Monday is goal-setting day for me. List writing day.
It’s an efficiency thing for me. I’m a scatterbrain and, thus, if I do not write down what I need to accomplish I don’t get much done. So every Monday at breakfast I write down the to-do list for the week.
Clean the bathroom. Post to blog/Facebook/Twitter. Make dentist appointment.
Then there are the goals–write 8 hours a week (laugh if you want, but that’s hard for me), eat 5 fruits and veggies each day, exercise three hours. These are accompanied by little circles or boxes that can be checked off to show how much I’ve done. These are matched up against my monthly goals–writing word count, fitness goals, financial goals, books to read, etc.
Well, yesterday I didn’t have time at breakfast to write my list. I recently started a new job, and my world is in shambles. My schedule is in uproar. I’m learning new things. I’m meeting new people. By the time I get home my brain is tired. Oh, and then I turn around and go to my other job.
I’m not an overachiever, I’m just poor.
I know that some people are far more busy than me. I know. But right now I feel like I’m up to my neck. I could push myself to be more efficient, and I will, but… On Sunday I was challenged to learn to be still and silent–to take time to get away from my tasks and be quiet. How counterintuitive! How ridiculous! I am BUSY here!
But, as I was told, love and busyness are incompatible. How do you build a relationship in a hurry? How do you build a masterpiece in a hurry? And that is what I am seeking to do: to love God and to build my life into a masterpiece.
So, here is the challenge that went onto my to-do list (once I wrote it, on break at work). I will be still and silent for 10 minutes every day. I will take time to just be. And y’know… I think it might be what saves my sanity, and what gives me the strength to plug away at the to-do list.
I challenge you to do the same thing: take ten minutes to sit, drink coffee, think, meditate, or pray. Let me know what happens. And, if you have any books or articles on the subject you think I’d find helpful, please comment.
Geralyn Wichers 
A quiet spot in my day- even a brief one- saved my sanity many a time when I had young children; a short walk, or sitting on the step where I could hear the children, but not be found too readily. Clears the brain, calms the emotions, gives new focus.