scheduling

Turning Vision Into Reality

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

My wife and I enjoy spending time in our backyard. Two summers ago, I extended our deck. I had built a small deck, but it just couldn’t accommodate enough people. We began to dream about how we could extend it. My wife asked for a bench swing to be incorporated in it. A vision began to take shape in our minds of what could be, but vision alone accomplishes nothing. I had to develop a strategy that included practical steps, in the right order, to make the vision a reality. I had to determine how much lumber I needed, and how many of the different lengths and sizes. I had to figure out how many screws I needed. I would need chain to hang the swing. Once I had the materials delivered, I needed to work the steps, one at a time. Not being an experienced carpenter, there were a few times I had to sit and think, to evaluate if I was doing things in the right order. I didn’t want to put the decking on only to realize I had missed something underneath. There were also things I hadn’t planned for and learned along the way. I had to put in extra bracing in the frame to ensure the swing would not pull the deck apart when someone was swinging on it.

The end result is an enlarged deck with a bench swing – that actually works!

Many churches have realized the value of a vision. They work hard to develop a dream for their future. They pray, and they discuss, and create a vision of a future they can picture. But now what? While defining a vision can be difficult, it gets even harder as you move to developing a strategy to work towards that vision. This is where churches often fall short. They have a vision but don’t know how to actually achievve it. They lack a strategic plan.

When I work with a church to support their development of a strategic plan, I suggest the following steps and ask these questions along the way:

One: Pray

Pray first, pray during the planning, and pray as you move toward your goals. The church belongs to God so listen to him as you create and implement your strategy. Invite him to do his work in and through your efforts.

Two: Set clear Goals.

What goals can you work towards that will help you accomplish your vision? These goals act as checkpoints on the way to fully reaching your vision, to help make it less overwhelming.

Three: Create Action Steps

For each goal, determine the steps needed to accomplish that goal.

What smaller steps can be taken to move toward that goal? Can that larger goal be broken down into smaller manageable steps?

Are there certain steps that need to be accomplished before others?

Four: Assign Resources

This is primarily about people and finances.

Who needs to be assigned to this goal, or specific steps along the way?

Who needs to be in on decisions affecting these steps?

How much money is required for each step?

Will this be funded from a fund already in place or will fundraising be required?

Five: Establish a Timeline

What order do these steps need to be in? Determine a timeline, along with completion dates.

When will you start each step? When will you finish each step?

Six: Evaluate, Adjust, and Keep Going.

When it seems you are nearing the achievement of your goals, take time to evaluate to ensure you accomplished what you needed or if any readjustment or reworking of the strategy is needed.

If you want to see your vision becoming a reality, it is important to do the difficult work of creating a strategic plan and sticking to it. So, church leaders, I hope you have a vision for your church. Take the time to develop a strategy to help you move forward to achieving it.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Relax and Rest!

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

Rest doesn’t always come easily for driven people. Many pastors and church leaders are passionate about what they do. They are busy, sometimes with expectations put on them, but often because they see another thing that could be done to help move things forward. There is another person to visit, another meeting to prepare, or a new program to plan for. And Sunday is always coming. Every weekend needs another sermon, and service, and lesson prepared. Rest doesn’t always make it onto the “to do” list.

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Genesis 2: 2-3 (NIV)

We see four things God did as He concluded his creation. He finished, rested, blessed, and made holy the seventh day. God quit working. There was a certain point where God said, “That’s enough,” and he stopped working. Not only did he stop working, but he also rested. He took a break. He paused from the work and enjoyed a rest. And then he made the seventh day special by blessing it, and he “made it holy.” He set aside from all other days as a special day.

The people of Israel were told to celebrate the Sabbath every week. There were strict warnings from God to the Jewish people to keep this day as a day to stop working and rest and delight in Him and His creation.

Most Christians do not keep the Sabbath in the way that the Old Testament taught, and I don’t believe we need to; yet finding time to stop working and to rest and delight in God is still honoring to God and a huge benefit to all believers. For many, especially pastors, Sunday is not a Sabbath rest. This past Sunday was a good example. My wife and I left home in the morning at 8:30 am and did not return until 9:30 pm. We had a full Sunday. I had to set up and teach Sunday School. I then led a special Prayer Service. This was followed by visits to three different homes: lunch with one family, tea with another, and supper with a third. In that time, we debriefed the morning with an elder, anointed and prayed for a sick church member, and enjoyed playing games with some other friends. While not a Sabbath rest, as such, this was a great way to spend a Sunday, enjoying God and people.

Spending time with our church family, learning and worshipping together is part of Sabbath. Praying for people and anointing them with oil can be part of Sabbath. What many church leaders and pastors miss out on is the Sabbath rest aspect. For some, this works on a Sunday. For others, we need to set time aside at another time. My wife already asked me which day I was going to take off this week, but a Sabbath is more than just a day off. A meaningful Sabbath is a time to follow the example of God: to stop working, to rest, to delight in the day and in His Creation, and to contemplate the holiness of God. It may include feasting and church and family and friends.  It may include prayer and scripture reading. If you finish the day rested, with your joy refreshed, and feeling God’s pleasure, then you have “sabbathed” well.

I would encourage you to take time in your week to, not just take a day off, but to enjoy God and his creation and rest your body, mind, and soul.

Take time to relax and rest in the presence of God.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

The Benefits of Rituals

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

It’s fall, and children are heading back to school. Though we have no school age children in our house anymore, I’m reminded of those hectic school mornings. Often it is a race against time to get the children dressed, fed, and backpack loaded to get them out off to school on time. This is an example where rituals could be of great benefit.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

ritual /rĭch′oo͞-əl/

noun

  1. A ceremony in which the actions and wording follow a prescribed form and order.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Rituals are helpful patterns for life. These are steps we go through on a regular basis that ensure we don’t forget something and get it done on time. Rituals could help children be less rushed in the morning before they head off to school. Check out the examples below.

Before going to bed the night before:

  • Lay out the next day’s clothes.
  • Pack the backpack with everything except the lunch.
  • Pack the lunch and place in the fridge.

Morning rituals:

  • Pack lunch in backpack before breakfast.
  • Place backpack beside your shoes at the door.
  • Breakfast at the same time every morning.

It may be helpful to have a ritual for the start of your workday as a pastor or church leader. Instead of showing up in your office with no idea what the day will look like, you can have a plan to start the day right. A ritual can help you make the most the first part of your day.

To set up helpful rituals you need to think through what you already do, deciding which things happen every day and could help you start the day right. A morning ritual may look like this:

  • Begin with prayer, asking God to guide your day.
  • Check emails and quickly decide which to respond to or which to put on your to-do list to deal with later.
  • Plan your day, and note appointments already schedule or deadlines that need to be met.

You may find it helpful to have some “end of day” rituals which prepare you for a good start the next day:

  • List anything that needs to be followed up from the day.
  • Make your to-do list for the next day.
  • Note appointments that have already been made.

For rituals to be helpful, they need to be personal to you. They need to be steps you will take.

Rituals can help in many areas of our work life. I have rituals for how I go about preparing my weekly sermons. I have rituals I follow in preparing to teach a class. I have rituals in how I ensure I am ready for Sunday morning. These rituals help me to make sure I don’t forget something and save time because I don’t have to think up new patterns every time.

A few benefits of rituals are that you are less likely to forget important steps, you will be more organized, and life will be just a little less hectic. Enjoy establishing meaningful rituals.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Punctuality Begins With Arriving Early

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

When I started out as a young youth pastor, I was told by my Senior Pastor that I had to show up at least one hour before the Sunday morning worship service. I have experienced the value of this advice many times and followed the practice in preparation for other meetings and events as well. I have found that there have been many times when that extra hour has been beneficial.

1. Arriving early ensures I am on time.

It may seem like it goes without saying, but if you plan to be an hour early, you will most likely be on time. If you have a flat tire on the way, you may even have time to change it and still arrive on time.

2. Arriving early protects my integrity.

When you are on time and start events on time you maintain integrity, but when you are late, or start things late, people aren’t sure they can trust you when you announce the start time for an event. And when you don’t follow through on start times, it may affect people’s sense of your overall integrity. You want to be on time and ready to go for your event so that you can keep your word on when you will start.

