5 Ways to Spend Your Time on What Matters Most

One of the books I've read a few times is called Essentialism by Greg McKeown. I appreciate how he helps you narrow down your life or work into the things that matter most. When it comes to how to implement these ideas, McKeown offers the following list:

"To discern what is truly essential we need space to think, time to look and listen, permission to play, wisdom to sleep, and the discipline to apply highly selective criteria to the choices we make."

There's a lot here to learn from, and I appreciate how he focuses on five different areas.

Space to think

This requires regular time to get away from what you're doing to see it more clearly. Ironically, the last time I went through this book with a group was when I became a Lead Pastor. I had our leadership team go through it together as a way for all of us to evaluate what we were doing and create discussions as to where we wanted to go. I say ironically because that season was like drinking from a fire hose. I was suddenly deeply immersed in something going on for decades. I felt like I was perpetually playing catch-up. Getting space to think about what we were doing was challenging.

This is one of the advantages of traveling, especially outside of your own culture. It allows you to see things from other points of view and thus provides space to think about your own situation with fresh eyes. As a result, I've found my love of traveling exponentially increasing these days.

Time to look and listen

I once remember being so busy with ministry and family commitments that I realized I was grateful one evening when I couldn't fall asleep. This is not usually a problem for me and sleeplessness is not typically something a person would be grateful for. I was thankful that night because my sleeplessness provided me time to look and listen to what was going on around me. My normal days were busy from morning to night until my head hit the pillow in satisfied exhaustion.

These days we've restructured our time as a family and I feel like this has become an area of strength. I've felt the uniqueness of this in my life these last few years because of the five areas on this list, time to look and listen may be the most challenging for people to make happen. It likely requires saying no to a lot of really good opportunities.

Permission to play

I've found this can be determined a lot by your personality (and if you're married, your spouse's personality). The more driven you are, the more you may struggle to enjoy doing something with no apparent results to show for it. But spending time in 'nonproductive' play is huge for us mentally and emotionally.

What's something you enjoy doing even though it doesn't seem to accomplish anything in your life? It could be video games, going to the movie theater, reading fiction books, or taking up any number of hobbies. Most of us have wildly malnourished senses of imagination, and lack of play is a huge reason why.

Wisdom to sleep

I'm done with people bragging about how little they sleep as if it's a badge of honor. The science of why you need adequate sleep to function fully is overwhelming. This is a like taking a reverse mortgage on your home and acting like you've won the lottery. You may feel like you've won at the moment, but you are trading a significant part of the future to get it. 

Apple has a feature where you can automatically assign your bedtime and your morning wake-up routine into your phone. I tried this a few months back and have been blown away by how much it helped. I recently posted a list of things I've learned in my life (see: 40 Things I've Learned at 40), and one of them about being more intentional with sleep was one of my favorites. When you desperately need a nap, doing any of the other four things on this list is hard.

Discipline to apply criteria

At the end of the day, practicing the first four areas only matters if you are willing to implement the insights you gain. This means a lot of saying no when you realize those things that aren't as meaningful as you might have assumed. It also means a willingness to let down the expectations of people you care about when they don't align to what matters most to you. 

I went through this book at two different churches, and it was at this point that things got dicey. Almost everyone enjoyed reading the book and the concept of the ideas. But as soon as someone suggested something tangible that needed to be changed or cut, it suddenly got personal.

What could a little boldness in this area allow you to do more of or to do far better than you thought possible?

Click here to get a copy of Essentialism on Amazon.

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Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash