How to Maximize Your Time This Summer

There are 3 Ps of your time ownership. 3 Ps. And let me first of all say this: time is not a renewable resource. Once it's gone, it's gone. It's limited. You don't have enough of it. And one day, when you are at the close of your life, you will look back and examine how well you used your time. Because the level at which you are intentional about time is the level of which you are intentional about your life and the impact that you leave on this world and the difference that you can make for eternity. So there are 3 Ps. They are the priorities, what matters most. They are planning, what actually is going to happen. And it's protection, what you allow to steal your time. Have you ever looked up and realized, man, summer is here? And I'm, as I'm teaching this, y'all, summer is on the cusp of where we are. It is May, and before we know it, it's gonna be June, July, and August. And the reason why this is so important right now is because I want you in the season of the summer to think about what you want to do with that segment of your life. Now, if you are a Full Circle Planner girl, we spend all year long planning and preparing for every month, every season, every week. But then there are certain rhythms of just the world and the weather, and summer is one of those. And we tend to live differently, live with different rhythms during those months. Summer is coming, and before we know it, we're only going to have 6 months of the year left, and then we're going to say the year is almost gone. And we don't want to end the year thinking, I'm exhausted, I'm tired, and yet another year went by where I didn't do what I said I was going to do. So you have to be intentional intentional about what you want to accomplish. Not stressed out, not overly worked up, just intentional. And I want to focus on this because as the summer comes, I want you to decide, decide what you're going to do with this non-renewable resource that you have. Most women I know are not lazy, but we are certainly living a life that is engineered for distraction, which means we waste that resource. You can have some intentional moments in your life and then still waste away your life in little phases. The average person spends about 2 hours a day on social media, A lot of Americans spend 4 to 5 hours daily on television or some level of streaming. Um, research shows that the average worker loses substantial time at work because of interruptions and task switching. Somebody stopping by your office or banter, uh, while you get your work done. Most people dramatically overestimate how intentional they are with their time, and if they actually looked at their time, they'd be shocked at how much has not gone to good use. It's not that we don't have enough time, it's that our lives are leaking. And I would say if you have more time on your hands that you know what to do with, then there's a leaking of intentionality to decide what you should do with your time. You know, unless you're in a season where you're actually seeking the Lord what to do, those breaks are allowed. Here's what I've been thinking about as summer is approaching. Summer has always been a way, a time of year where we kind of get exposed because without intentionality, the days blur together, our routines can disappear, and our spending can go through the roof because there's all these fun things to do. Our distractions get multiplied and our goals get delayed until the fall because the fall just feels like the right time to start things. August, September, We think, well, I'll just start it when the fall begins. We've been programmed for that because we went to school on that timeline. And then suddenly September comes, and then we're stressed out because of all the things that are getting back into routine, and then nothing changes. And then by the time you get to October, why even start? Because before you know it, it's Thanksgiving. And that's how the year plays itself out. When we say I don't have time, often what that really means though is I haven't decided this matters enough. Sorry, that's kind of what it is. So when we think about priorities, your calendar is going to reveal your real value. Ephesians 5:15 and 16 says, be careful about how you live, not as unwise but as a wise man, making the most of every opportunity. Time is not just practical. It's not a practical conversation as we get into the summer. It's about spiritual stewardship, because we'll say, you know, God is first, family matters, our health matters, rest matters, purpose matters. But then our schedules say— we react, we scroll, we consume, we overcommit. We are all about people-pleasing. Your life is shaped less by your intentions and more by your decisions and routines. But you've got to decide beforehand how your intentions translate into what you're going to do. Now, again, I know Full Circle Planner girlies get this completely because we talk about this all the time, but I want to give you some backdrop and then I want to talk about some specific things so that you multiply your time as we approach the summer instead of dividing it without purpose. Someone could say, I really want to get healthy, but then they never grocery shop intentionally or never move their body or never sleep properly, or they never scale— schedule wellness. And Eventually