Time management. This is the Achilles' heel for so many people. You can be extremely talented, but without good time management, your life would still be a mess, a talented mess, no doubt, but a mess nonetheless. The Bible tells us to use our resources wisely as seen in the parable of the talents, and time is one of the most valuable resources we all have. If you want to live a productive life for God, then redeeming your time is a crucial step! I purchased this book to give to one of our youth group members who is graduating this year, this will help me just as much as it would help him.
Overview
In Redeeming Your Time, Jordan Raynor offers 7 biblical principles to help you become "purposeful, present, and wildly productive".
The seven principles are:
-start with the word
-let your yes be yes
-dissent from the kingdom of noise
-Prioritize your yeses
-accept your "unipresence"
-embrace productive rest
-eliminate all hurry
Each chapter expounds upon these principles. Raynor uses the Bible throughout the book, and one of the features of this book is that it shows "how Jesus managed His time". Bold claim. Sure enough, Raynor does draw examples from Christ's life that showcase excellent time management capabilities. The book also draws knowledge from other time management books that have helped Raynor. Of course, Raynor, an entrepreneur and a man of many pursuits, has had years of experience with time management, all of which he is now sharing with you.
This book is highly practical, filled with step-by-step principles and instructions on how you can better manage your time. It is also well-equipped with research and science to back up its own claims. It is not a difficult read by any means.
Why Read This?
As mentioned before, time management is a valuable yet rare skill. From my observation, so many are going day to day without a moment of rest. Yet at the end of the day it feels like you've done nothing meaningful with your life, you're too busy with keeping yourself alive. I'm sure some people actually have to be that busy to keep things afloat, and I really respect that. Yet for others, their lives can be so much better with a good time management strategy.
Objections will come regarding this. People would say: "Why don't you just serve the Lord with everything you've got? Forget about these gimmicks, die to yourself!". What if these "gimmicks" are actually wise, helpful strategies that will help us serve God better? The book is filled with great examples of how being wise with your time is far superior to just work your butt off all the time. One such example is the Sabbath, even God knows working at full steam all the time is no good.
This book is so practical. It doesn't just give you principles, it gives you steps you can implement right now. I have been taking some of the steps, and it's made my life so much more productive already, and it's reduced my anxiety down a lot! This is not a cliche book, it's actually wildly helpful, read it for yourself!
Of course, the most important part is that the book, at its core, is Christian. The author knows that the core reason for time management is so that we can be more effective for God and His people. The book is filled with biblical principles and verses, this will ensure that you come from the right motive.
Potential Pitfalls
Time management, like most other things, can become an obsession and an idol. Luckily, Raynor actually implemented this warning in the appendix. So I won't say much more here.
Some of the examples Raynor pulled from Jesus' life seem like a little bit of a
stretch. We are not in the 1st century, we are very far removed from when Jesus walked on earth, so we can't verify if those connections Raynor is making are true. However, this is not a huge deal to me, because the principles that Raynor is drawing out are still good, biblical principles.
Comments