An Emergency Plan for Saving Time
Fred Smith Sr.
No sluggard need aspire to leadership. There are passive persons who are content to go through life getting lifts from people; who wait until action is forced upon them. They are not of leadership material. Most people spend time like they do money. They spend until suddenly they run short; then they seek a way to compensate. The best approach, of course, is a disciplined lifestyle that prevents time (or money) from slipping away in the first place. This is what most time management books teach: Adopt a philosophy, implement it, and then maintain it as a way of life. But most people will never be that disciplined. What they need is an emergency checklist to gain a few hours in the weekâsomething to ease the frantic pace, to get them through the crunch. Occasionally a worn-out pastor comes to me, and I say, "You're under the gun, aren't you? How much time would it take for you to catch up?" He usually says something like "If I just had five more hours a week!" If he is working fifty hours a week, that's ten percent to loosen him up. Here is a way to pick up five hours from any week you choose. It provides immediate and effective relief for those who are swamped. But it is for emergency use only. As in dieting or spending money, the long-range answer is a better lifestyle that doesn't require temporary bailouts. Mine is a battle plan, not a war plan. You shouldn't continue this emergency plan for longer than, say, four to six weeks. Most pastors, however, can walk into a pulpit and say, "Folks, you're not going to see as much of me for the next six weeks as you have. I've gotten behind in some very important things I should be doing, because I've been doing other things that were needful. I'm going to need your understanding for ...
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