we say, okay, the desire is real, but the priorities are not. The same thing can happen to you spiritually. The same thing can happen to you financially. The same thing can happen to, happen to you relationally. So you got to grow up, you know. If you want your life to look like something different than what it's looked like in the past, what are you going to do differently? Everything is not equally important, and if you don't decide what matters most, life will decide for you. If you don't plan If you don't plan, you're not going to have the outcome that you desire. And I don't mean planning where every little thing, like you plan or program every 5 minutes of your day. I'm just saying you have to decide where your intentions fit. And often what gets scheduled is what gets multiplied. Psalm 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Wisdom counts time differently. Now, we've been talking about abundance this year. I want to bring this thought in because God multiplies what we intentionally place in his hands. Now, does sometimes God rescue us? Does sometimes he reach for a Paul on a Damascus road? Sure. Does sometimes he, you know, he makes the donkey talk like he did in Kings? Yes. Sometimes does God do amazing things to interrupt us? 100%. But a lot of times where we're going to see God's faithfulness and his overflow in our lives is what we intentionally provided him. More like the boy with the fish and the loaves. He already had it. He planned to eat his lunch. And because he had the fish and the loaves, Jesus had something to work with. It's more like seeds in the ground. We know that every plant may not thrive, but the more seeds we plan to toss, plan to plant, the more likely we will have a harvest to reap. It's like the talents. We had the guy that had 5, the guy that had 2, and the guy that had 1 in Matthew. And yes, all of them planted, but only 2 of them planted with intentionality to reap. And one of them said, "I'mma get to that later." And planting precedes the blessing that God has in your life. Time invested with intention, intentional planning, it will multiply your harvest. So the question is, here's a question: what could God multiply in your life if you consistently gave him the time? So examples: 30 minutes in prayer, not just the 5 minutes over your meal, but time spent in prayer, listening, talking, journaling. 20 minutes walking instead of busting up the gym on Saturday and then not doing it again for another 6 weeks. What if you just walked smaller every day consistently? Intentional time with each of your children. Maybe you got 3 kids and on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, they each get time with you. Maybe it's focused learning, going back to school, or just deciding to read certain books on a certain, certain topic so you can expand your mind. What if it's consistent financial stewardship and watching your money long enough for it to make a difference and to stop wondering how you're in debt and intentionally watch your money so you can stay out of debt? What if it's writing a little bit every day? What if it's rest? What if it's discipleship? Tiny investments that will result in massive multiplication over time. In your marriage, one night a week is 52 deposits in your relationship a year. That multiplies impact. In your health, 20 minutes a day instead of an hour on the weekend, it multiplies the impact. Spiritual growth— many women say they want spiritual maturity, but they're not consistent about making those deposits into their spiritual lives. Your future is hiding inside your daily, regular, small rhythms. So what would multiply in your life if you decided to show up for it regularly, regularly, consistently, whether that's daily or a certain amount of time each week? Most women, you know, we live our lives on accident. We do some of the majors that we have to. We're going to go to work, we're going to make dinner. But the dreams that we have or the desire that they have, we hope they fit in. If your life reflected your priorities, what would your week actually look like? What would have to change? So when you structure your time, of course we're going to look at, you know, our faith and our family, our health, our work, and our rest. You're going to look at all these categories: learning, relationships. But the— here's the key: you have to assign the time to it before the, the waves of your life steal it. Instead of saying, hopefully I'll get to it, or I think I'm going to do it on Saturday, it's got to be planned in. You've got to have communicated that to the people. It needs to be on your calendar, just like your doctor's appointments are. If you know that you don't have the rhythm and the habit of pouring into something that's going to be intentional, don't let another summer go by without you deciding to make this the summer of your Sister Circle life goals coming to pass. You can look at your ideal week. If I could actually fit these things in, where would they go? And then compare it to how you're actually living your life. We have a tool that you can use if you have the planner. It's in the back of your planner and you can copy it as many times as you like. Simply go to thesistercircle.com/myminutes and I have a document there that has 3 columns so that you can write either 1 week at a time or maybe