September’s theme topic inside Simply Convivial Membership is balance, and one of our members, Julie, summed it up perfectly: “I think that’s why so many programs and planners and classes or groups are appealing, because they often promise that key to life that we all feel like we’re missing. I always feel most balanced when I am truly centered on the true Center — the more I abide in Christ, the more I am attending to His word and living out the truth of Scriptures, I feel more confident about the decisions I make throughout the day.”

Amen!

There is no amount of balance that will make all you’d like to do fit into your day. Your time, my time, is limited.

This episode is an excerpt of a troubleshooting session I did with Simply Convivial Members on September 2nd, all about time budgets. Several of the courses inside membership give directions for completing a time budget, so we dug deep into why it’s important and what traps we’re likely to fall into as we work on them. Every week inside Simply Convivial Membership we do a thirty minute topic-specific troubleshooting session. The full replays are added to the member-only podcast, but here’s a clip of a couple best-of moments for you as you consider balancing your time.

Balance is such a tricky topic, because when we uncover what we mean when we talk about it, we uncover our unrealistic expectations that usually boil down to perfectionism.

So if we want to work on realistic balance, that begins by assessing and managing our time effectively. I do this by creating a time budget. Just like a money budget, a time budget isn’t about wishful thinking. It’s about looking at what’s actually available and how best to spend that.