Pay Yourself First

In my finance classes, one of the biggest lessons we learn is the necessity of paying yourself first. That is, when you get your paycheck, invest some of it before you spend the rest. Because, it's much easier to take the money you've received, and say to yourself that you need to spend it on all of these other things first, and then what's left over can go towards savings. Though this rule is great, and one that I really hope to follow once I start receiving a paycheck, along with tithing of course :), I can't help but feel it applies to more than just money. More specifically, I think it applies to time.

We're given 24 hours each day, our daily "paycheck", and we are aloud to do with these hours whatever we want. And this is where I feel like I've been failing. Every day, I wake up, and begin the same routine. Class, homework, more class, more homework, maybe a couple games of Super Smash Brothers with my house mates, and then before I know it, I need to go to bed. Mean while, I'm supposed to be planning for a wedding, seminary, and figuring out where I'm going to live and pay for everything.

I feel like I'm wasting all my time on short-term goals only, and not actually getting anything accomplished. At the end of the day, if the only thing I've done was prepare myself for the next day, I haven't really gotten anywhere. I've only managed to push off my larger responsibilities on to the next day. It's so frustrating!

I need to figure out a way to pay myself first, and stop using all of my time on short-term things. I haven't even gone to the grocery store in 2 1/2 weeks. Time management is a difficult thing to get a hang of.