Sunday, January 25, 2009

Changing Priorities and Routines

Every so often it's helpful to step back and take a look at my schedule and routines to see what's still working and what needs to be changed.

Sometimes, I am forced to look at changing up the schedule, because I already know from my stress level and feelings of not accomplishing much during the day that something is wrong. That's how I've been feeling lately.

Two main areas that have needed change and consistency are my quiet time with God and exercise.

My first order of business was to reestablish a consistent quiet time with God each morning. What was happening was that this very important time kept getting pushed back into small time slots when I only had a few minutes and could not concentrate, let alone hear from God! What is working right now is to get up at 4:30 a.m. and have 30 plus minutes with God. The house is quiet, I have time so that I'm not rushed and I have nothing else pressing to be done at the moment. So far it's working. I told Andy that for the first time in months, I feel as though I've got my main priorities in order just by having my quiet time early and first thing in the morning!

I am an early riser by nature and our schedules at this point have me out of bed by 5 or 5:30 each day anyways. The difference has been that I don't check my email or blogs until Andy leaves for work or later. Quite a bit of lost time has been found just by disciplining myself in that area!

I've been running as soon as it's light out so that I'm back in time before the childcare kids arrive. Their arrival times fluctuate quite a bit so it's better to be back and ready for them sooner than later! On the occasion that I can't get the exercise done in the morning, I'll go running in the afternoon instead. But I much prefer exercising in the morning!

Exercising and getting my time with God early in the day keeps me going and makes me feel great all day!

Next up: Reworking my cleaning schedule so that it actually works for me.

What about you? What priorities and routines do you need to rearrange so that they work for you?How have you reworked routines in your home?

1 comment:

Debbie J said...

I keep getting on the computer while the coffee is brewing with the intent of spending time with God as soon as the coffee is through so I can drink my coffee while reading the Bible. What happens is that I get caught up in what I'm reading on the computer and then the Bible reading gets pushed back, or doesn't happen. So, I need to stop this! If I had a timer on the coffee pot and it were ready when I got up, this would stop the waiting for the coffee thing.

I need to get my cleaning schedule streamlined too.

Debbie J.