for you and maybe other people in your family, what you're actually doing with your time. It's like a time budget, just like you would budget your money and say, well, how am I actually spending my money and how do I wanna spend my time? We have a tool for that. So be sure and go get that. It's free. But compare what you're actually doing to what you would do if your life looked like what you wanna do. Cuz most of us will discover we spend hours of scrolling. We're reacting to what everyone else needs. We are emotionally involved in different ways that we didn't plan to be. We're procrastinating. We are overcommitting and we are living with no margin. Instead of saying, I don't have time to work out, you can find the 90 minutes that you were scrolling and do it then. Instead of, I'm saying, I don't have time to work out, uh, what Netflix video series have you been binging? What, what, what are you saying yes to that is not even your responsibility, but you're trying to help everybody do their stuff? And it's not about shaming yourself, it's about being aware of what you're doing and what you're not doing that would actually make your life be on track with what you know is true for you. You've got to protect what matters, okay? So point 3 is protection. The first one is priorities, the second one is planning, the third one is protection. Proverbs 4:23 says, above all else, guard your heart, because stewardship requires guarding. It's not enough for you to plan, and it's not enough for you to have priorities. You're going to have to be on guard, a keeper of your home, your physical home, and your heart as your home— the home for your passions and your dreams and the things that God has put in your heart to do— because you cannot multiply. Even if you are putting all the things in and doing your best to water and grow them, you cannot multiply what's constantly leaking. And so whether it's your phone or interruption or your lack of boundaries or lack of organization or procrastination or your emotional exhaustion and the lack of emotional help or your overavailability to everyone else and their stuff, you're going to have to grow up and realize that every yes costs— every yes costs something. And some of us are exhausted because we keep volunteering our lives away. Busyness is not proof of purpose. Hey, it's about that time again for me and my girls in the Inner Circle to kick off the summer together with our Summer of Sisters Fun Run. The good news is you're invited, whether you're an Inner Circle member or whether you're just a woman who is in the circle of faith. We want to have a fun run, a movement that's creating opportunity for laughter, fresh air, and sisterhood. The date? It's June 20th. How do you get registered? Go to thesistercircle.com/funrun. Listen, you can crawl, walk, jog, stretch, but definitely connect and enjoy the day with your girls. And don't forget to grab your Summer of Sisters shirt so you can show up for the fun run cute, comfortable, and connected. Y'all, we want you to take all the pictures, grabbing your girls for a few fun moments and making sure you tag us when you post. #TSCSOS2026. Y'all, let's do it. It's free, it's fun, and it's a run. Register inside of The Sister Circle and We'll see you there. So this summer, it's May. As we approach the summer and as we get ready to kick off our Summer of Sisters, which I'm really excited about, instead of entering the summer accidentally, you got to say, what do I want to be multiplied by September? That's the question. What do I want to be multiplied by September? Okay, so the first question I ask, if I can pause and just get this back for you, and I know that some of y'all are going to come back later and take notes, but I just want to catch you up with where we are right now. Are you a, I don't have enough time, or I don't have too much time? Person. And it doesn't really matter what your answer is, because if you have too much time, the, the rules of intentionality still apply. What do I want to multiply next summer? And it could be simple— peace. And then you know what you do? You talk to your friends, you talk to your mom and them, you talk to your sister, you Google, you go talk to your therapist. What kinds of things would bring me more peace? And you work on those. Or health. It doesn't have to be weight loss. It could be maybe lowering an A1C, looking at your blood pressure. Maybe your vitamin D is low. I don't know, health. Maybe it's consistency in a pleasure that you have. You want to work more puzzles consistently, you want to practice your piano, you want to meet up with your family more consistently, spend time with— spending time with your children or grandchildren or your, or your small group. Whatever it is, consistency. Maybe it's savings, maybe it's spiritual growth, maybe it's connection with your family, maybe it's writing, maybe it's discipline in some area of your life, maybe it's reading more. And then you would say, okay, so what would What would need to happen in my time for me to consistently make time for that? So every week, starting this week or starting next, you can give yourself a challenge to track your time, even if you just do it for 3 days, and then identify your leaks. You should create an ideal week. If everything was great and I could fit in the stuff I have to do and