One of the best ways to show I care about others is to manage my time well.
— John Maxwell
Samuel Plimsoll, a member of the English Parliament in the 1800s, crusaded for the safety of merchant seamen. To outlaw what Plimsoll called “coffin ships,” overloaded and therefore unseaworthy vessels often heavily insured by their unscrupulous owners, Parliament enacted the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876.
This act required all merchant ships to have a load line, a line on the hull that would be visible above the water if a ship was carrying a safe weight. An overloaded ship would submerge the line. This load line came to be known as the Plimsoll mark.
Sometimes pastors need a “Plimsoll mark.” I remember all too well a time when mine would have been six feet under water.
I had committed myself to speak at leadership conferences six weeks in a row — in addition to pastoring my church. When those six weeks were over, I had spoken 72 times and traveled over 18,000 miles without a single day off. I felt awful.
When I see an opportunity, I tend to go after it, assuming I can somehow find time for it. Most pastors, I believe, are similarly tempted. The lure may be speaking engagements, counseling appointments, or community involvement.
Of course, I didn’t overcommit myself in one fell stroke. I agreed to speak at a few conferences, then a few more opportunities came my way, then a few more still. Suddenly in one of my brighter moments, I realized I was foundering.
That was about four years ago. The good ship Maxwell didn’t sink, but I think I’m smarter now. For one thing, as I’ve mentioned earlier, I formed an evaluation committee comprised of my wife, my office assistant, and two friends; they decide what commitments I can accept, and they tend to veto most of the invitations I receive.
In addition to my evaluation committee, here are nine other ways I keep my Plimsoll mark safely above the water line.
Let Your Secretary Manage Your Calendar
Most pastors hesitate to relinquish control of their calenders to their secretaries, fearing they’ll also turn over control of their lives. When they feel energized to write the sermon, the schedule will demand they counsel.
To prevent that, I give my assistant clear parameters and explain my scheduling preferences.
For example, I’ve told her to schedule my appointments back-to-back, without even five minutes between them. Years ago I found I couldn’t get anything substantial done during five-to thirty-minute gaps. All I did was shuffle papers and wait.
I also give my input into the calendar early. I’ll tell my assistant I’ve got nine projects for the next month, and I want a half-day for each. Sometimes I’ll specify which days.
By turning over my calendar to another, what I lose in flexibility, I gain in time. First, I save the time it takes arranging appointments. My assistant handles all the calls. When problems arise, say a canceled appointment, my assistant is free to make adjustments. She might move a later appointment to the earlier slot or add thirty minutes to my sermon preparation block.
Second, I avoid the temptation to waste time. If I control my schedule, I’m more likely to follow my feelings than my priorities. If I’m tired and an appointment is canceled, for example, I might just dawdle over a magazine.
Do More Pitching than Fielding
Are you a fielder or a pitcher? Fielders react to where the ball is hit. Pitchers control the ball.
Most congregations think of pastors as fielders chasing the action. If we let them, people ring the phone all day, every day and determine the course of our week:
“I need you to make a hospital visit to someone my mother works with.”
“We would like you to come to our Sunday school social.”
We may assume people have the right to dictate our schedules, and we may feel guilty if we don’t “take care of the flock.” But I think that’s false guilt. The first thing I do is block out the hours I need to work on my sermons and other ministry responsibilities, and then, remembering that even pitchers have to field their position, I deal with the ministry opportunities that others bring to me.
Screen Calls
Screening calls doesn’t just mean having a secretary answer the phone. Receptionists/secretaries can save us time only if they’re trained to deal with callers.
I recently talked to a receptionist who, after informing me that the party I was seeking was not in, asked if she could help. I told her what I was after, and she gave me all I needed. “Tell your boss he doesn’t need to return the call,” I said before hanging up.
This receptionist asked questions, and that’s the first thing I train our receptionists to do. Half the callers who want me can be better helped by another staff person. If the caller is unfamiliar to the receptionist, the first question is “Can I tell Pastor Maxwell the purpose of your call?” or “Can I or someone else in the church help you?”
I have given these screeners a list of people with whom I always want to talk, no questions asked, as well as the small number of people who can interrupt me as necessary. I tell my assistant what my priorities are so that she can use her judgment about who to put through. Some callers don’t want to tell my assistant the purpose of their call. So I’ve instructed her to say, “Pastor is not available now. If he knows the purpose of your call, he may be able to give me the answer to pass along, or he can be better prepared when he calls you back.”
Work in a Work Environment
Some places have more distractions and opportunities to waste time than others. Some pastors think that is home. But I’ve found that two kinds of people work at home. The lazy and the productive.
Most people don’t get as much work done at home as they could at the office. They’re tempted to sleep in, eat a late breakfast, read the paper, watch “Donahue.” Already having too little structure in their days, many pastors need more of the mindset of a blue-collar worker: punch in and punch out. Working in the office provides this.
