Putting in 16-hour days trying to figure out how to develop and launch a new ministry, product or service is not uncommon for most people when first starting out. But do you really understand the value of your time? I initially didn’t, that’s for sure!
Ask any on the clock employee and they will tell you their time is worth $8.00, $12.00, $15.00 or whatever per hour. Hourly workers know the value of their time. Those who are successful commissioned sales personnel, know the value of their time, and successful salaried workers know the value of their time as well.
What about you? It's a different story for the minister! You definitely work more than eight hours, day and night, weekends, and holidays and then there is the occasional counseling thrown in just to make sure that you don’t have too much down time. If it's a passion of yours then it is even more challenging to figure out the value of your time. This isn’t even getting into the whole feeling guilty because you are contemplating actually placing a value to your time because you are minister.
Maybe you don't know the value of your time. Trust me, many people in your position don't, so you are not alone. But knowing the value of your time will help you manage your scheduled and make better decisions.
To figure this out take your monthly salary and divide it into your total hours worked. It's not a perfect calculation because it doesn't account for the hours that you spend thinking and it doesn't account for your personal expenses, but you are busy enough that a general estimated calculation should provide you with enough information. Now that you have the hourly wage, divide that by 60 to give you an approximate idea of what your minute is worth.
For most new ministers the value of their time will be just a few dollars an hour, or even less. Don't feel bad if that is the case with you, it will rise quickly once you learn what works and does not work.
Now you have a baseline from which you can measure your progress. Improvement in time value will be more objective and less subjective. Time Management is the key for improving your bottom line, and spending more time with people you love and not the book keeping and mundane that is often connected with heading up a ministry.
When the bible speaks about stewardship, money is just one thing that we are to be good stewards with, yet most people stop there when talking about stewardship. Time is our greatest and most precious asset. Time is the great equalizer of all us human beings. Why then do we not recognize and treat it with the respect it deserves?
Whether you are rich, poor, healthy, ill, or just humming along in your life somewhere in between, we all have only 24 hours in each and every day to invest wisely. We often spend a great deal of time and energy thinking and worrying about, or working to earn and pursuing the more trivial things in life. However, while we are doing that, sometimes we are missing the greatest gift of all - our time to experience the life that we are each given. A wise teacher once said to me, "You can always get more money but you can never buy more time." Good point!
We constantly take note of how we invest our money, but how often do we consciously think about how we invest our time? I consciously use the word invest because the way we choose to spend out time is truly an investment in our lives and ourselves.
Based on my observations over the last several decades, however, you would never guess the true value of this time commodity by the way people act and speak.
First, let's look at the common ways people dishonor time with their actions. Do any of these choices look familiar?
- Spending ‘hours’ in front of the TV.
- Sacrificing a healthy amount of regular sleep in an attempt to steal more time. (You may be awake for more hours, however being in a fog and loaded up on caffeine does not translate into quality or "more time".)
- Working ineffectively and/or spending so much time at a job that you have in effect handed over your life to someone else.
- Existing in a state of stressed out or burned out.
- Spending hours aimlessly surfing the internet or endlessly communicating on social media sites for the sake of doing it, which leads me to the next one.
- Participating in gossip or the rumor mill.
Now, let's take a look at the language we use when we discuss our precious friend, time. Do any of these comments look familiar?
- I wish it were Friday already! (Usually spoken from a Monday through Thursday point of view)
- I'm just wasting time; or, this is a waste of time.
- I have some time to ‘kill’
- I'll get to enjoy my time when I retire.
- I'm just counting the hours until the end of the day, or the days until the weekend, retirement, etc.
So, how often do you wish away your life? How often do you let time simply pass you by?
While it may sound cliché, the phrase Carpe Diem has a great deal of merit. It means, seize the day. I can still remember my first real experience with this term when Robin Williams challenged his young students in the movie Dead Poet's Society to do just that - seize the day. He used it as a call to arms where every student in his class should make each day a day that was truly explored and lived to it’s fullest.
Where Does the Time Go?
A Challenge for You
Do you know where all your time goes each day? What parts of your life are most important to you? Are those the parts of your life that receive the greatest amount of your time and attention? Or, do you find yourself doing the same things today that you did yesterday simply because that is what you did the day before that?
For the next month, take stock of where your time and your life go. At the end of each day, write down the number of hours spent in each of the main areas of your life. An example of what those main categories might look like could be:
Areas of My Life
Physical Health & Well-Being
Primary Relationship, Spouse, Significant Other
Friends, Family, Children, Relationships
Career/Work
Finances and Money
Physical Surroundings (home, work, etc.)
Spirituality (connecting with a power greater than yourself)
Fun and Relaxation
Making a Difference in your Community and the World
After the month passes, total up the hours spent in each category and take the calculation that you came up with earlier and multiply the number you came up with to the number in each category. Now reflect back on how you spent your time. Did "reality" surprise you? Or, was it what you expected? Did you spend or invest? How does the way you invest your time on a daily basis make you feel? Is it in alignment with your values and what you really want from your life?
Take some time to take stock in how you invest your most precious asset - time. Remember, tomorrow is promised to no one. Carpe Diem.
I have one more for you in this short series on time management. Keep an eye out for it, I will have something special for you.
The purpose of these blog
posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth
living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power
question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take
action.
Power Question for the
day:
What would be the biggest impact from achieving your goals?
No comments:
Post a Comment