When there is a drive to get better there must be an openness to evaluation. We can’t simply assume that we will get better and reach our goals by doing the same thing. Sometimes we can and we will, but we shouldn’t simply assume it.
Two areas that I find myself regularly evaluating and attempting to grow in are time management and sermon notes. I written about the latter here but today I’d like to think about the former.
It is something that is so basic and so easy that it is often overlooked. It’s the issue of our time. We all have the same amount of time per week. The same 168 hour cycle concludes and begins every 7 days. We fill this with work, sleep, recreation, family, church, errands, etc. God gives us time and we fill it up with what we feel we need to do. The question for me as a Christian is about stewardship. How do I redeem the time well? (Eph. 5:16) How do I properly steward my responsibilities and relationships in such a way that I glorify God in and through them?
The Problem of Porous Borders
Before sharing something that has been immensely helpful for me, let me share a personal tension. I often feel like I have a magnet in my pocket that pulls me off of whatever I am doing to another task. I could be preparing a sermon and my mind is drawn after a project at church. I might be playing on the floor with my kids and a counseling item will grip my mind. I could run upstairs (while home in the evening) to get something and feel like I should check my email to see what might be going on with an issue. You get the idea. I allow myself to get pulled by different tasks and responsibilities at times that I am supposed to be doing something else. Can you relate?
The problem, as I see it, is a life that does not have either well-defined or properly enforced boundaries. However you may feel about illegal immigration, the analogy fits, we need to properly secure the border of our life and responsibilities. To do this we need to identify what we are supposed to do and then do it. It sounds so simple doesn’t it? Well, why don’t we do it? I think it is because we are often lazy, undisciplined, and lack the priorities in the moment to govern us. It takes discipline to apprehend the impulse to check email (or social media) when it is jumping over the wall into your family time. We are the ones who have to say, “No. This is not the time.” Nobody is going to protect our family time, rest, or specific work tasks for us.
The Priority of Actively Patrolling the Borders
A tool for me in this process was to do an in-depth diagnostic of my schedule. Even though I am a pastor and have many unpredictable things coming at me during the week I still live in something of a regular rhythm. My weeks are generally the same in terms of tasks and work schedule.
The first two things I tackled are work and sleep. For me this takes up 70% of my week. This leaves about 50 hours for everything else. I have to then work on time at home with my kids, time with my wife, fitness, a day off, etc. When you go through this process and see what you have to do and when you have to do it you become less likely to have porous borders. I only have a few hours per day with my kids. Why would I be checking my email or allowing other mental intrusions? What’s more, my 4-year-old is soon going to get older and he won’t want to play “knights” anymore; this time is crucial. Every day that passes is closer to the day when the older kids move out and get married. My wife deserves my attention both in listening and in talking. If I want to truly be present in all of these scenarios then I need to protect the borders.
Each week on the first day of the week I spend about an hour looking at projects, tasks, and schedule. I try to reasonably plan for the week in order to get the most important things done. Over time I’ve learned that a major tool to help ensure that these things get done are clear and enforced borders. This is not to say I can’t be flexible when emergencies or other needs arise, but it does prevent the unnecessary encroachment of other items into what I am doing.
Prioritize stewardship, plan accordingly, and protect the borders. This type of intentionality takes work, but it is work that we must do. Nobody can do it for us.
