Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you (Jesus).
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Good is the enemy of best.
Establishing priorities is essential to life and ministry effectiveness. Not every task or project is created equal. The challenge is to put “first things first”. Basically, all of us spend our time in one of four ways, as illustrated in the Time Management Matrix. This matrix defines activities as “urgent” or “not urgent”, and “important or “not important”. Most people discover that they spend far too much time responding to the urgent crises of Quadrants I and III, escaping occasionally for survival to the not urgent, unimportant time wasters of Quadrant IV.
The ideal is to work toward eliminating time spent in Quadrants III and IV, and increasing time spent in Quadrant II. As you invest more time om planning, prevention and relationship-building activities of Quadrant II, you’ll find that you spend far less time picking up the broken pieces in Quadrant I or reacting to the urgent demands of other people in Quadrant III.
Applications:
- What one thing could you do (that you aren’t doing now), that if you did on a regular basis, would make a significant positive difference in your personal life? What one thing in your ministry life would bring similar results? Schedule both of these things weekly.
- Draw a Time Management Matrix and estimate how much time you (and/or your team) spend in each quadrant. Then log your time for 3 days in 15 minute intervals. How accurate was your estimate? Make needed changes by concentrating on Quadrant II.
- Start organising your life on a weekly basis. Write down your roles and goals. Then incorporate your goals into a specific action plan.