Then again, hard workers often have their office at home. They work no matter where they are, but at home they get more done because they avoid office distractions.
I’ve worked out a compromise. As I mentioned previously, I have a separate office in the church, tucked away in a far, upstairs corner of the facilities. When I go there, my assistant knows I’m not to be disturbed, and that’s where I usually work on my sermons.
Delegate
Delegation is a mixed blessing.
I once heard it put this way: “An executive has practically nothing to do except to decide what is to be done; to tell somebody to do it; to listen to reasons why it should not be done, why it should be done by someone else, or why it should be done in a different way; to follow up to see if the thing has been done; to discover that it has not; to inquire why; to listen to excuses from the person who should have done it; to follow up again to see if the thing has been done, only to discover that it has been done incorrectly; to point out how it should have been done; to conclude that as long as it has been done, it may as well be left where it is; to wonder if it is not time to get rid of a person who cannot do a thing right; to reflect that he probably has a wife and large family, and that certainly any successor would be just as bad, or maybe worse; to consider how much simpler and better the thing would have been done if one had done it oneself in the first place; to reflect sadly that one could have done it right in twenty minutes, and, as things turned out, one has had to spend two days to find out why it has taken three weeks for somebody else to do it wrong.”
But some of the most productive people in history have found that delegation is more than frustration. “I owe whatever success I have attained,” said Andrew Carnegie, “by and large to my ability to surround myself with people who are smarter than I am.”
Delegation is an opportunity. After others get training and experience, they may be more gifted than we are at their ministries. And although it initially takes more time to give work to others, in the long run we save time.
That only happens, however, if we delegate rather than dump. We dump work on others when we give jobs on the spur of the moment; if we fail to take into account others’ unique gifts, personalities, and interests; if we don’t provide coaching, preparation, and information; if we give out jobs because we’re frustrated rather than because we have the right jobs for the right people. Dumping always causes more problems than it solves.
All I did in my early ministry was dump. I didn’t understand the value or discipline of delegating, and I certainly didn’t know how to do it. I would try to do everything myself, and when I ran out of time and a job was undone, I would dump. As time went on I discovered that delegating is equipping. That changed my approach to assigning responsibilities.
Successful delegation has the following characteristics:
• Know yourself. This rule governs all the points. One person does not have the gifts or time to do everything.
One of the greatest things you discover is your strengths and gifts. I know what jobs are required of me by the church, what jobs I get the greatest return doing, and what jobs give me a personal sense of reward. All other jobs I try to delegate.
• Know your team. “Don’t put a sword in a madman’s hand,” says one English proverb. That’s a strong way of saying that the wrong people can do a lot of harm both to themselves and others (and me!). So however great the need, I don’t give a ministry to others unless I think they’re suited.
• Clearly define the task. This doesn’t mean always telling someone how to do a job. If people are capable, often it is better to allow them to figure out how to do a job in the way that best suits them. But I must tell workers what results I’m looking for and what I expect of them.
• Provide the resources necessary to accomplish the task. That may include a budget, facilities, training seminars, curriculum, promotion.
• Encourage feedback. One sure way to make a person feel abandoned is to fail to communicate. After a person begins a job, there will always be questions, problems, refinements. I want to help people learn, and on-the-job training is the most effective way. I like to ask the questions: How are you progressing? Any problems? Anything I can do to help?
• Clarify the level of authority given. How free are people to make decisions and take action? Are they to (1) report a situation to you so that you make all decisions, (2) make recommendations about their work though you still decide, (3) choose a course of action but wait for approval, (4) deal with situations but advise you of what they did, or (5) handle their responsibilities without advising you of their actions?
• Hold people accountable. I try to keep in mind a rule of accountability I read some time ago: when I delegate authority to act, I don’t abdicate my responsibility to get the job done. If the people to whom I delegate responsibility fail, that, in the end, is the consequence of my leadership — it has failed in that instance. So that reminds me that I have the responsibility to hold people accountable.
• Recognize effort and reward results. I want to make people glad they have been working for me. So I tell people when they’ve done good work, and I like to make that known publicly, from the pulpit or through the church newsletter.
When I follow these guidelines, I delegate successfully, and the person to whom I’ve delegated wins, the church wins, and I win. My mind has been freed up, as has my schedule for other, needful tasks.
As I learned to delegate, though, I had to free myself from the need to know everything going on in the church; I can’t when I effectively delegate. In San Diego we have a radio personality on kfmb who calls himself “Mr. Answerman.” People call in with questions — about anything — and he answers (though sometimes he makes things up). I now pride myself in not having a clue about many things going on in our church, though I do want to know where a person can get the answer. That shows me that I’ve been delegating.
