Time Management
In this course, you will learn how to be a good steward of the things you have been blessed with. This lesson is all about using time. God has given you agency to use your time as you choose, but he warns us not to “idle away thy time” (D&C 60:13) because you will have to stand before God one day and give an account of what you did with your time. You will have to provide a stewardship of the time, talents, and blessings that the Lord has given you.
President Thomas S. Monson
There are three steps to manage your time: (1) evaluating how you spend your time, (2) aligning your activities to your values, and (3) prioritizing the things that matter most.
Step One: Evaluate How You Spend Your Time
You have a lot of things competing for your attention, especially on your electronic devices. If you’re not careful, you can waste more time than you imagine browsing social media or watching videos. British researchers found that young adults use their cell phone twice as much as they estimated that they do. In fact, cell phone use has become so habitual that as of 2015, people were spending on average, about one-third of their waking hours on their phones. That’s a huge amount of time.
People who do not evaluate how they spend their time usually make mistakes estimating how much time they’re spending on various tasks.
Given our increasingly electronic environment, the time management tools of tracking, evaluating, and prioritizing tasks are essential to being a good steward. Here is a simple tool called Start, Stop, Continue that can help you evaluate how you are spending your time. Start, Stop, Continue, is a three-step process that forces you to evaluate what you are doing by asking three questions:
- What do you need to start doing that you are not currently doing?
- Is there a prompting you’ve had to do something?
- Is there something missing from your personal worship?
- What do you need to stop doing that you are currently doing?
- Are there any activities in your life that are conflicting with having God in the center of your heart?
- Have you committed to too many things?
- What should you continue doing?
- What activities are moving you towards your goals?
- What are you doing that you find fulfilling?
These three questions are widely relevant. You can use them in family councils to work together in order to strengthen your family life, to improve relationships, or even to become more efficient at work.
Step Two: Align Your Daily Activities with Your Values
The second step to becoming a wise time management steward is to align what you are doing to who you want to become. This can be a challenging task given the mental struggle that we often experience as we try spending time on two or more valuable activities.
Christ was once asked which commandment was the most important. His answer provides great understanding into how we should prioritize our time. “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Christ’s answer echoes the commandment God gave to Adam and Eve when they left the Garden of Eden to “Worship the Lord their God.” Worship means “to become like.” How could we possibly become like God if we didn’t love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind? The following video shows how placing God at the center of our heart allows us to both prioritize and find meaning in our daily activities. As you watch it, consider how your daily tasks have greater meaning when they are aligned with becoming like God.
Video Source (03:33 mins, "Models of Living" Transcript)
God created the Sabbath to help us remember our covenants and worship Him. On that special day, we make a promise to remember Him, that we might have His Spirit to be with us. This promise focuses our commitment to put God in the center of our hearts and follow the second great commandment to "love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. 22:39). This weekly pattern helps us to prioritize the things that matter most and avoid different distractions.
Step Three: Prioritize the Things that Matter Most
By the third step, you should have a list of meaningful activities that will help you become like God. There are still likely more things on your list than you can accomplish in one day. Step three helps you prioritize the things that are on your list by putting the things that matter most at the top.
The Lord knows that you have more to do than you have time for. The real test in this life is what we choose to spend our time on. It’s a question of priorities.
One way that we fail to cherish opportunities that are unique and spiritual is by focusing on tasks and things rather than people. To be an effective steward of your time, you need to learn to invest time in people rather than spend time on things.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf explains that there are four important relationships that we should invest our time in, in his October 2010 conference talk titled Of Things That Matter Most. He said, “As we turn to our Heavenly Father and seek His wisdom regarding the things that matter most, we learn over and over again the importance of four key relationships: with our God, with our families, with our fellow man, and with ourselves. As we evaluate our own lives with a willing mind, we will see where we have drifted from the more excellent way. The eyes of our understanding will be opened, and we will recognize what needs to be done to purify our heart and refocus our life” (Of Things That Matter Most).
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Answer these questions to see what you remember from reading the text above.
- The three steps to manage your time are evaluating how you spend your time, aligning your activities to your values, and _________.
ANSWER - The tool called Start, Stop, Continue helps evaluate time management by asking three questions: What do you need to start doing, stop doing, and ________?
ANSWER - Step two of time management involves aligning your daily activities with _________.
ANSWER
Goals
One way to be a good steward of your time is to set and achieve goals. Preach My Gospel states that “Goals reflect the desires of our hearts and our vision of what we can accomplish. Through goals and plans, our hopes are transformed into action” (How Do I Use Time Wisely?). In this section, you will learn how goals can be created and organized into manageable steps through a goal hierarchy similar to the one below.
Our Purpose
You have a potential that you cannot possibly imagine, if you only rely on your mortal perspective. In order to see yourself with the same scope, depth, and context that God sees you, you must first develop a stronger, closer relationship with Him. Most of the things occupying your typical day are just scaffolding for the real purpose of your life on earth—to grow and to learn in righteousness so you can one day become like God.
When you earnestly seek a relationship with God, your capacity to understand Him expands. The agency you enjoy in this life is a God-given gift, and employing it for this worthy pursuit is a kind of consecration—an act that can bring with it tremendous blessings and insight.
Top-Level Goals
Loving God and your neighbors will help you develop your divine potential, but you still need to understand the talents or gifts God has given you to help him. Think about your passion in life (in other words, your greatest interests). What can you do to have a positive influence in the world? Your answer to this and other similar questions will help you discover your top level goals. Top level goals are the things you care about the most. These goals give meaning and purpose to your life.