3. Arriving early gives me time for last minute adjustments.

Often there have been issues to iron out before the service. You have time to photocopy anything you forgot, or to change that one PowerPoint slide. It gives you time to make sure all the technology is up and running. There have been days when I have needed all the time to make sure I fixed something or did a final tweak.

4. Arriving early prevents rushing.

When you are rushed you are not in the best frame of mind. Being rushed often gets our frustrations up and means we may miss something in our final arrangements prior to the event. When we have time, we can be more relaxed and work through our last-minute preparations with time to spare.

5. Arriving early gets me focused.

Everyone knows how life happens and sometimes we are distracted by what we dealt with earlier that day. If you get to your event with time to spare, you can go over the agenda and get your mind cleared and focused. You have time to pause and pray to ask God to help you focus on the moment and leave the distractions with him.

6. Arriving early helps me ensure all volunteers are ready.

When you are early, you will have time to check in with your volunteers to make sure thy are ready to go. I like to give people a heads-up about when their turn is in the service or event. When everybody knows their role, the event will go smoothly.

7. Arriving early gives me time for people.

When you are early, and ready for your event early, you have time to greet people as they arrive. There are often a few people who arrive early. I have had some significant conversations with people because I had time to slow down greet them before the service.

You may think arriving an hour early for a worship service is over the top, but I would encourage you to try it. I’m sure if you try it five or six times, you will begin to experience the benefits and establish this as your own habit. There is value in punctuality, and arriving early ensures your punctuality.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

The Benefits of Scheduling Events on Your Calendar Regularly

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

How do you remember meetings and appointments you have scheduled? As church leaders, we are often busy enough with our own families and work lives that we can easily forget some of our responsibilities at church. We have many options available to us if we want to keep track of our schedules. We can go old-school with a day timer or paper calendar. We can use calendars on our phones and computers. We can set alarms that remind us of an upcoming event. The problem is, these are no good unless you actually use them.

I recently talked with a church board who had just about missed planning a tradition in their church. Every Father’s Day, people would bring pies to share after church. This was tradition. Someone always reminded people and made sure it happened.  

This year, personnel had changed and no one remembered until the Friday before the special day. As a result, a few people were scrambling the day before to make sure everything was in place. If this event had gotten on the right calendar, it may have caused a lot less stress.

So what can we do? And what needs scheduling? Here are a few thoughts on scheduling and setting reminders ahead of time.

  • Choose a system of scheduling that works for you.

It doesn’t matter which system you use, the important thing is to choose one that you will continually use. Don’t use more than one system because then something is likely to fall through the cracks. 

  • Chart everything.

For me, I put everything on my calendar in my phone. When I say everything, I mean everything. All meetings are written there, whether board meetings, or board responsibilities. For bigger events, you may want to break down deadlines for parts of it to be done by earlier dates.

  •  Set reminder alarms

Often, I not only put the event at the correct date and time, I also put an alarm to remind me ahead of time so I can make sure I will be prepared and on time.

  •  Scheduling helps planning

Marking everything on your calendar allows you to also plan ahead for preparation time. Because I know of events far in advance, I know when to delegate certain aspects to other volunteers on my team. And of course, scheduling helps reduce conflicts because you know not to plan another event at the same time.

  •  Your calendar helps you say no

One value of charting everything on the same calendar is that you can see when you are getting overwhelmed and need to say no to something. If you don’t have everything – your work schedule and personal life – on your personal calendar, you may not realize how busy you are with both parts of your life at the same time. You do not need to feel guilty because you know you do not have time to take on anything else.

  • Watching your activities helps you see where you spend your time

We are not always aware of how we are spending our time. We get caught up in doing what needs to be done. When you look at your calendar and see that you are spending a large portion of your time doing things that have nothing to do with your vision, you need to adjust your activities. If you notice that an overwhelming amount of time is spent on work, and you are missing out on family time, you need to adjust your schedule.

Setting reminders of appointments and meetings and events can help you be more prepared for them, as well as help you see where you need to adjust your priorities.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Book Reviews: Andy’s 2023 Reading Experience

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.

GETTING NAKED – by Patrick Lencioni

Getting Naked: a Business Fable, by Patrick Lencioni is exactly that. It is a well written story of a businessman sent to check out a smaller company that has just been acquired by the company he works for. He expects that, because it is a small company, it will not have anything to teach him. He is surprised by the things he discovers. He learns that they have a much better way of handling clients and doing their work than what he is used to. Lencioni concludes the book with a few key points that are already clearly shown at work in the story. A great book on how to benefit from being vulnerable in business.

