A Plan for This Day
Budgeted Time – Part 8.1
This is the day that the Lord has made. If God makes days and He’s given us the ability to be like Him, then we too must make today. In other words, we must make something of our day. You have to make today count. With each new day, you get a new start, a new opportunity to make your today. What is your plan for making this day? Like God we’re in the business of making the day. What are you making of yours?
No matter how well you plan for your year, your month, and even your week, it all boils down to what you do with a day, today. I think of myself (and so do my friends) as a planner. My best plans are flawed until I can get them broken down into what I will do today. If you have no control over today, then you won’t control your week, your months, or your years. You see, what you do today represents the habits you’ve established and is an indication of what you’ll do tomorrow, all week, and all year.
How will you get your day to reflect what you wish to accomplish this year?
Yeah, I understand you’re doing a lot now and you’re busier than ever, but what does that matter if you’re busy doing something that is not getting you to your desired destination? This is the question you must ask when turning monthly goals into weekly goals and weekly goals into actions you can perform today. It can be simple, but difficult if you lack discipline. Leadership expert John Maxwell says “everything worthwhile is uphill.” Don’t let something as simple as using a calendar be the thing standing in your way. Your calendar should have everything you need so that you don’t have to guess what you have to do next or in this case do today. Plan for your day, so that you don’t have a day that fails you. If you don’t plan, you plan to fail. Let’s plan to have a productive and satisfying day.
How does this look when put into practice? I’ve always found it helpful when I hear how others put this into practice so let me share how we do it.
- Give Each Hour a Name.
In a previous installment, we outlined our time-budget for a week. Now that we know where the holes are (available free time), we can insert some activities that matter. We fill in the holes with something, even if it is to watch a movie or wash our clothing. In this way, each time someone wants to get some of our time, we know what must be traded and ask ourselves is it worth the trade?
Give each hour a name. You’ve heard this Benjamin Franklin attributed quote many times, “time is money.” [1] In an earlier section, we discussed how time is actually more valuable than money. You can earn more money, but you cannot replenish time, nor earn more time. You can’t borrow time. You can’t lend time. You can’t reproduce time. There’s nothing you can do about it. Therefore, time is more critical and more valuable than the money that we have.
Each day yields us 24 hours of time-transactions and we must give each one of those hours an assignment, a name. If you’re going to spend your time wisely like you do your money, then you want to have a plan for each hour. If you take your finances that seriously, you should take your time even more seriously.
How will you spend this day down to the hour? What does this hour have or hold for me? That’s the first point and first question you want to ask yourself. In planning how you will spend your day, break it down into 24-hour periods. Begin breaking your day down into bite sized hours to spend, so to speak? - Re-calibrate your priorities.
Each morning we ask God how we might re-calibrate our priorities for this day. It’s a day He’s given us so we want His input. Planning your day in advance like this (in 24 slots) provides a few benefits beyond the obvious. We now have spots on our calendar for the action steps we must take on tasks and don’t have to try to fit it in when we honestly can not. No more cramming activities into an already cluttered calendar.
Having an up to date time budget (calendar) is an easy method for us knowing what to pray for each morning. We can pull up our calendar and ask God’s help with each scheduled item listed. We can use our calendar like a prayer checklist which gives us something to discuss with God each day. We check with God in how we prioritize what happens in our days, today. We would rather go to Him with a plan for what we need to do today and let Him re-calibrate it, than to go to Him with no plan at all, for this day He’s given us.
Each day we revisit our priorities. What was a priority yesterday may in fact not be a priority today. Priorities change and shift from day to day. One thing we want to make sure we’re clear about is our priorities are not your priorities. My priorities are not always my spouse’s priorities. My priorities may not even be our children’s priorities. Our priorities may not be our workplace priorities. Our priorities may not be our business priorities. So we have to determine for ourselves what our priorities are? How can we use this day to get out of it what we desire to get out of it? Being a person of faith, I ask God for His help, His assistance, and His favor as we execute the plans that we’ve already established for this day. This is the day that the Lord has made. This is the day that I have made. This is the day that we have put together. This is the day that we’re going to execute. What are you planning for your today? - Assigning the 24 Slots
Think of the day as having 24 potential slots that you can fill. We only have 24 slots to fill today. Most don’t look at their 24 hours properly; they look at today as if it’s an enormous amount of time. When in reality it is only 24 slots, you will try to accomplish more in 24 hours than what is possible. In fact, the average person always overestimates how much time they have and underestimate how much time it takes to get anything done. That’s why people look for information like this on time management or productivity. To make the best use of time, we understand that it has to be planned out in a 24-hour period. If 24 hours is all we have, then we need to learn how to use it wisely.
A daily calendar is easy to handle because it’s made up of only 24 blocks. Once we place the staples in like sleep (6-8 hours) and work (9-10 hours) that leaves us with roughly 7-8 hours for our own use. After that, all we need to concentrate on is the 9 hours for work, the 7 hours outside of work, and sleep.
In order to be the best at budgeting time, you have to get down to the day. You can’t leave your budgeting at the annual level, nor the weekly, nor monthly. You have to get down to the day. You don’t want to neglect the day. There’s an old idiom that states “the devil is in the details.” [2] The details for time management happen in what you do in your day. What is on your schedule? If you take a look at what’s on your schedule, you can figure out what your priorities are currently. In order to change what your priorities have been, you have to learn to change what’s on your schedule. How are you spending your time?
Question: How are you organizing, managing, and planning for this day?
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[1] Franklin, Benjamin. “Advice to a Young Tradesman, (21 July 1748)”. Founders Online. National Archives and Records Administration/University of Virginia Press. Archived from the original on August 23, 2019. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
[2] Titelman, Gregory (1996). Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings. Random House Reference. p. 119. ISBN 0-679-44554-4.
