Numbering Our Days

Day 3 - still at it.  Everyone is walking around a little bit like zombies during the day, but hitting the sheets hard at night, so the early mornings are making an impact!  We're having good conversations about the books the boys are reading.  We're seeing more productivity in our school days and our work days. 

RM is taking time to meet one on one with each child over the next few days and weeks.  He's checking in on what they are doing with their time.  Each one has to create their schedule for him and account for their hours.  It was very revealing as he met with the oldest this week.  He found out she is busy!  No wonder she is struggling with college...she doesn't have a lot of time to focus 100% on it!  She's got all sorts of things going on.  Seeing it on paper, having her write out what each day looks like, really helped him help her organize her time.  Once we saw how many spots on her schedule were filled we realized she needed to change a few things in order to accomplish her long list of things to do.  Sounds obvious, but having it written out as opposed to "in your head" is very helpful.

This is the basic premise of the other book the Maxwells wrote called Managers of Your Homes.  I've written schedules for the other children when they were younger, but I hadn't written one for the oldest this year as I felt she should do it.  She hadn't.  She had lists of things to do, but not when and how she would get those things done.  Once again, no wonder she wasn't getting everything done.  Mystery solved.

I'm excited to write that next seminar.  I'll be giving it in February.  I'll be able to use even this example of my daughter taking the time to write it out to show how important it is to have a schedule and how so much gets missed if you don't.  So many people, including myself, get scared by the idea of being ruled by the schedule.  That is not the point of the book at all.  If anything the Maxwells don't want us to be ruled by a schedule.  They are encouraging us to be good stewards of our time and writing it out calls us to account for all of our minutes.  "Teach us to number our days!"  We do need to number our days, as well as our minutes, our hours, so that we don't waste them.  We need to see them as gifts to us and then use them as such.

One more seminar to give this weekend up north - another loooong drive for a small group of women, but I'm excited to go.  I love meeting the new women and encouraging them to keep at it!