Just give me one Gilligan and two Handy Mannys, and I'll get it done

"I wish I had more time, but I only have an hour before I need to be at my appt."

"There's only an hour before supper, not enough time to get anything done."

"The kids need to be in bed in an hour, I better not start anything now."

Do any of these sound familiar? How many times have you ended your day, wishing you had a little more time to get your chores done? Maybe you looked back on your week and saw nothing but unfinished projects, or mounds of things left to do. It's always easy to become overwhelmed when you look at the whole. But when you dissect it into smaller bite-sized pieces, it becomes possible, even imaginable that you could achieve success with that scary to-do list.

Let's look at the hour. Sixty minutes. Three Thousand Six Hundred seconds. Two episodes of Brady Bunch. One Paula Deen. Two episodes (grueling though they may be) of Barney. You get the idea. It really doesn't seem like a whole lot of time. Quite frankly, it can be easy to lose hours everyday if you are not careful. As a child, I could get lost in a book for hours. Now our kids get lost in video games. Hmph. Adults can lose hours too. I think we can all think of "grown-up" ways to waste an hour; waiting in a doctor's office, surfing the net, stuck in traffic, etc.

Maybe there are some ways to make better use of an hour.

Instead of flipping through magazines in a doctor's office:

1) Make your menus for the week
2) Make your grocery list
3) Plan short term and long term goals for yourself
- What you would like to have done in one week, one month, 6 months, one year, etc..
4) Read your Bible reading for the day, or a devotional


Instead of jumping from site to site surfing the net (needlessly, not when looking for something specific):

1) Clean out one drawer in the kitchen, two if you have time.
2) Dust one room in the house, thoroughly.
3) Make a meal for the freezer.
4) Bake cookies with the kids.
5) Read a book to your kids.
6) Play a board game with the family.
7) Organize your linen closet.


Instead of complaining about being stuck in traffic:

1) Clean out your purse, throwing away all old receipts, gum wrappers, and other icky stuff.
2) Pick up all the trash on the floorboards in the car. Now....please do not do this when you're just at a red light, it is very easy to rear-end the person in front of you, and you want to talk about hours wasted!? Man, we're not even gonna talk about insurance companies, and court dates. Seriously, let the kids pick it up. After all it's their mess :)
3) Practice spelling words or Bible verses in the car with the kids.
4) If the kids are not with you, put in a sermon or audio book.
5) Meditate on the passage you read for your devotional.
6) Call and make any appointments you need to schedule.


I know it doesn't seem like much, but after a while, you will notice that things are starting to get done, and you don't feel so far behind. There's a reason we don't eat a T-bone steak in one bite. Aside from it being really gross, we would choke. But by taking small bites, we are able to enjoy its flavor along the way, savoring each bite. When its all gone, we can sit back and relax, feeling completely satisfied. Let's face it, sometimes it's just nice knowing there's nothing left on our plate.