Description

There’s just so much to do, and the 24 hours in a day never seem to be enough to catch up. Even retired folks find it hard to get to the end of their to-do list. And the stress seems to set in earlier and earlier in life, with even pre-adolescent children feeling the crunch. Is there any way out? You’ve heard methods from time management gurus–now hear what famed time-management-school flunkout Amy Morgenstern has to say.

Worship leader: Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern

Worship Associate: Sarah Kostka

Special music: Margaret Davis and Kristoph Klover

Order of service: bit.ly/uucpa_oos_20210822.

Sermon How to Fit It All In Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern

There’s a kind of computer game I like to play. The object is to clear a road, or build a castle, and there are lots of other tasks you need to complete along the way: build a sawmill, build a quarry, expand your headquarters so you have more workers . . . There are bonuses to pick up and some are worth getting and some are a waste of your resources.

If you complete the tasks quickly and in just the right order, you can finish before computer night falls. For this reason, this type of game is called a “time management game.” The fact that I have spent hundreds, possibly more than a thousand, hours of my life at an endeavor called “time management” is an irony that is not lost on me.

For this and other reasons, I am nobody’s idea of a time management guru. I procrastinate. I write lists of “must do” tasks that then stare at me reproachfully while I do other, more enjoyable ones.

However, with my nose pressed up against the glass of that exhibit of People With Good Time Management Skills, I notice some things that might help you.

(And I’m not going to say don’t have fun, don’t do trivial things, don’t make yourself more efficient. As Sarah reminded us, doing “unimportant” things like entertainment is actually important, and we feel really good when we get things done efficiently. These are all great things to do.)

The big rocks idea is a helpful one. I don’t know if Stephen Covey was the first person to use this image, but I like his version. Many others have morals that miss the point and misuse the metaphor.

• They emphasize the idea that when you think you’ve filled your time, you can still squeeze something in. For example, they put in the big rocks, and ask, “Is it full?” When the audience says yes, they put in little gravel—“Now is it full?” Then they add sand, and it really looks full, but they can still add water. They seem to be telling us to cram as much into our days as possible, which I don’t think is really the message.
• Others suggest that if you just prioritize, “you can do anything.” In fact, that’s a direct quote from one such video.
• They don’t prioritize space: the need for time when we do nothing, when we lie fallow like a field that has produced abundantly and now needs to rest. That spacious time could be one of the big rocks, of course.
• And they are sometimes geared entirely toward making us more efficient workers.

Stephen Covey, on the other hand, is guided by spiritual and moral values, and he encourages us to include things like service, relationships, a spiritual life.

But even the version we saw presents some problems.

• It suggests that it will all fit if we just do it in the right order. All the rocks fit. Even all the tiny gravel fits.

Is this your experience?

And if we’re constantly told that if we just managed our time better, if we worked smarter, not harder, if we put the big rocks in first, then we’d be able to fit, at least all the big rocks, and a lot or all of the gravel—then we’re stuck on the h...