Having established the importance of different views in the time or diary section of the Organiser we will now consider the second element of the arrangement, the ‘Portable Filing System’.
2. Filing System
Through the use of computers we are all familiar with folders and files. In past times we would have used a filing cabinet, but the principles are the same – drawers of folders each containing files or documents.
Divisions
Since we live life in a context of time it is helpful to consider how our storage system of information relates to the timeline of our lives. First, define the key divisions in your life. For instance, you may like to think in terms of 2 ‘drawers’ (there could be more) e.g. Home and Work. Alternatively you may think in terms of Activities and People. There is no right or wrong; it is what fits best with your lifestyle and patterns of thought that you are seeking to streamline that is important.
For illustrative purposes, let’s think in terms of Activities and People.
Folders and Files
I suggest you now create a section in your Organiser, or a Folder in your PDA, for each key Activity area. Mine would include Conferences, Nations (I visit various nations when seeking to serve churches working with the Poor), CCK (my local church is Church of Christ the King) and so on. Within each of these Folders I create sub-folders. A major conference for which I am administratively responsible is Together on a Mission (TOAM), an annual conference for over 4000 leaders and Twenties. Within this folder I would have other sub-folders – Management Team, Finance, Programme etc. Each folder will then contain files which may be pertinent to Meetings, Budget, Speakers etc. Similarly for People – I have folders for Terry Virgo, with whom I work very closely in many areas of his ministry, and my secretary, Jan (yes I still have one! – she is brilliant and saves me hours of time) to keep a note of things I want to discuss with her or delegate to her, and to monitor progress on such delegated activities etc.
Because I use a PDA, memory capacity is no serious limitation. For a paper Organiser such a structure can represent an inconvenient volume of paper and it is necessary to work with some appropriate additional storage system such as the traditional filing cabinet, and to have the discipline to archive ‘dead’ documents. Your Organiser is an extension to your memory – don’t clutter it with unnecessary material.
Relating files to time
Some files will be more time-related than others. Considering the TOAM conference, the Management Team have meetings through the year – there is an annual cycle which begins with a Debrief meeting a few days after the previous conference ends. Using files it is possible to create, for example, a ‘running agenda’ i.e. I record items that I wish to raise at the next meeting in a dated file so that when the time comes to prepare the meeting agenda much of the work is already done. So this file is time related. Similarly, for Terry. Because he travels a great deal I collect an ‘agenda’ of items to discuss with him when we next have an opportunity to meet up – whether formally to handle administration or informally on a car journey. (In the latter case I will brief myself before we start and weave topics I need to discuss into the conversation at appropriate points on the journey to make the journey less ‘administrative’!).
This is not rocket science. But setting up a carefully thought-through filing structure at the start will save you immense amounts of time and frustration.
3. Personal Information and Data
The 3rd division in your Organiser is for Information and Data. Most important is your Contacts list with addresses, phone numbers, email addresses etc. Because this is related to people I tend to add information into this section such as birthdays, the contact details for the closest Flower Shop for those I may occasionally send flowers to to say ‘thank you’, and so on. It thus becomes more than just a mailing list.
Other information could include Maps, World time zones etc, depending on your particular interests.
You now have my recommended structure for your Organiser or PDA. There is, of course, some fine detail that you will want to personalise, but the important message is to apply logic to the system that relates all items together in a way that you will be readily accessible.
Next time we will return to monitoring progress with your Do it list.
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Tags: Administration, Planning, Time Management
I love receiving regular updates from the Clinic based at Jubilee Church in Cape Town! They are always full of faith and testimonies of God’s intervention – so I felt to share a report with you to be blessed also! It is written by Dr Caryn Wilson whose passion and leadership of the Team make this a highly effective ministry.
This is one of a dozen Mercy Ministries from Jubilee Church and at the end of this blog is a video made about 18 months ago showing how they integrate together, an important feature of good practice in a church’s social ministries. But first, let Caryn tell you the story.
Our experience of working alongside God in the Jubilee Health Centre is aptly described in the words of a Scottish evangelist, R. M. McShane, who said:
“Rather than being an instrument of the Lord, all I was, was an adoring spectator.”
