I know what you are thinking.
I am way to busy to do some little homework assignment for Heidi. She must be crazy if she thinks that I can sit down for five minutes to do something that isn’t required!
But what if I tell you that this little homework assignment will change your life? Are you interested now?
As you know, we kicked off the Scheduling series this week. But before we create individualized schedules, we need to figure out what is most important in our lives.
Right now grab a piece of paper and list what you feel is the most important things/people in your life. Rank them in order of importance.
——
Finished? Great job!
I am guessing that you wrote down something like this:
- God
- My husband
- My children
- My friends
- My job
Did I get it remotely correct? Let’s be honest. This is a very “christian” answer.
But if you are like me, what I think is most important is really not. And, I found this out when I tracked my time.
There are exactly 168 hours in a week. Sounds like a lot of time but in those hours we have a lot of commitments: we sleep, eat, get ready for the day, do laundry, fix meals, car pool, go to church, clean…and the list goes on.
Before Monday (that gives you four days to complete this assignment (smile)), I would like for you to list your weekly commitments. Type A’s feel free to use a spreadsheet. Our Type B friends, the back of a grocery list is fine too.
Let me help you get started. How many hours a week do you spend on the following:
- Sleeping
- Eating
- Fixing meals
- Laundry
- Church
- Playing with kiddos
- Surfing the internet (am I getting personal here?)
- Exercise
- Planning activities for the kiddos
- One-on-one time with the hubby
And the list goes on…
Be honest with yourself and God. I encourage you to talk to your husband as well. Does your list match what he thinks you do with the 168 hours per week?
When you are finished, come back to our blog and record your time in the comments. Fill free to leave your answer anonymous if you need to.
Then have your list in hand as you read Monday’s blog post. I will share my results and we will dive headfirst into our “Scheduling Success” series.
How do you spend your 168 hours?
Sleeping – 45
Eating – 5
Meal prep – 9
Chores – 8 (including dishes, laundry, cleaning, etc)
Nursing & changing baby – 12
Church & Bible study – 15
Internet – 20 (hello wakeup call!!!!) including fb, pinterest, searching for activity ideas, etc. I pop on and off all day in little bits.
Exercise – 2
One on one w hubby – 8
Caring for and playing w/ 3yo – the rest of the time!
We have a 3 month old (we also have a 3 yr old) and have been adjusting and one on one time with hubby took a back seat until this week. We've started doing a nightly devotional together before bed. Your blog post really opened my eyes to how I'm spending my waking hours and has prompted us both to evaluate how we could make better decisions. Can I just be honest? Sometimes I just want to spend the WHOLE day surfing the internet. The.whole.day. blah!!
Understand the "want to spend all day in the Internet" concept. It is how I can hide from real life!
Sleep…56
Eating…12
Meal prep…10.5
Chores…5
Church…2
Internet…14
Playing w/kids (including teaching 3 year old and tickling 5 month old)…7
Planning…4
Time w/hubby…10
Thank you for this post. Going through my time has helped me realize all the time I'm wasting. I'll be adding more actual play time with the kids and more time in devotions.
Thank you for the gentle eye openner and for all the work you put into both your sites
Eye opener to me too!
Sleeping: 56 hours
Eating: 7 hours
Laundry: 2 hours
Church: 3 hours
FB: 2 hours
Playing with little one (school): 38 hours
Devotions: 30 min.
Work: 42.5 hours
TV-Me time: 21 hours
Hubby: 10.5 hours
Housework: 7 hours
Driving: 7.25 hours
Shower (get ready for work/day): 7 hours
I'm still missing like 30 hours somewhere but I don't know where it exactly went. I am glad Heidi, that you are presenting us with this concept so we can better grasp what we are really doing with all of our time and how we are spending it.
Thanks again!
Marissa Paulsen
I think you wrote something down wrong because I came up with 233 hours which makes you about 65 hours over. Not sure….