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Unusual Time Saving Tips (1 of 5)
Most pastors could easily fill dozens of extra hours a week with productive ministry—if they simply had more time. This week I’ll share a few of my slightly weird time saving tips.
I’ll Meet You in Your Office
When you need to do a quick face to face meeting with another staff member, tell them you’ll swing by their office. When you’ve covered everything important, you can politely leave—the meeting is over.
If someone is in your office, the person may not know when the meeting is over. A quick, few-minute meeting can linger and bleed over into longer and less important conversations. When you’re in someone else’s office, you can politely exit much easier than you can ask someone to leave your office.
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I totally agree! If you are in an open office enviroment, you can simply roll your chair over to, or walk to their desk… either way you can cover a lot of important ground in a brief period of time.
This is very true. I read this in a book a few years back and started making it a regular practice. It’s amazing how much time you can save with this little tip. When you leave THEIR place, it’s not rude at all but trying to get them to leave YOUR place can feel quite rude to certain people! Good Tip.
i like this one a lot and for another reason. As a staff member, whenever the Senior Pastor came to my office it showed how much he valued me, coming to me, and my space and checking in on me. It showed me that my pastor didnt’ believe the world revolved around him.
Mostly it showed that he cared.
This comment is in reference to your salvation blogs last week. They inspired me to give a salvation call this week. I appreciate this blog very much and I find that it keeps me pressing forward which I am very hungry to do.
What suggestions do you make for the “office-less” staff - perhaps those that meet in schools or other ‘mobile’ settings. Maybe ‘Starbucks’ is their office…
What a great tip… I’ve never thought of it that way…
Great idea Craig.
Hey, I like it. And the comments you guys offered, too. Especially the one about dealing with migrant giraffes (made you look).
Reminds me of a small group tidbit: If you’ve got a talker on your hands, sit next to them so you don’t make eye contact… eye contact (unless you’re glaring) like a signal to them that you approve and want them to pour it on.
Can’t wait for tomorrow!
Chilly asked a good question. Maybe others have wisdom for an “office-less” team.
Matt, Congrats on inviting people to know and follow Christ!
Riddle, Great point! I remember feeling the same way when my pastor would come to my office years ago. Thanks.
Chilly, that’s a whole new dynamic but we have experimented actually with meeting outside our office to help keep focused. I think the practice of mixing things up and changing locals helps to keep you focused and not get in a rut. I have seen this with men’s groups in the past. We meet at one location and end up spending most of our time making small talk because it’s just a routine.
This is a challenging one… to put a different spin on it, we want to ensure we are spending time with team members promoting interdependency and communication, however the problem today is people save time by using technology e.g. email and therefore sacrifice face to face interaction, thus becoming quite isolated from others/team…so I like what Craig does, you are still promoting interaction and not placing excess emphasis on saving time at the expense of relationships. Olie
So…I go to my worship/youth pastor’s office. What does it mean if he drops his head and begins to look at his computer?
Great advice Craig! Thanks. I never realized this was a good dynamic to have.
Good stuff Craig! Great to meet you in Seattle at Kevin’s.
Craig (little Craig hehe) We just got the crash set DVD’s for the willow conference as we are one of the host sites in South Africa…Watched your session first…nice bit of dancing…You wil never know how much you have inspired my life in the ast year! Thanx sooo much! When are u visiting South Africa dude?
That’s a very good idea. I actually kind of do that at work in the IT department I am in. A lot of times instead of telling someone they can pick up a report, I sometimes just drop it off at their office. That way, it prevents them from lingering in my area. I have also met them at the door to my area and then clickly close the door when I give them something work related.
Another tip is when you get a voice mail on your phone for them to call you back, just reply back in email. That saves time as well.
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