We all get caught up in the here and now. I have gone a couple of weeks without making progress in some important areas because of the need to focus on the urgent. The urgent seems to scream at me – even when I am marking things off my task list. Even when I am accomplishing items, I feel like I am going backwards. Why is it that when we are already busy, more seems to get added to our plates?
Currently, my private practice is growing, but at times feels unmanageable. This seems to go hand-in-hand with building my private practice; there always seems to be more to do and stay on top of. Concurrently, my granddaughters have come for a visit (YAY!), we are working on building the content for this church website, I have trainings for my credentials that have to be accomplished, and we are getting ready for another trip back to Colorado from Arizona. Where does it end? The truth is- it doesn’t. At least in my adult life it has never ended.
How do we tame this monster, this tyrant? We face it head on by making time for God first. Breathe in His Spirit, take time to focus on God, His will for you, and His presence in your life. Do you feel His peace? Can you set aside your urgency long enough to sit with Him in His presence and His peace for a few minutes? Having a hard time with this? Expose yourself to His creation, worship music, laughter, or baby animals. Then breathe and try again.
Once you take time with God, the rest of the urgencies in your life will likely feel more manageable.
While there will always be times when we must take care of the urgent no matter what else is happening in our lives, we do not have to live that way every minute of every day. Eventually the baby will learn that waiting three minutes to get fed will not actually end his world; not every moment is likely to have a life-threatening emergency occurring where we are performing triage in the streets; there are only so many times that the pipes will freeze in one winter (our record is 3); and there has only been one time I walked into my home to see that it had been reduced to a subfloor and studs where there used to be carpet and walls. And yes, all these items have occurred to me. The urgent happens. Emergencies happen. How we handle them is the most important component. Right, God first, breathe…
There are times that I am so overwhelmed that I don’t even know where to start. It is at those times that I am glad that I am a list person. I take all my tasks and divide them into categories: home, work, school, kids, or whatever. I look through each of these areas and see how urgent each item is:
- What is urgent? Some of these things may not be able to wait long…
- What is important but not yet urgent? What can I handle (or hand off) so that these do not move into an urgent state?
- What can wait? I can move these to another list completely or even remove them from my sight for the moment (I will often place a reminder on my calendar so that I can address them before they move to a more urgent state.
- What can I do quickly? If I can get them out of my way it makes my list smaller very quickly!
- What do I never have to do? (Yes, this means learning to say no)
- What can I delegate? I am a huge fan of this. Even if it costs more money, it may be worth it to remove it from my plate. I have paid to have my lawn mowed by a neighborhood teen, have someone walk the dog, take my dog to the groomers instead of bathing him myself. Well worth it to me – speaking of which the dog needs a bath…
- What do I want to do? I always try to have at least something small that I want to do every day – balance is important.
We all have times when the urgent becomes the imperative but remember: the urgent happens; emergencies happen. How we handle them is the most important component.
In His love – Teresa
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