Balance & Time Management

I really enjoyed this weeks lecture and lab. It was fun to hear a different perspective about time management from someone who was a BYU student and was definitely very busy. Although I'm not as busy as she was, I can still feel overwhelmed. I'm so happy she looked at it from a gospel oriented perspective.
The first thing she talked about was seeking the kingdom of God. If we put the gospel first in our lives, then everything else will fall into place. I find that when I am consistently reading the scriptures everyday and praying morning and night that I am happier and just feel better about life. This semester, in my Book Of Mormon class, my professor makes us keep a log of our daily scripture study and requires us to study 30 minutes every day. I really think this has effected my life for the better. I am less stressed and have had my testimony strengthened. It is really easy to just say, "I'll do it tomorrow," but when we have that attitude, usually things will not get done. Also, sometimes you convince yourself that you HAVE TO finish something by the next day, but don't necessarily think you HAVE TO read your scriptures today. I find that if I write it down, it gets done more quickly.
The second piece of advice she gave was to "keep water in your well." I believe I do this one well - sometimes maybe too well. I take time to sit down and watch a show or relax, but sometimes I get too caught up in the show I'm watching (this past week, the Olympics have been addicting!), when I could be doing something more productive. I think one of the things that rejuvenates me each week is actually what I do for my leadership role - volunteering to help out with Special Olympics bowling. It helps me focus on other people and I have so much fun doing it! The other thing that I've taken time to do each week is play on an intramural basketball team which is something I really enjoy.
I loved her third point of obeying the "Ten-Second Rule." I think if you follow the promptings you receive, that you will receive more and more. I am trying to be better at this by writing down random things in my planner. If I didn't do this, I would most likely forget the thing I want to remember. I heard a quote one time that said "The weakest ink is better than the strongest memory."
Brittany Beattie's fourth point was to choose best over good and better. This part is kind of hard for me because there are so many good things you can do with your time that it is hard to decide what is best. I am going to try to work on this one more and more. I think I can be better about not wasting time. I'm going to try to not over sleep so I can be productive in my days. I also want to watch less TV and be able to limit myself. I think this way I will be able to get more things done and possibly be able to focus on people more in my life.
Her last point was my favorite one - to focus on people, not processes or things. I really try to integrate this into my life. Sometimes people and building relationships can be more important than the things that are going on. It was kind of ironic because when she said this I was trying to remember a quote by President Monson that was said the next day in one of the videos we saw in our Lab. It said, "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." I love this quote because life really is about the relationships we make in our lives. The memories we hold dear to us would not be there unless we shared them with the people we love the most. I am going to try to be better by being more outgoing.
Overall, if we focus on people and becoming like Christ, other things will fall into place. We need to know how to prioritize and make sure we are doing the right things first and foremost.