7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Habit #3 from Stephen R. Covey's "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"

"Put First Things First. Here, Covey describes a framework for prioritizing work that is aimed at short-term goals, at the expense of tasks that appear not to be urgent, but are in fact very important. Delegation is presented as an important part of time management. Successful delegation, according to Covey, focuses on results and benchmarks that are to be agreed upon in advance, rather than prescribed as detailed work plans." taken from Wikipedia.

This is a little off topic from Covey's Habit #3; but I don't care, It's my blog. -

I'm a list maker. Every morning when I get to my desk (following my devotions) I create a list of the tasks that need to get done for the day. I get such a thrill crossing out the items on my to-do list. One thing I learned about the ministry very early on was that my job is never ever done. You get one sermon done and you've got to be preparing the next one, you manage one crisis and the next one pops up, you make contact with one person and the next person is waiting in the wings, etc. For someone who likes to see progress and sense a feeling of accomplishment the transition into ministry was challenging because there was never a conclusion... until I started making my little lists.

I've also learned that with my temperament I can't look too far into the future at my schedule, or become too obsessed with everything that I've done in the past. I tend to get overwhelmed when I look at a large list of meetings, deadlines, speaking engagements, etc. I also start to feel exhausted if I consider how busy I've been. So I've learned to take it one day at a time, make my little lists, and look for the opportunities that God gives daily for me to minister.