Since becoming a Parish Pastor some 20 years ago, I've always had some ritual for planning my work week. Since I'm an old fashioned guy in so many ways, I write everything down. Thrivent has been providing a yearly planner for a long, long time and I've usually worked with it. And it was free! (Thrivent has discontinued the planner so now I'm going to have to spend some money for the 2018 version from CPH).
Since I like to have the whole week in front of me and see it at a glance, I devised a weekly spread sheet. It has columns for each of the seven days and is broken down into three grids. This leaves 21 blocks of time. My mentor at the Seminary, Dr. Glenn Nielsen, recommended the use of the grid for one very specific reason. He knew how hard pastors work and felt that they didn't take care of themselves. He also knew that many pastors only schedule one day off per week. So, the idea of the grid was help the pastor set aside six blocks of time per week, which would amount to two days off. Now, the two days off are not usually consecutive days. But this helps the pastor be intentional about taking enough time off for rest, to be with family, to pursue hobbies or other activities. Too many pastors suffer from burn out so it's important to have that time off. I think that one of the reasons I've suffered bouts of depression is from working many hours week after week and not taking time to refresh. My time grid tool helps me work at taking the appropriate time off so I can stay fresh.
Today I'll spend the morning getting this weekend's services ready for our administrative staff to work on during the week. I've also got a number of folks to follow up with, mostly those who are recovering from illness. Often we'll have a prayer on the phone and I'll determine if one of the pastors or a deacon needs to pay a visit. Later in the afternoon I'll meet with a prospective new member and talk about going through our Basics Class on the teachings of the faith.
If I play my cards right I should make it home in time to see the second half of the USA-Honduras World Cup qualifying match. The World Cup is next year and I can't imagine not having the USA team in the mix. It's an important match and I want to be able to celebrate a USA victory (fingers crossed!).
