The Ultimate Timing
Leaders invest their time in what produces the greatest return.
It is said that the leader of an organization gets paid the highest salary in the corporation for making only 2% of the decisions. And that very simply is his or her job description.
Get your fields ready and plant your crops before starting a home. Proverbs 24:27 (CEV)
"We will have all eternity to celebrate the victories, but only a few hours before sunset to win them." -- Amy Carmichael
Without the limitation of time, there might be no need to prioritize. But time limits you and forces you to make choices.
The more time you spend on the wrong things, the less time you have to invest in what’s right - the longer it takes to succeed. But when you learn to spend your time wisely on the things that bring your life the most fulfillment and success, you often end up with time to spare.
If our spouse is the most important asset we possess, we don’t want to wake up one day to find that we’ve spent more energy in making a living that making a marriage. We might just find that we get what we’ve worked for and lose the rest.
If our children’s preparation training for life is important to us, if we are a loving and concerned parent, we will spend time, energy, effort in training them or else we might wake up one day to find that our own children are thrown into life’s storms without the equipping to handle them.
In short, being successful is not about how hard you work; it’s about how smart you work.
A man was told that if he worked his very hardest, he would become successful and rich. The hardest work he knew was digging holes, so he began digging huge holes in his backyard, each one bigger than the one before. But in the end, he didn’t get rich; he got a backache. He spent a lot of time working hard, but the work had no purpose.
[ACT 6:1] In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. [2] So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. [3] Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them [4] and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word." [5] This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. [6] They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. [7] So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
ORGANIZE OR AGONIZE
We never outgrow the need to prioritize. It is something we keep doing whether we are leading a family, small group, pasturing a church, running a small business, or leading a billion-dollar corporation.
Stephen Covey says, “A leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, ‘Wrong jungle!’”
Generally speaking, there are five ways that people decide how to spend their time.
Once Peter understood the right way to organize his time, he made a huge impact.
Determine which one best describes how you spend your time:
I. URGENT - LOUD THINGS FIRST
Peter could have easily fallen into the trap of attending to urgent needs first.
When the Grecian Jews were voicing their complaints, he could have taken matters into his own hands to shut them up. But he knew it would have been a waste of his time. Instead, he sent others to take care of the matter for him and barely broke stride.
You’ve no doubt heard the saying: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Well, that shouldn’t always be the case in leadership.
Over time, you will probably encounter a lot of "squeaky wheels" in the form of requests, suggestions, or complaints from the people in your area of responsibility.
Some of them will be valid and merit spending some of your time on them. But often, oiling the squeaky wheels in your life isn’t the best use of your time.
You will no doubt get urgent phone calls for help just as you are headed out on an important date. “I need a ride into town because I have to go to the bank.” “I need to talk to you right now, it just can’t wait.” Meanwhile you’ve just promised your husband that you would go out with him tonight and you’ve planned this for a whole week. If you let the urgent take over rather than the important, you will not only loose the precious time needed to build a strong marriage, but even if you can get away from the phone before the night is over, you’ll be so preoccupied with the issues of your friend that your marriage building time will not be productive. We cannot and never will be able to save the whole world ourselves. That is God’s job. We can however save and build that which is given to us to do so.
Often you will find that these kind of emergencies are not emergencies at all. They result from poor planning on the part of the person who is in so called distress. They will continue to be in distress until they learn self-discipline in these areas and you will not really be helping them by giving them what they are asking for anyways.
Though it’s tempting - especially if you happen to be a people pleaser - you have to learn to discern which wheels really need grease, which ones can be greased by others, and which ones will squeak no matter what you do.
2. UNPLEASANT - HARD THINGS FIRST
Many of us were taught to do hard things first.
It’s the "Dinner before dessert" mentality.
Just because something is hard doesn’t mean it should be at the top of your to-do list.
If Peter had subscribed to this notion, he himself would have probably distributed the food to the widows. Of all that he was doing at that time, that might have seemed the most unpleasant.
Distributing the food probably ended up being a full-time job. If Peter had taken on that task, he would have missed out on many opportunities to teach and lead.
