Numbering Our Days
On Establishing New Year Rhythms, Routines, & Spiritual Disciplines, My Notion Preview, & Resources to Support Your Growth 🌱✨
“Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.” - Psalm 90:12
Another year in the books has me thinking about this Scripture a lot lately, as it seems like last year ended just as quickly as it started, and I know this year won’t be any different. What they say is true, “the days are long, but the years are short.” I understand and experience this even more now as a parent. As a stay-at-home mom, the mornings can feel like a whole day in themselves. Spending the mornings cooking, cleaning, redirecting, chasing, and teaching three littles usually leaves me exhausted and overstimulated. Longing for the respite and solitude of naptime, I glance at the glowing kitchen clock that reads 9:30 am to be taunted and reminded that naptime is nowhere near. The days are long.
And the days drag on. I miraculously manage to accomplish small feats here and there — putting away some laundry, completing a workout during naptime, reading a few pages of a book, or putting the final touches on a newsletter — but these small feats always feel incremental and trivial at best, especially compared to what my heart aches to accomplish.
I have my purpose, dreams, goals, to-do list, and calendar, but then I have my capacity… my reality. I know I can’t do it all, and honestly, I don’t want to. But I do want to do the right things. The things that will make a difference: a difference in my family’s life, the lives that I am called to, and in God’s kingdom. But those things require time —time that I never have enough of. I know I’m not alone. Researchers define this feeling or perception as time poverty, the chronic feeling that there are too many things to do but not enough time to do them. And while productivity and time management hacks help, they can only do so much.
Author Chelsea Patterson Sobolik writes in her book Called to Cultivate1:
“Time management, as Jenn Pollock Michel writes, is ‘the premise of control… you are working to achieve your best life now.’ But we end our days often reminded of how little control we actually have. Our to-do lists are longer by the end of the day than at the beginning. We crawl into bed exhausted, reminded of all the things left undone. We chase the mirage of control, but ultimately find that it’s just a vapor.”
And that vapor leads us to a deep realization of the frailty and fragility that defines our finitude, exposing the truth: we can’t do it all… and we weren’t created to. We weren’t created to have the omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence to be all things and do all things. But we were created with agency, the power to influence our circumstances by partnering with God, submitting to His authority, and working within limits to accomplish all that He has called us to. When we view our to-do lists and schedules through this lens, as Chelsea states, it becomes less about productivity and more about seeking wisdom on how we should approach and design our days.
That’s where I am at. For the last few weeks, I’ve been praying, asking God how He would like me to number my days. One of those ways is through goal-setting.
Goal-Setting
Goal-setting allows us to focus on the appropriate actions that help us carry out our purpose, calling, assignments, and roles. It’s not enough to set any goal. Not only should we aim to set goals that align with our purpose and God’s will for our lives, we should seek to set goals that focus on the right activities in the right season by becoming what author Richard Blackaby describes as “season-sensitive” in his book The Seasons of God. I shared more about goal-setting, as well as my approach and the tools I’m using in my latest podcast episode.
Rhythms & Routines
Another way I am numbering and designing my days is by re-evaluating and revising my rhythms and routines. I’ve always had a strong morning routine where I will wake up, make coffee, have quiet time, read, journal, and work or work out before the kids get up. Once the kids have gotten up and eaten breakfast, I will typically sit down and plan my day as I eat my breakfast. However, I’ve found that planning time can be hit or miss depending on the kids’ needs, so I would like to incorporate my daily planning back into my morning routine to ensure I have the time to sit down and review my to-do list and goals. Ideally, when I plan, I will reference my Notion, which serves as a Life Hub and Family Command Center where I plan my week, create my to-dos, set my goals, and manage our household.
Along with daily planning, I am also working to incorporate journaling back into my daily rhythms. For a little while, I was journaling during my morning routine, but then I realized I was trying to stuff too much into the morning. Now, I am experimenting with journaling as I wind down before bed.
Spiritual Disciplines
In addition to goal-setting and re-evaluating my rhythms and routines, I am also considering the spiritual disciplines I would like to cultivate this year. Spiritual disciplines are practices found in Scripture, such as prayer, confession, fasting, meditating, worshipping, and so on, that promote spiritual growth. In this month’s community discussion, I shared that while I have always been pretty disciplined with my Bible reading, I have never read the Bible cover to cover, so I am excited to be going through the entire Bible this year with
's Bible reading companion, .
Again, the goal in all of this isn’t about being productive more than it is about being purposeful in choosing the activities that matter most and will make a difference. I don’t want to just get things done; I want my days to count, wisely discerning what the Lord wants me to do (Ephesians 5:15-17).
If you are in the same boat, here are some books on Gospel-centered productivity and discerning your calling and season that I’ve found helpful.
1. The Seasons of God: How the Shifting Patterns of Your Life Reveal His Purposes for You by Richard Blackaby. 2. What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms The Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman. 3. How to Get Unstuck: Breaking Free From Barriers to Your Productivity by Matt Perman.
What they say is true — the days are long. Each day presents its own unique cahllenges and opportunities that demand our time, energy, and attention. But the years are short, and if we don’t carefully consider how we would like to spend them, we can potentially waste them. Let’s make sure that we are numbering our days by making the most of every opportunity that God has given us, living and working faithfully until we hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
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I'm definitely going to pick up one of these books.