As pastors, there is always a growing list of things we need to do and most of us have abandoned our to-do lists because it grows faster than we can check tasks off of it. Well, what if there was a way to structure your week so that all the important stuff was done on time and you could go home at the end of each day knowing you were productive and accomplished?
If you want to 10X your productivity in ministry you need to implement these powerful steps and feel the stress begin to melt away.
- List everything you currently do
- Eliminate, Automate and Delegate
- Assign time needed for what’s remaining
- Priorize based on importance
- Add big rocks and then small rocks
- Shelf the remaining
Introduction
When was the last time your to-do list was at 0?
When was the last time your inbox was empty?
One thing is guaranteed in ministry: at no point will everything be done. There is always more to do. There is always tasks to be done, projects needing finishing, and meetings to be had.
What that means for pastors like you and I is that we never leave the office with the satisfaction that everything is done. In fact, many pastors never leave the office feeling accomplished. Over time, this has led to a growing number of pastors burning out, leaving the ministry, or falling into deeper levels of anxiety, stress and depression.
There has to be a better way to approach the demands of ministry. There have to be steps we can take so that we can walk away from our days and weeks and feel like we have accomplished the things we needed. Feel like we actually moved the ball down the field instead of getting lost in feeling busy with little productivity.
Overview
In ministry, it is easy to fall into the trap of reacting to the need right in front of us. Part of this is because we have been taught from our early development into ministry that we are supposed to be available 24/7. When the phone rings, when there is a knock at the door, when someone comes into our office, the expectation from those in our churches, and even ourselves, is that we will respond to the need.
Inevitably what happens though is our days and weeks get lost in the interruptions and rather than trying to manage our schedules, we allow our schedules to manage us. We run from one problem to another slipping into maintenance mode rather than being intentional about making forward progress.
Instead, what we should be doing is making a concerted effort to focus our attention on the tasks, meetings, and responsibilities that make the most impact on the growth of the church, the discipleship of God’s people, and the engagement of the community.
Unfortunately, the tasks that are growth-oriented and focused on people development do not demand our attention. This is the cause of so many pastors developing their sermons on Saturday night, why discipleship programs are ineffective, and why attendance in churches is declining in many places across the country. Pastors just aren’t able to find the time necessary to develop the vital components of their church ministries. This is a central reason why so many pastors do not live their dream lives in ministry.
I want to help you to take control of your schedule and become the master of your days so that you can get the most important things done first. In the framework that follows, you will discover how to build a weekly schedule that puts the most important things first. This will allow you as a pastor, to feel accomplished and satisfied at the end of your days. You can go home knowing you focused on the levers of ministry vital to growing your church, discipling God’s people, and engaging your local community.
Necessary Skills
Before you walk through the framework that is going to 10X your ministry productivity, let’s look at two skills that are absolutely necessary in order to make the framework effective for you. Keep in mind, you do not have to master these skills in order to become a master of your schedule, but the more you grow in these two skills, the more productivity you will have. Most importantly, it will allow you to create more margin in your personal life while you enjoy pastoring a growing church. This is the core of living your Dream Life in Ministry. Here are the two skills you need in some measure in order to get control of your weekly schedule.
Discipline
The great motivational speaker Jim Rohn says “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment“. As pastors, that is exactly what we are always trying to do. We have the Great Commission to “go and make disciples” (Mt. 28:19) at the forefront of our minds all the time. To accomplish this goal, we must embrace the art of discipline.
Discipline is not very popular in a world that is focused on comfort and convenience. Those who choose to live a disciplined life easily set themselves apart and influence others in a positive way. Being disciplined is simply choosing a course of action, behavioral pattern, or habit and remaining committed to it no matter what. It is the key to so many losing weight, starting a business, becoming true disciples of Christ, and finishing their degrees. All great things come on the other side of a season of discipline.
If you truly want to gain control of your weekly schedule and boost your productivity, discipline must be a part of the equation.
Time Management
Along with discipline, you must also have some systems in place to manage your time. Time is the one resource we can not get more of. Once a moment passes, we can not get it back, which is why it is so important for us to capture every moment and make it work for us.
This is almost an impossibility without some tools and systems in place. They do not have to be high-tech and overly complicated, but they do need to work for you and be simple enough for you to remain disciplined to using them.
Calendar
For this discussion, I would suggest having two important time management tools in place. The first is your calendar where you plan out everything and allow it to dictate your day. This is where your decisions are made on what you are going to do. If it is on your calendar, then you have already committed to it. If an interruption arises and you have no choice but to move something, immediately reschedule on your calendar. You have limited space on your calendar because you have limited time, so if you can’t fit it on your calendar, then you need to really question if it is necessary to do. If it is, then something else needs to go.
