As a leader and pastor, one of my greatest struggles to is balancing time between work and family. Everyday this is under attack as the demands of the urgent things in my life try to eclipse the important. In order to ensure that I am staying balanced, below I have listed 7 disciplines I maintain regularly.
Ways I Am Maintaining Balance
# 1 – I only have meetings during set blocks of time (Monday 1-5, Tuesday 9-12, Wednesday 9-1, Thursday 1-5). This allows me to have other blocks of time so that I can actually do my work during work hours instead of having to take it home.
# 2 – I rise early, but stay at home to be with and help out more in the mornings. I used to get up early and leave the house. Now I stay at home until the others are awake so I can see them and help prepare for the day. This gives us family time and helps Molly (especially while she is still working).
# 3 – I am only out one night a week, but never to exceed two, for ministry. I have an accountability partner who holds me to these weekly and checks up on me monthly. I also make sure that my nights out are never consecutive. How this plays out:
- Saturday Nights: I am nearly always at our Saturday night service (due to service hosting and programing help responsibilities).
- Monday night at church: I counsel on Monday night, do life coaching and attend our Celebrate Recovery ministry on Mondays. I maximize this one night out by packing it with the urgent and most important cases.
- Most weeks I am only out on Monday or Saturday. I will need to be at the church for another ministry visit only 1-2 times a month.
# 4 – I don’t answer or return phone calls, emails or text messages after 6 PM when at home. I have even stated this on my voicemail recording. This is a firm rule for me and I try my best to abide by it. Sometimes (but rarely) I will stay up and do emails late at night after the family is in bed, or I will stay at work if the kids and Molly are away, only with Molly’s permission.
# 5 – Saturday morning is my most valuable family time and I am protecting it with my life. This is essentially the only real “sabbath” time that I have in my week, so I do whatever I can to ensure that I am not committed to anything during this time. We wake up as a family, go on a family outing and Molly and I do our “Sit, Sip and Sync” that morning to ensure we are on the same page for the next week.
#6 – I do a weekly review every week. Nearly without fail, I take time Sunday afternoon or Monday morning and review what happened the week prior – what was accomplished, what wasn’t, what new projects emerged, how was the balance, etc. – and then plan out the next week. I try to also intentionally plan a future date night with Molly during this review.
# 7 – I cap my work at church at 55 hours. Right now I am working about 50-55 hours consistently. When my time is up, I stop and know that it will all be there for me next week.
