Time for a New Year and a Resolution to Spend Your Hours Wisely

• Lose Weight
• Manage Debt
• Save Money
• Get a Better Job
• Get Fit
• Get a Better Education
• Drink Less Alcohol
• Quit Smoking Now
• Reduce Stress Overall
• Reduce Stress at Work
• Take a Trip
• Volunteer to Help Others

I think time management ought to be in the Top Ten.

When I think that each day has just 24 hours that culminate into 8,760 hours for this past year and the one to come, I wonder if I use them wisely enough. You can't stop a clock from ticking away the time and, once it is past - it is gone forever. The New Year is a chance to spend our time wisely.

The typical workweek consists of 40 hours or roughly 2,000 of the 8,760 (not including time off).

Another 2,500 hours are spent sleeping (if you are lucky enough to garner 7 hours of sleep each night!)

According to the USDA government website (http://www.ers.usda.gov) the average American spends roughly one hour each day, eating and drinking. I suppose we would have to add another hour preparing what we eat or drink - or the driving time to get us to a restaurant. So, for this exercise, we will add 2 hours to the day for eating, drinking, preparing and/or driving to a destination. That totals 730 hours on this activity.

That leaves us with 3,530 hours. According to an article on ABC news site (http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=93103&page=1), the average American spends about 1 hour each day in the bathroom. This man has never lived with teenagers who can consume an entire hour just showering. But, for argument sake, we'll assume this is true, add a buffer for those days when the shower is the only comfort to a weary body and round up to 400 hrs each year - bathroom time.

Recapping:

2,000 (work)

2,500 (sleep)

730 (eat/drink)

400 (bathroom)

Total thus far: 5,630. We still have over 3,000 hours to spend.

According to the US Department of Labor, 83% of women spend 2 hours each day doing household chores (laundry, bills, shopping, etc) While men ranked slightly lower on household chores but higher on sports related activities.

Watching television ranked as the number one leisure activity and the numbers vary but for all intents and purposes we can assume that roughly 2 -3 hours each day are spent watching the tube. Or the equivalent of the time we spend eating, drinking and using the bathroom combined!

According to the Associated Press, Americans waste 34 hours each year stuck in traffic.

That will leave us with 2,000 hours to spare. What do you do with the remaining 83 days of your year?

We all know that childcare accounts for a large portion of your hours if you have children, especially small children.

I most likely spend one entire month on the computer or 2 hours per day. Some days more, some days less.

I also spend about 2 hours in church each week and since there are 52 Sundays in 2010, I will be spending about 100 hours at our church - more or less. Sadly, I spend more time walking my dog than going to church to give thanks for all of my hours each year. If I spend an hour per day walking the dog, that's another 365 hours each year.

Still, there are a whole lot of hours left unaccounted for. Are you spending your time wisely?

Jim Croce once penned the lyrics for the song, Time in a Bottle,

"But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them..."

It is my prayer that as we head into 2010 we remember that there are only so many hours in each given day. I hope you spend your time wisely. In the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1:A Time for Everything

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven: