Time Management Principles
Living on Borrowed Time Series – Part 1
INTRO:
- A lot of people think that managing your time is about cramming more and more into your day.
- They think that going, going, going, and going is the key – and they look for advanced tricks like how to brush your teeth while combing your hair while eating your breakfast while reading the paper while driving down the highway to work.
- But time management, whether it’s Christian or not, is not about doing more things – it’s about doing the right things.
- What it really comes down to is that time management is about life management.
- And, as Christians, we manage our very lives based on the principles of the one who came so that we may have life and have it abundantly.
- Introduce series – Living on Borrowed Time
- Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
o This is a prayer – he’s saying, “Teach us to live as if we are living on borrowed time… teach us to number our days.”
o That we may gain a what? A heart of wisdom
o If we live our life knowing that our days are numbered, we’re going to make better decisions.
o Whenever you think that you have more of something than you need, you tend to waste it!
- JAR AND ROCKS ILLUSTRATION:
o The Jar represents our day – 24 hour period of time.
o All of the little pebbles in the jar represent all of the little things that you do that waste your time.
• They are things you don’t want to give up, but they’re not a very big deal.
• For a lot of you in this room, half of the pebbles in this jar represent Facebook.
• They represent shopping on-line, they represent driving through car lots to look at cars you can’t afford. They represent driving through neighborhoods to look at homes you can’t afford. They represent all those rounds of golf, all the television that you watch, surfing the Internet and playing candy crush – it represents all the things that occupy our time.
• These pebbles are just things that aren’t critical to our success – they’re just things.
o Then you have the BIG THINGS – These are all the things that we would admit are important.
• Kid’s – obviously, we have to put our kids in the time jar, they’re important.
• Spouse
• Work
• Church on Sunday / Maintaining your walk Monday through Saturday
• Exercise
o Everything is overflowing – for many of us this represents our life – there isn’t enough time in the day.
- PUT ROCKS IN SECOND JAR: Here’s the main point I want you to see in this message series – the key to getting more accomplished in life is not simply adding, the key to getting more done is prioritizing correctly.
- Write this down: Priority determines Capacity.
o It’s what you put in first that determines your capacity in life.
o [Pour Pebbles onto Rocks in the Jar] – Here comes Facebook, Pinterest, Email, etc.
o Here’s what I want you to see – priority determines the capacity of your life.
- Ephesians 5:15-16, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.”
o That phrase “making the most of your time” – some translations say “redeeming the time”
o In the Greek – it’s a word that means “to buy out of the market.”
o It was used of buying something valuable in the marketplace
o “Time” is not chronos (chronology / time sequence)… it’s the word kairos which means “opportunity.”
o Kairos means an appointed time in the purpose of God – it’s a window of opportunity when God can act.
BRANDON’S LAWS OF UNMANAGED TIME:
1. LAW #1 – Unmanaged Time Flows Toward My Weaknesses –
a. I really believe that the majority of people spend the majority of their time doing things that they are second best at.
b. Why? Because unseized time will flow in the direction of one’s weaknesses.
2. LAW #2 – Unmanaged Time Comes Under the Influence of Dominant People in My World
a. I am a people pleaser by nature! I love people and I hate to disappoint them.
b. But I quickly learned when I first started pastoring that if I do not take control of my schedule there was about a hundred people in my little country church that would!
c. I quickly learned that strong people in my world controlled my time better than I did because I had not taken the initiative to command the time before they got to me.
d. "Planning your day, rather than allowing it to unfold at the whim of others, is the single most important piece in the time management puzzle."
--Alec Mackenzie
3. LAW #3 – Unmanaged Time Surrenders to the Demands of All Emergencies
a. So many of us are governed by the tyranny of the urgent.
b. Not everything that cries the loudest is the most urgent thing.
c. Elton Trueblood, “A public man, though he is necessarily available at many times, must learn to hide. If he is always available, he is not worth enough when he is available.”
The world is full of disorganized people who have lost control of their time.
- A person can be gifted, can possess a variety of talents and enormous intelligence—but can wind up squandering it all because of an inability to seize control of their time.
- "The only problem with success is that the formula for achieving it is the same as the formula for a nervous breakdown."–Chuck Swindoll
o For many people the great American dream has turned into the great American nightmare.
- Time must be Budgeted.
o When a person’s money is limited—they set up a budget.
When a person realizes that their time is limited—the same principle holds.
