What are u doing?

by Rev. James Wong

Jesus said, “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” (John 9:4 NIV)

When the sun shines we are able to work but when the night falls, the workday is over. The common problem today is that we may not get a lot done during the working hours; either people or things make us waste our time. Here are the important famous few that impair our productivity.

1. Personal disorganization. It is not so much of time management but it is personal management. If fact, we cannot manage time, we can only manage our activities. If we don’t get organized and decide what to do we will waste plenty of time. Every day, spend some time planning your daily activities. Group similar tasks together so that you can do them in one go. For example, if you need to buy a few items for the office and send the computers for repair, group these tasks together and get them done in one trip rather than many trips.

2. Unclear goals. Unless your Weekly Schedule is determined by your boss, you have a week of free time to do what you like. In this case, without determining your goals for the week you will not know what to do. I use a Weekly Schedule to guide my work for the week. For example, by Thursday my sermon outline and discussion questions must be ready so that the weekly bulletin will be ready for printing on Friday. However, in reality, the urgent often takes over the important. The Weekly Schedule is adjusted regularly to ensure better productivity. Unclear goals make us drift through work.

3. Lack of concentration. A lot of time thieves are internet related. The internet could be our greatest distracter in our work place. Ask parents, most of them complain about their children being addicted to the computer. Adults do not have better control. Surfing the net, replying personal emails, answering chats on social networks, getting the latest news, update the latest happenings on Facebook, watching movies on Youtube and movie sites, answering instant messages, engaging in private calls, reading magazines of interest – all during office hours will seriously hamper our productivity. All these distractions consume time and before we know it, another day is gone. The workday is not really used for working.

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15-16 RSV). The wise man has a good strategy to use his time wisely at work and living for God. “Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people” (Col 3:23 NLT). Imagine, Jesus is the CEO in your office, we would all give our best to our work.