I'm privileged to actually love what I do and so a lot of the time, it doesn't even seem like work. The fact that I have no real office other than home or whatever free wi-fi location I find certainly only adds to the blurred lines between work and rest. Add in the times where unscheduled but not unnecessary ministry tasks pop up and you can see why I might be struggling to do better in this area.
Here's what I'm doing to improve in this area:
- Schedule time off and away before anything else. When the year started, Lora and I sat down and scheduled days and blocks of time when I would take time off. Its March - so far so good.
- Have a definite end time. This one I'm still unfortunately not that good at. My goal is to be done by 5:30 and done with the week by Friday. Like I mentioned...this one's still hit or miss.
- Leave. I find it's easier to disconnect and have some down time when I'm physically away from it all. For me that means at least an hour away. And if I leave town, I do best when I leave my phone or computer behind. Cut those strings
- Sleep. Sometimes the best thing you could do for yourself, your family or even your job is to take a nap. So I do. Every Sunday and occasionally other afternoons during the week.
- Don't answer. Most of you immediately think of the phone, but I include emails as well as the door. If I'm trying to take some time off, I don't want anything to drag me back in.
Any other suggestions for actually making a clean break between work and home and time off?
3 comments:
I have two, and they both require a change in mnd-set. I had to do this a few years back when I was working in retail management and 60 hour weeks were my norm. Maybe none of this applies to your situation, but if it does, enjoy!
1) Keep in mind your first two ministries are husband and father, and you signed up for both. In my case, it was choosing work (mostly for the reasons in my next point) over that ministry, but even when it's ministry vs. ministry, I think it applies. I also had to realize that one day my daughter is going to want to get married, and I better give her a better model to follow than I had been up to that point. You know how sometimes people don't value stay at-home moms as much as moms that work outside the home? Well, I think as men we sometimes look at our "outside work" as being more important/fulfilling/whatever than our "inside work".
2) Get over yourself (remember- I'm telling you what I did. I'm not accusing you). I seriously had to get over myself. I had to stop thinking that I have to be available at all hours because I am responsible for what happens and I need to be available to help... It never ends. I had to realize that while things may not go perfectly if I wasn't there or maybe just not exactly the way I wanted, it turns out I could easily overestimate my overall value to the process. It turns out that when I wasn't available, things didn't blow up. The world didn't come to an end. In some cases, others stepped up in a way that they may otherwise not have. At home however, a father's value cannot be overestimated.
Anyway, I'll stop there. This is your blog, not mine!
Asking me for advice on time management is like asking President Bush (and I do love him) for advice on how to deliver a speech....
For me I have been trying the whole leave the laptop at work...even did not bring it to church for a while. However, I have to admit that when I am oncall.....I have been....wearing...the cell phone into Karate class. That's me taking GEEK to where it has not been before.
James
Council, you may have invented a new martial arts weapon of warfare....now what to call it? Throwing Phone? Forget "can you hear me now?" it's "can you FEEL me now?"
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