- Now, you cannot manage time (time will go on with or without you) but you can manage yourself in relation to time.
o If the old saying, “Time Flies” – is true – then it’s up to you to be the pilot!
- It is so important that you have a well-planned life!
- ILLUS: Two women met for the first time since graduating from high school. One asked the other, "You were always so organized in school. How did you manage to live such a well-planned life? "
"Yes," said her friend. "My first marriage was to a millionaire; my second marriage was to an actor; my third marriage was to a preacher; and now I'm married to an undertaker."
Her friend asked, "What do those marriages have to do with a well-planned life?"
"One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go."
- Well, I believe that you need to have a well-planned life.
o This is not another “Time Management” seminar and I am not going to teach you how to manage your day-timers or schedules in order to be happy in life.
o Well managed days do not result in a well managed life—well managed days are the result of a well-managed life.
MOST IMPORTANT TIME MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE:
You need to make a conscious effort to allocate your time.
Proverbs 24:27 comes into play: “Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that build your house.” In other words, do the most important things first. In the day in which Proverbs was written, getting the fields ready first was critical because it meant food and income for the family. What good is a nice house when you don’t have any food to eat or income?
So how do you decide what’s first and most important?
Try this: Make a list of all things you need to do today.
• Now ask yourself this question: “If I could only do one item on this list, which one would it be?” Mark that item as #1.
• Go back through the remaining items on the list and ask the question again. Mark that item as #2. Get the idea?
• Once the items all have a number, start with #1—and do it until it is completed. Cross it off the list, pause to feel the endorphin rush of accomplishment, and celebrate. Then go on to #2.
Some of you are be thinking, “But what if I don’t get to everything on my list?” To you I say two things: 1) You can take great satisfaction in knowing you did that which was most important, and, 2) Give yourself the gift of saying no.
When was the last time that you had some “space” in your life?
- Space is having time to fix the roof before it rains
- Space is having the car serviced before it breaks down in traffic.
- Space is raising up your children and still having a little love left.
- In our society, we don’t have much space left over anymore.
o If you don’t believe me—go home and look inside your closets!
ILLUS: A pastor, when asked if he took Monday’s off, replied, “No, I don’t want to feel bad on my own time.” Sounds to me like he needed some space.
How do we add space to our lives? Let me spell it out for you:
STOP
- SAYING: If the devil can’t make you BAD; he’ll make you BUSY!
- Take some time every day to think not only about what you’re doing but why you’re doing it.
- Don’t just slow down…STOP! There is a difference.
- Whenever I study the life of Christ one thing always amazes me—He was never ever hurried. He never had to play “catch up,” and he was never taken by surprise.
- Mark 6:30-32 – “30The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." 32So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.
- STRANGE PARADOX: When I slow down, I go faster!
- We all need to develop margin into our schedule
o Do you know what margin is?
Margin is breathing room….it’s keeping a little reserve that you’re not using up.
o It’s NOT going from one activity to the next with no space in between.
o DEF: Margin is the space between your load and your limit.
o When there is no buffer between our load and our limit, exhaustion is sure to take place.
o I think we all know what it feels like when our load is heavier than our limits!
• The average American spends 10% more than what they have in time, energy, and money.
o But the truth of the matter is, most of us are far more overloaded than we can handle.
PREPARE
- Jesus said, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28)
- Prepare for the wrecks of life
- Life sometimes takes funny bounces—like the preacher who prayed for a BIG church and a PRETTY wife. His prayer was almost answered. He got a PRETTY church and a BIG wife.
- Sometimes life catches you off guard and so you’ve got to be prepared.
- Sometimes life hits you in the stomach…
- ILLUS: Harry Houdini performed some outrageous stunts but Houdini’s success as America’s greatest magician was because of his emphasis on preparation and timing. His metal-like fingers and iron-nerved personality made him appear invulnerable. One day, answering a dare, he allowed a boxer to hit him full force in the stomach. But his timing was a split second off, and the boxer’s fist slammed into him before he was prepared. Houdini reeled but managed to regain his posture. “Not that way” he coughed, “I’ve got to get set. Now hit me.” The boxer hit again, smashing his fist against what seemed like a granite abdomen. BUT 10 days later, Houdini died from the injury inflicted by the boxer’s first blow. He had not been sufficiently prepared.
- Even when things go wrong, planning ahead can help us pick up the pieces and keep moving forward.
