Managing Interruptions

Without a doubt, interruptions in a day can kill your effectiveness. A "list of things to do" is hardly started before the first interruption sends you reeling toward another unproductive day. Managing interruptions is an important time management skill every pastor/minister needs to develop. 

Here are a few tips to minimize interruptions:

• Ask your secretary or assistant to screen calls for you.
• Stand up and walk towards the door to indicate the end of a meeting.......

Time Management

In the last decade, Microsoft introduced its Windows 95 operating system. As one of the many who utilized this software, I would routinely sit and wait the few minutes for my computer to boot up. I never pondered the immense importance of these wasted daily minutes until I participated in a corporate time management seminar in 1996. I was shocked to discover that the cumulative total of the time wasted as individuals waited the few minutes for Windows 95 to boot up exceeded ten thousand man years per day!

Time is valuable. In training and facilitating several thousand professional and corporate teams, I have documented millions of dollars in bottom-line savings and multiplied productivity simply by eliminating the wasted time from the operating processes used to manufacture goods and produce services. The root cause of the rise or fall of many organizations is their ability to manage time efficiently and effectively. 

Time is life, and it is perhaps our most precious resource. It can be a tremendous friend or foe, and it is ours to do with as we please. Every moment should be cherished, for it is a commodity that can never be replenished. It is used once and then it is gone forever.....

Car Washes and Leadership

I recently attending a church goal setting and calendar planning session. I marveled as I observed each presentation. The goals were impressive, and every presenter received accolades at the conclusion of each delivery. It was expected that I would be impressed. When everyone was finished the pastor asked me if I had any questions for the various department leaders now that the presentations were finished. I did have a few.

“How many people on your team or in each department have any clue as to what you just presented? As the department leader did any of you create these presentations on your own and without the input of your team? Were any of these presentations simply modifications to last years? Did anyone achieve what was proposed to do last year? How do you hold yourselves accountable to attaining these goals? Do you or they know how you are going to accomplish these goals? How do your goals support the goals of the other departments? Are the goals of every department mutually supporting one common church vision? Are the goals of any one department pulling in a separate direction and counteracting the goals of another? Did the church develop its vision first and then have every department develop goals that are essential in order to reach the vision? Are your goals self-serving or do they benefit everyone else? Are any departments competing for people, calendar time, resources or talents in order to achieve your goals? How do you intend to measure these goals in order to track them? What data did you use in order to set your goals? Does anybody know exactly where this church is heading and what its vision is?”

These were just a few of the questions I asked. Surprisingly nobody had answers for any of these questions....

Ten Procrastination Traps To Avoid

Here are some foot- dragging steps that are sure to keep you buried in things to do.

1. Floundering - The failure to focus attention and efforts in a single direction. The cause is a lack of clear-cut goals. This trap can be avoided by crystallizing your goals. Try writing them down on paper. Make them as specific as possible. And Give Them Accomplishment Dates.

2. Wheel-Spinning - Trying to do something so you'll feel busy but accomplishing little or nothing. This usually happens when we let ourselves get behind in our work and try to assuage out guilty feelings by doing everything at once. You won't solve the problem by frantic activity. Survey your list and make a schedule to accomplish everything in a realistic time frame....

Seral Succession

All it takes to start a fire is a little fuel, the right atmospheric conditions, and a source of ignition, perhaps as small as a tiny spark. If circumstances are right, a single blade of grass once ignited can build into an inferno that burns and ravages countless acres of prime forest. Humble beginnings can transmute into raging fire storms, exploding trees, molten sand, and death. The aftermath of such devastation causes one to wince in regret at the horrible and blackened scars left behind where beauty once stood. As unnatural as it may appear it is but another witness of the beauty of the healing and creative powers of God. Most pristine forests have at one time or another been destroyed by fire, but eventually they grow back stronger and more beautiful than ever.  It is a cycle that must be understood.

Seral Succession is an ecological principle in which, over time, the natural biological systems become so developed that they begin to atrophy and bog themselves down. A strong forest becomes weakened and diseased because of the vines, weeds and assorted parasitical vegetations that erode its strength. New growth is repressed and beauty lies dormant because the system prohibits it. Extreme cases may require a controlled burn - an act of destruction - before beauty, order and strength can return. The temporary and painful state of charred ugliness is quickly forgotten once the beauty of a healthy forest burst though....

Ministering Amid Pandemonium

As technological progress continues, it axiomatically leads to increasing rates of stress, overload, complexity, and change, speed, debt, and meaninglessness. Yet how can we protect ourselves, or families and our churches from the exhaustion and burnout of our age? The following suggestions may provide some relief, both for you and for those you minister to.

• Put more control in your life.
• Learn to laugh.
• Generate good will. The greatest thing we can do to buffer ourselves against the ravages of stress is to continually spread good will to those around us.
• Limit negatives. Stop negative self- criticism. Limit your time with negative people.
• Stop digging. If you're in a hole, the first rule is to quit digging. If you're overloaded, start saying "NO!"....

Principles To Guide Your Life & Ministry

Do you often wonder what the habits are of other highly productive pastors and leaders? We often beat ourselves up dwelling on all the ways we do not measure up and do not focus our time and energy on learning from those who are successful. As Leaders, we often need principles to follow that will greatly impact us and help us mature, grow, and be more productive. Listed below are 25 principles of highly productive leaders that someone recently shared with our team. Although we do not know who originally wrote these principles, we believe that they will expectedly influence your personal growth and ministry.

1. Your attitude determines your altitude.
2. It’s not what happens to a person, but what happens in a person that makes the difference.
3. Every problem has a hidden possibility and a seed of victory in it.
4. Failure is not final. Learn from it and go on....

It's Your Time!

The Bible itself begins with a reference of time, “In the beginning”. Time has always been important to God. A reading of the early chapters of Genesis shows God creating the world as a sequential event. Christ Himself did not come to this world until His time was fulfilled and when it was time, he returned to glory. Time is important to God, and it should be important to His ministers........

Digging Your Way Out of The Paper Pile-Up

God created the world in six days – but then He didn’t have any paperwork, right? With computers now as common as feedback from your microphone on Sunday morning, the paper pile up is higher than ever. The question is : Are you at the bottom of the pile trying to dig out, or are you on top and in charge? Or, have you been out of control so long that you’ve developed the “throw it all away every three months” strategy? Why even bother? Can organization really improve your ministry effectiveness? Here are three important reasons to unpile the pile:

1. To Sharpen Your Focus. Our minds are consumed by what our eyes can see. When faced with a pile, part of your brain can’t stop feeling overwhelmed.

2. To Use Time More Wisely – One of the top time bandits is clutter, because you waste time searching for everything you need.

3. To Increase Creativity – Besides narrowing your focus, organizing the paper pile will give you time to be more creative.

Six Tips On How To Unpile The Pile.

1. Get Rid Of the Clutter – Get rid of the junk today. If your personality requires clutter for peace of mind, then clutter a shelf or two on your bookcase or credenza.

2. Use A Simple System – One big time-waster is handling a piece of paper multiple times. Have you ever done this with a letter? You open it and read it. Then you set it aside for a while. Then you have to read it again later before responding! To avoid this, you need a system designed to do something with each item, therefore handling it only once. I like this “4-D” system.