Does Your Daily Schedule Liberate or Enslave You?

by Philip E. Armstrong

Way out in Timbutktu a missionary confessed to me his greatest frustration: how to tie himself to a time schedule that works when there is no built-in system or supervision of his job. Out of this discussion came a request to share some suggestions at a men’s retreat in the Philippines.

Way out in Timbutktu a missionary confessed to me his greatest frustration: how to tie himself to a time schedule that works when there is no built-in system or supervision of his job. Out of this discussion came a request to share some suggestions at a men’s retreat in the Philippines.

Do you remember the high ideals of what you wanted to accomplish when you came to the mission field? How about the frustrating experience of furlough, feeling you had gotten so little done? After a term you were haunted by "imagined unrealized goals." Let’s try to tame some of your wildest visions and make a few proposals that might bring them to pass.

You don’t find time; you redeem it. This takes both long-range plans and a day by day schedule. Amy Carmichael said, "A day is made up of incidents and interruptions." To allow for these distractions, even to provide for them in case they turn out to be divine appointments, and still know day by day that you are following a planned program is the secret of a restful heart and fruitful work.

You may kick yourself for accomplishing so little, or for being such a dreamer to begin with. Both of these self-accusations might need to be faced spiritually. But having settled that, here may be some practical steps for the missionary who has no one to plan his work for him, has no office but his own home, and no working hours for his job.

FIND GOD’S PURPOSE FOR YOUR PLACE
First, become a student of the purposes of God for the place where He has put you. Faith is the key to setting your sights on long-range planning. Without it you may be torn between rationalization and presumption-between man-made goals and purely personal preferences. Ask God, and expect, such a specific answer to this question that you can write it down, one, two, three: "What does God want me to accomplish before the end of this term?"

Now divide the remaining time you have in your term into six-month segments. Ask yourself what you must do in each of these periods in order to see God’s will for this term accomplished. Then list them:

1. What are the circumstances over which you have no control? (Rainy season, school calendar, annual conference, town fiesta, etc.) Plan around these.

2. What major work must you accomplish in each segment of time? (Tent meetings, camps, retreats, conference, shortterm Bible school.) Pray over the place for each of these in that schedule.

3. Now get a calendar you can write on; work on one month at a time. Keep a list for next month, but fill in completely week by week for this month.

We all have the same amount of time. No more, no less. Your time is yours. You will do it with it what you want. Many a missionary is confused by the volume of decisions he must make about his own work. Before coming to the field other people determined your schedule; now you must. Either you decide, or drift gently down stream. What planning will do is reduce the decisions. to a bare minimum. Your job description is already written out. You have become your own boss instead of feeling unemployed.

I sat in a missionary’s home; he had a sign above his desk, "Planned Negligence." He explained that he knew he couldn’t get everything done, so to avoid feeling guilty there were some things he planned to neglect. If you want to try it get out a pencil.

1. Make a list of all activities. just list them as they come to mind, regardless of order, until everything you do in the course of a month is down.

2. Establish priorities. Determine the sequence, catalogue items, and combine them under personal, family, study, and ministry. What work demands your best? What work depends on other people? What work definitely must be done alone? What work is purely routine?

3. Make a plan to accomplish each activity. On each major assignment, pretend you are a supervisor; ask yourself six questions:

Why? You may eliminate the job altogether.

What? You may simplify.

Who? You may delegate; someone else is available.

Where? You may combine place or sequence.

When? You may postpone or step UP.

How? You may improve or make short-cuts.

4. Schedule time. You set the work schedule," have your wife set the domestic schedule. Then respect her time if you expect her to respect yours. Arrange time in large doses (say, half days) or short spurts (like class hours), depending on your powers of concentration. Be flexible in setting it up, rigid in initiating it. Rush items will come up, so allow for disruption. But remember, some things will go undone. You will feel better if you plan to eliminate them rather than just neglect them.

5. Share your plans with each person involved. Communicate fully. Jesus sent people out in pairs. This provides not only companionship, but training ground for growth of your men. But plan ahead if you want help. Expect more than they are capable of doing. Delegate clearly specific responsibilities, authority, and accountablility, so they will know how to evaluate their own work. Deliberately plan certain functions when you are not available if you want your men to grow. Involve the family. too.- make your children feel they have a part.

6. Establish a control system for checking completion of activities. Use a dated notebook, write-in calendar, or check-off sheet. Don’t have too elaborate a record system; you won’t keep it up. But don’t rob yourself of the satisfaction of knowing when the job is done. Keep to your schedule or else reshuffle it to make it work, but remember, you run the schedule, don’t let it run you.

DAILY SCHEDULE
Now let’s talk about the daily schedule. Don’t tackle something too strenuous; don’t fill in every cranny. Be a realist, but make it so standard that it becomes habit. You won’t have to ask yourself, "Shall I shave first, or have my devotions?" This will make insignificant daily decisions routine. Conflicts of interest such as between family and wOrk, bill be cut to a minimum. It will help you end the day, as well as the month, with a check list of things that are crossed off. You can breathe again; you’ve got courage to tackle another month.

I Here is a sample day. Fill in your own hours: Quiet time, breakfast, daily duties (break), study (keep message preparation separate from personal devotions), planning and creative work, lunch, siesta (break), routine jobs (activities that get you up!), ministry (things that involve the public; visitation, follow-up), supper and children’s hour (plan time, story time, family devotions), meetings or free time.

Mornings are most productive; least interrupted. Get your best licks in then; have lunch as late as possible. Plan routine things that don’t require concentration for right after siesta. Certain jobs you can do when other people are around or when you are "marking time’*’ waiting for a bus. Keep them handy. Some things can be done when you are preoccupied. For example, you can break your wife’s monotony with the children by taking them with you. This will provide for her Quiet Time, or ministry or work that doesn’t allow interruption.

You will have a schedule for meetings out. Schedule nights at home as well. Then get the children to bed. The time you and your wife have together without the children could be the most important part of the day for her. Safeguard it by doing your study during the day; then evenings home can be for relaxation, reading, etc. If you devote yourself to the family when you are home, they are less likely to resent your time away. Here is another suggestion, especially if you are the only foreign couple in town. Develop personal friendship with nonChristian couples that you can enjoy on a social basis. To keep your conversation from stagnating or becoming introverted on yourselves, plan evenings together for fun. They may turn out to be some of your best contacts for the gospel, but learn to enjoy people for their own sake and what they can do for you, -not just what you can do for them.

A day off on the mission field is hard to come by. Where can you go? What can you do that is different? But take a weekly day off, if for no, other reason than to get the backlog of odd jobs and repairs out of your system. This makes one day a week completely different and you won’t putter all six. Do things on that day with your family, not just for them. Have hobbies: do-it-yourself, mechanics, games, reading, yard, flowers;, things you can do together. You can develop your children , s creativity by making them plan the family fun. Do things they enjoy if you want them to take part in your activities.

Time off has another aspect. You are walking a long road; take time spiritually and mentally to clean the mud off your shoes and to take a long look at the road map. In addition to your normal devotional life, plan periodic spiritual refreshment, away from the family and the work. A day in the hills alone with the Lord can restore your faith in the ministry and the men God has given you. Read, pray, sing, write; don’t neglect to put down the lessons learned from the hand of the Lord at times like that. Only time spent with God can separate impulse from guidance. Most of your frustrations, you will find, are not from overwork but from uncertainty.

The Apostle Paul put it, "Walk wisely, redeeming the time, understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:15-17).

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