the stuff I want to do, what would it look like? And then start living that week out on repeat, and you will see your life shift. One thing, even if you just pick one thing that is something you've been meaning to prioritize, where does it fit? Because you don't need a perfect schedule, you don't need endless free time, and you don't need a different season. You just need to intentionally steward the season that's in front of you right now. Abundance in your life is rarely built, like, dramatically. It's built daily. It's minute by minute. It's choice by choice, and it's habit by habit. Now, I believe in thinking about this yearly. You all know we have the annual planner. You know, we have the quarterly planners, because I just really believe if you don't write it down, you're not seeing it. And I don't care where you write it down. So I've given you a free tool to write it to write it down with, the Manage Your Minutes, the My Minutes tool. Here's a paid tool to write it down with, and you can get it by itself, or for a few dollars more, you can get it with the coaching. That's every week I'm in your ear saying things that relate to the planner. But the reality is you've got to decide to pay attention and write it down somewhere. I'm a proponent. You're gonna miss it if you don't write it down. What's gonna multiply in your life this summer? If you've got time, praise the Lord. So then say, "Lord, I've got an abundance of time, this un-renewable resource." What do you want me to do with it? How can I live this summer with a level of intentionality that multiplies what you've given me? How can I skip the distraction, heal the exhaustion, and avoid the delay? How can I do that? But you've got to stop saying you don't have time or saying I have too much and decide to utilize what he's given you, because time is a resource to steward. Time and money all behave similarly, by the way. If you don't recognize the, the connection, let me give that to you. Money, you save it slowly and regularly and consistently. If you start later, you can do it, but it's so much more painful. The earlier you start and the more consistent you are, the better off you will be. And money also is a problem when it leaks, when you spend impulsively or you have impulsive living. In both cases, people can say, just like they do about time, I don't have enough, there's never enough, and I can't get ahead. But the principle for maximizing and multiplying your time is the same as multiplying your money. Scarcity, not enough time, is a mindset because everybody has 24 hours in a day. Scarcity can be created by a lack of stewardship. You can think at 45, I don't have enough time, or I don't have enough money, but both of them could have been created because you had the habits of not spending your time or money well. Both involve stewardship. And people who think, if I had more money, I'd be able to be better off, don't realize that you bring yourself with you. And this is why abundance is a mindset, not about a dollar amount in a bank, because you can get more money and still blow it the same way you blew it when you had less less to spend. And that applies to your time. If you get to more time and you still don't know how to be a steward, you're going to steward just as poorly with more time as you did with little. The issue is not always provision, it's about leakage. It's about leakage. Abundance is not just about having more, it's stewarding well what you already have. Now, I want you to understand that I, I realize that there are nuances to each one of these situations. Like, you know, I, I realize that, and I want to leave room for that, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to give you the tools that will help you to live better. If you say, I don't have enough time, you can also say, well, I don't have enough money. If you find yourself scrolling, that is impulsive behavior. That also means you probably spend impulsively. If you are reacting all day to people with your time, that could also look like you reacting emotionally to purchases. That's what we call shopping therapy. If you have a lack of planning with your time, you probably also don't like budgeting your money. That's a lack of planning with your money. If you overcommit with your time, you can overconsume with what you have to spend. If you don't have any boundaries with your time, that means you probably don't live well with financial limits. If you're investing nowhere with your time, I bet you are saving nowhere and not saving enough with your money. If you feel exhausted all the time, guess what that feels like? Financial stress. Both time and money reveal what we truly believe about abundance, and scarcity will say, I've got to consume this right now because I may not have time later. So we overspend, we overeat, we overconsume, we overscroll, we overcommit. Scarcity is a mindset, and it can cling to everything. Healthy abundance says, I don't have time to consume everything immediately. And abundance says, I can do that later. That's code for delayed gratification. That's code for investing. That's code for planting seeds. That's code for creating margin. That's code for rest, because God has time to work in me. That's code for planting long term. So scarcity is a consuming mindset, and abundance is a cultivating mindset. Okay? And