A Schedule? Help!!!
This morning my husband handed me a small stack of papers. "Here," he said, "Maybe this will help you get organized." I looked at the papers in front of me--What I Need To Accomplish This Week. Yikes, is it that bad? Well, the truth is it's not that bad, but it has been that bad, and progress is slow.
I have an aversion to scheduling and planning. It goes back to my days at Bob Jones University when the only way I could accomplish anything was to plan every minute of my week. I had an enormous of amount of work to do, and I didn't know how I would do it all. Someone suggested making a schedule, so I got out a blank 4X6 index card and drew lines to make 7 columns, one for each day of the week. Then I drew lines the other way leaving enough boxes to cover all my waking hours, 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. (We were required to be in bed sleeping the other hours of the day.) I filled in all my classes, my meal times, my music practice times, my work hours, my study time, required meetings and music rehearsals. I even scheduled a time to do my laundry. When I was finished, I had 3 free hours on Friday afternoon. I stuck to this schedule like clockwork. After a semester of this kind of living, I had a physical breakdown and had to drop out of school. Needless to say, I've had a deep-seated hatred for schedules ever since.
This hatred for scheduling has sometimes caused me difficulty. I didn't want put my children on an eating schedule when they were nursing, so they ate on demand, and I didn't get much sleep for the first years of their lives. Then I didn't want to schedule their nap times. (They did take a nap every day, but it was not always at the same time.) I didn't like meal schedules, school schedules, or house cleaning schedules. I still don't. When my children were small, not making a schedule, accept required things like church and music lessons, worked fairly well. However, when their school work began to increase, so did my lack of organization until finally things fell apart.
My dislike for scheduling and planning left me with a pile of unfinished things. When I would look at the mess, I would be so frustrated that I wanted to cry. I would retreat to my computer room (I still do sometimes.) and find something to distract me from my mess. Then it occurred to me one day that if I learned to schedule some things, and use my free time to work a little bit at the mess, we might have a happier life. I started by attacking my living room. I cleaned the bookshelves, I sorted through the magazines, I removed and eliminated dvds and books that we no longer use or want. Once that job was accomplished, I made a habit of keeping the room clean. Would you believe it has stayed fairly cleaned up for over 3 months now?
There is something to be said for routine and planning, especially when there is a lot to do. I Corinthians 14:40 says, But all things should be done decently and in order. Paul the apostle was taking about church services, but I think that this can apply to our daily lives.
Our Heavenly Father has created a very well-ordered universe. The sun and the stars and the earth move in concert with one another. The sun comes up on time, the moon is on a schedule, the tides come and go. It's dependable. Amidst all that order is wonderful creativity, the leaves change color, but never the same, the waves hit the shore, but never exactly in the same spot. To have routine, to have order to our lives is to reflect our Creator. To be creative with that time is also a reflection of our Creator.
I was tempted to toss the sheets of paper in the trash, but on a second thought, I realized that my husband is right, a little planning never hurts. In fact, when we plan, order and (reasonably) schedule our lives, we mimic our Creator. We can come up with a million different ways to accomplish the goals on our schedules. So the planning sheets are now sitting on my desk. My goal is to sit down on each weekend, ask the Lord for guidance, then plan our school week, plan my work, and make a rough schedule. It won't always be the same, but it will be well-ordered.
I have an aversion to scheduling and planning. It goes back to my days at Bob Jones University when the only way I could accomplish anything was to plan every minute of my week. I had an enormous of amount of work to do, and I didn't know how I would do it all. Someone suggested making a schedule, so I got out a blank 4X6 index card and drew lines to make 7 columns, one for each day of the week. Then I drew lines the other way leaving enough boxes to cover all my waking hours, 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. (We were required to be in bed sleeping the other hours of the day.) I filled in all my classes, my meal times, my music practice times, my work hours, my study time, required meetings and music rehearsals. I even scheduled a time to do my laundry. When I was finished, I had 3 free hours on Friday afternoon. I stuck to this schedule like clockwork. After a semester of this kind of living, I had a physical breakdown and had to drop out of school. Needless to say, I've had a deep-seated hatred for schedules ever since.
This hatred for scheduling has sometimes caused me difficulty. I didn't want put my children on an eating schedule when they were nursing, so they ate on demand, and I didn't get much sleep for the first years of their lives. Then I didn't want to schedule their nap times. (They did take a nap every day, but it was not always at the same time.) I didn't like meal schedules, school schedules, or house cleaning schedules. I still don't. When my children were small, not making a schedule, accept required things like church and music lessons, worked fairly well. However, when their school work began to increase, so did my lack of organization until finally things fell apart.
My dislike for scheduling and planning left me with a pile of unfinished things. When I would look at the mess, I would be so frustrated that I wanted to cry. I would retreat to my computer room (I still do sometimes.) and find something to distract me from my mess. Then it occurred to me one day that if I learned to schedule some things, and use my free time to work a little bit at the mess, we might have a happier life. I started by attacking my living room. I cleaned the bookshelves, I sorted through the magazines, I removed and eliminated dvds and books that we no longer use or want. Once that job was accomplished, I made a habit of keeping the room clean. Would you believe it has stayed fairly cleaned up for over 3 months now?
There is something to be said for routine and planning, especially when there is a lot to do. I Corinthians 14:40 says, But all things should be done decently and in order. Paul the apostle was taking about church services, but I think that this can apply to our daily lives.
Our Heavenly Father has created a very well-ordered universe. The sun and the stars and the earth move in concert with one another. The sun comes up on time, the moon is on a schedule, the tides come and go. It's dependable. Amidst all that order is wonderful creativity, the leaves change color, but never the same, the waves hit the shore, but never exactly in the same spot. To have routine, to have order to our lives is to reflect our Creator. To be creative with that time is also a reflection of our Creator.
I was tempted to toss the sheets of paper in the trash, but on a second thought, I realized that my husband is right, a little planning never hurts. In fact, when we plan, order and (reasonably) schedule our lives, we mimic our Creator. We can come up with a million different ways to accomplish the goals on our schedules. So the planning sheets are now sitting on my desk. My goal is to sit down on each weekend, ask the Lord for guidance, then plan our school week, plan my work, and make a rough schedule. It won't always be the same, but it will be well-ordered.
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