Practical Time Management Tips for Busy Church Communicators

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Bryan Haley

Let's dive into the world of time management for busy church leaders—like you!

Show Notes

In this episode

Every church communicator has a plethora of responsibilities, meetings, events, and much more—making effective time management crucial for church leaders to fulfill their role and move the ministry's mission forward. In this episode, Jeanette Yates and Bryan Haley discuss practical tips and strategies that anyone can use to manage their time more effectively. From setting priorities, scheduling tasks, using time-blocking techniques, and avoiding common time-wasters, we cover the basics of time management in a concise and actionable manner. Whether you're a full-time pastor, lay leader, or a church communicator with any other title, this episode will arm you with the tools you need to balance competing demands and stay focused on what truly matters in your ministry.

Links and resources

Transcript

Jeanette:

Whether you're a pastor, a volunteer, a staff member, the demands of ministry can leave you feeling overwhelmed and stretched in. But no worries, we've got you. On today's episode, we'll explore some practical tips and strategies that you can use to manage your time more effectively.

Bryan:

Hey there, church communicator. Welcome to the Church Juice Podcast where we are energizing church communications, one 20 minute episode at a time. I'm Bryan Haley, the host here, and I am joined as always by my awesome co-host, Jeanette Yates. Hey, Jeanette.

Jeanette:

Hey.

Bryan:

I am really excited to talk about today because it is something that has come up the last couple months, a lot of times with communication leaders that I've been talking to. So we are talking about time management because every church communicator, every church staff person that I have ever encountered is overwhelmed. There are always so many things that we could be doing and not enough time to do them. So we're going to talk about time management, some tips and tricks that both you, Jeanette, and I have kind of learned or processed over the years in our roles in different areas. But I will also say that I am not a time management expert by any means. I am always behind just like everyone else, but I think some of the things that we're going to talk about today are things that reminded me of how I could implement some different areas too. So I'm excited. Yeah. What have you been up to?

Jeanette:

Well, I've loved it when I got the message that this is what we were going to be talking about today. Because what I have been up to is trying to get better at time management.

Bryan:

Apropos.

Jeanette:

Now, I will tell you, I know all the things. So a lot of what we're going to talk about today, we're going to talk about tips and strategies, but the... I'm going to spoiler alert, you got to do them. So for them to work, you have to do them. And so what I have been working on is actually implementing some of these ferry strategies we're going to be talking about. So I'm excited to dive in.

Bryan:

Yeah. Let's start talking about the role of a communicator or any church leader. What I have experienced is that no matter how defined your job description might be, there is a multitude of things that get thrown at us or put on our plate. And we are always multitasking and doing a million different things and trying to take care of Sunday, because Sunday happens every week, and that's a major event to plan and execute every week. But then there's also BBS down the road or small groups or whatever. So there's always tons of things to do. How do we prioritize? Let's start there. How do we prioritize? What makes the cut? What do we work on first and what do we put off and how do we decide that?

Jeanette:

Well, like you mentioned you no matter what your actual role is, because we've talked about that plenty of times on the podcast where what church communicator means that your church means something different than mine. I think as much as you can try to make a list of all of your weekly duties, I think you need to do that. Will something come up? Absolutely. That's why at the bottom of your job description, if you even have one, it says other duties as specified, because there will always be something. But if you have a list of things that you need to accomplish every week, that's the first thing to do. You can't prioritize something unless you know what you're prioritizing. So step one, write down everything you have to do. And then I would say step two is then grouping those into different categories.

For me, that meant I wrote the bulletin, I created graphics, I counted the attendance, I took pictures. So I would group those things like these are more creative tasks, these are tasks, these are writing, these are administrative. Then there's a whole category that's just meetings there, that kind of stuff. And then you can go through and prioritize. Some of those things are on your plate no matter what.

Prioritizing may not even be the right word because you're going to go to the meeting, even if the meeting could be an email. So I don't know where you would put that. Is that a level one or just it's just getting... Yeah, so you go through that. Once you categorize everything, then you can go through and kind of decide, "Okay, what do I have to do? I have to show up to this meeting. I have to do the attendance records, I have to write the bulletin," whatever. Then I would put, and I'm kind of jumping ahead a little bit. I would put the things I have to do myself and the things that someone else could either help me do or do for me. And then once that list of have to do is, then that's where I go through and actually prioritize and maybe even write down how much time is this going to take.

