Second, you should budget around 50 hours per week for work.
Even before the Fall, God called every person to productively use his or her life for the betterment of others and stewardship of creation (Genesis 1:28). Allocating these hours may be easier for someone who works an hourly job than for those who are business owners, independent contractors or full-time parents.
But some limit must be put on this sector of life or our defeating motive (i.e., greed, ambition, people-pleasing, guilt, perfectionism, etc.) will expand this aspect of life until it destroys the others.
When the rest of life is destroyed, productivity loses its purpose.
Third, you should budget at least 17 hours per week for marriage and family.
This number is chosen a bit arbitrarily, but it represents a tithe (10 percent) of your time devoted to family. Being part of a family will strongly influence your usage of the rest of your time.
This 17-hour time allotment is a recommended minimum amount of time to set aside for exclusive focus on family. If you are married with children, it would be very difficult to have “quality” time with your family if this “quantity” of time is not being met.
“Family time” does not merely mean “in the same building at the same time.”
A useful definition of “family time” would be “investing my full attention in something that affirms my spouse or child by allowing me to know them better and makes them feel more known by me.”
What kind of activities fit this description will vary widely based upon factors such as personality, interest, age and season of life. But the main point is that family time reinforces and strengthens the sense of knowing and being known within the family.
Budgeting “the rest of life.”