Day by day we marvel at His gracious presence at work in the lives of those who come to visit us. At least weekly, but probably more often, someone begins to tell us how God has answered the prayers for them or their loved ones at their last visit. Their stories include provision of jobs and housing, reconciliation between relatives or estranged friends, healing of illnesses suffered, and many other wonderful tales of providence. God is given glory each time – that’s the best part!
How it started
Jubilee Health Centre (JHC) was conceived as a dream God planted in the hearts of the elders at Jubilee Community Church It began as a nurse met with the women of the community in which the church is located, and later was birthed as a primary care clinic in a bare room in the church building in 2006, with a doctor and second nurse in attendance. The infant JHC was raised and nurtured in prayer and faith in Jesus, as God led us step by step, teaching us to walk in His ways. By October 2008, we had grown to include pregnancy crisis counselling and voluntary counselling and testing for HIV.
Who is it for?
The JHC is located in the heart of “downtown” Cape Town, South Africa. The local community live in rundown overcrowded buildings interspersed between factories, under bridges, or on the street. We serve a diverse and widespread population, including those who live and work nearby, and many others who travel far to see us. They range from the homeless to those with an income of sorts, and include recovering (and sometimes relapsing) drug addicts, ex-prisoners, policemen, factory workers, university students, casual labourers, domestic servants, beggars, refugees…to name a few. God brings each one to us, and then gently reaches out and touches them. It is truly a privilege to partner with Him in this work.
Gospel Impact
We work in team, ministering professionally and in prayer to each one who visits us, silently asking God to lead each consultation. Counsellors, nurses, a doctor or two, a physiotherapist, students, housewives, a financial advisor, and any others who love Jesus volunteer with us. Prayer has remained our main source of nourishment, and together we start each day with Jesus, our First Client, before we see anyone else.
We have so many stories to tell, but suffice it to say that God is alive and active! I wish I could tell you in detail about
- the boy with the broken arm completely healed through prayer
- the mother delivered of demons, resulting in her healing and reconciliation in her family
- the prostitute saved and set free, bringing her little son to see us, now members of our church family
- the young Malawian boy who was cured of a 2-year-long problem as God met him
- the frightened young woman who found hope and love and chose not to abort her baby, bringing him triumphantly to us for a cuddle
- the ex-prisoner who came to Jesus after receiving a positive HIV result, now living vibrantly serving others in need
- the psychotic woman who encountered the love of Jesus and was restored to her right mind
- two who spontaneously asked to be saved, without any prompting, at the end of medical consultations
…..and so many other glorious tales of His power and love at work!
Reflecting together one of our team recently said, “I have learned that I can trust God in all things now. Not just at work, but in every part of my life. I don’t panic anymore.” Another comment was, “I’ve realised it’s not about me or my skills. It’s all about Jesus and what He’s already done.” And, “God changes the hearts of people who come here, by His truth and love – both those who come to work and those who come to be cared for. He’s amazing!”
I hope you enjoyed and have been stimulated by that report. If you wish to make contact please do so via the website http://www.jubilee.org.za/
Now here is the video showing the integration between the ministries in Jubilee Church
Mercy Ministries at Jubilee Church, Cape Town from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.
Tags: Christian, Church, Health, HIV, Jubilee Church Cape Town, Poor, The Poor
Whether you are using a paper-based Organiser or an electronic PDA it is important to get some shape and system in place before you start. It is well worth giving careful thought to what will serve you best. You are laying a foundation; if the foundation of a building is wrong the final structure will fail to perform in the intended way and however elegant it looks it will always be deficient.
There are three major elements to the Organiser, and some refinements.
1. Calendar and Diary
The core is, of course, the time element. In the last posting we looked at the 2-page per day display where you have the whole day laid out before you including a) appointments, b) Do it list and, by the end of the day, c) a record of phone calls and other jottings. But how does this fit into a larger time frame? Before moving onto this let me suggest how this layout can be reproduced in a PDA.
