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 and planning in layers
- The question posed (in the host's frame): given everything he has accomplished, what time-management and task-management advice would he give someone who wants to be more effective in ministry?
- His brief answer points to his book's chapter on time management; the principles begin with a daily and weekly schedule — everybody has the same amount of time, and many people spend two, four, six, eight hours a day on passive screen time, while he limits entertainment screen time and spends the hours on things that benefit him, such as reading and studying.
- Plan in layers: long-term planning (what to accomplish in the next year, with a separate list for each role — his own four lists at one time were the personal list, the pastor's tasks, the tasks as president of ursula graduate school of theology, and the tasks as district superintendent of the south texas district), intermediate goals for the month, and a daily list reviewed at the day's beginning or the evening before — asking of each long-term goal what to do this week to make meaningful progress, so no area of responsibility is neglected.
The calendar guards the priorities
- Use the calendar: make appointments from the goals — but not seven days a week, 24 hours a day: take one day off every week, with family time and personal time; if married, take dates with your spouse regularly; take an annual family vacation (or at least a weekend, for preachers) and holiday and family times.
- A vacation need not be far or expensive: sometimes they did it locally or a short distance away, exploring interesting areas nearby — people travel across the world to vacation spots within an hour of their own homes, and we often neglect our own backyard because we think we know it.
- Sit down with his wife and plan the major events for the year — family vacation, holidays, shorter getaways — and on a monthly and weekly basis a date night, dinner together as family night every night, and monday as his day off with monday-night family recreation and devotions — and put all of it in the calendar, so that when people ask for your time you can honestly say you already have an appointment; if priorities are not in the calendar they will be overridden by what is urgent to other people, and the urgent will crowd out the important.
Working rhythms
- For a major project, make progress a little at a time: block off two or three hours a day or a week, and find your best time to work — for him late at night, when calls are over and the kids are in bed; for others, early in the morning; learn when you are most creative and most productive.
- His pastor's rhythm: monday off; tuesday through friday in the office at 8 00 am, with the door closed from 8 to 9 for prayer, study, reading the bible, planning, and uninterrupted priorities; calls and appointments from nine; he usually worked through lunch unless the lunch itself was intentional ministry; after lunch, his least productive and creative time, he scheduled appointments with people, which kept him alert without demanding difficult study.
- Bunch similar work together — an afternoon of hospital visits hitting five places at once; emails and letters all at once — and handle each item one time: answer it immediately or make notes, instead of reading the same email again hours later and doubling the time. Cell phones need the same discipline: no constant notifications, no checking email every five minutes, and no felt compulsion to answer a convoluted text on the sender's schedule — his own replies are famously short ('yes good thanks fine').
Boundaries — and when to break them
- Summarize it as boundaries: you have to learn to say no; you cannot say yes to everything; decide what fits your priorities. In ministry you are a servant, but you still have to be effective.
- Yet sometimes you have to let people blow up your schedule: plan the day with more on the list than can be done and let some roll over, but when there is a true emergency, a crisis, or an opportunity where someone's seeking help could be a life-changing event for that person, trash the schedule — that person is more important.
- The balance in one line: with your work you try to be efficient, but with people you try to be effective — a 30-minute conversation that saves someone hours of heartache or decision-making is effective ministry even though it messes up the schedule for that day; so set boundaries, plan, schedule, use the calendar wisely — and have the wisdom to know when god is moving, or someone is in need, or there is an opportunity for ministry.
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- The captured text breaks off inside the closing summary at 'be willing to throw the whole schedule —'; no outro stands in the delivered file. The record is built as captured; the re-capture question rides with this batch's routing.
Transcript
i can give you a brief answer but if you want a little bit more my book spiritual leadership in the 21st century has a chapter on time management so let's talk about several important principles the first thing is having a daily and weekly schedule everybody has the same amount of time it's how you use that time and i i mentioned when we were talking about reading that many people spend two four six eight hours a day on screen time so whether it's tv movies uh social media um you know and so forth uh now i do use the computer for work and i use it for on checking news and so forth but i don't spend a lot of entertainment time on those passive activities i like to do things that will benefit me such as reading studying so i think it's important to have a daily schedule and block out time for the things that are most important and and i i look at planning is very important so i have long-term planning and short-term planning so i'll sit down and think about what do i need to accomplish and and this towards the end of the year is a good time what do i need to accomplish in the next year so i may list the various things and when i have different roles which i usually have i'll have a separate list so there was a time when i was a pastor i had four main lists my personal list that is my personal life the things i need to do around the home my family marriage personal accomplishments studies school but then i had a list for all the tasks i need to accomplish as pastor all the tasks another list for those that i need to accomplish as president of ursula graduate school of theology and then a fourth list for those things i needed to accomplish as the district superintendent of the south texas district so i made those long-term lists this is what i need to get done in the next year and then usually i'd prioritize maybe just put an asterisk by this is what i need to get done say in the next month so actually i would say maybe i have long term planning intermediate planning and then every day usually at the beginning of the day or maybe in the evening preparing for the next day i would do a daily list so reviewing all those things what do i need to do today and so maybe i would pick a few of those or if they're long-term goals that have many components well i've got on this list that within a year i need to do such and such what should i do this week to make meaningful progress so i'd look at each list that related to my different areas of responsibility so that i wouldn't just be focused on one and neglect the other so that's a system you can do it all kind of ways but essentially long-term planning the goals for a year or more intermediate goals the goals for this month and then the daily goals what i need to accomplish each day so you know where you are a little time spent in planning i think goes a long way in helping you accomplish so you know what you're focused on that's one thing another thing is i use my calendar so based on the goals i make appointments and of course other people want appointments with me but in the midst of that i don't i'm not saying we work seven days a week 24 hours a day 365 days a year no i think we need to take one day off every week i think we need to have family time we need personal time uh if you're married you take dates with your spouse regularly i believe startling an annual family vacation or over at least a weekend in the case of preachers um i believe strongly in holiday times and family times like a day at a time or several days at a time
