Many years ago I took a course in time management with Ed Dayton and Ted Engstrom of World Vision. As a young associate in the formative years of ministry I now look back with gratitude that I was privileged to add this experience in the foundational years of my ministry. A number of years later I was able to supplement this with some additional helps in another course on time management that helped me develop some systems for efficient and effective work. In more recent years, however, I have come to the conclusion that what we label as "time management" is wrongly stated. In reality none of us can manage time. The only thing we can manage is ourselves and how we use the time we have. The reality is that before the clock we all are equal. We all have the same number of minutes in an hour and the same number of hours in a day. What differentiates us is in how we use those minutes and hours. And as I look at my life, the question I find myself asking is, "Am I investing my time or am I merely spending it? And one reality rings true---we never get any more time. Once gone it is forever gone.
When I pastored in Germantown there was a much admired man in the church who told me this story about himself. He said he had never gone to college and was in a job that required a degree if he was to advance. He went to see an adviser at a local college who essentially reasoned with him as follows. He said to my friend that to get a degree on a part-time basis would require from six to eight years of schooling to achieve his goal of a degree. He reasoned that for the next eight years he could come home each night and sit in front of the television or he could sit in front of a book. Either way he was going to spend that time doing something. And what would he have to show for it? If choosing to sit in front of the television, he would have eight years of TV shows. If, on the other hand, he chose to sit in front of a book with an occasional TV show, he would have a degree. My friend chose the degree. He's retired now but served for a number of years on a consulting basis following his retirement as a result of getting that degree.
When it comes to time, how are you spending it? Are you wasting it knowing you can never get more, or are you investing your life in something that will make a difference? At my age that question is all the more real as I realize there are more miles behind me than there are before me.
Bob Buford in a recent blog posting shared of a course he once took called The Strategic Coach with Dan Sullivan, a man who has made a handsome living taking complex self-management ideas and converting them to simple tools. In that course Sullivan taught them to organize their time using six words: Free Days, Focus Days and Buffer Days.
Focus Days. Focus days are prime time work days. They are the days when you need to concentrate and to get the job done. For the pastor this would be the sermon preparation and delivery.
Buffer Days. Buffer days are those days for preparation, fulfilling promises, returning phone calls, answering emails, and cleaning up all those details one must tend to at some point. As a pastor Monday was always a buffer day for me.
Free Days. A free day is a 24 hour period of time dedicated to rest, recharging and recreation. Another term would be the sabbath principle. It is a time to do whatever you need to do to recharge your batteries. The obvious antidote to burnout is the free day.
A one word summary of all of this would be the concept of ROTATE. We must learn to rotate our time which means that into each week we must have focus days, buffer days and free days.
ROTATE. How are you doing?
Randy Spence
Director of Ministries
