Volume 3 Issue 9
With all the demands on a minister, do you have any advice for using one’s time more effectively?
The Bible tells us that we should redeem the time so let’s lay down three principles for making effective use of your time.
Number one: You must not plan to do more than you can really do. Understand that there’s only a certain amount of the time in the day, and you can only do so much.
Number two: We must let the joy and enthusiasm of life “grease the wheels.” Someone once said that people accomplish only 10 percent of what they’re capable of accomplishing. Why? Because a lack of enthusiasm. A lack of enthusiasm and enjoyment is the single biggest thing that kills a person’s effectiveness. It’s a tremendous help when you can see your tasks as a joy or as fun.
Number three: Understand that at times interruptions can be good. As a matter of fact, interruptions can at times be news telegrams from God! You have to have an approach to life that allows interruptions to come. Otherwise, you become so rigid that the good things that are trying to come through to you cannot. You’ve scheduled things so tightly that you’ve locked them out.
One more thing: I went to a time management seminar about 15 years ago, and a man suggested the idea of a list. It’s simple, and it’s an old idea, but it really works. The people that I know who have accomplished the most in life are people who use lists. If you haven’t tried it, start now. Make a list of things you have to do, and put them in order of priority. It really works!
One of the things that hurts people and that heats them up the most is the inability to get control of their time. It’s important, therefore, that we make time serve us and that we not serve it.