Well the results are in from my little time log experience. In case you are just joining me… For the last week I have documented how I have spent my time. I didn’t get too detailed but I walked away with some pretty good data to evaluate.
This past Sunday as a part of our New Testament Challenge we discussed the Challenge of Generosity. One area that we are to be generous is with our time. We looked at the story in Luke 10 of the Good Samaritan and how he felt that the best use of his time was to help the badly injured Jew laying beside the road.
We discussed how we really don’t have any promise of time for tomorrow but we have right now so that leads to the question: “God, what is the best use of my time right now?” To be honest I have not done a great job of asking that question. So because of that I have misappropriated my time and needed to evaluate my priorities based on the actual time I was designated to them.
This thought began with the definition of radical love: (previous week’s message) Love is the choice you make based on the actions you take. So was I really showing love to my wife and my family? Well in looking at the numbers I am proud to say that this week was one of the most balanced weeks I have experienced in a while. I proved that by making some conscious decisions in certain areas I could improve some areas I was clearly lacking in.
Still have some distance to travel and some areas to improve but I feel that this exercise helped me establish a base line to work from. So check out the results: 
Impressive. I would only say that I would put church in the work category not the God category. I hardly feel like I am communing with God doing church accounting or creating bulletins.
I debated the same thing but in the end if I don’t do some church accounting we don’t have a church. As we have discussed it is an obedience to God thing. He called me to plant a church; I obeyed, so that means Quickbooks… Maybe it doesn’t mean Illustrator, MediaShout and Audacity but I am working through those issues! LOL
I religiously followed your daily journals all last week, and I was constantly wondering what it would eventually lead up to. To my delight it led up to a mini-spreadsheet and follow-up analysis ! I like spreadsheets - and charts - and graphs. I consider them my toys.
I should do a similar study for me.
One thing I was wondering though is what is the purpose of you waking up every morning at 4 AM to get on the Internet and download and upload files and such if you’re just gonna go back to sleep again an hour or two later. Why 4 AM ? Why not 6 AM ?
The reason I am trying to do 4:00am and not 6:00am is because if I do 6:00 than I am left with a lot of church stuff to do on Saturdays or in the evenings. If I can accomplish stuff while my family is sleeping than I can enjoy the time with them when they are awake.
Last week I also lost 3hrs of lunch to work. That was pretty painful because I usually get a lot done on my lunch hour. That was part of the reason that I had stuff left to do on Saturday and early Sunday.
As for going back to sleep. That really isn’t my intention but there was one day my mind lost the battle to my body and I went back to bed. A couple of other days I took 20-30 minute power naps. Those are usually a result of a decision not to jump into another task that I won’t be able to complete before having to get ready for work.
I have been doing 4:00am for the past 2 weeks so it is a fairly recent change. Prior to that I was doing 4:30 or 5:00. So far it has left me with an almost free Saturday which is my goal. I want to have a Sabbath day on Saturday. It is one thing to preach about it but it is another thing to schedule your life to achieve it.