The 3 Most Important Times of My Day - #1

After doing a lot of time-related reflection this past week, three different times of my day crept up on the priority list. These are the things that I’ve realized are essential to me - the things that I need in order to call my day successful. Over the next several days I’m going to highlight each one. These aren’t in order of importance, but, rather, in the order that they happen on a daily basis.

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The first essential time of my day happens early… really early.

While I’ve always been sort of a morning person, I really only got used to an early morning schedule when we lived in Nashville. I would work a 6:30 am - 3:30 pm shift at LifeWay, which meant that I rose about 5:00 am.

Now that I don’t have to get around quite as early, I get to ‘sleep in’ to 5:40 am.

My morning time is a safe-haven in my life. It is the time that I invest in myself and the things that feed me.

Each morning I take time to read and/or write, while the quiet of the day is still lingering. Before the business of getting myself and the kids ready for the day, I set aside time for reflection. This is a time that feeds me as an introvert and gets me set-up for the rest of my day.

This typically consists of reading at least one chapter of a book. I used to try and juggle several books at once, but have found that I don’t retain near as much unless I am devoted to one book at a time.

I keep a small moleskine with me as a reading journal - writing down key words, phrases, and thoughts that stand out to me or that I want to remember. This is, in essence, my way of ‘highlighting’ these kinds of instances. Instead of having to figure out “What book did I see that in?” or “What chapter/page is it in?”, I have a small, quick, power-packed record to refer back to. This lends itself to my “Moleskine rating” that you see on the home page, next to the books I’ve recently read. It’s just one more way that I can quickly get a bearing on how impactful a particular book has been. Some books don’t lend themselves to this kind of note-taking, so some (especially fiction) will have a “NA” next to them.

Most of my blogging happens pre-7:00 am. Sometimes I write on a topic that relates to what I’ve read that morning, or on a subject that is at the forefront of my mind that day. Most of the time, however, I am blogging on a topic/series that I’ve already pre-determined. I used Evernote on my Mac (Windows version is available) and iPhone to capture blog ideas that I have throughout the day. Some are ready to write on the next day. Others take time to ‘marinate.’ If I don’t finish a thought, I’ll try and finish it either during lunch or at some time in the evening. I also blog in bulk on the weekends when I have more devoted time to think and process through my blog ideas from Evernote.

Some mornings I will use the Moravian Texts (sent via email) along with YouVersion for a Scripture reading/prayer. The Moravian daily texts have been published for more than 250 years and is circulated to over 1.5 million readers worldwide. It provides a good balance of thematic Scripture passages, along with consecutive daily texts that walk you through books of the Bible.

All in all I’ve found that this time is essential to the rest of my day. If I get away from this time (frequently because I stayed up too late the night before) I find that I fall out of rhythm quickly in other areas of my life as well. It sets the tone, almost acting as a metronome to the other pieces of my day.

What about you? What ‘kick starts’ your day? Are you a morning person or evening (or neither)?

Posted 08.12.2009

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