I woke up this morning meditating and asking God to speak to me. Mondays usually fill me with the overwhelming thought of all the tasks, goals and activities I should be doing to make my week productive. My mind races towards seeing every possibility that may occur and I begin to create safeguards and options in my mind just in case what I’m working on doesn’t actually work out. This mental pattern is very overwhelming, and sometimes, paralyzing to move forward with.

So as I was asking God for a word (and help), He continued bringing up two specific words; order and wisdom. He didn’t say anything about time management. Didn’t mention productivity, busyness, or even balance. The words were clearly order and wisdom.

Why Order And Wisdom Exceed Time Management and Productivity

I couldn’t get these words out of my mind so I began pondering them and their significance to my dilemma. Here’s what I concluded:

You see, with wisdom, you will know what must get done and what isn’t important at all. With wisdom, you will only make the decisions that are in line with where God is taking you rather than the feelings and fears of that come from doing things our own, unproven way. Wisdom makes it so that you don’t need a safeguard or another option because you have the security knowing that it is the best and only way to move forward.

I was then thinking about order. Order speaks to the sequence of things, the priority of things and the process of things. We get overwhelmed at times because we make ourselves believe that every step of the process must be done now, not done at its time.

In fact, what good is it for me to envision step 5 and all the things that can go wrong when I haven’t fully committed and completed step 2? This is exactly where order comes into play.

Here’s what occurred when I put order and wisdom into play for today.

After praying this morning, I got myself ready and dropped my son off at school to the usual goofing off we do in the car. I then came home and decided that there was nothing more important this morning than to encourage someone and spend time with God. This post is the first part and right after this I’m going back to talk to God and read His word without being rushed.

I decided that I wasn’t going to have coffee this morning (very rare for me) because it didn’t have any real positive effects on me. I also thought about the only 3 things that need to get done today that matter most in my business so that I am completely done working and electronics are turned off by the time my wife and son get home at 3:45. We’ll have dinner together at the table without any interruptions and simply enjoy each other’s company.

Then later tonight, I’ll watch less TV so I can enjoy one of the many books I’ve been “too busy” to read lately. As I get ready for bed, I’m looking forward to hearing how my wife’s day was and spend time joking and laughing with her because I will not allow insignificant things to steal away that moment.

Forget time management and productivity. This morning, I decided to conquer busyness through wisdom and order!

It’s time we kill our internal chaos and addiction to unproductive busyness. Let’s live more alive and purposeful so that we make people count, not just our time.

What will you do differently today as you let wisdom and order guide you through your day? Comment below.