479: One Percent

Greetings from the Maasai Mara in Kenya.  My wife and I have been cruising around the Mara seeing game and relaxing for two days.  When you read this, we will be back in Nairobi for another week. Monday is a busy day for us as we visit some of the people who have impacted by your giving this year.  In fact, you can read about THE BIG GOAL I have set for December below.  I hope you can help us achieve it.

As we wrap up the Purpose Challenge that began last August, I want to write another Memo or two about time management, something in which most people who took the Assessment on my website had a low score. 

As you look to apply the disciplines discussed since August, I want to ask that you make a commitment every day from this day forward.  I want you to spend 15 minutes a day every day in doing some kind of planning for that day or the week.  I promise if you spend one percent of your day (those 15 minutes), then you can be sure that the other 99% will be more productive than you ever imagined possible.

When you spend the 15 minutes, there are a few other recommendations I would make.

A SYSTEM

Without some kind of time management system for assistance, you will find it difficult to keep straight all that you decide to do in your head. I use Franklin Covey, and I don’t really care what you use, but use something.  A yellow tablet is not a system, and neither is a spiral notebook or a bunch of small sticky papers.  You need a system you can add to and take away from and that can be adapted to your world and needs, and that has room for notes, schedules and any other recorded info you need to take care of. (I will accept an electronic system if you spend a lot of time at your computer and have something to use like a PDA when you are away from your computer).

You must then carry your system with you at all times and agree to eliminate all “floating” pieces of paper you are always misplacing. I am in the habit of writing everything down and I never have to fret or spend time looking for where it is.  And when I sit down top plan, I keep three things in mind.

THREE THINGS        

First, I am proactive.  I plan things every day that I want and choose to do, not that I must do or that are scheduled by others’ priorities.  That is how I have written my books and finished my verse-by-verse New Testament studies.  I wrote them on my list to do every day for the last nine years. 

Second, I am holistic.  I don’t just use my planner for business or ministry.  I use it for everything I do in life.  I use it for family, ministry, work and personal projects.  I am one person and have one day or week to invest, so I put everything into my system so I can judge all the activities by their comparative merits to everything I must do.  Then finally, I am realistic.  If I am busy with things for any day, I don’t try to plan too much, but I still use my planner to make plans for some down time I may encounter. The beauty of a system is once you write it down and don’t get to it, it’s in your system and you can reprioritize or schedule for another day.

If you have a system, are you utilizing it to the max?  iI you don’t, isn’t it time you did.  As you progress in this Purpose Challenge I urge you to apply this advice immediately.  Your time is the most valuable resource you have and if you use it properly, it will yield vast amounts of productive peace and harmony.  Ignore my advice, and you will talk about what you want to know but seldom find a way to do it. Start investing your 1% every day and see if it doesn’t add up to a bonus on the other 99%. More on time management next week.

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THE BIG GOAL:  Last week I announced what I am calling The Big Goal to raise $10,000 this month for widows and orphans in Kenya.  I encourage you to read the rationale here and then what you can today to help make THE BIG GOAL a reality.  No gift is too small but some large ones would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

[Paul Korir]

Dear John,
Thank you so much for being such a brilliant example of what the power of Christ can do in us. I truly admire you for your clarity of mind and self-organisation. I am also grateful for the wonderful work that you're carrying out in my country of birth, Kenya. I look forward to contributing to it in the near future.
My purpose of writing to you is to comment on today's topic. While I agree that planning by committing 1% of the day to planning, I think it is prone to disturbance if done daily - it is more likely that something will scuttle the daily routine. What I've found to be much more effective is to commit two-hours per week, at the least, which comes just over 1%, to planning for that week. I sit down and put my whole week's schedule into Google Calendar (GC). GC has some very good features for those who use Google products: the ability to send reminders, not just by email, but also by SMS. I think that very few people are aware of these features. During the week, I make a list of all the pending things that arise and plan them into my diary so that at any one moment in time I am only thinking of what I should be doing. It gives me great peace when I know that every activity has been budgeted for and I can suspend thought on it until it's proper time arrives (Eccl.3:1).
Once again, I deeply appreciate your shining example. May God continue to richly bless you.
Your friend in Christ,
P. Korir

[Eunice Ochieng]

Dear John
Thanks alot for equiping Gods children spiritually and even socially.I am quite impressed with the topic on planning.this is my major undoing and i end up spending the day just moving in circles and achieving very little.i am really concerned about this coz it makes me restles and worried.Please send me a software or a computerised organizer that can help me achieve this.May the Lord bless you mightily for what you are doing in Kenya
Eunice