7 Steps to Becoming a Disciplined Leader

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

Last week I wrote about what it is like to be a disciplined leader. Today I want to continue focusing on that topic by showing how you can develop that discipline in your own life.

Step One: Determine where you lack discipline.

Know your strengths and your weaknesses. If you have no problem showing up to work on time, count that as a strength. If you are always struggling to meet deadlines, that is a weakness. Choose only one or two weaknesses to work on at a time. If you are really brave, you may ask a colleague what some of your weaknesses as a leader are and work on those.

Step Two: Clarify your motivation.

As you consider the weakness you want to work on, what is your motivation? Why do you want to become more disciplined in this area? Is because someone else told you improvement was necessary? Or do you recognize the value discipline could bring to this area? If you are struggling to meet deadlines, your motivation for more discipline may be to have less anxiety or to have time to do a review of the project before the deadline so you do better work. Make sure you are convinced this is an are where you actually want to improve. Then your possibility for success will increase greatly.

Step Three: Sort out the problem.

Why is this an area of weakness? For example, why are you not meeting your deadlines? Are you procrastinating and putting in little effort until just before the deadline? Is it because of an inability to accurately estimate the the amount of time it will take you to work on the project? Once you figure out what the problem is then you can develop steps to improve.

Step Four: Develop a plan.

Let’s say you struggle to meet your deadline because you procrastinate. Develop a plan that gets you working on the project as soon as you take it on. Work back from the deadline and establish your own deadlines. You could also create your own deadline a week before it’s needed to give you time to review it. When reviewing your deadline, you can also break the job into smaller steps and set personal deadlines along the way that get you working on it sooner and keeps you going. These dates can lead up to your personal deadline and help you stay on track.

Another strategy is to actively develop better habits and create rituals that keep you on task. This could be creating more shorter deadlines for smaller parts of your projects. Maybe it could be working on your task first thing in the morning and checking emails or engaging in other tasks only at noon or at the end of the day.

Step Five: Remove distractions or temptations.

Why are you procrastinating? Are you always on you phone? Are you taking too many coffee breaks or constantly chatting with co-workers? Maybe set an alarm on your phone that reminds you to get back to work after a coffee break. Or leave your phone in your coat. Don’t check personal emails at work. Turn off notifications on your phone that continually remind you to check I through the day. Sometimes, it may be beneficial to close the door and pull the blinds so that you are not distracted by others who are walking by your office or chatting with each other. Find ways to remove distractions.

Step Six: Find an accountability partner, coach or mentor.

It helps to know that someone will be checking in on you. Ask someone on your team to check in with you occasionally to see how you are coming along. If you are the one in charge, maybe you have a secretary or personal assistant who can check in and remind you of deadlines you have set. Or hire a coach to check in with regularly.

Step Seven: Just keep on keeping on.

One who wants to learn discipline will continue to push through an try again and again even if they fail occasionally. Keep reminding yourself of your goals. And as you make progress, remind yourself of how far you have come. Did you meet that last deadline? Then celebrate it. If not, then figure out if some adjustment is needed and get back to the next task at hand. Don’t get down on yourself if you fall short. Forgive yourself and recommit to the plan.

Becoming a disciplined leader takes hard work, but you can do it as you work on one or two weaknesses at a time. As you do, you will become the disciplined leader you want to be.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Develop the Leadership Character of Discipline

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

Discipline is something you develop in yourself by deliberate and consistent decisions. It is not something a person automatically has but is a characteristic that must be learned and developed. Discipline is what helps maintain what is good in life and build on it to improve even more. It is developed by regularly choosing to make the necessary decisions and take the correct actions. A disciplined person may live by a rule or system of rules governing their conduct or activity. As you live by these good choices, you become a disciplined person.

A disciplined leader gets more done.

Many people put in the expected hours at work. Some get much more done in those hours than others. One reason is that the disciplined person knows how to keep breaks short and focus back on the task at hand.