Applying the method to a PDA
Appointments readily fit into a diary format but what about the all important Do it list? Some people find it convenient to keep a Task List or similar elsewhere but I do not find this works well. A colleague told me recently he keeps his on a whiteboard in the office. I am at a loss to know how he makes this work when he is out of the office!
For me it is important to be able to see the whole day at a glance and to have it readily accessible so that I can be monitoring the progress through the day. (Incidentally, I do not use my laptop for planning – it is too large to carry around at all times.) The whiteboard is extreme separation but even to hold the list elsewhere in you Organiser makes it less accessible and liable to be ‘lost’.
With my particular PDA it is possible to put untimed appointments into the ‘diary’ area. This works well for me as I just put many such ‘untimed appointments’ (i.e. my Do it list) in the early morning slot of each day. Not all PDAs will allow this and you will have to be creative to achieve the day-to-view display that I recommend. Maybe it would be possible to have appointments at one minute intervals – but be careful not to let this lead you into a false impression that this gives a priority order, say 7.01 to 7.10. The numbers (i.e. hours, minutes) mean nothing in this context – it is only a trick to beat the system, not significant in itself!
The larger timeframe
Now each day is, of course, part of a larger timeframe. When planning it is important not only to order the detail of each day but also to plan on the basis of a month or year. This is particularly true when allocating the ‘boulders’ to the diary which probably need to be there 3 – 6 months in advance. These larger, high priority chunks of time could be a conference, a holiday with your family, etc. It is helpful to have a display of a month or year to get a feel of how busy you are. If asked to make an appointment and the easy option is to see if you are free on that day you may make an appointment without realising the days around it are already full and you have no time for other important matters. I recommend that your planning should be done with at least a month-to-view on display, possible even a year-to-view.
In the next posting we will look at the second important element of organising an Organiser, the portable filing system.
Tags: Administration, Planning, Time Management
So, what does the Organiser look like? You will remember that for the purposes of this training I am considering a paper system rather than a PDA. Personally I use a PDA but since there are so many varieties it is easier to communicate ideas this way.
I recommend the 2-page/day loose leaf variety of Organiser. This gives plenty of room for all that you need to do including a generous note page for making records of phone calls, meetings and so on.
But the important feature is not so much to do with the area of paper – that will be dependent on your particular lifestyle – but with having the relevant sections on view each day namely:
1. Do it list
2. Appointments
3. Notepad
We have already considered Do it lists and Appointments, and the Note Pad is considered below as Ground Rule 2.
Ground Rules
There are certain ‘Ground Rules’ when using an Organiser or PDA. These are simple but non-negotiable. The system I am sharing with you is a secure ‘safety net’ that ensures you will not forget to do something nor miss appointments. However, if you fail to observe the Ground Rules you will quickly find that you have a hole in your net! So here they are.
1. Close at hand
Always keep the Organiser or PDA near at hand – well not actually in the shower, but almost! Quite simply, it is an extension to your memory and I am sure you always take that with you. One of the main purposes of using this system is to ensure that you are not cluttering your mind with unnecessary things and can give your full attention to what is important for that moment. If you are constantly wondering what you have forgotten this leads to great frustration and inefficiency.
2. Use it as your initial record
If you are making notes, say, during a phone conversation it is best done in the Organiser on the date of the call. Once you end the call there may be actions that are required and it is easy to allocate them immediately to the appropriate date or to add it to the draft agenda of a meeting.
For instance, you may need to make a follow up call with someone else. Decide when you will do that and put that person’s name and phone number on the Do it list for the chosen day, and add the date of today’s call in brackets - like this:
John Smith 01234 567890 (100218)
You can then forget this follow up action as you will come across it at the appropriate time and will know from the date where the information is that you need to communicate. The safety net has worked! Easy isn’t it? (Incidentally, notice that I have used the international dating system of YYMMDD i.e. Year/Month/Day. I always use this dating method to mark files on my computer as it automatically puts items in chronological order.)
3. Only one ‘Diary’
It can be tempting to have one Diary (Organiser) for home and social events and a second for the office or workplace. This seems to separate work from play. But this thinking is dangerous. You have only one memory and this applies to your extended memory too. If you have 2 there will inevitable be double bookings – especially as your husband/wife or work colleague may add things to the ‘other one’ without your knowledge!