- ILLUS: Professional Golfer Tommy Bold advised, “Always throw your clubs ahead of you; that way you don’t have to waste energy going backwards to pick them up.”
- PREPARE YOUR PRIORITIES
o If you don’t proactively write God’s priorities into your schedule, life will always live you instead of you living life.
ATTITUDE
- Attitude is focusing on the good in the situation.
- It is establishing some space.
- Space is a big part of attitude…WHY? Attitude means you are willing to make space before you decide a situation is bad.
- At first glance, it looks bad—but given time (space) it may turn out to be good.
- Attitude is not FACT but FOCUS.
- A vulture sees only rotting meat because that is what it looks for—it thrives on that diet.
But the hummingbird ignores the carcasses and the smelly flesh of dead animals. It looks for the tiny blossoms…it flys around until it finds colorful blooms, even those that are hidden from view by the rocks.
- Each bird finds what its looking for and so will you.
- Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
- The great saints of old learned the wisdom of having only two days on their calendars: today and that day (the day they would be with the Lord).
o If we want a heart of wisdom, we will learn to live each day in light of that day.
o When we daily remind ourselves of the purpose for our sojourn here on earth, we will cultivate an eternal perspective on time; and it will influence our work and all our relationships.
- C.S. LEWIS: “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next…because their minds were occupied with heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”
- “Time is given to us to prepare for eternity.” We might say that the opposite is also true – eternity is given to us to prepare us for time.
- We will fail to live out our time wisely if we fail to live it out in light of eternity.
CONCENTRATION
- ILLUS: William H. Hinson tells us why animal trainers carry a stool when they go into a cage of lions. They have their whips, of course, and their pistols are at their sides. But invariably they also carry a stool. Hinson says it is the most important tool of the trainer. He holds the stool by the back and thrusts the legs toward the face of the wild animal. Those who know maintain that the animal tries to focus on all four legs at once. In the attempt to focus on all four, a kind of paralysis overwhelms the animal, and it becomes tame, weak, and disabled because its attention is fragmented.
- Multi-tasking is not always a good idea!
o Experts tell us that when we do two things simultaneously, we take about 30% of our attention off the primary task.
o Multitasking has it's place, but it's NOT the cure-all to your hurried and harried life.
- Interruptions -- Some efficiency experts posit that it takes four minutes to recover from an interruption and get back in your zone.
- Discern what your gifts are and what they are not and say yes only to the best and not just to everything others want you to do.
- Nothing is more tiring than doing a job that you hate.
- Beethoven never cleaned his house…when it got dirtier than he could stand, he moved.
- I wouldn’t go that far—but I would rather take another speaking engagement (which I love) to pay for someone else to work on a broken kitchen appliance (which I hate).
o They pay me; I pay him—I’m happy; he’s happy…the economy is better—you get the idea.
- "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."--Peter Drucker
o Think about it. Are you really being efficient if you're cleaning the kitchen on the Titantic?
o It's quite possible to be wonderfully efficient at something that's not really worth doing.
ENGAGE
- Engage in energy renewing activities which energize you rather than drain you.
- I once heard a man who had this little motto:
Divert daily, withdraw weekly and abandon annually.
o Know what relaxes you and recharges you and do it!
- ILLUS: In the Air Force, they’ve mastered the art of mid-flight refueling. You can too – you don’t have to land every time you need to refuel.
o You need to allow time for that inward rejuvenation.
- Ecclesiastes 10:15, “Only someone too ignorant to find his way home would wear himself out with work.”
o If I’m always working all the time, the Bible calls me stupid.
o If the bow is never unstrung it looses its power.
o ILLUS: A lady called a pastor one day very upset.
She said, “I called all day Monday and couldn’t get through to you.”
The pastor said, “Friday is my day off.”
Lady said, “The devil never takes a day off.”
The Pastor said, “Yes, and if I didn’t take a day off, I’d be just like the devil.”
- Exodus 20:9-10, “You have six days in which to do your work, but the 7th day is to be a day of rest dedicated to Me.”
o God says that one day off every week is the rule.
-
- Like I said earlier—the difference between SPACE and STRESS is the difference between your LOAD and your LIMIT.
- And if your LOAD and your LIMIT are the same—you have to work on increasing your LIMIT because sometimes you can’t do much about the LOAD.
- You have to increase your energy level to have space.
