I had a lot of coherent ideas for this blog post this morning. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to write it then. Now it's the evening and I'm tired from doing volunteering and errands all day. But I'll see if I can put down something worthwhile.
Yesterday was one of my work days, and I got off an hour early. Normally, I would come home and veg out with that extra time. But instead, I was motivated to take care of some things--washed dishes, ran a load of laundry, tidied up some things that were left out from weekend projects, and worked on my grocery list.
Two factors motivated me. One was this blog. Even though no one is reading it at this time, the idea that someone might read it eventually gives me reason to achieve something worth writing about. Two was my Google calendar. In the past year, I started using Google calendar to plan my weeks. Before that, I had learned that if I planned out my week on a piece of paper, it helped me wrap my head around the facts that time is finite, some things need to happen in a certain order, and what my priorities are for the week. (I have gotten the impression that some people can manage their week without writing out intentional and detailed plans. I am very much not that kind of person.)
Moving from paper to the Google calendar has a few perks: I can move tasks around as needed. I can represent how long something will take by making it an event. I can put in recurring tasks or meetings so I don't have to remember every week what happens on Tuesdays. (Yes, that can be hard for me.) And I can put in events and reminders for long into the future. (Example, when we changed our furnace filter, I put a note in my calendar about when to check it next.)
When I take the time on a weekend to plan out the upcoming week, putting tasks and events in with their estimated times, it helps me to see when the week gets full and impresses on me the need to use my time well. Without a written plan, with only a list or a vague idea of "things I could do sometime," time seems infinite and flexible, and it never seems real that something unexpected (Obstacles and Opportunities, I like to say) could arise and disrupt me. Therefore, I spend excessive time watching YouTube, playing computer games, or doing productive-ish things that have little value. And when the unexpected occurs, or I remember something urgent that I should have already done, I beat myself up for it.
The Christian philosopher C.S. Lewis has written about time and our relation to it in a way that resonates with me. "Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. ('How time flies! Fancy John being grown-up & married! I can hardly believe it!') In heaven’s name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something in us which is not temporal." His point was to say that God exists outside of time, and humans' various experiences of time (feeling it passes slowly or quickly, struggling to "manage" it, being surprised, etc.) is evidence that we have a connection with that God. The Bible describes an eternal life after death and I must believe that in eternity, time would either cease to exist altogether or have no meaning. I've sometimes wondered if my brain is already trying to live in eternity.
I have introduced a few ideas here, each of which I think could fuel more blog posts. I suppose the point of this one is that, in order to conquer my to-do list, I need to work within the reality of time, and my current tool of choice to help me is the Google calendar.
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