Youth Group Leadership: The feeling of having so much more to do than you ever can find time for can be quite overwhelming. But have you ever considered that you may be your biggest enemy?
The feeling of having so much more to do than you ever can find time for can be quite overwhelming. But have you ever considered that you may be your biggest enemy? Are you by any chance the primary cause for your stress and the length of your to do list? Here’s 5 reasons why that may be the case.
1. You say yes to everything
If you constantly find yourself saying yes to whatever people ask you to do, it’s no wonder your to do list keeps growing. It may seem like a Christian and loving thing to always want to serve others, but it’s not when it comes at the price of not being able to finish your own work. When people ask you to so something, always take the time to consider if you should say yes. Don’t respond emotionally, think it through first and then respond.
2. You email way too much
Email may seem like a fast way of doing business, but that’s not always the case. The amount of email you receive is directly related to the amount of emails you send yourself. Before sending out an email, do a quick check if a phone call or a personal meeting wouldn’t be more efficient in the long run. Especially when you have to discuss details, email isn’t all that fast because you’ll keep shooting emails back and forth. Also, unsubscribe from any newsletter you don’t have time to read anyway…
3. You keep getting interrupted
One of the best ways to get a lot of work done is to work without interruptions. If you allow yourself to get interrupted constantly, you won’t get much work done. Turn off all notifications (email, social media), let your phone go to voice mail and close your door. Force yourself to work uninterrupted for at least an hour and then be amazed at how much you’ve gotten done!
4. You’re addicted to social media
Social media like Facebook and Twitter are great, but they can also take up more of your time than you ever thought possible. Unless you’re directly working on your youth ministry’s Facebook page or something, social media are not your first priority so turn them off while you work. Allow yourself to check them for instance half an hour at the start of each day and then 15 minutes before you go home. Keep them ‘offline’ for the rest of the day. It’ll save you tons of time.
5. You keep a faulty to do list
Not everyone is the organized type, but if you want to keep track of what you need to do in your youth ministry you’re going to need some sort of to do list. I know many people who have a to do list, write down important things in their diary or calendar, stick post-its to their monitor with crucial things and still manage to forget to do stuff. To be productive and efficient, you need one central to do list with everything on it. You need to be able to trust your to do list in the sense that everything you need to do is actually on it. If not, redesign your to do list till it works.
