Transcript of a published teaching by David K. Bernard, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
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Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
The question: how does he get things done?
- In the final episode of the year, the question is put to him as a man whose productivity people who know him well have remarked on — the general superintendent, with many demands and many people pressing for his time and attention: how does he stay on top of the demands of ministry and get all that work done? He points first to the chapter on time management in his book on spiritual leadership in this century, and offers principles that improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Planning: long range, daily, and a list for every role
- The first principle is planning: set aside time to look at the upcoming year — beginning in the fall of the preceding year, or the end of the year into the beginning of the next — mapping out at least concepts, themes, and known series, and then plan daily, at the end of the day or the beginning of the next, asking what needs to be accomplished that day. Long-range and short-range planning have to combine.
- He keeps lists: a long-term list of what needs to be accomplished in the next year or so, from which he pulls what must take place in the next month or two onto the short-term list — when he started as general superintendent he had a legal pad with a whole page of immediate needs and a whole page of long-term needs, and over the years he eliminated the immediate and moved the long-term forward. Because he has held multiple responsibilities, he keeps a separate list for each distinct role — personal and family, the organization, each office he has held — so he can check not just what he is accomplishing but how he is advancing each priority; and even the daily list is prioritized, because if everything does not get done, he knows what has to get done.
Effective, not merely efficient — people, boundaries, calendar
- Interruptions will come — the unexpected phone call or visit — and while boundaries are necessary and you have to know when to say no, we are in the people business: sometimes there is a real need, and the most important thing is not finishing your list but meeting it. A 10-minute conversation in the office, unbudgeted, may accomplish more than pushing the matter to next week by email. Boundaries include compartmentalizing: focus on one thing without letting other things distract. Budget time with people — thirty minutes, and at the end of that time standing up is the cue — unless something really needs longer.
- The calendar carries the boundaries: he and his wife sit down and put date night and family night on it — Monday night was family night when the kids were at home — and schedule time with the kids, even one at a time. Then when someone asks to meet or counsel, 'let me look at the calendar' answers without explanation: there is already an appointment that night, but tomorrow night works.
Handle things once — and delegate
- Bunch like activities and try to handle things only once. He has no notifications on for social media and goes on it only when he wants to; email and text are blocked out — knock out all the emails at one time, then forget about it. If he reads a message, he acts, because reading without acting means reading it all over again tomorrow — better not to read it yet at all. A physical letter gets notes jotted about what he will say, so he never has to read it again: the notes go to an assistant, or he types from them himself. Sometimes he checks only to see what is urgent, and pays no real attention to the rest until he is ready to deal with it.
- Delegation is deciding what only you can do, and giving everything else to other people — even some things you like doing. It does not have to be perfection: someone else doing the job at 75 or 80 percent may be good enough. He could write all his own communications, but it makes more sense for a director or executive assistant to draft for his approval; he gives the idea, adds the personal touch, and approves the final product.
Rest, best hours, and unstructured thinking time
- Rest is part of the system: a 10-hour day is very normal for him, a 12-hour day not unusual, six days a week — but he blocks off time for rest, relaxation, and hobbies without guilt, because you will be more efficient. Find out what times are best for you: he likes to work late at night and can roll until midnight or beyond on a project; mornings in the office are excellent for creative work, while by afternoon he is not creative, so afternoons are better scheduled for visits and interaction with people; sometimes a 15-minute power nap in the evening readies him to work again.
- And there must be times set aside just to think — not daydreaming, but letting the mind go free: stand up and walk around, get coffee, scroll through the photos on his amateur photography website and edit some, sleep on an issue and address it in the morning, use an airplane to read and relax. You cannot schedule an hour to plan and just plan; the unstructured time is when a person is refreshed and creative ideas come.
Advice to younger leaders: structure the week
- For younger leaders he returns to the book's chapter and says: see what works for you, but structure your day — especially if you are full-time in ministry, where so much free time and no accountability can make you less efficient than when you worked a secular job. The pattern from his own pastorate: Tuesday through Friday, 8 to 9 was personal time — prayer, Bible reading, study, reviewing, planning — then open 9 to 5 for calls, visits, and the work of the office and the church. Mondays were his day off: no work except genuine emergencies, and Monday evening was family night, with the whole church told nothing would be scheduled then, so every family in ministry was guaranteed that night. Saturdays were flexible but busy — finalizing plans for Sunday, calling and meeting people on their day off — and Sunday was always a very full day.
