing more things into less time.
The morning makeover is not about figuring out how to do more tasks in fewer hours. If you read books and articles about productivity and time management, this is often the main message and the core of the matter. While this can help in the short term, it is not a good long-term strategy for making meaningful changes. Very soon you will reach the limit of how much faster and how much more efficient you can become.
Change your mind and don’t try to add anything to what you do in the morning. If you need 15 minutes for Bible study, meditation or exercise, don’t just think about getting up 15 minutes earlier or losing 15 minutes of your morning routine by showering faster, getting dressed in record time, and rushing through breakfast. In other words, don’t add to your already long list of things to do. You will only feel more rushed and stressed if you do.
It’s about making smart decisions about how to use your time
Instead, you should think about how you can best use your time in the morning. Compare your perfect morning with your current morning routine. What are you not doing on your ideal morning? If you can start cutting things out, it will be much easier for you to find time for what is important to you.
There are two good ways to find things you can stop doing. The first is to look for busy work. This is something you do out of habit, something you do not necessarily have to do every day. Maybe check your emails in the morning or play around on Facebook for half an hour while you drink your coffee. If that’s how you choose to spend your time, that’s fine, but if you do it out of habit, maybe it’s time to reconsider.
The second way to quickly regain time is to see if you do things for others that they can do themselves. Children are the perfect example. We start by preparing breakfast and lunch for them, cleaning up after them, picking out their clothes, and making sure their backpack is packed and ready to go. When they are very small, we have to do these things, but all too often we do them long after they are able to do things themselves. The same goes for things we do for our spouse. Perhaps there was once a time when there was less to do in the morning and it made sense to do most of the morning chores. Have things changed, and if so, is it time to take the pressure off and let your partner help you? Perhaps a few small changes will be enough to take the time on your busy morning to do what is important to you.
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