00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 748 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Frazer rice, author of wealth. Actually, I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling, having the right relationship with all of your gifts is the key to doing this one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this,
00:00:27 the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader And you don't enjoy it anymore. The real key is to remember, it's not something that's written in stone and you cannot change it. Instead. It's something that this is what you've committed to doing. This is what you need to do. And if something comes up, you can weigh the pros and cons and quickly decide is the new task more important than the existing task.
00:01:02 Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. In today's episode about developing your influence by stewarding your time.
00:01:37 I talk with you about why you should have a schedule, why a schedule actually frees you instead of handcuffing you, if you're doing it right, and why you might think of it as doing the opposite as we talk about stewarding your time, wouldn't it be great if you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can.
00:01:58 All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission will come back to support the show. Just that quick. If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. One of the things that folks often push back on, when you talk about scheduling your time or setting up a plan ahead of time for what you want to use your time for is that that actually tends to handcuff them.
00:02:31 It tends to make it where they can't be spontaneous. They can't do things as it comes. They can't work on what they feel like at that particular point in time, or do something extra that they didn't plan on doing. And the truth is even if you like to live by the moment, even if you like to be spontaneous, even if you like to have a chance to do different things or change your mind during the day,
00:02:58 you should actually have a schedule, a schedule isn't meant to be something that sets up a fixed point in time that this is it, and you cannot change it. Remember the truth is that you're the one that made the schedule in the first place. So if there's a reason to change it, you certainly can. All the schedule is meant to do is be a commitment you make to yourself that you're going to do certain things at certain times,
00:03:27 but you can always change that commitment. The, the truth is a schedule frees you up instead of handcuffing you, because it helps you make decisions quicker and easier about what you want to do with your time. Have you ever had those moments where you had a wide open schedule during the day, and you had plenty of time to get a lot of things done,
00:03:50 but then you never really got started. You never really got anything done that day, or you move from event to event and you really don't ever get into a flow state or get concentrated work done, or even get the most important things done. Or have you ever had those moments where suddenly you have some time open up on your calendar, but you end up spending the entire time trying to figure out what you're supposed to get done instead of just rolling into the next task and working on it cleanly.
00:04:20 The truth is a schedule allows you to make those decisions much quicker. And when those spontaneous events come up, when something comes up with family or friends that perhaps you want to do, it allows you to look at your schedule and bounce the new event against it and decide is this more important than what I already had scheduled? Because if it is then of course you can change your schedule.
00:04:44 You can make a decision, but you see the consequences of those changes and you can weigh the pros and cons. You can make an informed decision instead of just living by the moment and then regretting it later later, see a schedule actually frees you up to be more flexible. Not less if you're doing it right. Got the truth is we think of it the opposite way,
00:05:09 because often we make a couple of fundamental mistakes. When we're making our schedule one, we schedule every single moment of the day. We try to use a zero-based time schedule without including some time for just sort of unplanned or unexpected task, because I don't know about you, but I think everyone has the experience of having unplanned tasks or tasks take a little longer than you expected or other unexpected things come up that completely derail your schedule.
00:05:40 And then you end up running from behind all the time and feeling frustrated like you didn't get everything done by allowing your schedule to have a little bit of flex time or a little time for the unplanned and unexpected. It's easier to roll with it. The second that we make with our schedules is we do make that commitment to them and think that these are the only things that we can do.
00:06:06 And by doing that by not allowing for some flexibility, by not allowing for yourself to make a change in that, that's where you start feeling like it's locking you in and you don't enjoy it anymore. The, the real key is to remember, it's not something that's written in stone and you cannot change it instead. It's something that this is what you've committed to doing.
00:06:29 This is what you need to do. And if something comes up, you can weigh the pros and cons and quickly decide is the new task more important than the existing task. And if it is then go ahead and roll with it and get that done. The truth is a schedule is only as handcuffing as you let it be. But we often think of it as being that way because we've used them wrong our entire life.
00:06:57 This has to do with how we interface with our to-do list, how we interface with other ways we have of recording what we need to do to, if you put so many tasks on your list of things that need to get done, that there's no possible way they can get done in the time you have available. Then you end up feeling frustrated every day by the schedule and by your task.
00:07:18 And that frustration builds up over time until eventually you just stop using it. And as you stop using it, it no longer works for you. And you're right back where you started from. So I encourage you to build some flex time into your schedule. Use your schedule, not as something that handcuffs you, but as something that allows you to make decisions.
00:07:40 And I think you'll have more success. Thanks for listening. So much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series,
00:08:14 by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting four, four, two, two, two time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures, develop your influence and impact The world.