#5 Develop a time management plan.
Speaking of time, we all have the same amount, but it sure does seem hard to manage. Developing a way to manage our time is important. That can look any number of ways, depending on how we’re gifted. I have a hard time staying focused, so I need a very structured time management plan. Some people look at my life and think I’m spontaneous and all over the map. Not really. Underneath all that seeming spontaneity I have a calendar that I live by. I use Google Calendar, because it’s on my phone. I can put in ten-minute increments. It’s almost my task list. It keeps me on track.
I talk to countless executive directors. They’ll call me and say they need help, but when I return their call and leave countless voicemails, most will not return a phone call or email. I won’t get a reply. Yesterday, I got one from a lady who said, “You were here about seven months ago and helped us come up with a strategic plan. Our board is ready to put that into place.” I told her we needed to come back down and have that exact same conversation that we had seven months ago, because everything’s probably changed. “Well, why didn’t you get in touch with us?” she asked. If she had checked her email inbox, she’d have known I had. She basically said, “I’m busy.”
Which is why we need a time management plan. What are you busy doing? And is it productive? I’m talking about being profitable and productive. The reality is that the enemy can fill up my calendar with a forty-hour week of things that aren’t going to have any kingdom impact at all. I have to be guarded with my calendar, and I submit that you need to be guarded with yours as well. You can get it filled up with things that have no major impact on what you’re trying to do. No major impact on the mission God’s given you. The mission is so important. It’s why the organization exists. It’s why you’re here.
If you’re prone to being busy, busy, busy, start writing down what you did that day. Every evening, take ten minutes to write down what you did. At the end of the week, look back and pinpoint what was connected with your mission and what was an interruption. There are going to be some divine interruptions, divine appointments God brings your way, and that’s great. If there are things that kind of subtly fell on your calendar that have nothing to do with helping you move ahead personally or professionally, figure out a way to get those off your calendar. They’re robbing you of being able to accomplish what God’s called you to accomplish.
After that, create your schedule and work it. Work that plan. It’s so important, because the enemy would have us waste time. The enemy is happy if we’re active and not productive. There’s a big difference. There can be a lot of activity and very little productivity. If we’re honest, we want to have a lot of productivity with as little activity as possible. It comes to really thinking through and looking at our calendar.
Instead of being tied to a desk to return phone calls, I do so while driving. Use wireless tech as required in your state. Be legal about it. If I have to take calls or have meetings at my office, I stand up. Meetings are a lot quicker when you’re standing than if you’re sitting. Get to the point and get out.
Have an agenda for your meeting. I put time signatures if I’m having a meeting with people. We talk about this for ten minutes, this for five minutes. Depending on the personalities I know are going to be at the meeting, I may even have the online countdown clock pulled up on my computer, turned around so they can see it and know that when ten minutes are up, we need to be on to the next thing. Otherwise, people will waste your time.
There are some people in your life who are not as busy as you are. To them, you’re just hanging out. To you, you have to go home and cook for the family. I have a board meeting at 9:00 a.m. that I have to get ready for. They have no idea. So, we have to develop a time management plan. A time management plan will set us and our team up for success. Don’t allow another moment to slip by without coming up with a strategy here.