“I don’t have enough time to eat breakfast, I don’t have enough time to exercise, I don’t have enough time to fix 3 meals a day, I don’t even have enough time to sleep! And I certainly don’t have enough time for prayer and quiet time with God.” These and many other excuses are what I have been hearing for almost 30 years as I’ve engaged in conversations with folks about taking control of their health.
Time Management: Poor and Good
In ways, time truly is even a greater commodity than money.We each have the same amount in every minute, hour and day – no one has more or less. But, what none of us knows is when our time here on earth will come to an end. It can be today, it can be 30, 40, or even 50 years from now. No one but God knows this answer. There is a saying “live each day as if it were your last day on earth.” The Book of James 4:14 says “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
And then there is the saying “quit wasting time.” Time-management is another one of those areas that I put into the “mental health” category as I refer to wholistic health. The four basic pieces of the wholistic health pie are: Mental, Emotional, Physical and Spiritual. Each of these areas are connected and inter-related. If one area is out of balance, so will the others be. The same holds true for each of the areas within anyone of these pieces. This month we are addressing 4 areas of the Mental Health pie: Goal setting, Budget, Time Management and Purpose. So far, we have addressed goal setting and budget. Today we will dive in a little deeper into how our time-management affects our health as a whole – whether poorly if it is not managed optimally, and for good if we capitalize on this valuable commodity known as time. I would like to point out that within these various areas of our mental health, they too are connected and inter-related. If one area is not managed optimally, it will have an effect on the other areas as well. And then ultimately, if any one of these areas is out of balance, it will throw our entire health as a whole out of balance as well. Let me show you what I mean.
Effects of Poor Time Management
Two of the primary objections to someone not taking care of their health is “I don’t have enough money” and/or “I don’t have enough time.” Let me ask you: are you burning the candle at both ends? Are you robbing Peter of his time, to pay Paul with time that was already spent? Another words, have you over-committed time to one place when you have already spent it somewhere else? Or let me put it to you another way: are you juggling way too many balls in the air at one time? Why does someone do this?
I think one of the reasons is people are afraid to say “no” for fear of hurting someone’s feelings, or even worse, for fear of not being liked. This is called “people-pleasing.” Another reason could simply be for the same reason that someone is over-spent financially, they don’t have a plan for their time. They don’t have a budget for their time. Their priorities are way out of place, or more bluntly, priorities with their time are not even a concept for them. They just want to “do it all.”
Why does this matter? There are many reasons, but let’s start with your own physical health. When you are multi-tasking and have placed way too many obligations on your plate than there are hours in the day, this creates stress to the brain and to the body. And simply put Stress=Inflammation. To dive deeper into this topic of stress and inflammation, pick up a copy of my book “Are You Being Deceived About True Wellness?” I also have an entire live presentation that I give to audiences called “Stress, is it Silently Killing You?” if you would like to learn more this way.
To book Dr. Jackie for speaking engagements go to:
https://jackiemckool.com/schedule-jackie/
But for now, let me paint a quick example of what happens to our body when we consistently over-commit our time to either ourselves or others. When you don’t have a realistic budget for your time, your brain is trying to process and remember all the things you told yourself and/or others you would do. Not only is it trying to remember, but it is also trying to figure out how to go about doing it. Not to mention the things that should be done to take care of your own physical health, as well as the health of your family. Things like preparing healthy meals and actually taking the time to eat them, drinking enough water, and of course getting enough sleep.
If there was a plan in place, this would be a lot simpler, but there is not. The brain is also trying to figure out how to literally be at two places at the same time, while trying to figure out who it is going to have to break a promise to, because it realized there was an over-commitment – to someone. And then it is trying to figure out how to make it up to the person they just broke the promise with and what will that person think of them, and will they ever trust them again, and what will they be saying to others about me… And the over-flow of chemical reactions that are involved in all these emotions, constantly, is simply too much – it’s information overload for the brain. But the brain keeps trying to figure it out, including when you are supposed to actually be sleeping. Now your body is losing the time it needs to routinely heal and repair itself because it doesn’t have time to sleep – which the only time it can do this optimally is when the body is at a place of total rest, called sleep.
When the body can’t rid itself of the old cells, and rejuvenate itself for the next day, the body acquires a build-up of toxins until it can be rid of them. But unfortunately, this vicious cycle of brain overload continues day in and day, never allowing the body to be rid of these toxins effectively. Too much toxic overload causes inflammation in the body. And the common denominator of all chronic and degenerative diseases, including auto-immune conditions and even cancer is inflammation. One solution to this constant dilemma of over-spending your time could be spending time with God and asking Him where you are supposed to commit your time, but of course, you don’t have time for that either. And all of this ends up creating anxiety, worry, even low self-esteem because you just know others are talking about you, which in turn causes more stress, and the vicious cycle continues. But you don’t hesitate to take time to fix the hair, put on the makeup, shop for the most recent trendy clothes, and slap a smile on your face to make the world think you have it all together, causing even more anxiety about over-spending, and even less time to do the things that really matter in life. And the cycle goes round and round even more.