Figuring out your top-level goal can be difficult. To help with this, think about your highest professional goal. What do you want to do for work? What do you enjoy so much that you would be willing to invest thousands of hours practicing? The answers to these questions are your top level goals. You should only have two or three top-level goals because of how much time, effort, and focus it takes to achieve them. If you have too many top-level goals, you may not be able to accomplish them as effectively.
Mid and Lower-Level Goals
Mid-level goals support your top-level goals by breaking them down into major themes. For example, in the chart above there are three mid-level goals for each top-level goal. Being a great parent was broken down into:
- Have a healthy diet
- Spend time with family
- Obtain a good job
Helping children succeed in school was broken down into:
- Establish relationships
- Understand learning strategies
- Earn a degree
Notice how the mid-level goals relate to the top level goals? Top level goals are more general, but smaller goals are more specific. Lower-level goals are even more specific and tend to be linked to certain everyday tasks. It is through these tasks that the larger mid and top-level goals can be met. Top level goals rarely change, but mid and lower level goals can change from time to time as you evaluate your performance and adjust your plans to your current situation. The scriptures are full of stories of people who changed their tactics to follow their passion for becoming like God. An example of such a person is Nephi.
Nephi Knew How to Achieve His Top-Level Goal
Consider the example of Nephi acquiring the brass plates (optional video: Nephi Is Led by the Spirit to Obtain the Plates of Brass). Nephi stated his top-level goal (or his strategy to become like God) when he said: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded.”
(1 Nephi 3:7). Having a strong top-level goal was the foundation for Nephi’s passion so that he was able to persevere (endure or continue) despite difficult circumstances.
His top-level goal did not provide him with the tactics to get the plates—he had to work that out for himself. His first tactic to simply ask for the plates was unsuccessful, and the second tactic to buy the plates left him running for his life. It wasn’t until his third attempt that he was successful. In that attempt, Nephi said that he was “led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which he should do.” Nephi could not have been led by the Spirit unless he was applying the daily tactics of righteous living. We can see evidence of such tactics (mid and lower level goals) throughout 1st and 2nd Nephi in the following statements:
- “I did frankly forgive them” (1 Nephi 7:21).
- “I sat pondering in my heart” (1 Nephi 11:1).
- “I, Nephi, did exhort my brethren, with all diligence, to keep the commandments of God” (1 Nephi 16:4).
- “I, Nephi, did strive to keep the commandment of the Lord” (1 Nephi 17:15).
- “I did pray oft unto the Lord” (1 Nephi 18:3).
- “I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions” (1 Nephi 18:16).
- “I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Nephi 19:23).
- “I know in whom I have trusted” (2 Nephi 4:19).
- “We talk of Christ we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Nephi 25:26).
In this example, we see the power of connecting top-level goals to mid and lower level goals in daily living. It was Nephi’s top-level goal to be obedient that connected him to his love of God and his passion to be like Him. It was his mid and lower-level goals of studying the scriptures, praying, forgiving, pondering, prophesying, and rejoicing in Christ that gave him the power to persevere. This is the process that helped Nephi to be successful, despite Laman and Lemuel’s bad examples and actions.Principles of Effective Goals
Effective goals include these principles:
Specific
- What will be the specific result of your goal?
- What are the specific steps needed to achieve it?
- Is the goal too general?
Measurable
- Do you have a way to measure your progress?
- When will you review your progress?
Actionable
- Will you be able to achieve this goal?
- What are the reasons you believe you can accomplish this goal?
- Have you spoken to people that have achieved the same or similar goals?
Relevant
- Does this goal support a mid-level or top-level goal?
- Is it connected to who you want to become?
- Is this a goal you want to make into a habit?
Time Bound
- Do you have a specific date you want to accomplish this goal by?
- Is there a time period that you will work in to accomplish the goal?
Goals that use these principles are more effective because they provide the structure that mid-level and lower-level goals need to help you accomplish your top-level goals. A lower-level goal of having family home evening can help you accomplish a higher goal of spending time together as a family. Here is how the principles above can be applied to the goal of having family home evening.
- Specific: Have Family Home Evening one night during the week at 6:00 p.m.
- Measurable: It can be observed, recorded, and scheduled on a calendar.
- Actionable: Everyone in the family can adjust their schedule to this time.
- Relevant: It directly relates to the goal to spend time as a family and be a good parent.
- Time Bound: Occurs every (specific night of the week), for 60 minutes.
Form Good Habits
Habits are key to accomplishing the goals in any goal hierarchy. If you would like to know more about this skill, see the article titled "Form Good Habits" in the Resource Center.
W03 Gathering Prep
What will you do this eek, in preparation for the gathering, to exemplify the Learning Model principle of “Teach One Another?” Communication is key to a better learning experience. As you prepare for the gathering this week communicate to someone the principles of effective goals. How do these principles help with time management?
After reading this lesson, ponder the following questions. If desired, record your thoughts in a learning journal.
- How can you invest time in people rather than spend time on things?
- Why has God designed our mortal existence to include so many routine tasks?
- How can you slow down and focus on the most important things?
- Read the student experience from Kaylee, a PathwayConnect student and consider how she used lower-level goals to help work on her higher-level goal of completing this course.
While I was so excited to get myself into this program, I found myself ridiculously busy. Not only did I work full time, but my apartment was filled with party animals called roommates. Although I loved them to tears, to sit down to do homework while music blared in my ears and feet rumbled the floor was near to impossible. That intense fear of missing out left me increasingly distracted and little of my homework was able to get done. It wasn’t until I decided to make a battle plan, delegating just 20 minutes a day to sit down and get work done. Most of the time, I would do more than 20 minutes and often I would get the homework done in one night. That simple goal led me to having the motivation to start it and keep going and I was able to pass my first semester.
Kaylee