Sharpen the Saw

Sometimes I wonder at peoples' priorities in life. For example, I made a casual remark at work that I divide my two days off that I get each week in such a way that one day is my errand and catch up day and the other day off is purely relaxation. My one associate who heard me say that ended up commenting: "Relaxation, what's that?" I understand that other people are busy, or at least like to think they're busy. But, I have two comments to that. One is, don't mistake activity for results. The second, if one wants to be the most effective person possible, one needs to sharpen the saw. (Thank you Steve Covey for Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) :). So many people want to make others feel guilty for having time for rest and relaxation, saying that they have no time to do that, etc. Time management needs to be about balance: to be able to do all those activities, one needs to be strong enough and healthy enough to accomplish all those. I guess that's why so many people need all those self-help books in time management and the like. They don't make time for rejuvenation. Just like in budgeting, one needs to budget in "misc" items, or work in "cheat days" for dieting. One needn't feel guilty about it, because it is scheduled in and is non-negotiable time restorative time. This concept also works with prevention and health/medecine: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That same principle should also go into a person's time, and even more so. God has designed the human body to be able to heal itself, even after a period of great stress. However, we can never get our time back, so one must guard that vigilantly against waste. So, I always remind myself that even though I may not necessarily be active at the moment or busy-seeming, the amount of productivity that will result in my moment's rest and meditation will be even more tremendous.