quality and quantity

i've been thinking a lot lately about the idea of quantity and quality. we must realize we can only do so much. we have limited time. it is a valuable resource. we can either do a lot of things to a lesser degree or few things with more investment. i have felt a great lack of time over the last year or so. i have a pile of "to read" books that fills one section of our bookcase. my "to-do" lists aren't always realistic. other interests go unexplored.

as some of you know, i use a franklin-covey planner which is supposed to be more of a lifestyle then just an appointment book. stephen covey (author and conceiver of the material) would tell you to identify your large goals based on your values and schedule them first, allowing all the smaller stuff to fill in around it. i think there's some logic to that. i've started waking up 30min earlier each morning for devotions because i had been wanting to do more of that then what i had been doing. i have enjoyed this, even though it demands a sacrifice of sleep (which i also really enjoy). though i must say, i don't think that in general, cutting back on sleep is the answer. i heard an article on npr last year about how many people are getting up earlier and earlier. some people called in and admitted they were rising at 4:00am or even earlier because that was the only time they could have for themselves.

because of technology we have more access to ideas, books, music etc then in history. i don't know about you, but sometimes i feel overwhelmed. i to want to read everything and listen to every new band. i used to feel like i was really on top of the indie music scene but have since had to admit, this is not true anymore. i guess the bottom line is, we just can't do it all...we must pick and choose. opening one door means we must close another. katie and i don't want to be one of those families that always has one foot out the door to the next activity or a schedule that doesn't even allow time for a random walk. while i want to read everything, i'd rather have really gotten something out of a book because i wasn't rushing through it to get to the next on the list. but even then, you have to make sacrifices (sometimes even painfully) in order really do the things that mean the most to you. i think to try and do it all will only leave me exhausted and feeling like i haven't accomplished anything.

so maybe this year i need to spend more time really working with my time to cut out the waste and more time doing the things i love. i think we're faced with this challenge in more areas then we think.