Bryan:

Mm-hmm. One thing that from time to time we'll use is the Eisenhower Matrix. So if you're just trying-

Jeanette:

Never heard of it. Tell me.

Bryan:

Oh. So President Eisenhower, he created this matrix. It's four quadrants. So when I'm trying to categorize different things, this really is what I think about. It's basically urgent and non-urgent and important and non-important. So in the top left, you have your urgent and important things that you need to do and you need to get it done right now, then the top right you would have not urgent, but important. So those are things that you need to schedule. You need to decide when you're going to do it and put it on your calendar.

Then you have the urgent but not important for your role. So those are things that you need to delegate to someone else, or maybe you're waiting on someone else to do it. And then the bottom right would be things that you can delay, basically, things that you don't need to do. They're not urgent, they're not important. So you kind of have these four categories. So that's what I was thinking as you were describing how you... different categories and things like that. So it's just kind of, for me, it's a visual way to put things in order in my head, I guess. So that's something that I've found helpful.

Jeanette:

I have heard of something similar, but it wasn't... I'm trying to find the name of it. It's like high impact, high time investment, low impact, high time... how much impact versus how much time or money. And so I'll try to find that so we can put it in the show notes. But there's that thing too, outcome versus income or outcome versus impact measurement. So how much are you having to put out to make that impact? And so I'll try to find that for you, but that reminds me of the same thing. There are some things that you just have to get done, and they seem meaningless, but they have to get done.

Bryan:

So there's one book that I read at the start of every year. It's just one of those new year habits that I have, and it's called Getting Things Done by David Allen. And so in this book, one of the things that he talks about is doing a brain dump, basically. So going back to these lists that we're creating. So everything that's in your head, we need to put somewhere. So you just start writing them down if it's post-it notes or whatever, just to get yourself everything out of your head and into writing somewhere and then you can organize them later. And so I find that helpful, which I'm really terrible at because I'll do it in January 3rd or whatever. I'm good at it. I'm like, "All right, I feel good. I have things organized. I know what I need to do, what I can schedule for later," all those kinds of things.

And then a month later, I still have things in my head. I need to remember to do that. But when I do that where I just put everything in a list and prioritize it that way, that really does help me prioritize what I need to get done and know that I'm not missing anything and all of that. So there are tons of ways that you could organize your to-do lists, and I think we could spend our entire episode talking about that.

But that is one way to prioritize or to manage your time, is just to make those lists and get everything out in writing, and then prioritize what it is that you need to be doing. One of the other things that we were going to talk about in this episode is how we use our time. So we have the list of what's important. We know what we need to do, all of that, but we get distracted pretty easily. There was someone on Facebook mentioned this recently that even when they shut their door, people come and just kind of burst in and distract them from what they're doing. So the closed door policy just like didn't work. So we know that we get pulled in a million directions. We know that we get distracted all the time. So how do we manage our time well? What are some strategies or some ideas to help communicators with time?

Jeanette:

Okay. So this is what happened to me this week. I'm going to tell this story. I'm going to try to make it quick. But basically, I, like all of our listeners, we have lots to do and none of it, maybe some takes a little bit, but I don't know about you, but I have a ton of little things. Nothing takes a ton of time, but it's just like, "Write this social media post, do this." And it's a bunch of little stuff so I think, "Oh, it'll just take me two seconds. I'll just do it." Well, obviously that is a recipe for just constant anxiety like, "Don't forget to do it. Don't forget to do it. Don't forget to do it." So what I decided to do is think about what would I like to do as the social media manager? What would I like to do if I had the ideal work week? What would it look like when it comes to getting this stuff done, getting that content created and scheduled?"

And I would like to have a month's worth of content scheduled out before the month. And so what happened was we have a meeting at our job where I work. We talk about everything that's going on during the month, and then I'm equipped with all the information I need to create all of the social media content for the next month at least, if not more. And so what I began to do was I said, "Okay, if I could do whatever I want, I would go from that meeting. The next day, I would plan all the content," and I use a tool for that, which we'll talk about in a later episode. And then I decide, "Okay, I need to... the graphic design."

