This is a re-post from November, but it is back by request. Several people have asked me lately how I accomplish as much as I do. Here’s my plan:
If you aren’t doing so already, I want to encourage you to plan your week for efficiency. Every Monday (or Sunday night if you prefer), as the first thing you do, consider the week ahead. Follow this formula:
1. Write down what do you hope to accomplish for the week. What do you need to accomplish? Write them in a prioritized order.
2. Make a plan of attack. If you are going to accomplish your objectives this week, what specifically needs to get done? Write those under each objective in a sequential way. If it seems overwhelming, then use the Hezekiah approach; take your piece of paper, lay it out before God, and say, “God, if this week is to work, it will be up to you to complete it.” (2 Kings 19:14-19)
3. Assign an approximate, realistic time to each item on your action plan. If there isn’t enough time in your day if you do this truthfully and realistically then you are attempting to do too much. If you don’t have anything to assign time to perhaps you aren’t pulling your weight.
4. On your calendar, schedule the time to complete each task.
Now all you have to do is work your plan. You will be surprised how powerful this can be. For me, I like to cross off the items as I complete them and I like to schedule the difficult “have to” tasks first. That makes the end of my week work so much better.
I’ve seen lots of time management models similar to this before and you can adapt this to your own plan or find another one, but the key is to plan your week so you can be more productive and less stressed. Try this for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.
