Jump directly to the Content

Secrets for Managing Your Time Wisely

Five questions for pastors to ask.

Many discussions of a pastor's tasks start with the advice to plan one's work. This sounds eminently plausible. The only thing wrong with it is that it rarely works. The plans remain on paper as good intentions. They seldom turn into achievements.

The first step toward effective pastoral time-management is to record actual time-use. The specific method in which the record is put together need not concern us here. There are pastors who keep such a time log themselves, others have their secretaries do it for them. The important thing is that it gets done and that the record is made in real time; that is, at the time of the event itself, rather than later on from memory.

A good many effective pastors keep such a log continuously and review it every month. At a minimum, effective pastors have the log run on themselves for three to four weeks at a stretch, twice a year or so on a regular schedule. After each such sample, they rethink and rework their schedule. About six months later, they invariably ...

March
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

Related
4 Reasons Your Leaders Don't Want to Be Trained
4 Reasons Your Leaders Don't Want to Be Trained
Practical help for a pressing problem.
From the Magazine
I Hated ‘Church People.’ But I Knew I Needed Them.
I Hated ‘Church People.’ But I Knew I Needed Them.
As I attended my second funeral in three weeks, two Christians showed me a kindness I couldn’t explain.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close