Meagan and I moved just over a year ago from Michigan to Illinois.  Because both of our families are still in Michigan, we’ve made several trips over the past year to see them.  As far as time goes, going to Michigan seems like a loss – we lose an hour going from Central to Eastern Standard Time.

Coming home to Illinois, however, feels great – we gain an hour!  It feels like we’re beating the system by traveling West and gaining back some of the time we’ve lost by traveling East.

I don’t know about you, but even when I’m not traveling, there’s things I can spend my time on that feel like a loss.  There’s also things I spend my time on that feel like a gain. And with only a certain amount of limited time each day, my desire is to use each hour to its fullest extent.

Recently, I’ve begun using some blocks of time in a different way, and it’s helped me tremendously.  Enter:  Audible.  I’m sure many of you have heard of it.

It’s a website + app that enables you to listen to audiobooks.  For me, it’s been a source of professional development in places like the gym and my car.  It’s turned a 3.5 hour drive to Grand Rapids (where my sister lives), into “the time it takes to listen to one book.”  It’s turned a 30 minute run into a time for my brain to engage with compelling stories, high-level thinking, leadership principles and much more.

Just in the month of March, I’ve listened to two books. Divine Direction, by Craig Groeschel; and The Little Things by Andy Andrews.  Both have been fantastic reads, and I’ll likely do book reviews for both on the blog.

Audible has allowed me to redeem time.  It’s taken time I’ve previously not leaned into, and allowed me to use it for growth opportunities.

In your own life, are there blocks of time that you can redeem?  Is there something you can plug in (like Audible) that would transform that time into growth opportunities?

My challenge to you:  Take the next week and identify blocks of time that are just “there.” Then…choose one way to redeem it.