Practical Tips For Time Management

Practical Tips For Time Management

I wanted to follow up the message from Sunday with some practical tips for time management. I don’t claim to be an expert on this topic, but these are suggestions that have been helpful to me over the years. This is something that used to be a weakness for me that I have worked hard at over the years, although some of the things that I am mentioning are still a work in progress for me. I don’t think we can take living for Jesus seriously without taking time seriously. Here is a reminder of the two convictions we focused on during Sunday’s message:

1. Live every day to be ready for the final Day (Hebrews 9:27, Revelation 20:11-15, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
2. Time is life so what our life becomes is determined by how we spend our time (Ephesians 5:15-18).

To live out these convictions and invest (and we should view time as something not to be spent but to be invested as a steward of God) our time wisely, here are some practical suggestions:

1. Remember the Sabbath day. God has set up the rhythm of the world to be that we work six days and rest one day. I don’t think this is binding on us in a religious sense because we are New Testament Christians celebrating the resurrection on Sunday instead of Old Testament Jews observing the Sabbath on Saturday. However, it is a wisdom principle for us to live by. We need a day to relax, unwind, refocus, worship, and connect with our loved ones. I have always found when I have had pastoral emergencies, not managed my time well, and/or been in a busy season and not followed this that after 2 or 3 weeks that it has negative effects on me spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, and relationally. We just do not function the right way without some breaks.

2. Make it an appointment to begin the day spending time with God and let everything else flow out of that. Mark 1:35 says, “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He [Jesus] went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” After salvation, this may be the most life changing thing we can do.

3. Determine our God-given priorities, and as much as we can, schedule based on those priorities and not just out of circumstances. How do we do this? Look at Scripture and determine those things we know that God has called us to do and put them on the calendar first.

4. Say no to activities that do not line up with our God-given priorities as much as possible.

5. Plan a weekly and daily schedule. Set aside a little bit of time each week to sync schedules with your spouse if you are married. Many of us have to plan our time at work, but we should also plan for family time as well. God wants us to have fun too.

6. Combine activities together when possible. Here are some examples of what I mean. I either have lunch meetings or study during lunch and gain four hours a week by doing that. Involve your kids with you in ministry or in household projects and accomplish three things (the task, family time, and practical training) at once. Listen to the Bible, sermons, podcasts, etc. while driving or exercising and accomplish two things at once. There are lots of ways we can maximize our time in this manner.

7. Do the most important or hardest thing first each day.

8. Remember that we have to discipline ourselves to use our time well, which often means willing ourselves to do things instead of doing what we feel like doing.

9. Analyze how we are using our time so we can improve it. Look especially for the time wasters in our lives.

10. Schedule margin in our schedules because things always come and life doesn’t usually go as planned. The rule of thumb is that the more we are involved with people in our life the more margin we need in our schedule. !

11. Focus on results instead of activities. In other words, do not be busy just for the sake of being busy (which is the American way of life), but focus on doing on what we need to do to accomplish what God is calling us to accomplish with our lives.