When Fog Becomes Butter

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When Fog Becomes Butter

Hi Friend,

I haven’t thought of Thoreau for years. But mired in a to-do list the length of a three-day drive, I recalled a few of the guy’s lines.

Remember this?

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.”

Easy to say, but you know commitments—how they multiply like field mice . . . or bacteria . . . or flies.

And how they chirp at you like nestlings. Or like smoke alarms at 2:00 am.

So when my publisher offered a Chris Croft time-management webinar, I joined a raft of other Tyndale authors for salient insights exactly right for this zero-margins season, when one more to-do brick could sink the ship.

For weeks I’d been praying for direction about all that. Then, a mere two days prior to that webinar, a beloved sat me down with an important request that would require even more of my time.

Within seconds, my boat swamped.

Needless to say, when Croft offered an extra month a year if I employed his suggestions, I muttered heartfelt thanks to God.

While it wouldn’t be right to dish out all that speaker’s proprietary info here, I’ll share one of his foundational thoughts and an exercise that shined a buttery beam of realignment into my fog of busy days. Maybe they’ll do the same for you.

Here goes:

To have more time for what’s important, I must spend less time on the unimportant.

Duh. Another talk about priorities? I nearly logged out.

But before I could, he snagged me by defining important as that which matches my goals and feeds my soul with joy.

I licked the tip of my pencil and engaged.

First, I listed who and what was important to me—people, projects, beliefs, and activities.

Then I calculated what percentage of time I devote to them.

Second, I asked myself where I spent time elsewhere. You know, minutes, days, and years consumed with

All that’s urgent, stressfulNecessary time-drinkers that aren’t on my “important” listUnnecessary (even detrimental) time-wasters“Shoulds”—important to others, but not to me.“Almosts”—aligned with my “Importants,” but not bullseyes. Runners-up.

I figured time-allocations for each of these, too.

Then, with the goal of increasing how much time I give to what’s important while decreasing time spent on the unimportant, I asked myself this:

What needs to change?

Which entities could I cut entirely?

How could I fence unimportant demands into smaller lots of time?

How could I shift my ratios—reallocating five or ten or thirty percent of the time spent “elsewhere” to what’s truly important?

Simple math, right? While my beloved’s significant time request meant that I cut out many activities, including those in the “Almosts” category, even a small five percent redistribution of time has potential for more investment in progress, joy, love.

Proof?

When the woods and creek whistled me outdoors today, I went.

I’d made time.

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(Any ideas on how you might restructure your days? I’d love to hear.)

Even When You’re Different.

(See him?)

“Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.”

*****

Mansions.

” Do not let your hearts be troubled . . . In my Father’s house are many rooms . . . I go to prepare a place for you. . .”

—John 14:1-2—2 Cor 13:11

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Mud snooze.

“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.”

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Fleece.

“Pray without ceasing.”

—1 Thessalonians 5:17—Psalm 3:5

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Debt will stay with you if you can’t budge it.

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Breakthrough.

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

—1 Peter 5:10

*****