Most of my life has been lived in a hurry.

As the firstborn of six preacher’s kids it was my responsibility to help on multiple levels—with caring for younger siblings, volunteering for jobs at church, filling in when Bible teachers were absent, organizing events, praying for individuals who were hurting—and on and on.

I was busy, but I wasn’t always productive.

As an adult, when ministry began to multiple, I needed help with figuring out how to implement my strategy for getting Kingdom work done in the most efficient way. I was easily distracted when an interruption disrupted my carefully planned agenda.

I became more productive by doing these three things:

  1. Organizing my “To Do” list

I labeled every item with A) Urgent, meaning it must be done today; B) Important, indicating it needed to be done this week, but could wait until tomorrow; C) Can Wait, which meant it was significant enough to do, but only after the urgent and important items were completed. I didn’t allow myself to do anything on the “Important” list until the “Urgent” list was done. Any items left over at the end of the day were placed on the next day’s list according to the category they now fell in.

  • Observation of Leaders

I attended conferences where Christian leaders, authors, and speakers were keynoting.  I then devoured their books, searching for wise advice.  Some of them included Free to Focus, by Michael Hyatt; Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster, Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman, by Anne Ortland; Jesus CEO, Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership, by Laurie Beth Jones.

  • Networking

Whenever I met people who were older, wiser, or more experienced than I was in ministry leadership, I asked lots of questions about the systems, programs, schedulers, tools, and resources they found most helpful. These people saved me countless hours because of their recommendations.

When God gives us a vision for what he wants us to do and we prayerfully create a strategy, we need to have a reasonable schedule, meet deadlines, block out distractions, and keep our eyes on the goal.

“But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7 ESV).