You might acknowledge your struggle to stay organized, but has it reached a point of being detrimental in your life? Ignoring reality won’t help you. You only have so much time
Organization is a spiritual issue.
I used to disagree with that statement. I always pigeon-holed productivity tips as leadership tips, but I was unaware of how serious my lack of organization was hindering my life, family, and ministry.
- We are told to redeem the time (Eph. 5:16).
- Since we are redeemed, we are to be zealous for good works (Titus 2:14).
- We are even told to learn from the unwavering focus of ants (Prov. 6:6-8).
Your organization matters.
For every moment wasted in trying to find something you should have access to is a moment you can no longer invest in a worthwhile pursuit.
Even if you aren’t wired to be naturally organized, you can discipline yourself to be productive. There are too many good works with which to spend your life. Don’t waste a significant portion working through issues that should have already been settled.
Starter Steps
How do you start getting organized? Here are some considerations.
- Simplify your life into major categories. While you might have great responsibility, I would recommend you narrowing down your life into some major categories (mine currently are personal, family, church, ministry, organizations). Within those groups, you can have subdivisions, but you need to have some type of way to align your life into categories.
- Commit to a calendar system that works for you. Whether it is digital or paper, select a system to keep up with your calendar. Live and die by it. Put everything in there. Include reminders as often as you can. Use your categories for different colors on your calendar.
- Ensure you have a simple task inbox system. You need an easy place to dump and organize all your tasks throughout the day. Whether it is an app like Todoist or a sheet of paper that you keep close, have a way to keep track of your obvious tasks as well as your sudden reminders.
- Organize your information to be accessible. Be careful of storing all your content on a hard drive that could crash. Make sure you have a way to keep up with all the information you create, because you probably can use it again later. You need to make sure the content is easily accessible.
- Tweak your system relentlessly. Use your categories across those three systems. Make your language and organization the same through all three major tools (calendar, task, information). As you continue to use it, make sure you tweak as you go. Keep making it better!
Why should you be more organized?
The more you can keep your life in order, the more good you can do for others.
Let’s get to work.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
