Well Planned Day – Busy Gal

When we talk about planning and organization, we often make a grave error because we focus fully on productivity. “Make every moment count!” becomes our motto, leading us to believe that the best way to live is to make every waking moment full and productive. That, to us, becomes our definition of a meaningful life. 

As the health of our nation rapidly declines, more and more people are recognizing that the lack of margin in our lives is killing us. We are overworked, under-rested, and stretched to the max. We pull out planners to help us make sense of the chaos; but the result is often that we find where we’re wasting time only to fill it with more activity instead of more margin. 

What if we were to instead use our planning and organization habits and tools to help us protect times for rest and play? 

As more studies come out revealing just how dangerous sleep deprivation is, we must learn to recognize our need to protect sufficient time for sleep each and every night. But, that is not enough to truly give us rest. We also need small bursts of time during each week as well as longer stretches each year to pull back and actually rest rather than fill our “off” days with more activity, even if it is recreation. 

Honestly, this is a foreign concept in our culture these days, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Here are a few ideas for building this habit in your own life.

• As you use the Vacation section in the back of your planner to lay out your next vacation, think of what will be truly relaxing and restful. How can you best prepare for it? What can you do to keep you from coming home more exhausted than you left? 
• The bucket list idea often gets laughed off as being a bit ridiculous. But, if you think about it, this is a great way to equip play time. Make a list of things that would be fun, restful, relaxing, and nourishing for you. Next, start devoting one day a month to working down your list. It’s amazing how restful play can be!
• What goals or dreams do you have for life? Sometimes the only reason we don’t see fulfillment of our goals and dreams is because we don’t set aside time for them. We fill our lives with the never-ending necessity, forgetting that it really is okay to set necessity aside for a bit to work toward things that will enrich us. After you’ve worked through A.S.P.I.R.E. to establish a short-term, practical goal for this year, go through it again with a big dream in mind. Then, set up benchmarks to help you use rest and play time to make progress toward that big dream. 

It would be nice if rest and play were automatic for us. But, they’re not. Just like everything else, we have to plan for them or they won’t happen. What do you need to do to build a habit of rest and play this year?