4. Pencil
If using a paper system (Organiser) always write in pencil. Things have the habit of getting changed so if you have filled in your appointments in ink you end up with a messy (and often illegible) schedule of appointments.
5. When do you plan?
My recommendation is to plan each day either first thing in the morning or last thing the previous night. Why? If you leave it to another time you are more likely to be disturbed when thinking through your day’s expectations and goals. This makes it very difficult to make rational assessments of priorities.
Time spent planning is the best investment in your day – you must never be too busy to do it! It may save you hours and will certainly result in having given your best time to the highest priorities. What could be more fulfilling?!
Tags: Administration, Planning, Time Management
Recently Danny McBride, a friend from my church (CCK, Brighton) and I visited Ghana and Nigeria. In part 1 of this report (see February 8th) I showed an interview with John Kpikpi of his vision and apostolic ministry in West Africa.
While in Ghana I was also able to speak to John about his attitude to the Poor. The Kingdom Mandate of Is 61:1-3 demonstrates God’s heart for the Poor and the fruit of the gospel in their lives. I thought it would be interesting to gain John’s perspective on this from the context of a nation and church which has many poor people in their midst.
Theology of the Poor in Ghana - John Kpikpi from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.
The Gate of No Return
John took Danny and me to visit one of the slave castles from which hundreds of thousands of slaves were shipped to North America by the British, Portuguese and Dutch in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was emotional to visit a place where so much brutality and injustice had been carried out by former generations. This was in stark contrast to the beauty of a tree-top walk we had just made through the canopy of the tropical forest on Cape Coast – and of an appointment with a crocodile!
In Nigeria we had the joy of visiting Riches of Grace Church led by Sam Amara. It was so good to see the operation of grace and the plurality of leadership in a nation where there is a strong tradition of one-man ministry and legalism in the churches.
We also had the interesting opportunity to visit the Redeemed Christian Church which has the largest church building in the world – 1.2km long and 0.5km wide, able to seat 1.5m people! I would have loved to have attended a service there - to worship God with such a company must be an awesome experience!
It is such a privilege to visit Newfrontiers churches around the world and to sense the favour with which they are viewed in their nations. In both Ghana and Nigeria I had the privilege of delivering some training workshops which were open to leaders from any churches. Speaking to those from non-Newfrontiers churches it was obvious that there was great respect and gratitude for the friendship and help that they often received from John and Sam.
Tags: Apostle, Christian, John Kpikpi, Newfrontiers, Poor, The Poor, Theology
What is a diary?
Traditionally diaries have been for recording history. Many books have been written as a result of people keeping diaries of their daily events and these have given us fascinating insights into life and culture in different eras and nations.
Elizabeth Fry
I have just been reading a biography of the great prison reformer in the UK, Elizabeth Fry, who lived at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. Without her diaries we would know far less about her. She was clearly a formidable woman – perhaps I should not admit that she was my great great great grandmother!
But diaries have changed and now tend to be looking forward. They are the most common vehicle for making appointments, planning holiday dates and so on. But the basic diary is insufficient for what I have been teaching and we need to explore other options. First however, I would like you to watch this video.
Time Management from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.
Personal Organiser or PDA?
The two options I mention are the Personal Organiser, which usually implies a paper system of which Filofax and Daytimer are two well known examples, and the Personal Digital Accessory (PDA), which is electronic. There are many varieties of PDA but the iPhone and its derivatives seem to be sweeping the market.
Each variety has advantages and disadvantages. These relate to cost (paper is cheaper), capacity (PDAs have huge memories), size (PDAs are much smaller and lighter) and so on. It is probably a ‘no-brainer’ to realise that the flexibility and size of the PDA makes it a very attractive option if you can afford it. But for the purposes of this training series I am going to illustrate from a Daytimer which is what I used to learn Time Management, although not using the system taught by Daytimer.
