We all have the same amount of time in a day…24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds.  Unfortunately it is impossible to get more.  You can’t buy it, you can’t earn it, you can’t create it.  On the flip side, you can’t lose time.   You don’t get deducted time for bad behavior.  You may waste your time, but you don’t get less than 24 hours.  The difference maker between people that “have time” and people that “don’t have time” is not found in the amount of hours they have.  The difference is in how the hours they have.

Being “too busy” is a epidemic in our culture.  It is the biggest excuse to not get involved, to not step out into new ideas, to not chase  your dreams, and to not serve.  “Too busy” means you have a problem.  Let me stop here and say that it is one thing to have a season of busyness, but it is something totally different to have a lifestyle of busyness.  Corrie Ten Boom said, “If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” If we can learn to declutter the chaos (when it comes to time) in our lives, and live a life out of the box,  we will experience life to the fullest.

Years ago, while I was reading “Getting Things Done” by Dave Allen, I came across a question that changed everything for me.  I had actually spent most of my life on a quest to find the answer to this question, but had never realized it. What a dilemma!  How do you find the answer to a question you don’t even know you are asking?  Thankfully, this book opened my eyes and  I began to realize that I had never stopped long enough in life to identify how to get balance in my life.  How to get every area of my life in perfect harmony, and how to  spend ample time working on each “bucket” of life.  It seemed as if the quest of balance was impossible, and that I was fighting a losing battle.  Then as I was reading Dave’s book, he asked the question…”If you actually reached the perfect balance of your time what would that look like?” I realized I had never really taken the time to envision what the balance would be, I just knew I wanted it.  How much time should I spend in each area of my life? What would the perfect life look like? The perfect year? The perfect month? The perfect week? The perfect day? So I sat down and mapped out each area of my life and began to identify what I wanted to do with my time.  Instead of my time controlling me, I began to take control of my time.

I mapped out 6 categories that I believe are the main “buckets” of life.  Then I called it Project F6.  If I was going to be intentional about my time and life it needed to be an on-going project that I gave attention to at all times.  So here are the 6 areas…

Project F6

1. Faith = My spiritual life.

2. Family = Being a husband and father.

3. Fun = Enjoying my hobbies.

4. Fitness = My health.

5. Friends = My relationships.

6. Finances = My stewardship.

Then I began to ask my self questions that would help guide me in each one of these areas.  If I could answer these questions, I knew I was fulfilling my time.

Project F6 – “Questions to keep myself in line.”

1. Faith = Am I living my purpose?

2. Family = Am I investing into my family?

3. Fun = Am I enjoying my life?

4. Fitness = Am I taking care of my body?

5. Friends = Am I encouraging and helping others?

6. Finances = Am I providing and giving?

Next, I began to map out the sub categories in each of these 6 areas.  These were the things that were most important to me under each category.  This helped me identify what areas I needed to have a plan for.  It does no good to say I need to be better spiritually but never take the time to know what I need to do in order to be better.  So this was my plan to make sure I knew the areas that I needed to invest into and spend time doing each day / each week.

I am going to take today and the next 5 days (Tuesday-Saturday) and blog about each area of F6 to help you develop a plan for YOUR PROJECT F6.  I believe this will help you map your life and make the most of your time.  Let’s jump in…

YOUR PROJECT F6

Faith

– Your Spiritual Life

– Are you living your purpose?

First, take out a piece of paper and write “faith” at the top, and then put a circle around it.  Now, using one word, write down a sub-category that you feel is the most important under the banner of faith (see examples below).  Put a circle around that word and draw a line connecting this circle with the faith circle.  You can have as many sub-categories as you want, but don’t go too overboard for now.  Better to start small and work your way up to more later.  For example…my sub-categories for Faith are…

– Prayer

– Bible

– My Gifts

– Growth

– Church

Now that you have taken the time to map out the sub-categories that are most important under faith, take it one step further.  Under each sub-category begin to write down the things that will help you accomplish these areas.  For example, my things are…

Prayer

–  B.I.G = What are the Bold, Intentional, God-Sized things I am believing God for?

– Daily = Each day I spend some time talking to God.

– Listen = Remembering to listen and to write down the things God is saying to me.

Bible

– Proverbs = I try to read a proverb a day and think about that during the day.

– Moses = Erin and I are getting ready to do a study on Moses with a book that walks us through his life. 

My Gifts

– Communicating = One of the gifts that I use and work to develop is the gift of communicating through writing, speaking, blogging, etc…

– Creating = Another gift of mine is creativity.  So I use it for vision, events, content, ideas, church strategy, etc…

– Coaching = This is the opportunity I have to help mentor and invest into others.  

Church

– Associate Pastor

– Student Ministry

– Children’s Ministry

– Worship

– Media/Graphics

– Sync Group Leaders

You can continue to break down each category into action steps to help you define what you are going to do in each area.  For example…

PRAYER

B.I.G

– Keep a list of 2-3 major needs I am believing God for.

Daily 

– Spend 10-15 minutes each morning praying over the day.

Listen

– Once a month spend some time in prayer listening to what God is saying then write it down and do it. 

This is an exercise that will start to help you define your map for faith.  Dream big and take the time to set your GPS to faith.

Tomorrow we will jump into Family…stay tuned.