- The shape holds across his roles: mornings in the office for production, afternoons scheduled for hospital visits and counseling, where the work is interacting with people rather than producing. Budget your time, schedule your time, set boundaries — but when it comes to people, be flexible.
Transcript
I do have a a chapter in my book spiritual leadership in the 21st century I do talk about time management I do think there are some principles that will work to improve efficiency and Effectiveness so the first thing I would say is planning you have to spend some time in planning so every once in a while I try to set aside some time and look at the upcoming year usually now we're getting ready to roll into a new year
typically the end of the year or even the beginning of the next year uh I try to look long range what do I want to accomplish this year when I was a pastor I tried to map out not necessarily everything I would preach but it least some Concepts or themes or if I knew some messages or some uh series of messages or teaching so I try to broadly so really beginning the fall of the preceding year just depending on circumstances I I usually would try to start that time and so I think and then I do daily planning so usually at the end of the day or maybe the beginning of the next day I will stop and say okay what do I need to accomplish this day uh so there needs to be a com combination of long range and short range planning now I've done it different ways but I do keep lists and what I will do is have here's my long-term list so especially when I started as general superintendent there were a lot of things that needed to be done immediately um a lot of things that needed to be addressed that had not been addressed for for many years as we grown to a larger organization so I had a legal pad a physical list of whole page of immediate needs and a whole page of long-term needs so over the years I've gradually tackled those immediate needs and pretty much eliminated them and I took those long longterm needs and begin putting them to the short-term list I still do that so I'll have a long-term list of what I think needs to be accomplished in the next year or so but then I'll pull some of those what needs to take place the next month or two so I actually have two lists and then most of my life and Ministry I've had multiple responsibilities so I actually have separate lists personal and family um upci when I was president of UR Graduate School of Theology I had a separate list for that when I was a district superintendent had a separate list I had a list for each of my distinct roles that way I could make sure to pay attention so I could say you know this day or at least this week not just what am I accomplishing but how am I advancing each one of my priorities so I found the best way to do that is keep separate list and that way my short-term list would be the same but I would look at these various resp responsibilities and make sure I'm advancing in each one of those so even the short-term list I would sometimes put what's a priority because I might plan okay here's what I'm going to do tomorrow but that's if everything goes well but probably everything's not going to go well so if I don't get everything on my list what do I have to get on my list so I would even prioritize that daily list and I would say you know when you plan that much sometimes there are going to be interruptions there's going to be unexpected phone call unexpected visit I know when I was a pastor someone wanted to see me and at first you could say well that's that's disruptive my time they should come back at the right time and you do have to know you do have to set boundaries and know when to say no but but we are in the people business so sometimes there is a real need and the most important thing is not to finish your list but to meet that need so I would say you're not just trying to be efficient you're trying to be effective so a a 10-minute conversation in the office might do even though it's not budgeted or scheduled might get more accomplished than pushing it off till next week and doing it by email or something so you have to remember that you're in the people business and you're not merely trying to be efficient you're trying to be effective you're trying to make a change uh but other other things I would say compartmentalizing so focusing on one thing and not letting other things distract you boundaries so this is my job but this is not my job I have 30 minutes for you but I don't have an hour for you we we budget a time at the end of that time I'm going to stand up and that's your cue to stand up and I'm going to Usher out the door uh unless I feel like something really needs to take longer um I use my calendar so I would sit down with my wife we still do this uh but I would we would when we had kids at home we would sit down and say okay let's plan a a date night put it on the calendar let's play in a family night which we did every Monday night was a family night of course we tried to have dinner every night anyway if unless I was out of town but we actually scheduled time with the kids I I would schedule sometimes just me taking the kids or me with one of the kids um and we put all that in the calendar so that when people would ask me can I meet can I counsel I would say let me look at the calendar and I wouldn't have to tell them well I'm I want to date with my wife tonight but I would say no I already have an appointment I can't meet you tonight but I can meet you tomorrow night so you have to learn to set boundaries you have to learn to to for for me using the calendar to do that um you also Bunch like activities and you try to handle only thing things only once so instead of um I don't have notifications on for social media I only go on social media when I want to go on social media um I don't I try of course email and text are so important throughout the day but I try not to be distracted okay one email here do something else another email something else but I try to block out time knock out all the emails I can at one time and then forget about it and if I'm going to have a letter or an email I'm going to try to answer it and some people say you answer so quickly well I I if I'm going to read it I'm going to act because if I read it and don't act well then then if I wait a day I have to come back and read it all over again and I'm wasting time so it'd be better not to read it so even a physical letter A lot of