At my recent ministry director conference we discussed a variety of college ministry issues: effectiveness in evangelism, discipleship, leading a team, and more. (this is a picture of me and two of our regional directors at the retreat).
A common theme emerged for all of these issues in terms of what keeps us from becoming more effective: TIME.
This may not come as a surprise to you since everyone could use more time.
I did want to share some links that I have found that relate to time management; if you have some links to productivity/life hack stuff please share the links in the comments.
If we all saved even 10 minutes a week imagine the time we would save every year that could be invested into significant areas of college ministry such as evangelism, discipleship, and leadership.
Books:
- Upgrade Your Life--Gina Trapani: I bought this book a year ago and leave it near my bed to read whenever I have three to five minutes--excellent tips on being more effective around the computer, and integrating different online tools to make your work-flow much smoother.
- Small is the New Big--Seth Godin: More philosophical than tactical, but excellent for thinking about how to major on the majors and not the minors. Also short chapters that are easy to digest.
Productivity Tips:
- Inbox Zero--Michael Hyatt: Perhaps the most passed around link when it comes to email, but for a good reason. After reading this and putting it into practice for just two weeks I was committed. I would estimate that this process saves me up to 20 minutes a week.
- Visual Mapping Tools (free & paid)--courtesy of Sacha Chua's blog: we are all seeking to make our meetings and planning times more effective; this is a great outline of what's available.
- Using Google Wave for Task Management--courtesy of Chris Brogan: Google wave is still a new tool but this might get you to try it.
