I don't have time...or do I?

A while back Rachel Anne over at Home Sanctuary posed the question "What's in Your Pockets?" She asked us to make a list of things that we can do in 15 minutes or less, or a "pocket" of time. I personally had that list already, so I went to it, edited it, put it back in my folder, and called it good. I call it my "It'll only take a minute...or 15" list. The problem is, it's there, in my folder, where I don't see it every day. I probably don't even look at it once a month!

I have another mental list of things that I often refer to. I like to call it my "I don't have time for that right now" list. Actually, when I think about it, most things on that list can be accomplished in less than 15 minutes. What's at the top of the list? Shower. I know what you're thinking. "Gross...I don't want to know what she smells like!" Rest assured, I do get around to showering eventually in my day. But today I realized something. If I would just get up 15 minutes before my kids do (they are like clockwork) then I could shower in peace and quiet first thing in the morning.

15 minutes. That's all it takes. Here's the kicker...that's WITH shaving my legs AND Shampooing/Conditioning my hair. I kid you not. I timed myself this morning. It takes less than a minute to shampoo my hair and slap on some deep conditioner. Then I took less than a minute to shave my underarms. Less than two minutes to shave my legs, and less than a minute to wash my face and body. And I was not rushing it. By then, I was ready to rinse my hair and hop out of the shower. Are you counting? That's' a total of about 6 minutes, and then I spent another three minutes or so pampering myself with some body lotion and moisturizing my face. I try not to spend a lot of time on my hair, so 5 minutes to blow dry the hair and a minute to put on minimal make-up. Voila! I am ready to face my day! Sorry if that little scenario was TMI, I just wanted to get my point across.

I CAN take time to take care of myself. When I do that, I feel a lot more generous with my time to take care of others around me. I am building my house here. Proverbs 14:1 says "The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." How do I build my house? By a number of things. According to Rachel Anne, Sanctuary is in the small things. So I've been paying close attention to how much time I spend on each small thing that I've done today. Here's a list of just a few that take less than 15 minutes, some less than 5.

• Make my bed
• Empty the Dishwasher
• Make breakfast
• Rinse the dishes and load the dishwasher
• Start the laundry
• Make two phone calls
• Organize the vacuum supplies
• Take the trash out of the van
• Empty the kitchen trash and replace the lining

My list goes on, but you get the idea. A lot of the time I look at my list and I think "Oh, I'll get to that later." The thing is, if I do it NOW, I feel good about getting it marked off my list. I also free up the valuable time that I'm going to need later in my day. For what, you ask? My family. When I eliminate procrastination, my kids and my spouse reap the benefits. Then they don't have to hear that ever so common phrase "I don't have time right now."

What can you move from your "I don't have time" to your "It'll only take a minute...or 15" list?