Graph from Dec 15 09 Wt on How to Apportion Your Time to Remain Joyful. Crazy....

Here is a scan from the Dec 15 09 Wt (study ed) with a graph of how a witness should apportion their time to remain joyful.

So according to this graph, to remain joyful a witness should spend 3 times as much of his waking hours in 'theocratic activities' as he should in secular work! 

Hopscotch

Tune in next week, when they illustrate how to use the restroom.

And apparently, you should spent the same number of hours doing personal study as you spend at work.

Let's see, I worked 9 hours today, if i study for 9 hours....that leaves me 6 hours to spend time with my kids and spouse, cook meals, clean the house and....... OH, ya!!.........sleep!!

Yup, that sounds perfectly balanced to me!  And happifying!!!!

So... 24 hours a day divided by 6 = 4 hours per segment.  So only 4 hours per day for secular work.  I don't think my company would like that very much....  but theocratic activity is fully half of your time, or 12 hours a day.  Maybe they are calculating this on a weekly or monthly basis...'cause otherwise it makes no sense.

I don't see sleep even mentioned in this.... not going to last very long on no sleep.  Whoa... 

Coffee

There are 24 hours in a day, and 8 should be spent sleeping.

That leaves 16 hours a day to be awake.  In 7 days, that's 112 hours a week to use wisely.

This Watchtower graph is split into 6 equal parts.  112 hours divided by 6 activity groupings is 18.5 hours.  This is 18.5 hours a week to devote to each subject area.

A job on 18.5 hours a week?  Remember, most Jehovah's Witnesses do not have a college degree and can not be high paid consultants.  If fortunate, say they earn $15 an hour.  At 18.5 hours a week, that's  a meager $270 a week, or $1,080 a month!  That, will surely feed and house a nice family?  LOL.

What's puzzling is the block for meetings.  Meeting time has been reduced, and is now about 4 hours a week.  So, what is the Witness going to do with the extra time?  It doesn't take 14.5 hours to study for or commute to meetings.  And, field ministry and personal study have their own time blocks.  So, is the Watchtower about to propose a change in the individual Witness lifestyle?  Are longer meetings in the future?

At 18.5 hours a week for ministry, that puts everyone as Pioneers!  Weren't the required hours just reduced?

Does the Watchtower really want to devote 18.5 hours a week to personal study?  Could leave to the followers finding more fallacies.

Obviously, with the exception of Bethelites, very few Witnesses are spending 55.5 hours a week (that's 18.5 * 3) in meetings, ministry, and personal study. 

The purpose of this Watchtower appears to be to place a further 'guilt' trip on those who are struggling to make ends meet and be good "Christians."  The Watchtower is always raising the bar, and this is an attempt to make those with full time jobs "feel bad" about their choice to feed and clothe their family.  Obviously, these working stiffs are depressed because they are taking time away from personal study, ministry, and meeting attendance to have a job.

How does this pan out for school children and teenagers.  Try going to school for only 18.5 hours a week.  Even if you are "home schooled", this is likely not going to meet education mandates.

Skeeter

  HOPSCOTCH- Good thread. They say to balance the " spiritual " activities with the " secular " activities- but it's anything but balanced. If anything the WT society wants witnesses devoting at least 75 to 80 % of their time to supporting WT society endeavors. So as most mind control cults do- they keep people so busy with cult activities- there is no time left for family, social life, or work activities. It's a twisted way of life for sure. Peace out, Mr. Flipper

Here is a scan of the second page of this article.  The paragraphs in the second column seem to me to be alluding to leaving your job if it does not leave you with enough time to keep up with all the 'theocratic activities' that you will bring you joy.

Hopscotch

To be fair I don't think that it was intended as a realistic pie chart of our weekly activities, but not to let one facet of our live overtake the other important ones.

To be fair I don't think that it was intended as a realistic pie chart of our weekly activities, but not to let one facet of our live overtake the other important ones.

Jehovah's Witnesses seem to take things literally and to follow a literal example.  The artist should have made a different rendition if the activities were not to be equally divided.  The Pioneers are going to look at this as a fine example of how they spend their lives "dedicated" and will continue to look down on the normal publishers who can not meet these expectations.

Skeeter

                                       An Idiot wrote that article..

                                              Only an Idiot..

                               Would take the advise of an Idiot..

                                                                    .......................OUTLAW

yes, skeeter, but isn't that just human nature? To be judgemental? I find it difficult that JWs have a monopoly on being judgemental, though I know ALOT of them at the KH. :)

It's an unrealistic pie chart...totally stupid

This is more realistic:

Sadly, I know that if this was a study article, there would be at least a couple of people in my hall that would try to overanalize this chart just to try to make themselves look intellectual or spiritual, but I feel they would be missing the main point which would be one of striving for balance in one's life.

The Governing Body do not have a clue about taking care of "home and family care"  as they have their home (Bethel) taken care of and don't have children.  Their little pie chart is so unrealistic and imbalanced.  No wonder most of the JW children suffer and most leave the organization as they come to realize their childhood was shorted.

This was clearly not intented to show that equal parts of the day should be spent on this or that (since, for example, meetings are not held each day), but is an ILLUSTRATION showing what parts of one's day could/should be divided into. Me thinks we here have a clear example of "over-reading into an illustration" things that were not meant. 

the chart makes more sense if you also consider the vertical height of each wedge - this would put recreation and entertainment on a par with work, and just below family care and responsibilities .  However spritiual activites (time devoted to the WBTS) has 3 wedges, and althought their vertical height is lower than the others, taken together they minimise the rest of one's life.

okay here is another way of looking at the chart

we know how much time meetings take up per week - 3 1/2 hours. So based on this the other 2 wedges in the spritiual group could be 2 hours per week for ministry and 2 hours for personal study.  That gives us 7 1/2 hours total for the week.  On a daily basis this would give us just over an hour for JW related spiritual activities

I'm assuing that work has to be allowed 8 hours per day

family care has to include sleep so  at a squeeze I'd say 12  hours per 24 hour period

so far we have 21 hours leaving 3 hours per day for recreation and entertainment and travelling to and from work.

lol In conclusion 1 hour per day for the WBTS doesn't seem too bad. (it always amazes me how they seem to undermine themselves).

However even if taken like this, recreation and entertainment doesn't really figure and there is no time for the internet

This chart doesn't even take into account single parents, who in most cases have to work full time to keep a roof over their heads. Part time employment isn't even an option when you don't have a partner to help share the load. It is very unrealistic to say the least.

ignoring the individual segments, its half the week doing daily routine, the other half is jw routine.

See, that's what happens when articles are written by lifelong Bethelites. Their lives are so regimented and compartmentalized, that they assume that everyone else can and should live that way.

These guys are so out of touch with reality it's astonishing. And that's why the wave of folks laid off from Bethel are having such a hard time adjusting to life "on the outside".

I wrote this once before on this forum, but the special pioneers assigned to our congregation were surprised and disturbed when they figured out they had to clean their own toilets.

Is it me or do some of the people in the "meeting" portion of the chart look like they were taken right out of the show SouthPark.

I would swear I see Cartman sitting in the middle of the back row.

Rub a Dub