Get Started
There’s a sermon to write. Now on Friday afternoon, you have a five-hour “window” to get it done, adequate time to work without pressure. But you haven’t had a chance this week to pray and think at length about what to preach on. Last night you slept poorly, and now you have a dull headache and no energy.
You sharpen your pencils. You cut your fingernails. You make a pot of coffee, glance through Newsweek, jot down announcements for Sunday, clear off your desk, reread some of the ads from yesterday’s mail, daydream about your son’s ballgame tonight. Now your time window has shrunk to just over four hours.
Slowly getting around to work decreases the amount of time you have for the project, putting time pressure on that and other jobs, increasing the feeling that you’re being swamped by higher and higher waves of work.
On the other hand, training ourselves to dive into work when the gun sounds, without asking whether we want to or whether we feel like it, sooner or later energizes us.
Harvard psychologist Jerome Brunner says, “You’re more likely to act yourself into a feeling than to feel yourself into action.”
I’ve found it’s best to sit with a pad of paper and jot ideas down for Sunday’s sermon whether I feel inspired or not. I don’t wait for an emotional high to get started; the high comes when the work is done.
Do Two Things at Once
Some obligations require large blocks of our time but don’t require our full attention.
I recently traveled to Des Moines for our denomination’s general convention. Since most of the business didn’t involve me, it could have been a major waste of time.
So I did double duty. During the sessions I looked through books and magazines and trolled for sermon ideas and illustrations. I kept a legal pad handy and brainstormed ideas for our fall stewardship campaign. I wrote lists of things to do when I returned home.
Whenever I needed to get my mind into the meeting, I did. I even helped support a couple of pieces of legislation.
Get Organized
Hunting for what’s lost is the number one thief of time.
Preachers have opportunities for major hunting expeditions every week. You’re writing Sunday’s sermon and remember an illustration that will make the sermon a four-star message. I read that in a book a couple of months ago. Now which one was it? You hurry to the bookshelf, choose a likely candidate, and start reading.
Twenty-five minutes later, still not finding the story, you decide, I must not have underlined it. So you skim each chapter. Thirty minutes later you realize, It isn’t in this book. I must have read the story in that new book of illustrations. You pull out the illustration book and wonder, Now, how would they index that story? Under “love,” “discipline,” “parenting”? An hour later, after searching two other books and one magazine, you find the prized illustration.
Shelves of books, boxes of magazines, and unorganized files of clippings can bury preachers like a tidal wave. I learned early that I had to have a retrieval system. I began as a teenager, writing quotes on index cards. I now have staff people who spend hours each week filing materials for me.
I “fish” more than I read. I rarely finish a magazine article. Rather, I read titles and callouts and blurbs to see if an article may be useful. If so, I read the introduction and see what the major principles are. Once I determine the payoff of the article, I either move on or rip it out, write what subject I want it filed under, and put it in a file for my secretary.
I’m not in love with books. They’re only a means to an end for me. I bracket quotes and illustrations. In the white pages I’ll write “Page 37 — Faith.” When I finish the book, I hand it to my assistant, who copies and files the excerpts. The book is gutted; I don’t need it anymore; I can give it away.
We can also waste our time handling, rehandling, and hunting in “pile files” for correspondence. Never read a letter twice. Have a system in place so that you put a letter where it belongs the first time you handle it, either in an out box for someone else, in a storage, or work, or “tickler” file (a dated file that contains work that doesn’t need to be addressed until the date), or in the trash.
Work in the Car
My car is an office. I easily spend an hour a day in my car, so I have it equipped with a car phone, a microcassette recorder (for dictating), a note pad, and a tape player. In my car are usually forty cassettes from various tape clubs for pastors, Preaching Today, Pastor’s Update, and my own Injoy. I can cross the country and not run out of tapes.
On my way home from the office I’ll typically return four or five phone calls, pray with people over the phone, and call others just to say I appreciate what they’re doing.
Keep Time Management in Perspective
If I’m too busy to treat people with kindness, I need to get out of the people business or lighten up my schedule. But for me it really isn’t a choice between time management or taking time for people. By making the most of my time, I’m able to show thoughtfulness in ways others may feel their schedule doesn’t allow.
I send a lot of personal notes. I keep cards in my briefcase so I can write notes to people while I’m on a plane or sitting at a stoplight: “It was great talking to you today. I want you to know I appreciate you and enjoyed our few minutes together.”
We have communication cards in the pews for people to tell the staff their prayer requests. Every week these requests fill seven pages, single-spaced. Each week I’ll go through the list and pray for each person. I can’t contact everyone personally, but I do try to make contact with those who are facing really tough times. I will call and pray with some people over the phone and send notes to others.
These are just some of the ways my schedule allows me to care for people individually. In the meantime, I’ve led a ministry where people are cared for by programs and staff and hundreds of lay volunteers.
I’ve found, then, that one of the best ways to show I care about others is to manage my time well.
Copyright © 1993 by Christianity Today
