Well-Equipped Volunteer: Train & Grow Your Children's Ministry Volunteers
How to Schedule Your Day When It Feels Like You Have Too Much to Do and Not Enough Time
There is always something to do in Children’s Ministry. It is easy to feel overwhelmed. But there are a few simple things you can do to schedule your day and help you wrest back control of your time and your responsibilities.
Plan Out Your Day
The last thing you should do at the office before you go home is plan out the next day. What responsibilities do you have; what phone calls do you need to make; what meetings do you have scheduled; what projects do you need to work on.
Taking the time to plan is really important, especially when you feel you don’t have the time. It is all too easy to get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent. But if you take some time to plan your day, your week, your month, and your year, you will find yourself being more productive and less overwhelmed. Don’t feel guilty taking a day or two to plan for the upcoming year. Take 10 minutes on a Friday to plan for the upcoming week. Take 5 minutes at the end of the day to play for the next day. It is time well spent.
Figure Out When You’re the Most Productive and Then Make the Best Use of That Time Slot
My husband has figured out that he is most productive in the mornings and so he has been getting up at 6am to work. His productivity has skyrocketed. If I got up at 6am to work, I would spend hours staring blankly at my computer screen wishing I was still in bed. Everybody’s different, but everybody has a peak productivity period during the day. Figure out when yours is and make the best use of it.
Use your peak productivity period for creative work, for long-term planning, vision casting, and completing projects. Save phone calls, emails, filing, etc. for the rest of your day.
Prioritize Your Tasks
You know what needs to be done in your day and you know when your most productive time is, now prioritize what you need to do. Prioritize what needs to be done during your peak productivity period and prioritize what needs to be done outside of that block of productivity.
Figure out what the most important thing is and do that first. Then move on to the next most important or time-sensitive thing on your list. We can’t always tell how much time it will take to complete certain tasks, so do the most important or time-sensitive tasks first.
Plan out your day ahead of time, figure out when you are most productive, and then prioritize your tasks. These three tips will help you to schedule your day.
