Last week, we started the conversation on time management in part one of this blog series. I’ve noticed that the average pastor lets urgent matters and other people’s agendas eat away hours of his or her time.

Since the greatest ministries require the greatest time management, it’s time to embrace learning to manage your time well.

Here are a couple practices to help you get started the right way:

Understand the Difference Between Efficient and Effective

You can be efficient without being effective, but it’s hard to be effective without being efficient. Let me explain. Your efficiency hinges on how quickly you are able to do your work well. It’s about being able to take a project that would take most people an hour to do and doing it in 50 minutes with the same level of excellence. Becoming more efficient is definitely a key to managing your time productively. But here’s the catch: You can easily become efficient at doing things that don’t matter.

While efficiency is about doing things well, effectiveness is about doing the right things well. The greatest time management question you can ask yourself is: Does this need to be done at all? Before you begin any task, ask yourself whether or not it’s something you really need to be doing. If the answer is no, don’t do it. If the answer is yes, focus on doing it efficiently.

Tune in next week for the second practice of good time management.

Click here for Part 1 of this blog series

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

P.S. – for a deeper dive into time management, click here to check out my new book, The Renegade Pastor’s Guide to Time Management.

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.