Time Management Techniques, But First – a Review
Before we dive into Time Management Techniques, let’s quickly review what we’ve covered in the Get Back Hours series.
In the blog post “How to Avoid Digital Distraction,” we committed to stop giving so much time to devices. Those statistics, showing it adds up to over two months of your life each year, still get reactions!
“The Myth of Multitasking” taught us to stop believing the solution to limited time is doing multiple tasks at once. We learned that dividing our focus leads to so much wasted time. Tasks take longer, and we spend time cleaning up mistakes and mishaps.
And now we’re going to address the root of our feeling that our time is not enough. If you have the bonus guide you got when you registered for the redeemhertime.com/time.
Homefront Hero
When I was the homefront hero while my husband fought for our freedom, everything was on my shoulders. Though family and friends occasionally helped, it was mostly me during the 12-month deployment. After 9/11, just months after our youngest was born, my husband felt he had to do his part. Very quickly he was sent overseas. That was a challenging time for sure, and he deployed for up to a year several times, giving me plenty of opportunities to work on my management skills.
No matter how often I said I needed to improve, I never seemed to get better at it. Everything changed on that day on the stairs when I finally gave up trying to manage (or control) it all and invited God to show me a different way. What I didn’t know then, but know now is the WITH-God way.
When Doing It All Becomes Too Much
Even though I had prayed to ask Jesus into my heart at a very young age, had grown up in the church, and did my best to have a quiet time with three young kids at home and a hubby overseas, I was depending on my own wisdom and my own strength and trying to manage it all.
I would check the box of reading my bible, throwing up a quick prayer, and then the rest of the day was a never-ending game of whack-a-mole trying to keep the humans alive and the dishes from piling up and the clients from getting neglected. Dropping into bed exhausted I wondered where the time went, only to wake up to my alarm and do it all over again.
I thought that doing it all FOR God was what I was called to, and the best way to do it was to try to get better at managing my time.
But here’s what I found to be true. It’s now proven by scientific studies – that managing it all on our own leads to feeling the need to make too many decisions. Making too many decisions leads to decision fatigue. Decision fatigue makes what you’re doing take up to 50% longer.
What?! So what should have taken 30 min was now taking 45 and what should have taken two hours was now taking three? Is it just me, or has this statistic of things taking up to 50% longer been a running theme through this series?
We’ve been looking at Proverbs all month, so let’s look at one of my favs that I remember memorizing when I was young – Prov 3:5-6. You probably know it by heart too. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”
That verse takes me from, “I’ve got this” to, “He’s got this.” Do you feel the shift too?
To trust, we must let go of our need to control and overthink everything. When we acknowledge Him not just during our quiet moments with the Bible, but in every area of life—relationships, business, finances, wellness, passions, and home—He guides our path.
Christ-Empowered Operator
Did you know that’s why I call you a CEO?
Better yet, did you know we’ve redefined it from a Chief Executive Officer to a Christ-Empowered Operator? Because we’re letting go of control and letting Him direct our path. We even have CEO t-shirts you can buy on Etsy that have Christ-Empowered Operator on them.
When you start to embrace this new identity as a CEO, your role in business (and everything else) shifts from managing to stewarding. Because no longer is it all on you to juggle all the balls all on your own. Hallelujah! Check out more about what the Bible has to say about managing vs. stewarding inside the CEO Belief
And it starts with building your CEO belief. I am a Christ-Empowered Operator of my WITH-God Life + Biz. This means the most important time you spend in your day is WITH Him. That doesn’t have to be limited to a few minutes in the morning on the couch. What if you truly learned to trust in Him, lean on His understanding, and acknowledge Him all throughout your day? Even when you’re writing that email, when you’re folding that laundry, when you’re having that difficult conversation? HE will direct your path. It’s no longer all on you to manage. That’s essentially what the WITH-God framework is all about – not making faith just one spoke of the wheel. Make faith the hub – the thing that guides, directs, and strengthens EVERY area. As a solopreneur, solo parent, or solo anything without God, you’re constantly managing and trying to stay in control. I know that as a committed follower of Christ, that’s now how you want to do life or business. You want to trust in the Lord with all of your life (including your time) and lean not on your own understanding, right? When you take off the “manager” sign on your office door and put up the title “CEO”, Christ-empowered Operator of my WITH-God Biz, everything will shift because it’s no longer all on you. You’ll promote from manager to steward as He entrusts what already belongs to Him (your time, your talents, your treasure) to you so that you can invest it. And not to just build your business, relationships, or bank account that will one day go away. I believe that’s why He’s given us those things, especially our time – to invest to build His Kingdom that will never fade away. As you do that through stewarding your time through the life + biz He’s called you to, He’ll remove the burden. Because you’re partnering WITH-God, He’ll reduce the overwhelm, because He’s always more than enough. Your joy will be restored when you hear ‘well done good and faithful servant, enter into your master’s presence.’ That’s the biggest benefit of letting go of trying to manage it all, right? I can’t help but smile as I hear Jackie, one of my CEOs share, ”Since working with Lissa, I rightly ordered my priorities, putting God at the center and no longer feel overwhelmed and frustrated but excited to see where He leads, even when I am unsure. As I sense God leading me on a new path in my business, I have peace as well as the tools to plan and steward my time to make the vision He gave me a reality. Being part of the Redeemed CEO community has made the solopreneur life less lonely as I am encouraged to take steps of faith WITH God and others by my side.’ With God at the center, you’ll no longer feel overwhelmed managing everything. Instead, you’ll experience His peace as He leads and you steward your time in life and business to bring His vision to life—while connecting with other faith-centered CEOs, making the journey less lonely. What are you missing when you settle for just managing? Better yet, what all does He have for you when you embrace being a C.E.O.? There’s only one way to find out. Start believing it and living it (and be sure to check out the Redeem Her Time Community
Join the conversation inside the REDEEM Her Time Community. Consider this community question. How will letting go of managing time, life, and biz give you back time (what won’t you be trying to manage all day long, and what can you do with that time instead)? Come share and get inspired by what others have to say when you join us at redeemhertime.com/community. P.S. Watch the REDEEM Your Time Masterclass to shift EVERYTHING about how you approach TIME in both Life + Biz https://redeemhertime.com/masterclass Also, check us out on YouTube!Trust in the Lord
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