scarcity's gonna say, what can I have right now that soothes the itch, that makes me feel better about my life? And abundance says, how can I enjoy this over time? Multiplication requires you to have an abundance mindset, cuz that will help you to lead into investment, lean into patience, lean into intentionality, lead into stewardship, lean into delayed gratification. And it doesn't matter if we're talking about money, time, energy, relationships, or spiritual growth. John chapter 6, Jesus multiplies what is surrendered to him, organized and ready for him, stewarded for him. And you can do that with your time and your money. Some of us keep praying, God, will you multiply me? We trying to pray that prayer of Jabez, expand my territory. But multiplication requires management. And God is like, listen, if you can't manage what you got You're going to be the same person with more as you are with less. So how can we be different and how can we be ready? We've got to grow up. And if you've got more time on your hands that you know what to do with, then what that means is you should be asking the Lord, how can you multiply what I have? This is why giving is a mindset, because when somebody has been blessed over and abundantly so— um, Hobby Lobby, the president of Hobby Lobby said, he said, yeah, we're blessed to make a lot of money. But we also realize that there's a responsibility, and we give a lot of money away because abundance is a mindset. Lord, I'm supposed to manage what you've given me. So if you've given me a lot, how do I bless? How do I move things forward? How do I help people? How do I love on people well? But a lot of people don't get that. So we get into abundance and we think that should give us endless spending and endless, endless consumption and endless comfort. But real abundance is a mindset that says, Lord, how do I invest and how do I maximize? If you've got leaks, you're never going to see multiplication. And that applies to your money, your time, your peace, your energy, and your focus. I want to give you some examples of why this is so important. If you had $15 a day, you weren't being extravagant, but you just stopped getting the coffee, the snacks, the random Target runs, the DoorDash, because the food is bad enough, but then you're paying the travel fee, the delivery fee, and the tip. Okay, the impulsive Amazon buys. Convicted. This dress right here came from Amazon, and I found it and liked it and then bought 3. Thank God. The other 2 didn't fit, so I could send them back. But $15 a day, that's $105 a week, that's $450 a month, that's $5,475 a year. And you may say, well, $5,000 doesn't usually disappear dramatically, you know, I wouldn't get rid of that dramatically. But you get rid of it every day when you spend $15. Let's keep this going, okay? $15 a day, that's $5,475 a year. Over 5 years, not invested, just holding on to it, that's $27,375. That's a car bought with cash, a small car, but you can find one. 10 years, that's $54,750, no interest. That's the power of daily, tiny, constant decisions. Okay, let's keep it going. Let's say we were smart and we actually invested it. That's $450 a month. Let's not even go with the S&P 500 annual for the last 30 years of 10%. Let's just go for 8, just 8. In 10 years, instead of the original, uh, that I gave you, which was $54,000, you'd have $82,000. In 20 years, you'd have $265,000, and in 30 years, you'd have $670,000. And that's at 8%. Now, this is not because you were wealthy. It's, it's not because God gave you a windfall. It's because you stopped ordering DoorDash. It's because you decided to become intentional. The same thing happens with your time. 30 minutes daily in prayer, 20 minutes walking, 1 hour learning, 1 intentional family dinner a week, or an intentional date with your husband. Consistent rest. Go to bed, turn off the phone, get yourself a good dark room, set the temperature where you like it, and rest well. It feels tiny until multiplication happens. And I'm telling you that the greatest gift of your life will be what you stewarded and what you multiply. God. Your life is not going to be shaped by, for most of us, dramatic moments. It's going to be because we were ready and prepared, and opportunity met us ready to take advantage of the moment. So the summer is coming, and what if this summer you decided to stop leaking money, time, energy, attention, and you started investing them? Because then by September, you'd be the woman who invested daily, and the woman woman who consumed daily. One of the two, that's who you're going to be. And those two women will not have the same life. So which one are you going to be? The woman who invested daily or the woman who consumed daily? It's time to grow up, girl, because abundance is rarely built through giant moments. It's built $15 at a time, 30 minutes at a time. Tiny investments, massive multiplication. And the choice is up to you. If that content was a blessing to you, listen, I don't want you to just get this once every now and again. I'd love to mentor you every Monday. You can join me in the Inner Circle at the club level to join me Mondays or to get the replay of the whole shebang that I do every week. I'd love to see you in the room. Thesisterscircle.com/innercircle. Join the club today. Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!