A life without space will be like a race that goes faster and faster and has no end.
- The race can squeeze the love, life, and laughter out of you.
- So run your life with grace by adding just a little more space
- STOP, PREPARE, ATTITUDE, CONCENTRATE, and ENGAGE.
REMEMBER TO KEEP A BALANCE HERE:
- German Proverb: He who is afraid of doing too much always does too little.
Ten Time Management Principles:
- Time management has been one of my greatest challenges as a person, as a husband, and as a Pastor.
- There is a book entitled The 90 Minute Hour – when I first saw that book, I thought “That’s crazy. How do you get 90 minutes out of a 60 minute hour?”
o But the author made a great point in that some people can get more done in an hour than other people do.
o That particular principle has really changed my perspective on time.
o Because the bottom line is we all have known people who can get more done in an hour than what others can get done in an hour.
- We sometimes think we don’t have enough time, but Adrian Rogers used to say this, “We are always given enough time to do God’s will.”
- So what I’m going to share with you today is a summary of what I believe are some of the best time management tips I’ve found.
- Let’s say after today’s lesson – you learn a tip or two that will save you 10 minutes a day.
o Now 10 minutes a day might not sound like much.
o But if you can save just ten minuts a day, that means that at the end of the year, you will have 2 and a half extra days that you’ve saved!
- But I believe these tools and practices are better than that. I believe I can save you 60 minutes a day in time management – would you believe that?
o If you were able to save an hour a day over the next year – you would save an additional 15.2 DAYS!
- That’s 15 days you’d get back in your calendar!
1. Plan your day the night before.
- Brian Tracy says, “You save ten minutes in execution for every minute you invest in planning. This means that the very act of planning—thinking on paper before you begin—gives you a 1000 percent return on energy. This is one of the highest returns you can get from anything you do in life.”
- Take Sunday evenings to plan your week.
- Don’t start the day until you’ve planned the day.
o In other words, before you begin your daily activities, make sure that your entire day is planned in advance.
- Some of the most effective people that I know plan the next day before they leave the office the day before.
- At 4:45 pm today, take some time and plan out everything that you’re going to do tomorrow.
- Put in your schedule those blocks of time to get those things done.
- Go ahead and pull all of the resources and file folders that you will need and put that on your desk for the next day.
- And remember to put in some margin for those unexpected things that come along the way as well.
- So before you leave on Monday – do your best to make sure that Tuesday is completely planned.
2. Develop a “Top 6 List” of things to do
- Making a list of things to do is a very important activity when it comes to time management.
- Make a list of the top 6 most productive activities that you can do with your day.
- By focusing on the Top 6 – you are bringing the 80/20 Principle to bear on your to-do list.
- The 80/20 Principle teaches us that 80% of your effectiveness will be found in 20% of your to-do items.
- You need to ask yourself, what are the top 6 things that I can to give me the most ROT – Return On Time
- By keeping this To-Do List – it helps you to know when you are on track and it builds momentum in your day as you feel more productive.
- You may have 20 items on your To-Do List – but if you can accomplish just 6 of the most important ones – you will begin to feel and be very effective in your day.
3. EAT THE FROG
- If you want to be a good time manager – you are going to have to learn to enjoy the taste of frog in the morning.
- Brian Tracey (the Personal Effectiveness Guru) has popularized this terminology.
- The principle is simply this – if you got up in the morning and you have many difficult things to do on your To-Do List, but one of those was to “Eat a Live Frog” which one should you do first?
- Well, if you decide to do those other activities first, the whole time you are doing those activities you are living with a sense of dread because you know that sooner or later – before your day is over, you’re going to have to eat that Frog.
- So this time management principle says, “Make that “Eat the Frog” item the first thing on your list.
- You get it out of the way so that you can move on to those other activities that aren’t going to weigh on you that much.
- Sometimes “eating that frog” means having that difficult conversation with a co-worker.
- Sometimes it means following up on something that you really don’t want to do but you have to do it.
- Sometimes some of the most productive things that we have to do are some of the most unpleasant but they have to be done.
- Some of you have some live frogs sitting in your office and they’re looking at you, croaking at you, and stinking up your office!
o EAT THE FROG!
4. Get up one hour EARLIER every day.
- Some of the most effective people throughout history have been early risers.
- You probably know that famous quote by Ben Franklin when he said, “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise.”
