The Ever Elusive Intro

"If you are so busy, why?"

"You can't do everything. You can't keep all the balls in the air. So what are you going to do?"

What are your life-goals? Apply the principles of 'Good, Better, Best" so that you are juggling balls that will get you to your goal.

IDEA (31 Jan 2010)
Begin with Jeff referring back to the November juggling metaphor. Then, confess that he didn't make it a high enough priority to become proficient enough at juggling to demonstrate tonight. Then introduce Randy, who is proficient enough to demonstrate. Have Randy demonstrate 3-ball juggling while Jeff reminds the audience that men and women have different ways of getting things done. Not right. Not wrong. Just different. Refer to the video that Sister Pace showed in November (A Tale of Two Brains).

Randy will demonstrate (through juggling) how women handle their tasks: many things going at once. Multi-tasking. Continual motion. Jeff will demonstrate how men handle their tasks by juggling one ball at a time but focusing exclusively on it. (Mention will also be made that these are generalizations and that everyone is different, but, they are pretty good generalizations.) Finally, Randy and Jeff will juggle simultaneously. Randy will juggle the three balls for 45 seconds. Jeff will juggle one ball at a time for 15 seconds each.

Next, audience participation. We will create and project two parallel lists, one by the sisters, and one by the brethren, of things that fill up their 'to-do' lists. We could create the two columned list on Word while projecting it on the big screen. 

When the lists are finished (enough anyway), mention should be made that, while it may be more efficient to work on the lists separately, that could lead to what one author calls a "parallel marriage."
Somewhere, near the top of the priority list must be time spent doing things together.

This would be a good time to review the old metaphor of filling the jar with rocks, pebbles, and sand.
One of the big rocks should be time spent doing things together.

Other Ideas

What did we forget?

What should we add that we don't have a post for.

Good 'time management' is not necessarily leaning how to 'pack more things in.'

Covey's Box

List of affordable priorities. List by time and/or money.

The Church is to support the family, not the other way around.

Media Ideas

Randy's Rockets Exploding
Kids Responding to Questions about Parent's Schedules
Juggling
Charlie Chaplin had a great scene in the movie "Modern Times" where he gets sucked inside a machine he is maintaining.

Story Ideas

We told some fun stories that could be included in our presentation. Someone also said that we should tell at least two embarrassing stories about ourselves. Here are some stories I remember hearing (or telling):

Randy's story about changing his strategy for planning family vacations - from him planning it all to letting (making?) the kids plan it.

Bonnie's story about the P6 documentary and something about Randy being dead.

Theresia's story about planning our time to do family scripture study.

Angie's story about the dog-bitten (or chewed up) schedule or calendar.

Blake's story about the family all being at the football game "together".

President Johnson's story about "Don't put the horse away wet."

Questions for Kids

In this section, please post questions that we could ask children of 'busy parents' about how their parents' busy schedules effect them.

Making it Work

The format we discussed for this and the other topics was: "What the Lord has said (through scriptures and prophets" --- Making it Work --- How we can use this information to strengthen our marriages.

Managing to the Important Priorities

The format we discussed for this and the other topics was: "What the Lord has said (through scriptures and prophets" --- Managing to the Important Priorities --- How we can use this information to strengthen our marriages.

Don't run faster than you have strength.

Cutting Through The Noise

The format we discussed for this and the other topics was: "What the Lord has said (through scriptures and prophets" -- Ways to Cut Through the Noise --  How we can use this information to strengthen our marriages.