There was no post Tuesday. I meant to take off Monday. It was a holiday, and we were traveling. But Tuesday… I intended to post Tuesday.

It just happened. There was no big crisis. No big event. Just a series of mildly pressing things that needed to be done. Nearly everyone of them could have waited. But they crowded in, one after the other, and sucked up all the available time.

Life is that way. There are loads of decent things we can get involved in. We have a never ending buffet of choices, and each choice brings commitments that chip away at our daily allotment of minutes. We can't do them all. The more we try, the crazier it makes us. One of the areas God works with us on is learning to choose. To prioritize. That means saying "no" to some good stuff in order to say "yes" to the best.

Now we can do this in other areas. (Most of us anyway.) We can look at a store display and choose only one candy bar. Or we can read the menu and pick one entree. One is satisfying. Too many bloat and weigh us down, make us sick, and eventually destroy our health.

It's not too different when we choose how to spend our time. I have things I MUST do, things I SHOULD do, things I COULD do and things I LIKE to do. I stick with the MUSTS, then balance as many SHOULDS and LIKES as I have time for. I don't often get to the COULDS. (I figure that's bonus stuff like cleaning out closets.)

Some key things I've learned –

• Everything is NOT a MUST. It's not.
• LIKES are good for you. They keep you sane.
• Beware of SHOULDS and who labels them as such. Don't let anyone SHOULD on you, and guilt is a terrible master.

Writing blog posts is a LIKE. Letting Tuesday go, without feeling guilty, keeps it that way.

How do you balance your time? 

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