Time management

Following from posts a few weeks back (maybe just two?) that I did on stress, and linking to some excellent insights from Mark Driscoll (see his blog for the full 11, including video of him talking through it), I wanted to move on to time. Billy Chia also reminded me this morning of some helpful time management ideas.

 I remember reading in 1992 that we all had exactly the same hours in the day - the Pope, the President of the USA, Joe Bloggs and me. 168 hours per week. So it’s not a question of having more time, it’s about allocation and utilisation of time.

But are we proactive or reactive to time constraints? Do we plan in advance? I seem to remember that James said this:

 ”Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” - James 4 (NIV)

So does that mean you shouldn’t plan? I would say not, because God plans. I think it’s more about openness to the Holy Spirit, mostly through the bible, but also through circumstances and wise counsel.

Mark Driscoll talks about his priorities being Christian then Husband then Father and then Pastor. I see mine as Christian then Husband then family member and small group and then work or ministry in the last 2 spaces. But I’m pretty sure that my current utilisation is nothing like that. And part of that comes back to the pro-activity point - I’m pretty reactive in this area and rarely plan with enough discipline.

For example, what’s on the calendar right now:

- I’ve got all my holidays booked up for the rest of the year, I have all the church meetings that I know about (and I don’t know about many lol) on there, I have all the work dates and board meetings there and I have all the football fixtures to the year end there. All of the dates for anything related to students is on there, as is a Willow Creek event in September.

So what’s missing? How about some of the key things - spiritual disciplines such as solitude, fasting (tonsilitis leads you close to this lol - I just lost another 2 kilos), prayer, sabbath and then physical exercise. How about date nights and nights where we just spend time together sorting stuff out so that our weekends are not crammed? How about time to go visit family and friends?  How about space? How about sleep and enjoying good food? Hanging out? Just chillin? (sounding more gangsta as I go on, I’ll stop now)

Now, don’t think I’m suggesting that we should all sit down and break out our 168 hours and then put that on the calendar. That would just be silly. Believe me, I’ve come close to that in the past. I think it’s actually about three things (man, 3 points, I could be a pastor).

Point 1: It’s about recognising the priorities:

- Priority number 1 must be God and a relationship with Him. That means giving Him the best space, not the last space. It means enough time. It means activity, even if sometimes that’s just sitting silently. I have a time each day where I can sit, read, pray and think for around half an hour. I think what I need to do is build in to the diary other periods on a less regular basis to expand on this. One of these areas is how I should use the sabbath - it’s pretty easy to stop doing stuff, but shouldn’t I also be starting other stuff in its place (reflecting on God etc). That’s the spiritual side of a person, but I also need to build in time for regular exercise and holidays and space (I gain energy from having space) and fun things.

Priority no 2 should be Kathy (or in your case your significant other . We both try and keep to a weekly date night but have periods where we are better at this than others. Eating together, and not in front of the TV or a book or a paper, has an uncanny ability to get you talking Doing together what you have to do anyway can also be good time together. You need space together, and we use our holidays as a massive part of that. You need to be intentional about doing fun things together, enjoying each other whilst you are out and about.

Priority number 3 is family. If they live nearby, get them over and involve them in your life. Take time out to just enjoy each other. If they live far away, schedule it in, book it up and don’t move it. And when you’re together, make sure you talk about each other, not just stuff that’s going on. Kathy reminded me, rightly, recently that I’m really good at putting priority 4 and 5 above 3. We’re working to change that.

Priority number 4 is prob my small group. That means going consistently, being prepared, being there for them, praying for them outside of the group and serving alongside them at other times. Need to work on this a lot.

Priority number 5 is church/ministry. This then needs to be broken down, re-prioritised and focused (stick to what I’m supposed to be doing and get rid of the rest).

Priority number 6 is work. Not much to say here. I currently work 45-50 hours a week, which is pretty low for my industry and amongst my peers.

What happens if people in priority 6 and then 5 and 4 and 3 and 2 want a claim on your time with 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5? One of two things - you say no and it doesn’t happen, or you cave and your priorities begin to get inverted. And that’s not healthy. But that is what I’m pretty sure happens to everyone who is reactive, not proactive, about time management. I think that these 6 are biblical priorities and I think that is the order God would have us put them in. The problem is that they are never that separate in reality.

Point 2: It’s about allocating the time for them.

This simply comes down to planning. I don’t believe that everything needs to be written down, but I’d love to believe that one day someone could ask me when I spent time out with my wife, or time alone with God, or how I balanced work pressures with church pressures with my need for space - and I could answer. So here’s my suggestion:

1) Work out what you want to do (because planning and verbs go together (doing nothing intentionally is still an activity)) and how long that will take.

2) Plan out your diary

3) Review it and see if it looks excessive. If it does, start culling from the bottom priorities up. If that means giving up the job, then do it. Don’t mess around.

4) Build up the diary you are going to keep to. Cull everything else that’s taking time in your diary. And if that’s people, please do it gently lol…..

Point 3: It’s about discipline

I think this comes down to making a commitment. I fail at this point. Once you know what the priorities are, you need to say no to the other stuff. And keep saying no. Not even a “just this once”. Keep to the plan, whilst continuing to assess against scripture that you’ve got it right, and also being open to the way that God is working in your life.

Does this all sound too mechanical? Maybe, but that’s disciplines I guess. The point is that once you’ve made the space, you can then use it creatively, imaginatively, in fun ways. But if you don’t then what you find is simply that life gets overrun. 

 Conclusions:

I’m reaching a point where I’m about to reassess how I use time and what the priorities are like currently for me and where I need to make changes to honour God with the way I live, as well as witness to the way that Jesus would have me walk.

Priorities are about relationships, not tasks. Even as a task-focused person I can’t turn those into tasks. Even with time allocation, the relationship must always come first.

Finally, it’s ok to not meet all the plans. Sometimes things happen. But if it’s happening on a regular basis there’s a problem in point 1, point 2 or point 3 for me.

Questions for discussion:

Is time management something you find helpful or alien? If helpful, how do you do it?

How do you prioritise and what would you add to my priority list?

Do you think that discipline is the answer once you have a plan? Or is it something more than that?

p.s. how am I going to find the time to do this time plan lol…………………..