#timemanagement – JOHN L WHEATON BLOG

Proverbs 27:1 “Do not brashly announce what you’re going to do tomorrow; you don’t know the first thing about tomorrow.” (The Message version)

“I’ll do that tomorrow.” “Tomorrow things will be better.” “Tomorrow I am going to do (fill in the blank.)”

Maybe it’s okay to do that “thing” tomorrow because we can only get so much done in one day. We all have to manage our energy.

The idea of things getting better tomorrow is purely subjective, unless we plan to make ourselves better tomorrow; to build our mindset and character to respond better to tomorrow, or to make a better tomorrow. It’s based on the human quality of hope.

Planning to do something tomorrow is fine as well. Why not have plan? Planning is good, looking to the future is good. We humans have that innate character and image of our Creator God in order to envision what a plan for tomorrow may look like.

But tomorrow doesn’t really exist. Tomorrow is a hope that we’ve come to expect based on all the past “tomorrows” which are now yesterday’s. Tomorrow actually is an abstract. We hope tomorrow will come, we think tomorrow will come, and we expect tomorrow will come. That’s alright. But there’s no guarantees. So we can’t announce boldly with certainty what we WILL DO tomorrow. We don’t control or govern the turning of the planet and the reality of tomorrow.

If tomorrow comes, we don’t know what it will bring with it. The world, sickness, nature, lava flows, gravity, careless texters, cancer, the stock market, and other forces beyond our control don’t care about our agenda. COVID19 has proven that; one day everything was fine, the next day, COVID. Our health was good today, but now the blood test revealed an issue. My friend was cancer free, and tomorrow he’s not. September 10th was fine, September 11th changed the world. You get the picture.

My attitude is to say, “If the Lord wills, I’d like to do “this or that” tomorrow, but let’s see what the day brings.”

Let’s not put off until tomorrow what can get done or said today. Let’s plan to move ahead with confidence into the future, but know that the future is still not assured.

Today is the day. Now is the time. Let’s work on our mind, body, soul and spirit to be able to endure in increasing measure whatever tomorrow may bring, good or bad. Let’s approach any tomorrow with gratitude and thanksgiving for life, breath, and hope.

I didn’t get a blog written and posted this morning, so I am writing now. That’s really unusual for me, but I have to admit, 7 days in a row of writing the blog is too enticing. It will be my 1st one-week streak. Sometimes motivation is shallow!

Why no post earlier you ask? I had a very large proposal with a hard deadline to complete today or the company would lose the opportunity. I invested my writing and creativity time in the proposal alone. I was tired and had limited energy to invest. It was the biggest thing to get done so I did it 1st, right after catching up on critical email business (yes, email can be a priority if it’s OUR choice.)

I had three other critical deadlines to get done as well that involved using my PE stamp to sign and seal documents. I didn’t expect I’d even get them done, but once the proposal was completed, thirty minutes earlier than I expected, those tasks fell right in line. No problem. I even checked financials, backlog, estimated work, worked in some follow-ups on four other pending proposals, and more. Bonus time. Some things are now scratched off my list for early Monday.

It supports the claim all the heavy thinking business coaches emphasize, “to work on the biggest, nastiest priority first and then the rest will get handled easily when that burden is done.”

But let’s face it, if you’re like me it can be unnerving most of the time to be working on the large, deep, intense, time sucking project or task, and putting all the secondary, smaller, and easier tasks aside. It is so much easier to do the latter first. If we focus on the former first, we feel the stress of the moment, and alleviate it when done. It’s a decreasing stress. If we focus on the latter first, we feel the growing stress of procrastinating on the big task. I prefer to make that trade – to do the big nasty first, then feel the relief later. I just have to ignore the impulse when I am in the moment, and desiring to escape.

So there we go. I even was able to get in a blog. The tables were flipped. The work was done. The blog is posted. All bonus time.

How was your day?

Be well and enjoy the weekend