times if I'm going to race through it I'm going to jot notes about what I'm going to say so I don't have to read that letter again I can give that to my assistant or I myself can type up something without having to go back so in other words you're trying not to duplicate you're not try not to handle things more than once set aside the time block out the time deal with it and it's done it's over with and if you're not ready to deal with it well just ignore it until you're ready to deal with it so sometimes I might check the emails to see what's urgent if it's not urgent I won't even really pay much attention to it until I'm ready to pay attention to it so you another thing is delegation you have to you have to decide what is what is the thing that only I can do that I will do that everything else I want to give to other people and even if uh sometimes there things I really like to do okay I'm might do it but I have to really think can somebody else do the job as well as I can or even if not as not to what my standard but 75 or 80% that's good enough you know it doesn't have to be Perfection so yeah I could write all my own letters or all my own Communications but it might make more sense to have the director of communications or the executive assistant to draft something for my approval and then I can tweak it I can put in the personal touch that relates to that individual but but I don't have to write the whole thing I can give the idea and then I can approve the final product so it's a matter of uh learning to delegate that's that's very important U also it's important to have time for relaxation cuz you you know you can't work non-stop now I do work a lot to me a 10-hour day is a very normal day 12-hour day is Not Unusual 6 days a week is normal week but I do try to block off time for rest relaxation for hobbies and not feel guilty about that because actually you're going to be more efficient you should also find out what times are best for you so to me I like to work late at night so if I'm on a roll I can work till midnight one 2 3 and and get up the normal time next morning and not forever but when I'm on a project also mornings are good for me so Mornings in the office are are excellent by afternoon I I'm not creative so it's better to schedule visits with people or other things that don't require intense creative concentrated effort but things interacting with people that keeps me alert and not taking a nap you know uh but sometimes in the evening I take a 15minute power nap and then I'm ready to work that evening so you have to find out what works for you different things work for different people find out when your most productive time is your least productive time and I would also say circling back what I said about planning you have to have times you set aside just to think and it may be like daydreaming but you're not really daydreaming you're you're allowing your mind to go free so if I'm working intensely I may stand up and walk around go get some coffee I may even go you know I have an amateur photography website so I may just take a break and scroll through my photos and edit some that I've never edited yet in in labeled yet just take a a total break when I'm working on an issue or even at night go to sleep and the next morning address the issue uh or I use a airplane for this I don't like to do work on the airplane like to read but even longer trips I find I have more time to think to read to relax and then more creative ideas come and then I start thinking about the big picture what I want want to do next year what have I not accomplished and and so I think you have to have those unstructured times where you can't be saying okay I got 1 hour to plan so I'm going to plan you have to just let your mind go and relax and freely associate and then you'll start being refreshed and creative so anyway those are just a few thoughts that work for me
well I first of all I I would refer back to my book spiritual leadership in the 21st century and that book this chapter on time management I would say see what works for you but I think you should structure your day um especially well whether you're full-time in Ministry or not if you're not full-time you know the you've got to structure time but if you Power full time the one of the dangers is you have so much free time and no accountability you actually become less efficient than when you're working on a sec job so I would say devote quality time find out what works for best for you and block off time so for me like when I was a pastor I could do it more easily now every day is different every week is different I have to F be flexible but I liked my plan I would go in the office Tuesday through Friday Fray 8 to 9: was my personal time so prayer Bible reading study reviewing planning then 9 I'm open for calls visits uh interaction the work of the office and the week and the church till 9 to 5: uh Mondays was my day off I didn't do any work only genuine emergencies I did what I wanted to do now if if I wanted to study for related to scripture fine but it was was what I wanted to do of course Saturdays was flexible but that's a great time to meet with people and evenings meet people call people so most of my evenings were taken up uh except for Monday evening was family night we didn't schedule anything uh and we we actually told the whole church we're not going to schedule anything on Monday night unless it's a recreation for the family that's optional because we want you to be able to plan your week knowing that no matter how busy you are or no matter what Ministry you're volunteering in you're guaranteed you've got this night for your family um but then Saturdays were very busy flexible but busy because I'm finalizing plans for Sunday I'm calling people talking to people maybe meeting people on their day off Sunday of course was always a very full day from early morning till late at night so I I I guess going back to your question is I think you need you can structure your week and structure your day and so going back to me so when the office I would try to usually be there in the morning so a lot of times I would schedule the afternoons for hospital visits or uh meeting with people for counseling where I'm not H I'm not trying to produce a lot of things but just interact um so you you find out what weeks I mean what days and what part of the day works budget your time schedule your time set boundaries but when it comes to people you got to be flexible