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"“Johnny, don’t you touch that. If you break it the manager will come and get you.” I’ll confess, I’ve used that technique on my three year olds just like you have. Maybe that image of managers, as people who cast nets over three year olds and haul them off to a secret room in the back of the store, is where we get the idea that managing is something above us common folks. The truth is we’re all managers. Maybe not of great factories or retail stores, but we all manage our time. Many of the same principles that apply to workplace management also apply to personal time management. Setting goals and deadlines, keeping several projects moving forward at once, and learning how to network with others to get things done, are all part of good personal time management. That’s why even if you aren’t a manager by trade, reading a good book on management, especially from a Christian perspective, can give you insightful ideas for redeeming your time. "

" The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it. I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about ""a thousand marbles"". I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. ""Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's piano recital."" He continued, ""Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities."" And that's when he began to explain his theory of a thousand marbles. ""You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy five years. Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part."" ""It took me until I was fifty five years old to think about all this in any detail"", he went on, ""and by that time I had lived through over twenty eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy."" ""So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away."" ""I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."" ""Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."" ""It was nice to meet you Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. 75 year Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"" You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. ""C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."" ""What brought this on?"" she asked with a smile. ""Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."" "

"Did you know there are 293 ways to make change for a dollar? That’s a lot of different combinations. In the same way, there are many different combinations for working a 40 hour week. Some jobs have to be scheduled 9-5 Monday thru Friday. But for those who have the option, it may be profitable to experiment with different ways to come up with 40 hours. Let’s say you have a 30 minute commute to work each day. That’s 5 hours a week you spend coming and going, if you work five 8 hour days. But, if you could accomplish the same thing by working four 10 hours days you would save an hour each week in commuting time. In a year that would be 50 extra hours, or more than an entire work week. And couldn’t you use an extra week every year to spend with your family, a missions organization, or just doing something profitable for the Kingdom of God? A four day work week might help you redeem the time. "