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If I could keep time in a bottle,
I'd spill it in the wrong places
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___It already had been a frustrating Friday. Even though journalists live with deadlines, that doesn't make it any easier to meet them.
___ And on this Friday, I was way behind whe
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MARK WINGFIELD
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re I needed to be to meet Monday's big deadline. Then several interruptions crashed into the already pressed schedule. Then a major part of what already had been done suddenly appeared to be unraveling. To top it all off, it was a beautiful spring day outside—where I wasn't.
___ Meanwhile, Alison wanted to know what time I would be home for dinner.
___ The pressure of home and the pressure of work began to collide in my stomach. So, as I'm prone to do, I estimated optimistically. I assured her I could be home by 5:30 to grill out for dinner.
___ When I left the office at 5:30, I felt the pressure of the self-imposed deadline that I already had failed to meet. I could visualize Alison expecting me to walk through the door any minute, yet I knew I was nowhere near the door to our house.
___ Of course, it's at times like this that every slow-poke driver in town gets in front of you or you have to wait on a really long train. After sitting through four green lights waiting on my chance to make a left turn at an intersection without a left-turn light, I was a wreck.
___ Getting home had become more work than a day at work.
___ What was even more frustrating was the realization in some recess of my brain that I had created the pressure I felt. I actually appreciated the four-light wait at that intersection because it gave me a valid reason to cite as the cause of my late arrival. (A really bad day is when you're running late and nothing happens along the way to create a plausible excuse.)
___ Yet the truth was my predicament was mainly my own fault. That's the hardest part of time management to manage.
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___I've learned to add 30 minutes to whatever time Mark tells me he's going to be home. That's the best secret of time management I know.
___ Time management never has been my forte. It is a
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ALINSON WINGFIELD
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good thing I now work out of our home, because if I had to get up and get myself ready for work and the boys ready for school every day, nobody in my household would be a happy camper.
___ Children have no sense of time. Mark and I spend half our time getting the boys ready and out the door, whether for school, church or just a quick trip to the grocery store.
___ I give the usual 10-minute warning, and then we have to find shoes, put them on, go to the bathroom, pick out a toy, find jackets and put them on. Then Garrett's newest trick is that he has to make a basketball goal (which we pass on our way to the car) before getting into the car. By the time I have them buckled up, I'm exhausted.
___ Sometimes I want to rebel against all the time constraints we put on ourselves today. It's amazing how freeing it is to hop in the car and go to the park or the zoo, and just take our time.
___ Daytimers and time management seminars seem to be essential in today's society, but I never seem to find the time to take the courses or use the materials. You can lead a time-impaired person to a daytimer, but you can't make her use it!
___ At the same time, I waste countless hours playing computer games or watching TV.
___ Jesus had his time priorities in line. He seized the moments of his ministry, knowing his time here was limited. He also knew when to fall back and take time for renewal and reflection.
___ This week I'm reminded how Jesus used his time knowing the end of his earthly ministry was near. Even if I had that kind of knowledge, would I use my time as wisely?
Mark Wingfield is managing editor of the Standard. Alison Wingfield is a freelance writer. The Wingfields moved to Texas from Louisville, Ky., where Mark had been editor of the Western Recorder, in which this column appeared weekly.
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