How to Organize Your Day

The day is over, your good intentions have gone up in smoke, and you’re exhausted. Where has the time gone? Actually, time didn’t go anywhere. It’s still passing as it always does—sixty minutes an hour, 1,440 minutes a day, 168 hours a week.

To manage our lives, scheduling is a necessity. It’s a mirror of your life, a tool for improvement, and a wand for accomplishment!

Organize

When there’s no schedule, the 1,440 sparkling minutes God gives you each day can be characterized by stress, frustration, and even rage. But with a schedule for each procedure or project, you can flow through your day in a calm, orderly progression. A schedule brings discipline into your life, which helps you walk in the Spirit, produce spiritual fruit, and fulfill His purpose for your life . . . and your day.

Starting Off Right

1. Learn to be more effective. You can do a lot of things in your busy, fast-paced life, but are they the right things, God’s priority things (Phil. 4:8)?

2. Learn to eliminate. There are so many activities we do every day that are not essential. Ask yourself, What can be eliminated from my life at this time? As Solomon observed in Ecclesiastes 3:1–8, life has its seasons.

3. Know your priorities. Manage your time to reflect God as your first priority. Our devotion to Him is to be complete and all-consuming (Matt. 6:33). Service is noble and necessary, but when it gets in the way of your relationship with Christ, it is counterproductive.

4. Determine to make tomorrow a better day than today. And don’t forget to ask God for His wise counsel (James 1:5)! 

5. Learn to delegate. Take a long-overdue look at your areas of service in the church. Which tasks could be delegated? The same applies at home. What chores can you give your children?

If your life is ordered, prioritized, and Spirit-filled, you will have love, joy, peace, and patience. In the morning, pray over your coming day. And pray through it. And pray at the end of it. How desperately we need God’s clear direction and assistance!

Without it we will spend God’s golden minutes on the foolishness of this world. And, as the Christian twist on Thoreau’s saying goes, “You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.” Dear friend, all you and I have is today!

RESPOND

Lord, I want the hours You give me to honor You. Please help me manage my time and organize my days according to wise practices. Amen.

RENEWING RESOURCES

Creating a Beautiful Life— Each new day presents opportunities to grow your faith, manage your work and your goals, and make good use of the time God gives you. Elizabeth George, acclaimed Bible teacher, helps you navigate the options. Click here to view this helpful Bible Study. 

REFLECT

Are my areas of service getting in the way of my relationship with Christ?

Is there anything I need to delegate to others?

REMEMBER

Determine to make tomorrow a better day than today.