In pastoral leadership, I am continually confronted with these types of decisions. Like Peter, a pastor can easily be kept from leading the church effectively by being the taxi driver, doing all the visitation work, book keeping, secretarial work, clean up, etc. etc.. These things need to be done, but it is not right for the pastor, just like it was not right for Peter, to be waiting on tables. That is why God implemented that team concept of doing church. Paul called it body ministry.
Notice that there was a selection process that took place before Peter delegated responsibility. Even setting tables, requires a sold out Christian walk to be qualified and effective. This is the sacrifice principle of the cross that brings life put into action.
When we all do our job with the same level of commitment, dedication, and zeal as the pastoral leadership, then the whole unite functions excellently.
You need to be able to check your motives. If you have a strong work ethic, you may naturally want to get the harder things done first. But don’t just start in on the hard stuff before determining the value of your actions. If doing something easier is a better use of your time, then do that before you tackle a difficult task.
3. UNFINISHED - LAST THINGS FIRST
If you’re like most people with responsibilities, you work on a day-to-day schedule. Many times your to-do list is left partially undone at the end of the day. If you complete only eight of the ten items on your list, your tendency is to automatically place the remaining two items at the top of your list the following day.
That’s not always the best use of your time. Chances are, if the two items were on the bottom of your list, they weren’t top priorities in the first place. And they wont necessarily be top priorities the following day either.
What do you think Peter would have done if only half of the widows had received food initially? Even if the men that the disciples had assigned never completed the task, he would have almost certainly continued preaching to the people.
"Next to the dog, the wastebasket is your best friend." - B.C. Forbes
Some things just don’t need to be done. That stack of papers you haven’t gone through for the last six months, might just need to be trashed. After all, your life has not done a nose dive because of that pile up to know, and what makes you think your life will never be the same again if you just throw it out. Prioritize the things that come across your desk realistically and throw out that which you really shouldn’t take the time to bother with.
There are expectations placed on our lives at times that we need not expect ourselves to meet as we develop God’s priorities in our lives.
I sometimes have had items on my to-do list that stayed there for over a year. This doesn’t bother me, as I know I have put the important things first and finished those. Sometimes, after a year, I will realize that this item is not ever going to get done and I erase it. Other times, I realize that God was developing the item and now I need to adjust what I originally thought was necessary to be done to something slightly different and far more effective.
Before you spend time completing an unfinished task from the day before, evaluate it in comparison to the other things you need to accomplish. If finishing the task is still not a top priority, place it at the bottom of your list again, and work on it after you finish more important items.
4. UNFULFILLING-DULL THINGS FIRST
Of the five styles, this one is probably the most common. If you subscribe to this notion, your tendency is to do the dull, mindless things first, but these things are rarely the most important.
Because Peter was human, there were probably times in his life when he would have preferred to focus on where he would be getting his next meal or the best route for his next journey. But Jesus had taught him not to worry about those things. He was to focus on what was most important-sharing the gospel.
We can become preoccupied with cooking and miss the guests.
Maybe you need to go to COSTCO and buy that ready to prepare meal from the cooler so that you’ll have time for the guests.
We can become preoccupied with our jobs, trying to make the next payment all the while missing what we are really working for, our families.
5. ULTIMATE - FIRST THINGS FIRST
Peter understood the concept of spending time only on what ultimately needed to be done. He didn’t try to get more done in a day by doing easier or more appealing things. He stuck with the most important and left the rest to be done by others or not to be done at all.
Just because we may be busy, doesn’t mean we are necessarily accomplishing great things.
Do you naturally spend time on what are really the most important things first?
Commit to follow Peter’s example, and give your best time - now and every time - to your most important tasks.
Although it’s admirable to be ambitious and hard working, it’s even more desirable to be smart working.
You see, the key to becoming a more efficient leader isn’t in checking off all the items on your to-do list each day. It’s in forming the habit of prioritizing your time so that you’re always doing what’s most important.
When you’re able to do that, it won’t be long before you begin to exceed your own expectations of yourself.
CONCLUSION
Take some time the week to reassess your priorities.
Are you spread out all over the place? Or are you focused on the few things that bring the highest reward?
The greatest success comes only when you focus on what really matters.