Your calendar system doesn’t need to be complicated. If you like to use a digital calendar, there are plenty of options out there including the calendar app on most smartphones. If you prefer pen and paper, that’s fine too. The important thing is that it works for you. Here are a couple of suggestions to consider.
The Day Designer for Blue Sky was covered by Business Insider as a calendar effectively used by those who are busy and have a lot of tasks to accomplish in their days. That sounds like every pastor I have ever known, including myself. At less than $30, it is a great option for an annual calendar.
My favorite paper and pen calendar system before I went digital is the Franklin Covey calendar. It is very comprehensive and allows for a lot of detail. When I was starting in ministry, the youth pastor who mentored me bought me one and got me started on becoming productive. You have to buy the calendar and case separately which allows you to customize your calendar each year, but keep the case. Altogether, it is $100 to get started, but only $50 each year after that if you take care of the case.
Project Management Tool
The other tool you will need to manage your time effectively is a to-do list. Let me be clear, this isn’t a to-do list that tells you what you should be doing, but instead, it is a project management list for efficiency. For instance, let’s say your calendar is telling you it is time to work on your sermons. When you sit down at your desk, you open your project management tool and go to sermons and can see exactly what is remaining to complete that project. In this case, what is remaining to complete your sermon for this week, and what do you need to accomplish this week for your sermon next week?
Another example is the outreach event that is coming up next month. If this is the time you have scheduled in your calendar to work on the event, then when you open up your project management tool, you will see what has been done, what is remaining, who is responsible for each task, and what you need to do still.
A lot of time can be wasted when we sit down and ask the question, “okay, what do I need to do?” Having a good project management tool answers that question before you even ask. It takes away the guesswork and uncertainty and allows you to get to work and get as much done in the time you have allotted for the project.
There are tons of simple digital tools out there you can use. I would recommend using ClickUp. It is as simple and as comprehensive as you want it to be, but also free. There are some features you can pay for to boost your productivity, but you can be very productive with the free version.
With ClickUp you can put your projects in place with all the steps, tasks, and even link documents and frameworks to make you more productive. When you sit down at your desk to get things done, you shouldn’t have to ask “now, what do I do”, but be able to get right to it and boost your productivity.
Now, onto the framework that is going to help you 10x your ministry productivity.
6 Powerful Steps to 10x Your Ministry Productivity
You should utilize this framework a few times a year. I would recommend towards the end of each semester in the year to allow yourself the ability to adjust to the coming season of ministry. Most pastors have a spring (Jan.-May), summer (June-Aug.), and fall (Sept.-Dec.) annual cycle. This means the optimal time is to revisit this framework in December, May, and August in order to create your weekly schedule for the coming season. Here are the steps you need to take to 10x your ministry productivity.
Step 1: List Everything You Are Currently Doing
If this is the first time you have followed this framework, this may take a while. Think through everything you do each day of the week. EVERYTHING!!! The more detailed you are, the more effective this process will be and the faster you will be able to create margin in your personal life by becoming more productive.
Think through every task, meeting, process, service, practice, errand, and anything else you do. Write down everything, including your personal responsibilities. If you take out the trash every Monday night, and it is on you to either make sure it gets done, then write it down. If you are supposed to take the kids and their friends to baseball practice every Thursday night, then write it down. The reason why it is so important you write everything down is because it is the small, unassuming, regular tasks we do that suck our time. If you want to boost your productivity and widen your margin, then you have to write everything down to have a clear picture of everything on your plate.
Most likely, you will realize how many things you have committed to, how many things are on your shoulders, and you will begin to see why you feel so overwhelmed and stressed about all the things you are doing. If you are like most pastors, you will realize it is not humanly possible to get all the things done you are expecting yourself to get done. Hopefully, this is a wake up call for you to realize it is time to approach ministry in a more healthy way.
Step 2: Eliminate, Automate, and Delegate All You Can
This is my favorite step!
Now that you have this daunting list in front of you with the mountain of responsibilities no normal human being could accomplish, it is time to start pruning. You are going to go down your list of items and ask three questions, in this order:
Can I eliminate this? Is the task you are looking at necessary or is it possible for you to cut it out? For instance, every week it takes you 20 minutes to build out notes for your online experience in YouVersion, but, you know almost no one uses them. You keep doing it “just in case” someone was to look on YouVersion for a church to visit, but if you stopped, no one would really notice. This is something you probably need to eliminate.
