Pastor, It's Time to Reevaluate Your Schedule (A 3-Step Plan)

“The problem is not that of needing more time, but of making better use of the time we have.”J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership

While there are no regular weeks in ministry, having a written weekly schedule can mean the difference between faithfully living according to your responsibilities or living under the tyranny of the urgent. So, with a new year on the horizon, now is an excellent time to go back to the drawing board and create a new weekly schedule for yourself.

Instead of hoping to find the time to fulfill our duties, diligence in stewarding our time requires us to proactively make time for what matters most. A weekly schedule is one way to accomplish this. In this article, I get into how and why of creating a weekly schedule. I’ve also created a Pastor’s Productivity Toolkit at RedeemingProdutivity.com with resources to help you get more done for the glory of God.

Visibility: The Power of a Weekly Schedule

Some in the ministry may balk at the idea of a weekly schedule. But how often has a week gone according to plan? The power of having a written weekly schedule is that it creates visibility on your finitude.

Unlike God, we are limited by time, energy, and human frailty. The Lord is very aware of this, “For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:14). Yet too often, we fail to acknowledge our creatureliness, leading to vicious cycles of over-commitment. A written schedule allows us to see how finite our time is each week.

Just as it’s easy to overspend when you aren’t keeping an eye on the budget, when you don’t know where your time is going, you can take on more than you have the capacity to do well. When we have no definition of what our weeks *should* look like, we feel like we can always add just one more thing. And before long, we’re overwhelmed and overcommitted again. This is why it’s wise to refresh your weekly schedule at least annually.

There are just 168 hours in a week. A weekly schedule is like a budget for this time. It’s a written definition of a typical week, with time set aside for your responsibilities like message prep, meetings, meals, family time, rest, etc. By writing it out, you make the schedule visible and force yourself to acknowledge the limits of your time. And awareness of these limits encourages you to make the necessary trade-offs to ensure the most important is given the time needed each week.

How to Create Your Weekly Schedule

So, how do you create said schedule? Let me suggest a three-part plan. You can do this using your calendar app, a sheet of paper, or this Google Sheet I’ve created. We’ll start broadly, looking first at the days of the week, and then we’ll zoom into the hours of each day.

1. Theme Your Days

Many believers have found choosing a focus for each day of the week helpful. For example, one pastor whose schedule I studied themes his days like this:

• Sunday – Preach the Word
• Monday – Rest (Day Off)
• Tuesday – Correspondence (Email, meetings, counseling, etc.)
• Wednesday – Study Day
• Thursday – Correspondence
• Friday – Study Day
• Saturday – Household Management

Those aren’t the only things he does on those days, but having a theme provides structure and focus to his week. Each day has a primary focus. An added benefit of setting up his weeks this way is that he doesn’t feel pressured to answer emails or take meetings on study days because he knows he has two other days each week reserved for correspondence.

After you choose themes for each of your days, the next step is to think about your energy levels throughout the day.

2. Map Your Energy

Not all time is created equally. I would argue that time management is less about managing time and more about matching your activities to your energy levels. Some hours of your day are more valuable than others. Some people find their brains don’t start working properly until after 9 a.m., while others are toast just after lunch.

There are peaks and valleys to our energy levels throughout the day. Your peak 3–5 hours of energy and focus are what Carey Nieuwhof calls your “Green Zone.” Knowing them and scheduling around these times allows you to ensure your most important work matches your most productive hours.

“When you do what you’re best at, when you’re at your best in the best conditions you can create, your work comes alive. And so do you.”Carey Nieuwhof, At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor

For example, my most important daily work is writing, and my most focused hours are early morning. Instead of trying to squeeze writing in the margins of my day, I proactively schedule at least 90 minutes daily during my mornings. No email, no meetings, no distractions; I don’t allow myself to do anything else except my most important work during these precious hours of peak energy.

So before you jump to plotting out the hours of your day, start by noting when you are at your best energy-wise. This will be a helpful guide when doing the final step of creating your weekly schedule.

3. Plot Your Blocks

Some people fear having a schedule will be too restricting. But a schedule is an ideal to aim for, not a master to serve. And it’s incredibly freeing to decide how you’ll spend your time in advance.

When you know the essential things are accounted for on your calendar, you can entirely give yourself to whatever you’re working on at the moment. No more anxiety about that thing you might forget or that meeting that’s eating into your study time. And no more Saturday night specials because you didn’t make time to work on your message during the week.

Your time blocks are the chunks of time you schedule on your calendar for your most important activities. For example, you might have a block for studying from 9-12 on Wednesdays and Fridays. Think of these like recurring appointments with yourself.

Here are some prompts you might consider as you plot your big blocks on your schedule:

• Personal Devotions
• Planning Time
• Correspondence (Email, Calls, etc.)
• Exercise
• Sleep
• Household Management
• Routines
• Standing Appointments / Meetings
• Church Events
• Family Time

As you place these on your calendar, remember your energy levels. The most critical blocks should correspond to the best hours of your day.

Aim to block only about 50% of your day. You need to leave room for the time to transition between activities, interruptions, breaks, and truly urgent things that may come up.

Conclusion

Each new year, the Lord hands you 52 weeks to steward. And as one who will give an account for souls, you don’t have the luxury of being cavalier with your time (Hebrews 13:17). So, take some time before the new year to craft a new schedule that will help you make 2024 a year of faithfulness to the weighty task the Lord has entrusted to you.

Reagan Rose is the founder of Redeeming Productivity, a media ministry that helps Christians learn time management from a biblical perspective. He has also created a Pastor’s Productivity Toolkit with resources to help you get more done for the glory of God.

©2024 Reagan Rose. Used with permission.