365 Inspirations—231: Making Best Use of Time

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you."—Carl Sandburg

 There are only so many hours in a day and I can't say I use all my hours wisely. I spend plenty of hours daydreaming, scheming, planning, making lists, or surfing the internet. I do think it's important to have some unstructured time, but I love it when I am able to make best use of my time and stay focused.

Fortunately, I am a fairly focused person and when I put my mind to something, I tend to get things done.

Today I subbed for a friend's morning class at the college where I teach ESL. Luckily, it's exam week and all I had to do was proctor a test, soo I sat in the classroom and graded over half of my own students' tests. I did that from 10:30-12:50.

From 12:50-1:30 or so, I prepared for my evening class that I usually teach 6-9pm.

On the way home, I stopped to get a bite to eat. My husband was at home, so we decided to do a three-mile walk around Greenlake. The sun was shining and people were out and about.

"Why aren't all these people working on a Monday?" I said to my husband.

"What about you?" He replied.

It's true, I often have my days free because I work in the evenings.

After our walk, we stopped by PCC, our local grocery store in Washington State, and bought two salmon salads for dinner. I also bought a Kombucha.

I went home and changed into a summer dress because the temperature was pushing 80 degrees at 4pm!

I left home at 4:30pm and arrived at school at around 5:10pm. I ate my salad, chatted with co-workers and then went to class to proctor another exam from 6-9 and was able to do some paperwork there as well.

Now it's 10pm. The end of the quarter is always busy and I have to try and stay one step ahead of the students in order to make it through. Still lots of paperwork, but I'm using my time wisely and should get it all done by Wednesday or Thursday.

And then it's FREE TIME!

Do you use your time well? Are you a focused person or do you tend to be scattered?