Once you have mastered the principles I am teaching and have adopted them for yourself it is relatively easy to convert to an electronic system. But, with the variety of PDAs on the market it would not be easy to use one for this teaching as they have so many different characteristics and options. Also, not everyone can afford or have access to one – I am aware that these blogs are being read in many less developed economies. So, from now on I will base the teaching on Personal Organisers, but that does not mean that if you already have a PDA you have to drop out of the scene! From time to time I will suggest how to adapt a particular feature to a PDA, remembering that you may need to be a bit creative yourself.
The Benefits
There are various benefits from using an Organiser. In summary some are:
• Easy accessibility.
• Planning details are always with you.
• “Catch all” for “do its”.
• Appointments are to hand
• Information is available on all major areas of life whether home or work.
• Assists goal planning.
• Gives peace of mind (though not as mush as the gospel!)
Peace of mind
I will unpack each of these in future blogs but for now let me just reflect on ‘peace of mind’. Early in this series I made a promise – if you precisely follow the principles and guidelines I am teaching you will never miss another appointment. Now surely, in itself, that brings peace of mind! But there are other contributors to such an assessment. For example, you will never again need to say ‘Where did I leave the address book?’ or ‘My husband/wife has mislaid the family calendar’. Provided you are sufficiently reliable not to lose your PO or PDA those frustrations are a thing of the past. (But if you have a PDA it is worth backing it up at least once per week just in case!)
Next time we will look at how to layout your Organiser and also consider some basic ground rules that I recommend.
Tags: Administration, Christian, Planning, Time Management
I am breaking into my Time Management series to include a report on my recent visit to West Africa.
It was a joy to be with John Kpikpi in Ghana and Sam Amara in Nigeria. John leads City of God Church in Accra and brings apostolic oversight to Newfrontiers churches in 7 West African nations. Sam leads the Riches of Grace Church in Lagos and is church planting in both Lagos and beyond.
This report will come in 2 parts. The first is primarily an interview with John about his ministry and the West African scene. I encourage you not only to watch this but then to link to his teaching videos which have arisen out of his very successful television ministry.
In the second part (with the next Time Management posting first) I will tell you about some of the detail of the visit and have a second short interview with John about how he sees the Kingdom mandate about ‘setting the captive free’ from an African perspective. Interesting viewing – don’t miss it!
So now, sit back and watch John as he shares about his apostolic ministry and vision for West Africa.
Newfrontiers in West Africa from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.
Tags: Apostle, Christian, Church, John Kpikpi
Its as easy as ABC!
How did you get on with a ‘Do it’ list? I now want to help you complete the prioritising but first we need to unpack ‘Important’ in a bit more detail.
Last time we saw how the definition of Important in this context was a matter of values and had a particular focus on your unique gifting and responsibility. However, there are other considerations and these typically relate to how you interact with others. Let’s consider an example.
Suppose you have to write some ‘copy’ for a piece of publicity. This may not seem very important or urgent to you for today. You know it is not going to be printed for another month. However, when you have written that copy it has to be incorporated into a design by some Graphic Designers. They may well produce some ‘roughs’ for you to consider before producing the final design which you will approve. If you delay writing the copy it is putting them under unfair pressure which may result in missing the deadline. So, ‘Important’ in this case is determined by the effect on others of your not doing it today.
There is no rigid definition of ‘Important’ – your gifting and the interaction with others are just two of a number of indicators you may wish to consider. But it is ultimately personal to you.
ABC
So we have a list of 15 items and can begin to break them down into one of four categories, as defined in the last posting. As I promised, the solution to prioritising is as simple as ABC.
Look at your ‘Do it’ list and put * beside anything that is urgent. That does not prioritise in itself but alerts you to consider the urgency when assigning priorities. Now put an ‘A’ beside any item that is both Important and Urgent. These are the first things you will be giving your time to. Hopefully the number of such items will be small.
Next look at the list and put a line through anything that is neither Important nor Urgent – why waste your time on it!
The third stage is to allocate as many ‘C’s as possible. C is the category for Important but not Urgent, in other words activities you do not realistically expect to do today but nevertheless you will do them at some stage, not delegate them. I am not in favour of procrastinating or putting things off till later but this is the one occasion on which I recommend planning that way!