right sometimes if you can get away yeah sometimes we've done locally or even a short distance away where we get away from where people know where we are and we're not having to do the daily chores of the house but we're not not very far away actually um so we would explore interesting areas nearby and what's interesting a lot of times people will go across the world or across the country some vacation spot and within an hour of them is people are coming from all over the world to that vacation spot we often neglect our own backyard our own city or state because we think we know it and we really haven't experienced it but anyway so the point here is use your calendar so what i would do is sit down with my wife and we would plan the major events for the year personally family vacation holidays short shorter getaways if i'm going on a missions trip i might add a day or two just to do some sightseeing or recreation there locally and then on a monthly or weekly basis it's a date night and generally we unless i was out of town it was understood we would have dinner together that was our family night every night and then monday was my day off as a pastor and monday night was family night we would do some kind of recreation we would do family devotions but i would the key point here is i would put all those in the counter so if i'm taking my boys or my kids to play racquetball on saturday that's in the calendar if we're going on a day trip to a park that's in the calendar so that way when people ask for your time you say well let me check my calendar and you say well i'm i'm sorry i already have an appointment you don't have to say it's with your wife or your kid because those are priorities and if you don't put them in the calendar they will get overridden by things that are urgent to other people but not necessarily your top priorities if you're not careful you'll find out what's urgent will crowd out what's supposed to be important to you so you have to have tools where you guard what's most important now there are a lot of other points of time management but if you have a major project you try to make progress a little bit of the time so block off two or three hours a day or a week or whatever you can find out what's your best time to work for me it's late at night as a pastor you know after a certain time it's too late to make calls everybody my kids are all going to bed so i've got an uninterrupted time and i could stay up late for other people it's early in the morning but you have to find works what works for you also find out when you're most creative and most productive so for me i would like i like to go in the office and especially of course as general superintendent i still do this some but my schedule is so different every week and even every day but let's just say as a pastor i took monday off tuesday through friday i went in the office at 8 00 am but from 8 to 9 the door was closed it's my time to pray study read the bible plan for the day or take care of anything that i felt was priority that i needed uninterrupted time then starting at nine i would take calls i would have appointments i would do the various things of the day now i found out and i usually like to work through lunch or if i went out to lunch it was because i was going with somebody it was intentional it was it was counseling or encouragement otherwise i didn't want to waste a lot of time eat a lot of food and so i would just work but what i found is after lunch was my least productive time least creative so i would schedule appointments with people that would keep me alert but i wouldn't have to study and focus on some difficult subjects so that i learned you so you learn so early in the morning is my most productive and then for me late at night this is most productive but you fill your day and then if you have depending on your job or career or ministry so in my case i've got to do hospital visits and various other things i would try to bunch them all together so i'd take the afternoon and hit five places at once so i'm being more efficient with with my use of time likewise with emails letters things like that bunch them together do them all at once and try to handle everything one time so if you look at email or look at a letter then try to answer it immediately or at least make notes so you don't have to think about it again but if you if you all day long you're reading email and then not answering it then three hours later you got to read the same email again think well you're doubling your time you're wasting your time and i i find that cell phones can be a great convenience but they need to be for your benefit so if you're constantly getting notifications all day long every five minutes you're checking your email well it's a very inefficient use of your time so block your time and in my case i usually don't get notifications and if i do i ignore them until i'm ready to deal with them uh so you have to and people of course today love to text but because that's most convenient for them but it might be very inconvenient for me so i have to learn to discipline myself if it's a simple thing of yes no or tomorrow fine but if it's going to require convoluted answer i don't feel compelled to follow that person's time schedule or that person's method so i'm probably notorious even for emails and texts to say yes good thanks fine because i don't have time for extended chat you know if i'm going to do everything else i need to do then i'm going to be i'm going to use it from what i want to use it for not what everybody else wants okay so that gives you a few insights as to time management you're really setting some boundaries on your time making sure that like you said it's used for your your benefit what you have in mind was there anything else you wanted to add to that i think that covers it i would summarize by saying you have to set boundaries and that means learning to say no you can't say yes to everything you have to decide what fits your priorities now you know if you're in ministry you're a servant but still you have to be effective right and i would say this when it comes to people sometimes you have to let them blow up your schedule and if there's a real need or crisis or an opportunity so i'm very as you can tell probably i'm structured organized so i have my day planned out and i have more things on the list that i can really accomplish because i have my mind just in case you know i'm going to have two or three things but i realize some of them are probably get rolled over to the next day that's okay but there may be an emergency a true emergency a crisis or an opportunity where somebody's seeking my help and i realize this could be a life-changing event for that person so i've gotta i've gotta trash my schedule because that person is more important so while you have to set boundaries let me say this with your work you try to be efficient but with people you try to be effective and so if that 30-minute conversation that person can save hours of heartache or decision-making well that's even though it messes up my schedule for that day it's an effective way to minister to the human need so i have to balance that desire for efficiency with ministry with service so so i i would say from a time management perspective that you have to set boundaries you have to learn when to say no you have to plan you have to schedule use your calendar wisely have a daily schedule and all these things will help you to get control of your time but then also have the wisdom to know when god is moving upon you or someone's in need or there's an opportunity for ministry be willing to throw the whole schedule