We are all given the same amount of time—24 hours a day—in which to love and serve God, and to love and serve our neighbors as we do ourselves. That is our life’s mission. However, our mission and the time we have in which to live it must be managed wisely. Here are ways in which to do just that with intentionality:
1. Discern the season for doing what needs to be done. Identifying priorities, setting goals, and giving those goals and priorities places in our daily schedule will ensure that our life’s mission is fulfilled in the right season and at the right time.
2. Create a time management plan. Writing down our life’s mission or vision and setting a time frame for accomplishing specific goals diminishes the likelihood of forgetting important details.
3. Allow purpose to unfold each day by using a planner. It is a good idea to complete our planner before going to bed each night. Beginning each day with an agenda and devising a system to use in order to operate our plan helps us to be effective and efficient.
4. Align our heart, mind, and will with what needs to be accomplished daily. The agreement of these three components working synergistically will produce benefits when used to operate our time management plan. These benefits include decreased time spent on decision-making and procrastination; decreased crisis; God-inspired direction; increased productivity; and increased quality of work.
5. We must work our plan well. It is important to keep all of the information necessary for the purpose of planning and implementing our time management plan in one integrated system. Using the latest technology of a smart phone, the available apps and program conveniences of an iPad, a laptop computer, or simply a planner with a daily calendar, will help tremendously in maintaining consistency in keeping a schedule. It is best to have a portable system at our disposal to prioritize daily task lists, projects, appointments, assignments, travel, etc.
6. Use wisdom to differentiate between what is urgent, what is important, and what should be delegated. Urgent things take priority over what is important and should be placed on the top of a daily task list. Priorities must be set in terms of what needs to be completed first, and follow in descending order. Tasks that should be delegated to someone else will only waste the precious resource of time that God has given to us. Overload is due to a lack of discipline and a lack of delegation, perhaps due to lacking confidence in others to perform. Being overloaded robs us of our time.
7. Redeem lost time by making good use of every opportunity. Time is one vital resource that can never return once it has gone. We must guard our time and use it wisely by seizing each opportunity that comes our way to do good and to serve others, while remembering to place ourselves on the list of those who need to be served or cared for. We cannot bless others if we are not blessed ourselves, nor can we give to others what we do not have.
8. Assign a time limit to every task/priority daily. Developing a time log for each activity, event, phone call, meeting and/or goal, will help us and others to respect our time. It helps to focus our concentration on the priority to be accomplished and to determine not to be distracted. By doing so, we show a commitment to value time while resisting the temptation to waste it.
Creating and utilizing a time management plan requires decision, discipline, and determination. Time management is really management of our life’s mission as we utilize wisdom to manage the priorities, events and affairs in our lives. Determining to be good stewards of God’s time afforded to us, empowers us with the ability to have control over what we do next. Our ability to distinguish between what is urgent and important and to remove unimportant tasks from our schedule, will cause us to be fruitful and fulfilled rather than frustrated and fatigued as we manage our life’s time and mission.
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