So in my case, I get to ask someone to create the graphic design for me, for you, but if it was me, I would spend the next day. So day one is planning. Day two is creating and getting ready, writing any kind of copy for the post. And then day three is actually scheduling it. You can circle back with me in six months and see if I'm still doing this, but I'm telling you right now, what normally I have to think about every single week in my weekly rhythm is no long... it's off the plate until the next month.

Bryan:

So let me ask you this. You said that you did day one, day two, day three. How much time are you committing to that?

Jeanette:

So I intentionally broke it up into three days. You could probably do it all in one day if you just wanted to knock it all out because I spent about an hour each day... I will say one caveat, day three was me making a bunch of reels, and I am a ol'Fogey, so it took me a little bit. But if you're good at making reels like if that's part of you so it might not take that long to just actually schedule out your content. But I was creating and scheduling on that last day. So really an hour a day, me just sitting down and kind of plotting that stuff out. And of course, maybe graphics would take me longer. So I would plan a little bit more for that day where you're actually creating graphics, but you're not spending three whole days doing that. You're spending a chunk of time depending on how long it takes.

Bryan:

Because when you said that, I was like, okay... I don't even know if you know this, but I'm ADHD, and so the thought of spending a whole day on creating content, I just can't do it. And that's my job too, but I need to do different things. I like the idea of just the little time blocks. I think that makes a lot of sense. I do the same thing a little bit. I'll say this week or these couple days this week, I'm going to make sure that I get through... for me, I do a lot of writing or editing, so I want to make sure that this day is devoted to writing and editing. Of course, I need to split it up and do different things. But what I have found is difficult for me, which you kind of just talked about a little bit. What I have found difficult is scheduling creativity. I know times a day where I'm more creative, and I know that varies from person to person, but the idea of scheduling when to be creative can be kind of difficult.

Jeanette:

Well, I want to speak into that really quickly because that's my thing too, is, I don't feel creative today. Well, one of the things... so that's been a limiting mindset of mine is I'm not able to create when I'm not feeling creative. But what I decided to do this week, that's different, Amy Porterfield has this thing where she says, "Do something different," so just do one thing different. And so this week what I did that was different is I said, "I'm going to write the copy for the social media post on this day period." Not if I'm creative, not whatever. I'm going to do that. So yesterday when it was time for me to... like I had said on Thursday, you're going to create every reel that you need to create for the next month. Now, for some people, that's two reels. For me, it happened to be six.

Bryan:

Okay.

Jeanette:

I already knew what each reel was going to say. I knew what sound I was going to use because that's what I did on day two. I knew all the stuff. All I had to do was actually record. So I was able to do that with the mindset of, "I'm going to get this done today, and I'm not going to be afraid that my creativity isn't going to be there. I'm not going to be afraid that my creativity is not going to show up."

Bryan:

Interesting.

Jeanette:

Because you know...

Bryan:

Growth mindset. Look at that.

Jeanette:

Yes.

Bryan:

All right. Interesting. I'll have to challenge myself on that one a little bit.

Jeanette:

Yeah. You are creative Bryan. Doesn't work on a clock.

Bryan:

Yeah. All right. I know that we talked about time blocking, so setting aside a hour, few hours, half a day, whatever, even a whole day to certain things. Another technique that some people find useful is... you're going to have to help me on the name is spending 25 minutes at a time.

Jeanette:

Right. Pomodoro.

Bryan:

Pomodoro. That's it. Yeah.

Jeanette:

Yes.

Bryan:

So scheduling out 25 minute blocks, you work for 25 minutes, get that thing done, and then you take a break, then you work on another 25 minute block. So I know a lot of people that use that and live and die by that rule, and they talk about how much more productive they can be in less time because they just block out all of the distractions. They silence all their notifications, all those kinds of things, and just focus for 25 minutes at a time. So that could be another tool that people might find helpful.

Jeanette:

And I think that's really good too, because sometimes we think, "Oh, I have to write a blog post," or, "Oh, I have to write an email for the church. It's going to take me forever." Well, the task expands to the time you give it, said someone important. I don't know. I'll have to figure that. I heard it recently, but it makes sense. So if you say to yourself... and this, I actually had this happen once. Somebody asked me to write a blog post for them, and I was like, "Okay, I'll get to it." And they said, "No, set a timer for 10 minutes. You know this already. That's why I'm asking you to write this blog post for me. Write it in 10 minutes and then just give me what you have." And it worked.

