Yesterday was a day off from work for me so I eagerly registered for and tuned in to watch The Nines, a free live webcast on Christian leadership with dozens of exceptional speakers. I stumbled across it last year and was blown away by the content from some of the greatest pastors and creative leaders from a very wide diversity of church types. The talks run about five minutes each, back to back, from early in the morning till early evening and cover topics like vision, time management, physical health and cultivating your staff.
Now since I am not on staff at a church you might wonder why I’d be so interested in something like this. My belief is that everyone is a leader of some sort, even if it’s only in their home, and everyone, even non-Christians, can benefit from these principals and pieces of advice. I also believe that if you are a Christian, you ought to be leading by serving in a local church somehow. Note that I said leading by serving, which does NOT mean you have to be head of a committee or department to be a leader. Greeters and ushers are leaders. Volunteers in nursery and Sunday school are leaders. Every follower of Jesus is called to serve.
One of my favorite speakers of the day was Jon Acuff. No surprise there, since I’ve gushed about his blog and books here before. The guy is hilarious and gets his point across well.
Jon started with a super funny story about his fear of spiders and related it to the fear many leaders have about time management. Leaders really do fear wasting time and not having enough time. I can relate to that, can you? Do you ever feel like you need to pack each and every moment with maximum productivity?
Well Jon’s first advice was to make sure you are matching up your activities with your energy level. That makes sense, right? So why do I wait till the end of the evening when dinner is cleaned up, the kids are in bed, the laundry is folded, and the lunches are packed to sit down and try to write a great blog post?
Jon says writing creatively is about a level 8 activity, so he usually writes when he feels his energy level is high, such as on the plane to an event. Now answering email is only a level 2 activity, so he usually does that on the plane home when he is drained. I actually tend to do the opposite of that because I’m extremely extroverted and events usually energize me and fill me with tons of new ideas and content to share. I have been amazed sometimes and how the words pour out of me on the plane ride home.
Also I know I put out better content when I sit down to write early in the morning. It’s just easier, so I need to carve out time for that early instead of waiting till I’m zonked. Even if that means getting up earlier and saving certain brainless tasks till my energy starts to wane.
One hour of work before noon is worth two hours of work after lunch.
When do you find your energy level is high and the productivity just rocks?
