4. Make a weekly schedule.
Now schedule your activities into your work week. (You can do this quite easily in a spreadsheet program.) Here’s how:
- Schedule the biggest priorities first, meaning your family and your personal relationship with God. (Don’t forget to plan your vacation and a weekly Sabbath day.) Make these non-negotiable.
- Then schedule your weekly obligations. For example, these include your small group, certain meetings, and set appointments like lunch time at the high school. Don’t forget about travel time!
- Now schedule activities you need bigger chunks of time for, like preparing a sermon or writing small-group studies. If you don’t reserve these blocks of time, you’ll never find the time.
- Schedule smaller activities. Remember to give yourself some breathing room. You know that unexpected stuff always comes up. So don’t schedule every minute of every day. Set aside time for reading books or blog posts, listening to podcasts, or other activities to help you grow as a leader. Again, if you don’t schedule these, you’ll never find the time!
- When scheduling, group similar tasks together to save time. (For example, everything you can do by email or everything you can do at home.)
- Also, reserve certain days for certain roles. I block off Mondays for blogging, whereas Tuesday is a writing day. That helps me find flow and stay in it.
5. Check your schedule.
Now check your handy youth pastor weekly schedule. Is it doable? Realistic? Have you forgotten anything? Compare it to your to-do list. Is there anything on that you haven’t reserved time for?
Here comes the tricky part: It won’t fit. You’ll discover you’ve written down more stuff than will fit into your schedule. Especially since there’s loads of stuff you haven’t thought of. What to do now?
It’s no use trying to cram more into a youth pastor weekly schedule than will reasonably fit. If you can’t make it work, that means you must reduce your workload. You’ll need to learn to say no or cancel certain commitments and obligations. And you’ll need to delegate more.
Believe me: You can’t make it fit simply by wishing it were so, ignoring reality, or working more. Working more is never the answer! It’ll only result in burnout…or worse. Don’t overstretch yourself. Instead, create a healthy, realistic weekly schedule that actually works for you. And stick to it.
Do you have a youth pastor weekly schedule? If so, how did you make it? Please share your tips for colleagues in the comments below!
