posted by Joel Southerland

When a special day, project, meeting or event looms on the horizon it can create great amounts of stress for the pastor. The planning, promoting, and organizing can add to the workload of an already frazzled minister (not sure if “frazzled” is a word but you know it when you’re in it).

One of the solutions I have found is to choose project managers for these types of events. When I have a special event or project, I use a lay volunteer to be the Project Manager and Coordinator. The PMC meets with me to get my vision of the project, and they begin the task of putting it all together. You may think this risky, but I’ve found that they often go far beyond my expectations.

Whey they have a question, it can usually be handled through a quick phone call, meeting, text or email. A week or two before the event - or “due date,” if it’s a project - we have our final meeting to go over everything in detail.

It works seamlessly. Our goal is to have a project manager for every event we do. And, we want to keep the PMC from year to year. That way, they can be thinking about their one event (instead of my 65) all year long.

Pastor, whatever your next big day is, look for a volunteer to be the PMC and follow this plan:

• Choose a volunteer that has the capabilities to handle the project. If you are unsure, take a gamble on someone about whom you feel relatively confident.

• Have an initial meeting with them to go over all of the details - date, budget, etc.

• In this initial meeting, paint a picture of what you would like the event to look like, what you would like to accomplish with the event, and explain why the event is important.
• Give them the first task to do and set a regular schedule of “check-backs” where the PMC will contact you and give you an update.

• Work with the PMC through the regular updates to continue to iron out the details.

• One or two weeks before the event hold a meeting to go over final details.

• During the event, if possible, give the PMC credit for all of their hard work.

• After the event, hold a meeting to go over what went right and what needs to be corrected before the next event (if it is reoccurring). Encourage the PMC to work on ideas to improve the event throughout the year.

If you’ll do all of that, you’ll get to keep your clean desk!

posted by Joel Southerland

We are putting the “cleaning your desk” post to the test – with a Student Minister! (Could there be a bigger challenge?) There have been stacks of paper on the desk of Ray Cochran, Liberty’s Student Minister, since the day it was brought in. I had never seen it cleaned off. So, I decided to make him follow the plan (with a little help from my Taser) and submit pictures of the results.

Are you enjoying this kind of desktop makeover?

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Download mp3 or press the play button above to stream audio.

In this episode of The Sermonators, we discuss 3 key ideas for maximizing a personal assistant to streamline your workload and gain time in your week. Unless you already have these three ideas fully implemented, you could gain as many as five hours or more in your week.

Hey, bi-vocs… we also discuss how to find and use a volunteer assistant this week if you don’t have one yet.

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posted by Joel Southerland In my last post, I covered how in 60-seconds you can take a huge leap in productivity and organization just by cleaning off your desk. Hopefully getting reacquainted with the surface of your desk has already been rewarding. A clean workspace lends itself to clear thinking — which is necessary for real productivity. But, now… The Box. What do you do with that? Set yourself up on a daily schedule to go through the box. Spend 30 minutes a day (more or less depending on how much time you have) taking the pieces of paper in order from the top to bottom. Use an egg timer if you need to so you don’t get carried away. Don’t “presort” the box; just take it from the top down. And, here we go… Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Joel Southerland

Ok, this isn’t going to sound flashy. It is not going to make for great conversation at the ministerial luncheon this Wednesday. It is not going to get you invited to speak on the platform at the next denominational meeting.

But, here is what it will do:

• It will take stress out of your life and off your mind
• It will give you a feeling of accomplishment
• It will be a first step to organizing your life and being more productive
• It will give you space to work unhindered

What am I talking about? Read the rest of this entry »