A disciplined person starts on time, but also ends on time. Whether it is the start of your day or running a meeting, a disciplined person is prepared, ready to start when it is time, and focused enough to accomplish what is needed in the necessary time.

A disciplined leader develops good habits.

Self-discipline is the ability to control your behavior in a way that leads you to be more productive or have better habits. Systems or rituals can help you organize the activities you regularly do into an orderly fashion that eliminates time spent deciding what to do next or how to do it. These rituals can be as simple as cleaning off your desk before going home at night so it is not cluttered when you return in the morning. A ritual could include taking 10 minutes to plan the next day so you are ready when you arrive in the office the next day.

Systems are the habits that are packaged together, like a series of procedures.  An example may be a system for tracking meeting decisions and action items. This might include transferring all dates discussed in the meeting onto their calendar, and adding your responsibilities to your to-do list, and adding time to work on these items to your daily schedule. In this way, within minutes of your meeting, you have all the pertinent information on the right calendars and to -do lists.

A disciplined leader excels at self-management.

A disciplined person is a self-starter. They don’t need someone else to regularly check in to remind them of the next job to do. They know how to determine what needs to be done and what can wait. They know where to go to get answers or expertise they don’t have. A disciplined person sets their own direction for the day rather than waiting for the supervisor to give them their jobs. A disciplined leader manages their time in such a way that everything gets done and they still have time to dream and plan for the future.

A disciplined leader keeps going when things get tough.

Being a leader is not always easy. Pushback can come from many angles, including some of your own staff or even those you serve. Financial issues can become a big concern when money isn’t coming in as expected. A time crunch can also be tough, when the amount that needs to be done seems to be greater than the time available. Things can get tough too, when a leader feel like they are leading beyond their limits. In all the different ways that things can get tough, the disciplined leader will never give up. They will push through. They may arrange for deadline extensions or make some financial adjustments. They may get outside help, whether personal coaching, or more staff, to push ahead when they feel they are in new territory and unsure how to proceed.

Discipline is a valuable characteristic of anybody, but especially a leader. This characteristic will help a leader get through many situations when an undisciplined person may give up or just panic and do a poor job. Work at becoming a disciplined leader, one good decision, one good habit, after another. If you want to lead well, develop the character of discipline.

If you are looking to become more disciplined, checkout next week’s post on how to develop discipline as a leader.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

Is Living Longer Really the Goal?

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

At a recent family gathering I was joking with my family that I expected to live longer than 100 years old. Why not? From organizations to businesses to human life, mankind always looks for ways to prolong what is good. We celebrate 100 years of farms owned by the same family. We celebrate people who live to 100 years of age, and often ask these individuals what their answer is to long life.

The life expectancy for Canada in 2023 is 82.96 years. If you break it down between males and females, life expectancy for men I around 80 years while female life expectancy is around 84 years. Most people love to point out that this number is slowly climbing. We are making progress, we think, by keeping people healthier longer. Scientific studies have been done to determine how to help people live longer.

People have attempted all kinds of things to prolong their life. Some have used magic potions, others have chosen to drink mercury, or played around with DNA manipulation. One pope from the 1400’s asked three young boys to give him their blood. According to the story, all four of them died as a result of this blood transfusion and attempt to lengthen one man’s life.

Is living longer the goal? Is long life the best thing we can hope for or dream of?

What all these people who have dedicated their lives to living longer don’t understand is that longer life is not the goal. Living again is the goal!

We just celebrated Easter. Easter is the celebration of resurrection – life again – specifically the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We celebrate this resurrection because the Bible clearly states that all who put their faith in Him for eternal life will live again. While human death will still happen, we will live forever in a new body with God Himself in a renewed version of the original Garden of Eden. Living longer is not the answer – living again is!

The Bible tells us that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a cross, and then buried in a tomb. On Easter morning, first some women and then others, saw Jesus alive. We are told that many people saw Him alive after that. He defeated death. It looked like the grave had claimed him until he rose again, alive, as attested by many people.

That, in itself, is amazing! For someone to die and then rise from the dead is amazing. Some of us may think this was only possible for Jesus because he was the Son of God. He was God. He could do what humans can’t, except that is not the full story.

Jesus said that resurrection was possible if only we believe in him. In John 11: 25, 26, just before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said this to Lazarus’ sister:

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

Later in the Bible, after Jesus went back to heaven, the Apostle Paul writes that resurrection is possible for us if we believe in Christ.

