Time is fickle. Sometimes the clock drags – especially if the task is unpleasant or boring, it’s the last hour of work, or the week before vacation. Then, there are times when the clock speeds up – the whole vacation, for example.

Because the clock doesn’t seem to be consistent (and, yes, I know it is only perception), I have a hard time judging how much I can accomplish in a given time frame.

I tend to pack way too much into a time slot and find it impossible to get it all done. If I have fifteen minutes to spare, I think I can cram in something that takes 30 minutes.

Recently, during a writer’s retreat, we (at my prompting) wrote out our goals for the week including our BHAG (Big  Hairy Audacious Goal). And, as usual, I overestimated how much writing I could accomplish. My BHAG was to rough-write 7 more chapters in a book / bible study I am writing. In reality, each chapter is a mini-research paper of about 12-20 pages. I know from graduate school that these take more than 1/2 day, but I still thought since I had the research done, that I could pound them out.

Add to this that I also wanted to get some blog posts done, work on 2 talks I have coming up, spend time with God, and….well, you get the picture.

This cartoon looks like my week:

My plan didn’t include time for the obstacles that appear just over the horizon. I didn’t get everything done on my list – my BHAG still lies before me (the final flag). However, I chose to celebrate the small victories along the path – noticing the smaller flags that appear after each obstacle. I did get more done this year than I did at last year’s writing retreat. I beat personal daily writing goals each day…and I got some things accomplished that were not on the list, but needed to be addressed.

So, I am calling the week a success. And, I will continue to work towards the BHAG.