The final ‘B’ category is for everything else. It will include the remaining items ie
a) Urgent items marked * and b) other items that you would really like to achieve today but can wait till tomorrow if necessary without serious consequences. It is at this point that you decide how to delegate the Urgent activities.
- If Urgent activities appear on your ‘A’ list that is OK. You expect to get them done today and they probably need to be top priority
- If there are Urgent activities on your ‘B’ list you should consider someone else doing them, in which case the action is ‘Delegate xxx to yyy’ and re categorise it to you’re ‘A’ list
- If it is on your ‘C’ list it should not be! Those items are definitely not going to happen urgently.
1, 2, 3
Now look again at the 3 categories and consider each group in turn.
Because the number is so much smaller than the original 15 in each category it is simple to prioritise within that category with 1, 2, 3 etc. Write these numbers beside the letter so that you will now have a randomly written list with A1, A2… B1, B2 etc beside each item, thus giving a priority order. Never give the same rating to two or more items!
Were do we go from here?
Now that I am encouraging you to write lists etc it is time to consider what is a suitable ‘vehicle’ (i.e. a ‘super diary’) for planning and recording lists and activities. This will be the topic for the next posting. Both electronic means and paper will be referred to. Meanwhile, use a notebook to make your Do it lists if you have no other way and practice allocating As, Bs and Cs.
I hope you are beginning to feel the impact of this series in your life!
Tags: Administration, Christian, Planning, Time Management
Saturday January 30th saw 80 people gather in Swindon, UK for a Vision Day on Foundations for Farming. We were greatly privileged to have Brian Oldreive, the visionary who has developed Foundations for Farming, with us for a day of envisioning and impartation of the Biblical principles around which Foundations for Farming has been developed.
Tobacco or Food?
Foundations for Farming, formerly Farming God’s Way, has been developed by Brian over the past 3 decades in Zimbabwe. Having been a very successful tobacco farmer he was challenge one day by his daughter, ‘Daddy, why do you tell us never to smoke and yet you grow tobacco?’ He was so convicted that he never grew another tobacco plant!
As he shared his personal history and walk with God we were conscious of being in the presence of someone who had covenanted with God to do only what he heard Him say. ‘How do things grow if they are left to develop as God intended?’ Brian wrestled with the contrast between the way man farms, and the devastating way that in years of drought the harvest is very poor, with the way God grows his crops, and the way that trees in the wood survive under the harshest conditions. He noticed how, in times of heavy rain, over 90% of it ran off the surface, taking the good topsoil with it. In contrast he observed how, in an untilled area, 96% of the rain was absorbed into the ground with minimal soil loss.
God’s way
God revealed His way. This resulted in Brian developing ‘new’ (or old?) principles for farming, particularly:
- No inversion of the soil (i.e. no ploughing)
- Allow the previous year’s dead growth etc to lie and decay into the soil etc
Since this revelation and new understanding Brian has experimented and established the necessary basic principles to bring optimum growth – what area of soil is required to support each plant, how much fertilizer (or termite hill soil) is required to feed the crop, and so on. He has taught both rural farmers and ‘big time’ farmers the same techniques according to the four cardinal rules:
- On Time
- To Standard
- No Wastage
- With Joy
The fruit of Faithfulness
The results have been amazing:
- Rural farmers in Africa typically get yields 5-10 times as great as using traditional methods
- 65% of Zimbabwe’s farmers had adopted the methods up to the time of the ‘land redistribution’
- Zambia was turned into an exporting nation in maize with a surplus of 400,000 tonnes about 8 years ago
Visual demonstration
During the day Brian taught both theory and practice, the latter using a specially created demonstration plot in a warehouse next to the Gateway Church building – thank you Swindon for you hard work! To find out more go to the Foundations for Farming website (below).