So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. (1 Corinthians 15: 25, 26)

I like to write about the church and about leadership and how to do things well, but all of that is in service of this message that by faith in Jesus Christ, we can have new life. New life that begins now, and continues after we die. Resurrection comes after death. So living longer is not the answer. Living again is. When we live again, we will live forever and do not need to fear death ever again.

Living longer is not the goal – living again is!

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe

5 Practices to Prepare for the Busy Seasons

/ thinkingoutsidethetextbox / Leave a comment

This is going to be a busy week for me. It is jam-packed with responsibilities and deadlines. I will be attending a funeral in another province, which will take about three days including travel. On the way home I need to make arrangements to pick up a car my daughter bought from an online auction. Then in the four days remaining this week I will preach at a Christian School chapel, plan and lead an Elders Board meeting at the church. Saturday I am to lead the Elders and their wives through a 6-hour Visioning Retreat. On Sunday I am beginning a sermon series in Colossians as well as leading the church in a communion celebration. Besides that, I already have one coffee meeting and a Men’s breakfast. And this list doesn’t include those little interruptions that come up regularly, or the fact that I am also writing a blog and posting another this morning.

So how do we handle the busy times of life?

  • Use the slower times to prepare and plan ahead

My weeks are not always this full. I hope yours aren’t either. So when you have a little more time on your hands, think ahead. I usually plan my sermon series weeks if not months in advance. I often take time at the beginning of the year to plan a whole year of sermons, figuring out when to preach certain topics or themes or books of the Bible.

I have already been working on the Colossians sermon series so I have a pretty good idea of how I will introduce the series on Sunday. It’s not completed, but it shouldn’t take too much more time to finish my introduction sermon.

I have known I was speaking in chapel for about eight weeks. I have a sermon I preached a few weeks ago that I think will adapt well for this purpose. I need to adjust the sermon to make it interesting and applicable to 5- 15 year olds, but at least I have an idea of what I will be doing.

So when you have slower times, think ahead. Plan what you will be doing in the future. The more you think ahead, the more likely you will have at least some of the work done for the events of those busy seasons.

  • Use your experience to help you in the busy times

I have had little time to specifically focus on the Vision Retreat I  lead on Saturday. Fortunately, I have experience leading similar events. I have old files of other vision processes I have led and can adapt those to specific needs of this church, giving me a great starting point.

I heard of one pastor who threw away every sermon he preached. He wanted each sermon to be fresh and not a repeat of something before. While I appreciate the desire to be fresh for each teaching, there is great benefit in having old files to go to when you need to work on something you have already done at some point earlier in your life. Use your experience. Build on it. Don’t waste it by throwing it all away.

  • Pray

We love the story of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes. He prays and the little boy’s lunch becomes a buffet for a crowd! Some of us have stories of God multiplying meals we have served when we did not think we would have enough.

In the same manner, why not pray and ask God to multiply your time? Ask God to stretch out your time so you will have adequate time to do what is required in your busy seasons. Or alternately, ask God to help you work more efficiently and accomplish more than you usually do in a certain period of time. Ask God to stretch your time and abilities to you can do your best, even in busy times.

Number one priority marked with red circle on math notebook
  • Focus

Sometimes in busy times we cause more problems for ourselves by getting caught up in all that needs to be done rather than focusing on one thing at a time. I don’t have to do the Visioning Retreat until Saturday, so I should focus on the other events that I need to prepare first. Work on one deadline at a time.

Focus in on one thing at a time so you can give it your best. Ask God to help you with your focus. He can help you work on one thing at a time rather than being overwhelmed with everything at once.

  • Do your best in the time you have

If you are good at what you do, you will want to do your best with your responsibilities. That is a good thing. But sometimes we have to let go of perfection and just do our best with the time and energy we have. This is not an excuse to do a poor job or not put in the effort, but there are times when our plate is just too full for us to make everything perfect. Do your best all the time, but also be realistic about the time you have.

Busy weeks will happen. Sometimes you will have multiple deadlines to meet at the same time. Ask God to help you and do the best you can, working on one thing at a time.

Keep looking up,

Andy Wiebe