Managing Time - Managing Myself

Part of today was spent sorting through the bookshelves in the office. I came upon a number of books bought some years ago on the subject of Time Management. Many of the authors followed the basic principals of goal setting, those being long, medium and short term goals. Nothing wrong with that, but some of the examples given of long term goals seemed a little far fetched. "I want to be the CEO of a large Corporation by the time I'm thirty". "I want to make my first million by the time I'm twenty one." There was nothing about a happy family life or any of the more 'normal' things most people can expect.

However, there was one book that was different from all the rest. It was "Ordering Your Private World" by Gordon MacDonald. Unlike the others, this book looked at Time Management from a Christian point of view.

The write up for the book states "We have schedule planners, computerized calendars, and self-stick notes to help us organize our business and social lives every day. But what about organizing the other side of our lives---the spiritual side?"

Being Dyslexic I rely on Time Management and the greatest invention for me has to be the PDA or Smartphone. I now have an iPhone which contains all my Time Management stuff. My diary, of course, kept in synchronization thanks to Exchange Server, also a program called Todo from Appigo - again I keep this in sync with Outlook: it is these two programs that control my external life.

But what about the spiritual life of which MacDonald speaks ? Thankfully, that's now covered with two other programs: ESVBible bundle which gives me access to my Bible wherever I am, and a program called Meditation, which helps me with the periods of quite that I find so essential if I am to take what life throws in my direction.

Those books on time management which I bought some years ago? Well they were purchased in a desperate attempt to get my life back on track at a time when it seemed as if I was failing to cope. Where they useful? Yes, but not as useful as stopping and getting my 'private world' organised. Only when that happened did the real breakthrough come. I intend to keep it that way.

Todo

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