Bryan:

Okay. Interesting.

Jeanette:

And now, do I recommend doing writing all your blog posts in 10 minutes? No, but for this particular thing that he was asking me to write, he said, "You know this. I just need it in a blog post."

Bryan:

I know you can do it. Right.

Jeanette:

Yes. So I think maybe it's not 10 minutes. Maybe it's like, "I need to write this email. I already know what I'm going to put in it, because I've already written it for the bulletin." It's the same thing. Doing the same thing. I'm going to write it. I'm just going to sit down. It's going to be 15 minutes, whatever. So don't give yourself more time because you will take it.

Bryan:

For sure. What I have found is that I have tried a million different things with time management and prioritizing tasks and things like that. But what I have found is that it really varies from person to person. So you just need to try things and see what sticks, see what works for you, because what works for me may not work for you, Jeanette. It may not work for whoever's watching or listening, but there are tons of tools and tons of opportunities to try different things, and that's what we need to just get in the rhythm of trying something until you find what works for you.

So maybe that is the Pomodoro technique, or maybe that is more blocking and batching things, but I think that there are tons of ways that we can prioritize what we need to do and get things done. What I see a lot is that church leaders overpromise and underdeliver on a lot of things. We never say no. So things just keep getting thrown at us. Someone's doing a baking fundraiser, and somehow that is our job to communicate and design and whatever. And so we really need to make it a priority for our own time, setting those boundaries of what you can and cannot do, what's outside of your time for the week. I think that those boundaries are important too.

Jeanette:

Agreed. One more thing, and then I know we got to wrap up this episode, but you were talking about those random things, right?

Bryan:

Yeah.

Jeanette:

Well, maybe part of when you're prioritizing things, maybe you have a little box that's like, "I'm going to give an hour of time to any popup emerge, popup..."

Bryan:

Putting out fires.

Jeanette:

Yeah. I need a logo for this bake sale or what. I'm going to give an out... because I know I'm going to get that so I'm going to go ahead and block it out. I'm going to go ahead and schedule time and give myself some wiggle room in my schedule so when that happens, because I know it will, I have a little bit of wiggle room. So that was something that helped me when I was working at my church, for sure.

Bryan:

All right. So next week we are talking about tools, and we're going to include some tools that we kind of alluded to in this episode, but...

Jeanette:

Can't wait.

Bryan:

Some of our favorite tools that we use for, not just for time management, but for communication. So social media, all of the things. One of the questions that I get a lot is like, "What tools do you use? Or how do you do this?" So we are going to spend 20 minutes next week talking through some of our favorite tools that we use that you may find helpful in your role. So yeah, I'm excited. Yeah. I hope that you found today's conversation enlightening or encouraging. I hope that you take some of the things that we talked about today, try implementing them, see what works for you. Hey, join our Facebook group and tell us what you are doing for time management.

Tell us what you're trying, tell us why it did or didn't work. One thing, we didn't talk about this, but one thing that I tried longer than I should have tried because I despise it by the end, was using a planner to plan things out. I tried and I tried, and I tried, and it is just not me. So I grow to despise what I had scheduled for my planner for the day. But I hope that some of these things that we talked about today, you'll find encouraging and that you will try and let us know in the Facebook group just what you are trying this week to help manage your time.

Jeanette:

Give us some new things to try.

Bryan:

Yeah. Give us some new things. Absolutely. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to listen to the Church Juice Podcast. But listening is just the start to take today's topic to the next level and hear from other church communicators. Head to the Church Juice Insiders Facebook group. You can find a link to our group along with all of today's show notes at churchjuice.com/podcast.

Jeanette:

The Church Juice Podcast is a listener supported production of Reframe Ministries, a family of programs designed to help you see your whole life reframed by God's gospel story. Church Juice is produced by Brian Haley with Post-production by Minimal Media Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For more information about Church Juice, visit churchjuice.com. For information on Reframe Ministries and our family of programs, visit reframeministries.org.