Several things have happened in the last week that have compelled me to make some changes in my life. I was tired of being a procrastinator with a messy office whose adult ADD always seemed to be in overdrive. I had been tired of this before but was never moved to action.
A senior in my youth group is doing an internship this semester with me from 8 am-10 am Monday-Friday. This forced the first of many changes as there could be no more dilly dallying around in the morning. Rather, I would need to get my son to the church daycare by 8 am so the intern and I could get to work. This lead to change number 2. Fortunately, the intern is a neat and organized person. We spent her first day cleaning off my desk(I have to pay her $5 if she ever finds it covered and cluttered again) and trying to create a good working environment. I was also faced with the issue of figuring out what she was going to be doing for the next 4 months.
Over the weekend I read two great books(Crush It and the 4 hour work week). They really challenged me in finding the balance between being a youth pastor, husband, father, and blogger. FYI-I sped read both these books with a technique I’ll be sharing some other time. Both of these books talked about the importance of eliminating useless things and focusing on the important tasks at hand. I also looked back on my notes from when I read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for even more direction.
Finally, my wife and I have been enrolled in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. February 1 started our new life on a budget using the envelope system. I told Karen that I felt like February 1 was going to be the first day of the rest of our lives and was running with adrenaline all weekend raring to go only to have a massive snow storm hit that has had us homebound for 3 days and counting.
Without further delay, here is a list of the things I did and am doing to Chase My Lion and catch that sucker.
1. Made a list of everything I have(and want) to do in a given day, week, month, and year.
2. Made a list of all the projects I am currently working on.
3. Made a weekly schedule that gave a specific amount of time to all of these things.
4. Started living on a budget as a family.
5. Made a list of the time wasters in my life like news sites, sports sites, negative blogs, random TV watching, talk radio, logging into Facebook once an hour, google reader, and email.
6. Eliminated some of the above while scheduling a specific amount of time for the rest. Email will get checked twice a day along with Facebook and Google Reader. Drudge Report is out along with other news sites. Information overload is like meth for someone with ADD.
7. Vowed that I would stick to the schedule and started day 1 by sleeping in since it was a snow day. By noon I was caught up and ready for lunch. I vowed I wasn’t going to do any blog/twitter/affiliate marketing/anything computer related between 4 pm and midnight. #epicfail
8. Today is a snow day as well, but I’m on schedule so far. I just need to pencil in “make it up to my wife that I gave my time for her yesterday to Oprah and a domain redirect problem.”
So, what action steps do you need to take?
Your story and list is just great. I will be praying for you to accomplish them all. This has also given me a chance to really look at what I need to do to get my life on track and stop waisting time(that I can’t get back). Thanks so much!!
Stephanie, thanks for the comment. I have always struggled with time management and procrastination. Trying to change my lifestyle to be a more effective Pastor, Father, Husband, and Christian. Blessings.