Category Archives: Leadership

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4 Building Blocks To Develop A Daily Routine

This is part of the series How To Develop A Daily Routine. Check out more from the series!

A daily routine is essential if you want to be as effective as possible in your day to day activities. While there is a danger of developing a rut, a healthy routine can help you get more done, and done better, each day.

Building Blocks

I’ve found that there are four basic steps in establishing a daily routine. You can make this is simple or as complicated as you want. But no matter how elaborate you want your routine to be, these four actions can help you set things in order in your routine.

Research

Begin by looking at all the tasks that you need to accomplish each day. If you already have a routine that you’d like to tweak or improve, begin with these three areas: tasks that you already do, tasks that you need to add, and tasks that you need to eliminate or delegate. If you do not already have a routine, start by asking yourself a few questions, identifying what you need to do each day in areas like getting ready for work, preparing meals, housekeeping, errands, and anything else you do on a day to day basis.

Do this by making a list, adding everything you can think of. You can purge unnecessary tasks later if you don’t need them.

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How To Accomplish More With A Daily Routine

This is part of the series How To Develop A Daily Routine. Check out more from the series!

As a minister, developing a daily routine is crucial. Most of the time, in ministry, there is no one really watching over your shoulder to see if you are getting the work done. As a result, ministry can be a target for the lazy; and often the lazy get away without doing much.

Calendar - Daily Routine

As a minister, I’ve had to develop a strict routine over the years, but keep it in such a way that it can be flexible as needed. For example, I work on my sermons early in the week, blocking off Monday and Tuesday to do the bulk of the study and research. But what if someone comes into the office needing to talk? Or needs financial assistance? My routine is flexible enough to accommodate these types of interruptions, and I still have a significant portion of the week left to get back on track.

But for a long time, I simply had a list of things that needed to be done each week, and no rhyme or reason applied to when I did what. I would catch myself working on things with a very low priority, or getting distracted by social media, and suddenly my week was gone and I felt the pressure of the immediate deadline of the weekend.

In order to combat this, I developed my routine. And to keep me on track, I developed a chart depicting what my ideal week looked like, structured out enough to accomplish what I need to accomplish, while leaving enough flexibility and margin in to keep myself balanced and healthy. Along with this, I developed my Life Plan, identifying the most important aspects of my life, and becoming intentional about growing in these areas. (Thanks to Michael Hyatt for the inspiration and resources for these two items.)

Knowing what I was meant to do, and knowing what I needed to do to make those priorities happen freed me to focus on the truly important things without agonizing over whether or not I was doing the right things, or feeling the stress and pressure of procrastination.

Here are three things I’ve found to be beneficial when it comes to a daily routine.

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The Importance Of Routine

This is part of the series How To Develop A Daily Routine. Check out more from the series!

Developing a good routine is one of the most important parts of my day to day life. It can be a crucial element to being as effective as possible.

But routine can be detrimental, too. It can become a rut if you’re not careful.

Desert Ruts

This was made very evident to me over the past few weeks. You may already know, I just moved my family from the Gulf Coast of Florida to southern Missouri to take the lead minister role at Cabool Christian Church. This is a very exciting time for me, as a minister, and for my family, not only as we start a new ministry, but start a new type of ministry. I’ve been a minister to teens for more than two decades, and making the transition to the lead role in a church comes with a new learning curve.

But the process of making the ministry change, both from youth to preaching, and from Florida to Missouri, has caused some significant upheaval in our lives.

I have a pretty typical routine that I adhere to most days. The past several weeks have been difficult, simply because the familiar routine hasn’t been there.

Here are a few of the elements that occur in my morning routine on a daily basis, almost without fail. My morning starts with a cup of coffee, brewed in my Chemex, once I get to the office. While the water is heating, I boot up my computer and pull out my iPad and journals. Once the water is hot, and the coffee is brewed, I sit at the desk, and read the days’ passages from my Bible reading plan, usually using the Logos app on my iPad. When I finish my general reading, I turn to the passage I’m writing. On a normal day, I handwrite several verses from whatever book I’m currently working through, usually eight to ten or so, in my Journible. While I am writing these verses, I watch for things that stand out to me from the passage, with an eye to what God may be trying to teach me for the day. These I list out in my journal, along with other thoughts and prayers. All of this usually takes me around an hour or so.

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What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do

Leading is hard.

It really is. Sometimes you just don’t know which way to turn, or what to do. It can become overwhelming if you don’t stop, take stock of the situation, and recalibrate yourself.

Mind Twister Game

So what do you do when you don’t know what to do?

Here are four steps I take when I’m not sure what to do next as a leader.

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6 Healthy Responses To Negative Criticism

We all face it. It happens to each of us.

We are criticized, sometimes unfairly.

It’s reality. But how we respond to it makes all the difference in the world.

Boxing Gloves

There are a couple different kinds of criticizers. All of them require you to think about how to respond appropriately. Otherwise, it can quickly degenerate into what feels like a sparring match.

First, there’s the person who criticizes something you do. As a youth minister, I occasionally experience this type of criticism. Sometimes it’s justified, other times it isn’t. Developing and implementing a successful youth ministry often results in someone being unhappy about something. You simply can’t satisfy everyone. Someone will not like a change being made, and they are likely to let you know. If approached correctly, this can be a very constructive experience.

Then there’s the person who criticizes you because of who you are or because of your beliefs. They don’t like something about your personality, or your beliefs, and that fuels their antagonism. Very rarely is this handled in a constructive manner.

Recently, I received an email questioning our statement of beliefs on our church website. Initially, my though was that this was someone interested in our church, who might have some questions that needed to be answered.

But after a few exchanges, I quickly realized that this guy was interested in nothing more than picking a theological fight. In more than twenty years of ministry, this is still a difficult position to find myself in. I find it easier to have a discussion with an atheist than one such as this. At least, in the case of an atheist, I know what side he’s on.

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Fearless Living

My son is not afraid of heights.

I found this out a year or so ago when I took several of my children with our church’s children’s ministry to the City Museum in St. Louis for the day. They had a huge metal… thing outside that had tunnels and catwalks and places to climb and explore. It’s pretty hard to describe.

Metal Climbing Structure at City Museum

Titus climbed straight to the top area that was nothing more than a huge caged ball that was three or four stories above the ground. He camped out there for quite a while, loving every minute of it.

At that point, I had the idea for this post, capitalizing off of that event.

But I never got around to writing it. No particular reason kept me from it, I just had other topics that I wanted to cover, and this idea slid off my radar.

Until last weekend.

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Developing An Environment Of Growth, Part 3

Your growth as a leader is one of the most important aspects of your leadership. If you are not growing as a leader, you will soon stop being a leader. It’s that simple.

And so, developing an atmosphere in which you can sustain and encourage your own growth, as well as the growth of those around you, is crucial.

Tape Measure

photo credit: wwarby via photopin cc

We’ve taken a look at several different key elements in developing a growth-oriented environment. You may want to refresh your memory on the first three elements we examined, and then the second group of three.

Today, I want to briefly look at four final characteristics that are found in growth-oriented environments. I see these in all types of organizations, whether that is a church or ministry like my situation, or a business of some sort. These principles ring true across the spectrum.

Creating a growth environment is important. Someone once said that “when you’re through improving, you’re through.” I don’t know about you, but I’m not through.

Here are the final four elements.