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According to Gordon MacDonald the second sector of our inner world that needs ordering is our use of time. Few things are more necessary for an effective life, and few things reveal more clearly the state of our inner being.
Time can be controlled. We can decide how we want to spend an hour or a day. Furthermore, we can decide how we want to apportion our time among competing demands, and we can plan its use into the future. This is what MacDonald calls "time budgeting", or "seizing control of time". It's a discipline he believes is essential to a worthwhile life.
Four things commonly happen, he claims, to time that is not "seized". First, it tends to flow toward our weaknesses. We end up spending far longer than we should working at things we don't do well. "I know many Christian leaders," MacDonald writes, "who will candidly admit that they spend up to 80 percent of their time doing things at which they are second best." That's because "unseized time will flow in the direction of one's relative weaknesses" (p. 75).
Second, the strong people in our lives will control time that is not seized. If we don't plan our time and guard it well, others will plan it for us.
Third, unseized time surrenders to the demands of emergencies. Those with responsibility for leadership within the home, the church or workplace will find themselves "continually surrounded by events that cry out for immediate attention" (p. 76). Unless they have a firm grip on how they use time, they will find themselves falling prey to the tyranny of the urgent.
Finally, unseized time gets invested in things that gain public acclamation. "In other words," MacDonald explains, "we are more likely to give our unbudgeted time to events that will bring the most immediate and greatest praise [or recognition]" (p. 78).
How, then, are we to seize control of our time? Gordon MacDonald offers these three suggestions. First, we need to learn our rhythms for maximum effectiveness. We have to learn when in a day, a week, or a year, we function best when it comes to performing our various responsibilities. Knowing this will help us budget time effectively.
Second, to use time well we need good criteria for making decisions about how to spend it. A clear sense of mission helps in this regard. It helps us determine our priorities and enables us to say a clear "NO" to distractions. Jesus provides us the supreme example in this respect. He knew what he was supposed to do and wouldn't allow himself to be deflected from it.
Then thirdly, to use time well, MacDonald says, you have to learn to budget it well in advance. Essential activities need to be fixed in your diary early, so that non-essentials can be allowed to flow around them. If we fail to do this, "the important functions that will make the supreme difference in our effectiveness miss getting into the calendar until it is too late" (p. 85).
These are all sound, commonsense principles of time management that have been used for decades, if not generations. Christians should know them and be prepared to learn from them. But they shouldn't stop at this point. If they are to be truly Christ-centred in their approach to life they also need to ask what the gospel has to say about using time. We shall consider this next week.