Phew! Did just reading this scenario cause you a little anxiety? Can you imagine this being the case for real, day in and day out and for years on end? But this is an example of what is really happening to millions of people every single day. No wonder we have a chronic disease crisis in our country. While technology and the latest processed food is supposed to make life easier and save time, all it has done is created a vacuum for more things to fill up that time hole.
The bottom line is this: managing our time is just as vital to our physical health as eating right and exercising. So what is the solution?
Solutions to Healthy Time Management
In the above scenario, all areas of our wholistic health were adversely affected and thrown out of balance: Mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. That being the case, it is vital that you make a commitment to yourself to not only stop this behavior of over-spending your time but set a plan in place to reverse it.
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Be Realistic
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Track Your Time
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List Your Time Priorities
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Create a Time Log
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Plug in Any Bonus or Extra Activities
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Make a Commitment to These Obligations
When you sit down to write out your goals for the year as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, you must be sure you are not over-committing yourself in regard to time, as to what you think you can achieve. That’s why writing down action steps is a vital component to this area of your health, goal setting, to make sure you are being realistic.
For one week, before moving forward with writing out your time priorities, keep track of how you spend your time each day. Track it in 15-minute intervals. I know this sounds tedious, but just like keeping a food log for a week, or keeping track of your spending, this will give you a realistic visual of how you currently spend (or waste!) your time. Include things like scrolling through the internet/social media, texting with family & friends, watching T.V., sleeping, working, driving etc. It can also show you where you have committed to being in two places at the same time! Every minute counts and is valuable. This can show you where you can cut out time wasters to make room for more important things in life. It will also cause you to be honest with yourself.
Next, list all of your absolute commitments in order of priority,just as you would with a financial budget, and how much time is realistically needed for each of them. For example: Spend quality quiet time with Jesus for guidance and direction for the day. This should be number one. Even if it just starts off as 10 minutes a day (once you start doing this, you will want more, I promise you!). Sleep needs to be very close to the top, along with the number of hours needed for this (NOTE: it should be no less than 7). Also close to the top needs to be meal planning and preparation, including time to grocery shop and then literally time to sit down and eat. Of course, you need to add the time that is required of you to work, including travel time to and from. If you are a stay-at-home mom, write down the absolutes that need to be done to take proper care of your children – bathing, dressing, feeding, nursing etc. This could also include seeing them off to school, whether it’s driving them or getting them on the school bus. If you have doctor appointments for yourself or your children, add that time to the list. I would start with the “must do” routine things first, and then see where you have time on your calendar for things that are not routinely recurring (day, week or month) and plug those in. Be sure to include down time i.e. play time for kids, watching a movie with your spouse, or more quiet time for yourself. Don’t underestimate the importance of rest time for you.
Either buy yourself a day planner, or just make one with a simple spreadsheet. Write the days of the week across the top and all 24 hours of the day down the side. And then plug these commitments and priorities into your calendar. Everyone’s priorities are different, but remember, you only have 24 hours and 7 days a week to spend your time. Keep this in mind as you determine whether something is a priority or a luxury. If you can’t decide, picture what your life would be like without including it as mandatory and important, and what it would look like if that time wasn’t spent in your life. What purpose does that activity serve? Is it for the absolute greatest good for all involved – you, your spouse, your children, your community.
Where are there empty blocks of time? This is where you can then add your non-essential commitments. Don’t try justifying obligations as necessary, when they in fact are simply supportive, or even self-serving. This is where you need to be really honest with yourself. Covet your necessary time commitments,and use great discretion as to how you are going to spend this extra time.
Guard these obligations with all of your heart. It should take an act of Congress to make you give up this space on your calendar, that’s how committed you are to each of these. But in order to do this, you need to know (and be committed to) your why for each of these things holding a place in your time budget.
In Summary
First and foremost, ask God how He wants you to spend your time each and every day. All that we have is His, including our time that He has entrusted to us.
Your time is an extremely valuable commodity, guard and treasure it deeply. Time is a gift from God, use it wisely.
Make a plan for your time, just as you should make a plan for your finances. Tell each minute of your day how it is supposed to serve you, so you can serve God with the time He has blessed you with.
Remember, our health is wholistic – mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. It’s all connected and inter-related, if one area is out of balance, it will have an effect on the other areas.
Mental health consists of things like time-management, budget, career, goal-setting and our purpose in life. Each of these areas are connected and inter-related as well.
Balance is key.
Looking for a practical Christmas gift that won’t break the bank? How about gifting that special someone who wants to learn more about their health with a copy of “Are You Being Deceived About Truth Wellness?”
Here are the other blogs in this series:
“How Committed Are You to Your Wholistic Health?”
“You Were Made for a Purpose”
“How Do You Know When You Get There?”
“Are You Ready for 2025?”
“How Disciplined is Your Budget?”