Time Management is Not the Answer
It’s About Increasing Productivity
“Time management programs do not work.” Carson Tate from Work Simply
All Purpose-Driven Believers Want to Maximize Their Lives
As Jesus followers we believe that God has significant purposes for our lives. We know that He has prepared ahead of time good works for us to do and people for us to help. (Ephesians 2:8–9)
We know that God will help us live those purposes and do those important works, but He will not do it for us. He will do it with us and through us, if we cooperate with Him. (1 Corinthians 3:9)
We know that we have incredible opportunities and privileges to play meaningful roles in the greatest cause of all time. So we want to make the most of the time God gives us.
The question then is HOW do we do that?
It’s Not About Time Management: It’s About Productivity
In her book Work Simply Carson Tate writes, “Time management training is not going to teach you how to work more productively. And that explains why time management training in fact, has not been proven to have a direct impact on performance.”
So what does Tate say does increase our impact and productivity? Work strategies; specifically our PERSONALIZED work strategies.
What are our personalized work strategies? Tate says, “Your work strategy is your approach to planning and allocating efforts across goals, activities, and time periods. This approach is usually UNCONSCIOUS and unsystematic rather than deliberate and rational…
Since everyone has a distinctive cognitive style, you also need a unique set of work strategies. It is the PERSONALIZATION of these strategies to suit our individual strengths, preferences, needs, and talents that enables us to be efficient and effective.”
Personalization is Key
I couldn’t agree with her more. I think most of us at some point have tried a proven time management system or a “get more productive” method taught by famous people.
And, most of us have seen they simply did not work for us.
In a small research project I did with 30 Christian business and ministry leaders I saw that though there are common principles they used, their approaches varied greatly.
Yes, there are solid, proven, Biblical principles and practices for making the most of our time and resources. But they have to be applied in a way that fits us.
Some of these leaders, for example, used visualization and faith statements to train their souls and prime their minds for the day. Others didn’t do that at all.
Some liked to lay out a long-term plan, others did month to month. And all of them have done very well in their faith, their work, and families.
That’s why a personalized approach is so much more effective than mass training. We can all learn key truths from a sermon or a course or a seminar, but to actually put it in to practice almost always takes figuring out how to make it work for us.
The most successful purpose-driven productivity strategies always include:
Clarify your purpose/mission/goal
Develop an initial plan
Take action
Adjust
But to do this in a way that works for you requires experimentation and knowing yourself.
Focus your efforts on increasing productivity through a personalized approach rather than time-management.
If you want more FREE resources on how to live a Jesus-centered, Jesus-empowered life take a look at www.TruVineMission.com
Want to clarify your purpose and then take steps to accomplish it, check out www.MarkFurlongCoaching.com
