Reflection on Time Management

31-45 my score...42
You're good at some things, but there's room for improvement elsewhere. Focus on the serious issues below, and you'll most likely find that work becomes much less stressful.

I need to weed out distractions and use my time more wisely....I let emails and requests from people zap a lot of time from my schedule. I have the God given ability to "help" people. So I have a hard time to say no to people in need inside my skill set. But limiting the distractions would be good first step. Maybe just making the distraction dealing with school or church would be a good start. Everything else gets "rejected". I will try to implement that idea for a few weeks.

Also, for me, preparing my mind for the day in a good frame of mind is critical that I have neglected. I am back to reading my devotional before I leave for school at 6:50 AM with kids in tow. That really helps me stay emotionally in check during the school day so much more. I had been getting frustrated a lot lately. It is amazing how a little peace of mind can make a difference that I have all too often let slip away.

Well, all can see that time has slipped away from me.  I find it almost humorous that I am reflecting on some strategies about time management that have been successful over the last couple weeks.  I won't post the two reminders from Mindy that have motivated me to get back on here to finish, but those have been in the back of my mind.

Although I have been dealing with a lot over the last few weeks, I have managed to feed my distractions and preparing my mind for the day have been lacking.  Maybe it is the summer time blues and the fact that I have had no time for a vacation this summer as of yet with all the things my kids want to participate in thus far, but July 20th is approaching when all activities come to a stop. I can continue with the excuses I suppose.  

Within the window of preparing my mind, which I still have been somewhat successful, my wallet is a mess with the short lists that I have continued to create that I want to complete.  I  was able to scratch off some of those shorter lists of goals, but still have a longer list that I am chipping away at.  The first two bays of my garage did get cleaned, but the third bay is still used for storing boxes for our new home. I want to get that bay moved to basement and get our daughter's car inside soon before school.   I need to link that work to her cell phone bill and delegate that out.

I have struggled with some serious procrastination since I have last been online.  Part that is the distraction factor. I still struggle with saying "no" to people.  That bumps things around and gets be unfocused on my lists.  I am managing two baseball teams this summer and trying to get my oldest daughter to and from the gym for basketball and volleyball camps for high school.  The baseball process has taken the most communication with parents and league officials.  Tones of emails and texts messages to send out and reply to.  Church has continued to be a thorn for the work that I am involved with as a church elder.  I am new at that position and really didn't see the amount of time required.  Not to mentioned helping the in-laws with their RV set up on our property as they try to settle in.  Some things I have to do to to stay married, helping the in-laws is a privilege and in know it makes my wife happy.  Committing to  the church work is a passion and a frustration all in the same hat.  Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it, but then to see a smiling face at VBS and church camp makes the long meeting hours well worth it.

As you can tell, my list making skills is the one area that I have attempted to keep any successful process going thus far.  It is a hope of mine that I can get some things under control with the house projects ( we moved into a new house this past spring) and my wife and I can get organized by either giving away a lot of stuff or having a good yard sale to clear stuff out.  I need a structured routine and when school it out, it tends to get really unstructured.  That is good and bad.  Mostly bad in the sense of this Time Management concept.

I know I have a lot work on internally and this module has help expose a few things I already know. Now it is up to me to make things happen.  Reading some of the other blogs, I know I am not alone. That in itself is reassuring, which is one of the good things about the discussions that I have found.  I miss journaling so much, but this is a good second to that.

Thanks for posting the thoughts about how each of you deal with areas of weakness in your life.  It has been reassuring that your success can spill over to my areas of concern.  - Don

Teacher's should blog response for Five Points Activity

"Because to blog is to teach yourself what you think"....when I first read this I didn't give it much thought, obviously.  I didn't see myself in the "blogging world". I just learned about blogging when our minister at church said he was going to post blogs of the sermon.  Now I am doing this class that ask me to create a blog post.  

The whole idea of blogging is like I used to do in college many moons ago...writing in a journal. I even made the jump to typing in a journal when I got married...again, many moons ago.  I haven't visited the journal idea in a long while and actually do miss it, but life has taken a different turn and my time is eaten up with other things.  So...." because to "write" is to teach yourself what you think" might be a stretch for me, but getting feedback isn't really a huge desire.  I just like to clear my mind. I don't think I need others to fill me with ideas or thoughts, "responses, replies, things to consider" in the process, but one never knows if it would help, so I will try it.

The risky part of the teach yourself what you think is a fundamental concept of not knowing what you think.  I don't float around in this world without a paddle in the boat.  I know where I am going and getting there is the challenge at times as life throws a few curve balls now and then. 

So here is to this concept of blogging.  In his blog post "Why Teachers Should Blog," Shelly Blake-Plock argues that all teachers should be bloggers. After reading his post, do you agree or disagree? Why? 
 blogging
I don't necessarily disagree at this point, but understand Shelly's point about.  The next sentence kind of sums up my idea about the confronting something that I have created myself......"And sometimes what we think embarrasses us and we must then confront our thoughts and consider whether there are alternatives."  This does allow us to grow or dig a deeper hole to stay in.  I am somewhere in the middle I suppose.  Raised old-school, raising kids old-school in hopes of raising a Modern-Day Knight in my son...been a slow process thus far.  So allowing me to "grow" might mean I am going to need to confront the alternatives in life, but I am not good at that because I know where I am going and don't want things to steer me in a different direction.  Time will tell.