What My Teenagers Are Teaching Me
About Time Management
by Bill Allison

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Each summer, my three oldest kids (current ages 14, 15, and 17) spend a week having the time of their lives camping at a certain Christian music and arts festival.  Before they leave the festival, they find out when it will take place in the upcoming year.  When they get home, they write the name of that festival over those dates on our family calendar.  From that point on they rabidly guard those dates like a starving Pit Bull protecting a juicy piece of red meat.  If anything else attempts to land on those dates... even good things... these kids start showing their teeth and growling.  They’re so serious about carving time out of their busy lives for this festival that they take off work, quit working out with the football team, and even fly back home from summer ministry endeavors!

I think they’re on to something.  (I said “on to” something... not “on” something.) 

Here’s something possibly even more insane: I think you and I can learn a very important time management lesson from my teenagers.  (Now you might think I’m “on” something.)

The fact is: If you don’t proactively write priorities into your schedule (like my teenagers do), life will always live you instead of you living life.

Aren't you tired of that?

So instead of just hoping you get around to the important things in your life, why not activate Amazing Time Management Secret #67 and schedule them into your life?

Here’s a wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee moment: It's all mere conjecture until it's written into your schedule.  This goes for your relationship with God, your spouse, your kids, and anything else you deem truly important... like, say, an annual Christian music and arts festival.

So what major priority is being squeezed out of your life these days by the Anaconda death grip of busyness?

Here’s a thought.  Why not do something crazy?  Why not write that priority into your schedule RIGHT NOW?

And while you’re at it, you might want to take out that church/ministry schedule and block off some time THIS FALL for some ministry sharpening and personal refreshment—because if you don’t... you know it won’t happen.  You know you’ll need it.  You know those in your church/ministry are going to need sharpening and refreshment too.  What are you waiting for?  This edition of Cadre Connection is filled with opportunities to plug your heart into the Cadre battery charger... so grab a pen, open up those calendars, and read on!

Now, if I can just get my teenagers to write “clean up my room” into their schedules.  Hmmm.  Now I may really be “on” something

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