Operation Trumpet Call
Training Materials
Another aspect of the day was the sharing by Adrian Willard about Operation Trumpet Call. This ambitious vision that is being worked out by Scott Marques and his team, together with the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, is to feed 5 million people in Zimbabwe (the whole of the rural population) through teaching them Foundations for Farming within 5 years. This is being carried out on the basis of Training Trainers where by training 100 farmers who each train 100 the multiplication effect is rapid. The first phase has gone well with nearly 80% success.
We look forward to welcoming Dr Goodwill Shana, Chairman of EFZ, as one of our speakers at the Together on a Mission Leaders Conference in July in Brighton.
‘If my people..pray..’
Adrian also shared about the exciting initiative to mobilise prayer for Zimbabwe. At the end of March Terry Virgo is joining Dr Shana to speak at two Leaders’ conferences for up to 5000 Christian leaders. This will be followed up in late September with large rallies for tens of thousands around Zimbabwe. Through the day, and based on 2 Chron 7:14, there will be a worldwide call to prayer and fasting for Zimbabwe with opportunities for both Zimbabweans in the diasporas in different nations and others with sympathy for Zimbabwe to pray for the nation.
This is a tremendously exciting initiative – look out for more details as they are publicised!
For further information go to www.foundationsforfarming.org or contact Josie@foundationsforfarming.org
Tags: Christian, Foundations for Farming, Poor, Relief and Development
Hopefully you have a grasp of appointment time. Now let’s look at discretionary time.
As the term implies this is time over which you have discretion. Appointments are often determined by someone else; discretionary time is always for you to determine and use at your discretion. In any day this is the time where the battle of fulfilment and achievement tends to be won or lost (although, believe it or not, even meetings can be fulfilling and satisfying, though many see them as wasting hours to keep minutes!).
Are you a list keeper? As one who lives by lists I am often amazed to find that about 50% of people do not use them to plan their time. Recently I was in Africa and my friend told me that typically his friends would wake each morning and then decide what to do that day - whatever occurred to them. If you are one of those I urge you to begin making a daily list. Without it, prioritising your discretionary time will be difficult and you will not find that you have used your time to maximum effect.
The ‘Do it’ list
This is the list where you collect up all the things that you hope to do sometime or, more specifically, may hope to do today. But if you write down this list you will probably find that, realistically, there is no hope of completing everything.
Before we continue, I would like you to take a piece of paper, if you do not already have such a list, and write down all the things you would like to do today. This will help you as we continue to discuss how to prioritise. Really – please do stop and do it!
Now look at that list, which may have 10-15 items on it. If you start to work your way down the list from the top will you be achieving everything in priority order? Be honest with your answer – I am sure it is ‘no’. The reason is that the order of the list is an accident of history – the ones at the top came to mind first and the ones at the end last! That does not assign any priority to the list – it is random.
So what do you do? Assuming the list is 15 items long you can try listing them 1-15 according to some priority scale you may have in your mind. Not easy is it? Why is that? Because you have to compare each item with every other item - to do that you have to make over 100 comparative decisions! This is very unwieldy.
Important or Urgent?
The solution is as easy as ABC. But before we see why there is a very important issue to consider; how to prioritise between the Important and the Urgent.
Important activities are a function of your value system – something that is best done by you because of your gifting or job decription and something that you feel is significant in importance on a basis which only you can define. We will look at this a little more next time.
Urgent is purely a function of time – if you don’t do it today tomorrow is too late. But that does not make it important. It is just one factor you have to take into account when you are prioritising. It is possible that it is unimportant and will have to be left undone because something else must take your time. Or perhaps you should ask someone else to do it for you.
Consider this diagram for which I am indebted to my friend Bryn Hughes, Christian Trainer and Consultant in Personal and Organisational Development. Here you will see that there are four possible responses to any particular scenario.
- If something is both Important and Urgent it needs to come high on you priority list.
- If it is Important but not Urgent you should Plan to do it.
- If it is unimportant but urgent Delegate it.
- If it is neither important nor urgent Drop it!
In the next posting I will help you refine this and give you a simple way of prioritising the whole list. Meanwhile, if you are not already a list maker, please start making a daily ‘Do it’ list. Even doing that will help you to focus your thinking and planning for the day.
Tags: Administration, Bryn Hughes, Planning, Time Management
