22 TIPS ON HOW TO MANAGE YOUR TIME

Psalm 90:12; Ephes. 5:15-16

In our “Rat Race” of modern living, we have 1000 things to do and the list keeps growing.  We must, therefore, learn to manage our time or time will murder us.  SO I share a few tips out of my very busy life for what they might be worth to you.  I realize you may not want or be able to do the things I share but hopefully you can apply the principles in your life.

1. Go to bed early – 9 – 10 PM.
2. Get up early.  My life was revolutionized when I began to follow the example of Jesus (Mark 1:35).  I now add 15 plus hours per week, without which I would never attend to my multiple and growing duties all the time.
3. Write out a daily agenda of duties, listing and doing the urgent items first.
   1. The very first thing: Internalize the Word and Pray.  Ask God to show you how to order your day.
   2. Check off items as you do them.
   3. Add unfinished items to next day’s agenda.
4. Answer your emails at the outset of each day.  Discard loads of stuff which does not apply to you. Answer other mail upon arrival
5. Organize your day into blocks of time:
   1. Prayer, Internalize the Word, Planning – 3:00 AM – 5:00 AM
   2. Shower, Breakfast – 5:00 – 7:00 AM
   3. Meditation – 7:00 – 8:30 AM
   4. Emails – 8:30
   5. Study and write – 8:30 – 11:30 AM
   6. Return phone calls – 11:30 – 12:00 AM
   7. Quick, simple lunch – 12:30 – 1:15
   8. Visit in the afternoon – 2:00 – 4:30
   9. Eat with family – 5- 6:30PM

(Note:  My secretary screens calls, interrupts me for wife, sons, mentorees, holds the rest until 11:30 AM).

1. Use lunch time for double purposes:
   1. Eat
   2. Also invite, wife, mentorees, sons, lost persons, Chairman of Board, Executive Director, etc. to join you.  Enjoyable eating makes discussion of serious matters more enjoyable.  We learn this from the example of Jesus.
2. When meeting with others, be on time ALL THE TIME; if you cannot, call the other party immediately to explain your absence.  Obey the 9^th commandment and preserve your integrity.
3. Make time for family, but learn to follow “The Both And” principle rather than “The Either Or Principle.”
   1. Eat at least one meal per day with family.
   2. Follow the “3 D’s”.
   3. Plan boy’s night
   4. Make vacations a happy time, but don’t leave God at home.

1. Time is a precious gift from God.  Be grateful to God (Psalm 118:24), and don’t fritter or piddle away your time.
   1. While traveling, jogging, sitting in airports, plan to use your time:  praying, reading, writing, praying the Lord’s Prayer biblically, Internalize the Word.  I have memorized much of the Bible I know in airports and on airplanes.  I used to carry a little pocket Bible wherever I went.

10.  Protect yourself from “Time-Killers.”  Example:  Retired individuals who want to spend the morning talking.  As pastor I had a “hide away” place.  When a “Time-Killer” at church would say, I need to come by next week and see you, I suggested he wait at end of service and I would to see him.  In so doing, I saved him and myself hours of time. I learned the first from Dr. Criswell and the latter from Dr. Adrian Rogers.

11.  Make room for interruptions in your schedule.  Don’t schedule items so close that you cannot cram another person or item into your schedule.  It is not good to make people wait if you can possibly see them.  I put these words on my calling card and mean them, “You Can Call Me.”

1. When Doris called or my sons, a mentoree , or fellow pastor, I stop what I am doing to talk to them. All calls from Obama must wait until 11:30 AM.

12.  Do not procrastinate, which is a form of subtle laziness or disguised disobedience.  If I procrastinated I would be buried under a mountain of mail, calls, urgent matters which needed attentions immediately and would become irresponsible, unreliable and totally frustrated.

13.  Do not fake illness or use the excuse of not feeling well as justification for not  showing up.  God and man hate hypocrites.

14.  Be sure your sin of laziness will surely find you out.  “How long will you lie there, you lazy soul?  When will you get up from your sleep?  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come upon you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man” (Prov. 6:9-11).

15.  Clean off your desk at the end of the day and be prepared to start with a clean slate the next day.  Note:  I find this very difficult because I use many books each day.

16.  You must control TV in your home.  Americans are spending 30 hours per week watching TV.  If you do this, you have neglected many vital matters and chosen yourself to misuse your time and make you life a big mess.  I make it a point to pray four times as long as I watch TV.

17.  You have to learn to say “No” at times.  You cannot let others set your agenda, including the disgruntled.  Adrian Rogers taught me this truth: “The pastor who is always available is no good when he is available.”

18.  Obey the 4^th Commandment.  The government forced me to work on Sunday for two years during World War II.  I obeyed “the powers that be” (Romans 13:1) but I pray I will never have do so again.

19.  “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).

20.  “Whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, and not unto men” (Col. 3:17; 23).  Work is not work when you’re having fun and you have fun when you’re working for the Lord.  Ex. MMM is not work to me.

21.  Put God FIRST and you will experience a Miracle in Your Time Management.

22.  Rejoice with Exceeding great joy: “THOUGH OUR TIME IS LIMITED ON PLANET EARTH, GOD HAS GIVEN US ALL THE TIME WE NEED TO DO WHAT HE REQUIRES, BUT HE HAS NOT GIVEN US THE TIME TO DO WHAT HE REQUIRES IF WE ALSO DO WHAT SATISFIES OUR SELFISH DESIRES AND MATERIALISTIC APPETITES.”[1]