Managing your Time

—Living as a Christian in the Real World

Andrew Fountain – Nov 5, 2017

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Managing your Time

The goal is to learn how we can use our time
more effectively
to achieve the purpose
for which God has put us here.

What to do (3 points)
How to get it done (3. points)

The inventor of time management was a Christian
853-899 King of Western England www.famouslives.com/…reat.html
The Saxons were not very sophisticated, very basic homes, no education, living off the land.
The king would generally fight all day and get drunk all night
- Not live in a palace but in a long-house
Alfred became a Christian, and taught himself to read Latin so he could read the Bible.
- Here was a problem—he wanted to study and spread the gospel
- But he also had to rule the kingdom.
He decided that he would spend:
- 8 hours a day sleeping
- 8 hours ruling the kingdom
- 8 hours in study, prayer & reading the Bible and translating into English
But how?
- He invented one of the first known clocks.
- Mark I was three different sized candles
- Mark II was a single candle with gradulations down the side
God blessed his rule in an amazing way
- He came up with the idea of a Navy, which saved the kingdom from the Vikings
- He not only defeated his Viking arch-enemy, but led him to salvation in Christ
- He came up with the idea of the jury system

Psalm 90:12

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” ESV

God says at the end of this Psalm that he will establish the work of our hands, and what Alfred did with his time not only established Christianity in Britain, but over a thousand years later has impacted justice across the whole world.

Some personal background

Ever since I was a child I have been frustrated at having more ideas on how to spend my time than actual time available.
I started making todo lists when I was about 16 (and I occasionally find them)
- some things never got done, like finishing the song I was going to write. (and that’s relevant to a point I’m about to make)
I got buy in many ways as a student and later an employee because my time was pretty well prioritized for me.
Things came to a head in the 1990’s when I was leading a Bible Seminary and was totally in control of my day
- I had to have a better system than some random lists and a calendar on the wall
At that time the most popular planning system was “Daytimer”
- I booked all the staff into a 1-day course where we all got given a beautiful leather-bound daytimer with instructions on how to use them
- There were lots of good things, although some weakesses, which I’ll come to
One of the most useful things they suggested was for a couple of weeks to record exactly how you actually spent your time, for every minute of the day & night so that you know where it’s going.
- This proved to be very useful and is in accord with what God tells us in Psalm 90
This proved to be very useful, but also served as a way of holding myself accountable. So after the two weeks was up I kept on recording it.
- Now you’ll probably think I’m a bit weird, but I still do, now in a computer database.
- It only takes me around 5 mins a day.
- list 2001-10-01
- but mainly useful because it gives me a breakdown of where my time is going
So I found myself getting more and more efficient at getting stuff done, but not necessarily the most important things
- Expression “the tyranny of the urgent”
So this brings us to the first point

1. The Important vs the Urgent

“Look carefully then how you walk,
not as unwise but as wise,
making the best use of the time,
because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

(Eph 5:15–17 ESV)

Managing your Time

What to do
1. The Important vs the Urgent
2. Time for self-care
3. “Pick Three”
How to get it done (3. points)

Mark 6 – Self care

The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.
And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Managing your Time

What to do
1. The Important vs the Urgent
2. Time for self-care
3. “Pick Three”
How to get it done (3. points)

A guy called Chris Bailey, productivity fanatic since he was a child
The single most effective thing he found was to begin each day with the question “What are the three most important things I can do today?”
I can’t give you a Scripture for this, but I can say that God follows the same principles with us—he simplifies it
- 10 commandments
- Jesus asked one of the scribes to simplify it: Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbour as yourself
We don’t know Jesus inner planning, but we know that he had very determined goals which he stuck to
- Luke 9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem
So this is not a hard and fast rule, but something to try for yourself that can help you focus on doing what God wants you to do.

Part 2—things I have found useful

There are not verses for these but Jesus said

John 9:4

“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” ESV

B. How to get it done

Have one place where you record everything you have to do
A “trusted system”

Ecclesiastes 3:1–8

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ESV

B. How to get it done

Have one place where you record everything you have to do
A “trusted system”
Pray about the order, and write a list for the day
“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time” Col 4:5
- ‘Lumpy’ things first

B. How to get it done

Have one place where you record everything you have to do
A “trusted system”
Pray about the order, and write a list for the day
Don’t change the order!

James 4:13–17

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ESV

Managing your Time

What to do
1. The Important vs the Urgent
2. Time for self-care
3. “Pick Three”
How to get it done
1. A “trusted system” where you record everything you have to do
2. Pray about the order, and write a list for the day
3. Don’t change the order!

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Ps 90:12