Calendar Art
One of the practices I have put into place over the last few months is an “end of day” routine. It has provided an astronomical amount of help. The biggest?It consistently sets me up for a great tomorrow. And none of this is complicated. In fact, most of it is pretty simple. I feel like a dunce for realizing this after 15 years of ministry. Here are the 5 ways you can foolproof tomorrow.
- Clear your device. How many times have you realized you have 19 unread text messages, a few Facebook private messages or 23 unheard voice messages (but you called them back, read the preview…whatever really?)Because of how our devices work, especially in lock mode, we can get the message and respond to it without ever actually clearing the little circle with numbers in it.
At the end of the day, I clear every message. If I haven’t responded to it, I write a prompt to get back to it on the next day…but I don’t leave any notifications cluttering things up. Clear provides clarity… and fights the nagging feeling about what seems to be a never ending list of responses.
- Update your calendar.What did yo add to your calendar today? Maybe you talked about something, wrote a paper note, committed to something, bought a ticket or many other things. Get it in the calendar. I used to consistently double book myself. Now I have a little symbol in my notebook about dates to add and I get them in there.
- Define tomorrow’s work. I work out of a paper notebook, alongside my calendar and todoist. (I talked about it in this episode; Why You Should Keep a Notebook (https://revchadbrooks.com/pp44/). I always write down what my top 3 things to do the next day are. I decided these during my weekly review session on Sunday evening and go back even more to monthly review meetings. I know if I get those three things done, I’m ahead of the game. Go ahead and write them down so you can get to them first thing.
- Clean your desk. I work out of three different spaces. One at home, I have a private-ish office at the church and we have a shared “war room” with all the staff (don’t even start on how complicated this gets. Two churches living together can get a little weird). What I love about my private office is that I share it with another pastor. We never work the same hours, so it’s almost like sharing a bunk in a submarine. I want to keep it neat and tidy for him. I’ve discovered how easier it is to work when I’m not surrounded by chaos (my home desk looks like a gar hole). I’m slowly working on cleaning every space totally when I leave it. It helps me feel like I’m not behind or playing catch up. Take a few minutes to put things away and straighten up.
- Charge your devices. This might apply more at home, but always put things on a charge before you end the day. I work mobile a good bit and hate when I realize I didn’t charge my laptop or phone and I start the day at 30%. When you live a solid 20 minutes from where you work out of, this can be a major time and focus drain. Stick em on the charger. Make sure everything is ready to rock when you start the next day.
These are the things I’m intentional about at the close of every day. I’d love to hear what your end of day routine looks like. ChadPS. Have you joined the Productive Pastor Community on Facebook yet? Last week I released a great video about how I've changed how I use commentaries in sermon preparation. The only place to watch it is there.
The Rev. Chad Brooks is a United Methodist pastor in Monroe, La. This post is republished with permission from his blog, The Productive Pastor.