Time is our servant and our master, and it often seems the latter is true more often than the former. There are few skills more important for church leaders than time management—learning to be more effective stewards of the time God has given us.
In a recent article, Bethany Brewster offers some helpful tips for getting your calendar under control. Among them:
Schedule more time for an appointment than you think you need. Say you have three phone calls to make, and they’ll only take 15 minutes each. Schedule each call in 30-minute increments. This way if one of the calls runs a bit long, it won’t cause you to run behind on your other calls.
Schedule breaks! If you know there is a really busy day coming up, set aside time for at least two solid breaks, as well as lunch. Mandating a break via a calendar appointment will make it easier to stop whatever you are doing and actually eat some lunch or rest for a minute. In the long run, these breaks will help keep you mentally and physically going for the rest of your busy day and prevent you from getting burnt out.
Create different calendars for different aspects of your life. Many calendar apps allow you to create multiple accounts and show them on the same calendar in different colors. Even having just two accounts—personal and work—can be extremely helpful. Then if you look at your calendar quickly and see you have an important family outing in one color, you won’t mistake it for another work call in another color. Be sure to note black-out dates on both accounts for safe measure (e.g., no traveling on a day when you have a doctor’s appointment or no important meetings or calls during vacation time). (Vanderbloemen Search Group)
Blessings!
Michael Duduit
mduduit@salempublishing.com
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