- So the idea is to get up one hour earlier to plan your day, reflect on your day, spend your daily time with God and ask for His blessing on your day.
- Some people say, “This is impossible to do!”
But actually we do this once a year at Daylight Savings Time.”
o Our bodies adjust to waking up an hour earlier…we just trick our minds by resetting the clock.
5. AUTOMATE as much as possible – tithe, bill pay, etc…
- Automation is one of those ways that you can become more efficient with your time.
- One of the days that Carrie and I hated the most was the day we had to pay bills.
- We would let all of the bills pile up and then one day a month, we would spend a couple hours writing checks.
- So now we automate our bills so that they’re paid automatically. It saves an incredible amount of time.
- I automate once and I watch regularly!
- My basic tithe (the salary that I receive from FBR) is automated.
- So look for ways that help you automate your life as much as possible.
6. Arrive 10 Minutes early.
- Getting to a meeting just 10 minutes early prepares you for the meeting that you’re about to engage in.
o And it also lowers your stress.
- One of the most stressful things in our lives is this fear that we’re going to be late.
o Just the thought that we may be late to something raises our stress level.
- When you are running late, not only does it make you stressed in GETTING to that activity, but it also takes you longer to get ENGAGED in that activity.
o So you end up with a double waste… you’re wasting the time because you’re late and you’re wasting the time because you’re not really focused.
- Arriving 10 minutes early to that meeting gives you a buffer.
- Living your life with margin is a very important time management principle.
o When you print out a document – you don’t have words bleeding all the way over to the edge. You have margin.
o You need to learn to build margin into your schedule.
7. Always Start On-Time.
- Whatever activity you’re involved in, it’s important that you have a solid start time for that activity.
o Whether it’s your Top 6 list or a meeting… it’s important that you have a solid start time.
- Learn to be the type of person who is always where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be there.
- The reason why a lot of meetings drag on and on is because we don’t start on time, we’re constantly waiting for people to arrive.
- By not starting on time, we’ve trained people to come in late.
8. Set an End Time.
- For every activity and everything on your schedule, you need to have a fixed end time.
- Today, I have 11 appointments on my schedule. The only way I can do that is that there are definite end times to each appointment.
- Even with a To-Do List – have a start time and an end time on that activity…you’ll be amazed at how much more productive that will make you!
- I have noticed that things tend to expand to fill the time allotted.
- For me personally… If I have 2 hours to complete a project, guess how long it’s going to take me. If I have 1 hour to complete a project, guess how long it’s going to take me?
9. Work all the time you work.
- This sounds obvious but use every moment while you are at work to accomplish work activities.
- A person had a sales job. When they were at work, they were constantly traveling in their mind back to their home… when they were home, they were always working on work.
- During an 8 hour day, the average person works less than 2 hours!
10. Learn to Pray This Prayer – “God, what is the best use of my Time right now?”
- The Bible says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you can call upon God and He will give it to us.”
- God can literally direct the minutes of your time if you allow Him to.
- Our goal ought to be to do the best possible things at the best possible time.
If the devil can’t make you bad; he’ll make you busy!
Beware of the barrenness of an overcrowded life. – Anonymous
ONE THING I’VE NOTICED – Having kids will slow you down—especially when they are in the concrete stage of life – when they have to see, smell, touch, or lick everything they come into contact with.
- ILLUS: Saw a boy with a burned lip and I asked him how he burned it. He said, “I licked my nightlight.” Said, “WHY?” He said, “I’d never licked one before.”
- Kids slow us down because they don’t want to miss anything.
- God has his own way of slowing us down physically.
o He has put bones in fish
o Seeds in watermelon
o And that little pain in the side of your head when you eat ice cream too fast.
- So remember—getting a grip on your schedule means managing your life, not your day-timer!
- God knows how to slow us down and to make us think more—I’m thinking about licking a lightbulb.
Paraphrase of Psalm 23
- “The Lord is my pacesetter, I shall not rush. He makes me stop and rest at intervals. He provides me with images of stillness to restore my serenity. He leads me in the way of efficiency to calmness of mind and this guidance is peace. Even though I have a great many things to accomplish this day, I will not fret for His presence is here. His timeliness, His all importance will keep me in balance. He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity, anointing my head with the oils of tranquility. My cup of joyous energy overflows. Surely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours, for I shall walk in the pace of my Lord and dwell in His heaven forever.”
