I to try and make every moment of my life count. This is partially because I believe my life is a vapor, quickly fading (James 4:14). It is also because I hate to waste anything (just ask my wife). And because I am a millennial – like most in my generation, I desire to leave my mark on the world.
Things you won’t find on my resume:
– Good at relaxing
– Protects boundaries between productivity and leisure
– Only works from 8 AM to 5 PM
I am well aware that my work-life balance is a continual beast and I am always trying to wrestle into submission. Yet, there is also a demand for me to make the most of each moment for the sake of the calling on my life. I am Christ’s and so are all of my moments. Taking up my cross daily means that I will steward the calling on my life with utmost intentionality and submission to God’s purposes. With that calling in mind, I’ve made a list of the ways that I take advantage of the littel moments everyday.
We all have those moments were we are stuck waiting on someone else. Daily we are given unplanned gaps in our life that demand us to make a decision on the fly – “what will I do now?” Here are things I do with the miscellaneous minutes that can be used for greater value than simply letting them get away:
- Pray. I am trying to make sure that prayer is my first response and not a last resort. I keep a prayer list in my Evernote that is easily accessible from my iPhone or iPad. With this list, I can quickly be reminded of what I would like to usher before God in prayer. My miscellaneous moments are mostly used for intercessory prayer; my morning prayer time is used for worship-based prayer.
- Review my OmniFocus. I take time to look at my lists, by project, to ensure that I have the right things I need in my Forecast. I am constantly moving, deleting, delaying or delegating. When I get five or ten minutes to look over my lists, I find that I am back on the ball and more in tune with what needs to be done and when.
- Respond to all text messages. These days I seem to be getting as many text messages as I do emails (no quite, but it feels like). I rarely get back to my text messages at the moment I receive them. When I have some unexpected downtime I reply to everything in my Messages inbox. I delete threads when I am done with them and make sure that all next actions are entered into OmniFocus.
- Listen to a book. Ah, this is my favorite! When I get a few minutes to listen to something I’ve wanted to listen to for awhile, it is like a sweet reward. I listen to more books than I read, and I can get through a good chunk of a book in just a few minutes of downtime. I am an Audible junkie.
- Review my “Reading List.” I live on the web, as I know most of us do. One of the greatest features that Apple added to Safari was the “Reading List” which saves pages I want to read later in my browser and syncs those pages across all devices. Before this was added to Safari I used Instapaper (still a great app). With a few extra minutes, I sit and look at the web pages I wanted to look at previously, but didn’t have the time. This is also a reward for me and turns what could have been a “wasted moment” into a productive pastime.
Productivity and learning are rewarding to me. Though I may not always have the best work-life balance, I am refueled by the things above and find my life is not wasted in the miscellaneous moments of my day.