Can I automate it? If you can’t eliminate it, then is there a way to automate it? For instance, every Monday you send out an email to every new person that filled out a guest card. Depending on how many guests you have, this could take 20 minutes to 120 minutes. Instead, you can utilize a program like Convertkit or Planning Center to send out a prewritten email from you every Monday. In fact, I have utilized whole email sequences for guests over a 2-3 week period that boosts returns to Sunday morning services and increased overall engagement.
Can I delegate it? Okay, so the task you are looking at is too important to eliminate and there isn’t the ability to automate it. So, is there someone you can delegate it to? This may be the hardest step for most of us pastors. We have a hard time delegating because we either don’t want to burden others or we want things to be a certain way and others can’t deliver completely. This was hard for me to learn, but my rule of thumb has become if someone else can do it 80% as well as I can, then I need to give it to them to do. If they can’t, then I train them until they can. Make sure it is within the purview of their job description or volunteer agreement, but delegate everything you can. You don’t need to be the one straightening the chairs before service.
Your goal should be to do the things only you can do. When your time and focus is on the things only you can do, then you are adding the greatest value you can to your church and allowing others to do the same.
Step 3: Assign Time Needed
Now that your list has gone through the gauntlet, you should now have a lot of things eliminated, a few things automated, a good number delegated. What is remaining in front of you should be the things that only you can do. Now, it is time to start putting the puzzle together.
Next to each remaining item, place the high number of minutes you think it takes to accomplish the task. For instance, if it takes you between 30-60 minutes to review the Sunday morning service on Monday, then mark the task as a 60 minute task. The reason you go to the top end is the more efficient you get, the more margin you will create because you are overestimating rather than underestimating.
Step 4: Prioritize Remaining Tasks
At this point, you have eliminated, automated, and delegated all you can. What is remaining on your list has a number next to it representing the total amount of time in minutes it will take you at the most to accomplish it each week. We are one step away from building your weekly schedule.
Now, it is time to prioritize your items from most important to least important. This may be a little bit of a difficult task, but is absolutely vital for you to increase your productivity, create more margin, and be on your way to living your dream life in ministry.
By prioritizing your tasks now, when you are focused, calm, and free from distractions, you are able to make a clearer assessment of importance void of the emotions and demands of the moment. When we are in the moment when someone calls, or there is a knock on our office door, or whenever the interruption comes in, we make emotional decisions of reaction. Right now, you are going to prioritize accurately to guide your decisions later.
Once you have placed a priority number next to everything left on the list, then you are ready to start building your schedule.
Step 5: Add Big Rocks and Then Small Rocks
Whenever you are packing things away into a container with limited space, you are supposed to pack the big things first to ensure they fit, and then pack the smaller things around them. Well, your schedule has limited space and so the same rule applies here.
Every item remaining on your list has two numbers next to it: the number of minutes required for completion and the rank of importance. These two numbers are going to guide you through this building process.
Before you start building your weekly calendar, I want to say something about daily and weekly rhythms. If you don’t know these yet, you probably have a sense of it. What tasks are you more geared towards in the mornings and afternoons? What things fit your mood and mindset on given days throughout the week. For instance, my personal rhythms are hard thinking tasks are for the morning when I am calmer and more focused. Meetings, brainstorming, and event planning is better in the afternoon because I am more social and geared toward movement and activity. Knowing what your rhythms are will help you place items in the right places of the day and week to fit your workflow and mood better.
Now, you start building. Start at priority one, look at the amount of time it will take, and place it somewhere on your weekly calendar. Move on to priority 2, then 3, and so on. You go until you have placed everything on your weekly schedule or until you run out of time in the week. Once one of those two things happens, move to the final step in the process.
Step 6: Shelf the Remaining
Do not try to fit everything in. Do not try and adjust the times to squeeze more. These behaviors are what got you to the point you are right now. The goal of this exercise is to create margin, give you freedom, lower stress, and anxiety, and get your life on the right track. This means that if you have things remaining on your list, it is time to shelf them.
Notice I didn’t say eliminate them. Here is why. It is likely that if they have made it through this gauntlet and still remain on your list, they are important. The reality is that you will likely have a lot of important things you can do, maybe even should do, but simply do not have the time for them. That doesn’t mean they all of a sudden cease being important. It means they need to go on the shelf until more time is found, more staff are hired, other projects are completed, or someone builds a time machine. For now, just place them on the shelf and revisit them again the next time you do the exercise.
Conclusion
Once you have gone through this exercise and begun to execute your new schedule, you will find yourself getting so much more done. Projects will be finished in advance, the quality of your sermons will go up, which means the impact they are making will go up. You will find yourself with margin in your days to dream, imagine, and look into the future. You will also find you will be able to go home early to spend time with your family, work on a hobby, or just relax. When you are able to 10X your productivity, it opens up a whole new life for you…your dream life that God designed you to live.