Secret #131 A Time Management Secret from My Three Teenagers

Each summer, my three oldest kids (current ages 14, 15, and 17) spend a week having the time of their lives camping at a certain Christian music and arts festival. Before they leave, they find out when the festival will take place in the upcoming year. When they get home, they write the name of that festival over those dates on our family calendar. From that point on they rabidly guard those dates like a starving Pit Bull protecting a juicy piece of red meat. If anything else attempts to land on those dates... even good things... these kids start showing their teeth and growling. They’re so serious about carving time out their busy lives for this festival that they take off work, quit working out with the football team, and even fly back home from summer missions trips!

I think they’re on to something. (I said “on to” something... not “on” something.)

Here’s something possibly even more insane: I think you and I can learn a very important time management lesson from my teenagers. (Now you might think I’m “on” something.)The fact is: If you don’t proactively write priorities into your schedule (like my teenagers), life will always live you instead of you living life.

Aren't you tired of that?

So instead of just hoping you get around to the important things in your life, why not schedule them into your life?

Here’s a wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee moment: It's all mere conjecture until it's written into your schedule. This goes for your relationship with God, your spouse, your kids, and anything else you deem truly important... like, say, an annual Christian music and arts festival.

So what major priority is being squeezed out of your life these days by the Anaconda death grip of busyness?

Here’s a thought. Why not do something crazy? Why not write that priority into your schedule RIGHT NOW?

Now, if I can just get my teenagers to write “clean up my room” into their schedules. Hmmm. Now I may really be “on” something.