Calendars fill up quickly. If leaders don’t manage their calendars then their calendars will manage them. In my view, one of the most important decisions leaders makes is how to plan their work. Do they just react to what comes their way or do they proactively plan how they will lead and create? Meetings, emergencies,…
Time Management
3 Reasons Your “Time Hacks” Aren’t Helping
If you Google “Time Management Hacks,” you will receive 1.4M search results, meaning you can spend the rest of your life reading about how to save time. If you are not familiar with the term, “time hacking” often refers to experimenting with your approach to life, schedules, and time management to ensure you are finding…
10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Time
Several months ago we ran a blog survey seeking to understand those who read the blog on a regular basis and what would be helpful to them in future posts. Many people asked about managing schedules and getting the most out of time. It is wise to ask the question because desiring to steward time…
4 Ways to Fight Being a Ministry Workaholic
Work is a gift, and work ethic resides in men and women of character, but in our idolatry, we can easily make work our god. Pastors have warned me, “Ministry can be a great place to hide out and a great place to burn out.” Ministry can be a haven for the workaholic. In most…
3 Reasons You Should Have Fewer Goals
In her book Grit, Angela Duckworth tells a fascinating story about Warren Buffett’s challenge to a pilot. Warren Buffett asked his pilot if he had dreams and goals other than being a pilot. When the pilot confessed that he did, Buffett gave him three steps to achieving his goals. Here are Warren Buffett’s three steps…
6 Signs You Are an Easily Distracted Leader
D.L. Moody said, “Give me a person who says, ‘This one thing I do,’ and not ‘These 50 things I dabble in.’” He was likely referring to several biblical passages where believers described their single-minded focus on the Lord (Philippians 3:13-14 and Psalm 27:4, for example). When it comes to our spiritual maturity, focus is…
Four Imperatives for Wise Stewardship of Time
We only have a brief amount of time on this earth and a brief amount of time in the roles in which we are serving. All of us are interim leaders. We steward our responsibilities only for a brief and fleeting season. One day someone else will lead the teams we are leading. One day…
Three Warning Signs You Are Wasting Time
Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts” (Psalm 90:12). Our days are short. We are like a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14). David prayed, “LORD, reveal to me the end of my life and the number of…
My Five Favorite Personal Productivity Tools
People often ask me what tools or systems I use to maximize productivity, to stay organized, or to complete tasks. My answer is typically perceived as underwhelming, as I don’t have a project management system (though I am not against them) and the tools I do use are a bit “old-school.” The five productivity tools…
Four Reasons to Have a “Stop Doing” List
We don’t drift toward greater efficiency and effectiveness. An organization’s natural drift is toward complexity and a fruitless fury of activity. It takes discipline and focus to continually move to greater effectiveness. For this reason, Jim Collins has encouraged leaders to develop a “stop doing” list. A “stop doing” list forces you to evaluate what…