Do you budget minutes and hours with the same care you budget dollars? (126-5)

Effective leaders know the value of time management. Read Psalm 39:4-5.

David accomplished a great deal during his lifetime. He was a powerful king, an accomplished military leader, he wrote psalms and songs, he was an accomplished musician, and the list goes on and on. Our verses today tell us that part of the reason David was able to accomplish so much is that he understood life’s brevity and that he understood he must use his time wisely. If you have been in leadership long, you know that is easier said than done.

Peter Drucker in his book The Effective Executive suggests three activities that might help busy leaders dealing with time:

• “Effective executives…do not start with their task. They start with their time…They start by finding where their time actually goes. Then they attempt to manage their time and to cut back unproductive demands on their time. Finally they consolidate their ‘discretionary’ time into the largest possible continued time units.”
• Drucker suggests leaders ask themselves three questions: “What would happen if this were not done at all? Which of the activities on my time log could be done by someone else just as well, if not better? What do I do that wastes your time without contributing to your effectiveness?”
• Drucker closes this chapter with this thought: “Know thyself, know thy time.”

A good leader knows time is more valuable than money. If a leader does not know where their time goes that is a danger signal that you are wasting time. Often it is not the large chunks of time that kills a leader’s day but the small chunks. Effective leaders budget minutes and hours with the same care they budget dollars. If leaders will budget their minutes and hours, “numbering their days” will come naturally.

Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”