Jane will share why she wants to be a time genius like Jesus and what steps she takes to implement that.
Jesus completed His ministry in 3 years.
He had many things to do but He also rested often and withdrew to talk to God.
Jesus knew how to manage His time. What can we learn from that?
In this short snippet, Jane will share her insights and a couple of steps she takes to be more effective and efficient with her time. Listen and apply whatever speaks to you.
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Episode: You can have a 16 hour work week, with Shay Cochrane
hello@borntofly.faith
Bible Plan on Youversion - Mastering Time Management as a Solopreneur - Insights from Jesus
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Head to BorntoFly.faith to find out more about the Platform & Community for Christ-driven Solopreneurs.
Hey, my name is Jane, I’m one of the hosts of this podcast and the founder of Born to Fly, a platform and community for Christian solopreneurs.
In these snippets, I share some insights that have helped me in becoming a better solopreneur, and alright, today I’m gonna share that I want to be a time genius like Jesus. I work part-time… I’m a mom… a wife… a daughter… a friend, so lots to do… And Jesus just knew very well how to manage time and be effective and loving and kind.
And I want to be like Jesus that’s why I look at Him and how He managed time.
Jesus was on the earth for 33 years. And 3 years of those 33 years, He allocated to ministry. Before starting His ministry though, He spent 40 days in the desert. Fasting. Preparing for His ministry and the devil did a silly try to tempt Jesus out of His ministry–didn’t work.
All to say that, like your and my time, Jesus' time was limited too. And if He can accomplish what He needed to do on earth in 33 years, I can for sure do the same if I go about my given days in the right way.
What I noticed is that Jesus had a laser-sharp focus on what needed to be done. I think that’s what time management starts with: a clear picture of your vision. Where does God lead you?
To be honest, I can get anxious when I hear the word vision. I just don’t always have a clear picture. and I can make myself go mad, thinking about it. So for now, I go with the following:
to be a loving wife and mom, and a solopreneur who is an excellent writer, and provides insights, resources, and community to other Christ-driven solopreneurs.
I can think of numerous tasks that come with this vision, but there’s limited time in our weeks so I need to figure out what needs to be done and when. Creating a list doesn’t have to be that difficult, it’s knowing what needs to be on top of the list—or the so-called to-do list.
But how to prioritize?
I use 3 ways to go about it.
1st. I look at my vision. What task will contribute to getting there? That specific task will end up high on my to-do list.
2nd. I look at my goals. I set yearly and quarterly goals and based on that I can determine what will contribute to my weekly goals. Whatever contributes to my quarterly goals, gets high on my to-do list.
3rd. I use the 80/20 principle. You might have heard this many times before, so did I, but when I heard Shay Cochrane talk about it again in one of the episodes on this podcast, it hit home for me. ‘Cause, there are many priority tasks on my list, yet which one is the main priority? What tasks will require 20% of my time but bring 80% of impact? If I know what tasks produce the most fruitful outcomes, those tasks will be the main priorities and the first to be crossed off of my list.
Now, this might seem to revolve around me, me, me. I get it if it sounds very egocentric.
That’s why I also wanted to mention that my vision and my goals are all planned together with God. I always have in mind to serve others and thus these 3 ways that help me prioritize actually are there to make sure I do things for others in an effective way.
I want to be effective in business since it will affect the time I have available to be a loving mother and wife. I want to serve in my church. So if someone, outside of my business, asks me for specific tasks, I do have time. And I can say yes or no, based on my vision or set of talents. And more importantly, when I have said yes, I am now actually going to do it as well. Jesus asks us to let our yes be yes in Matthew 5:37, so I want to honor that and not back out because time suddenly doesn’t allow me any longer.
Prioritizing what needs to be done is one of the most important parts of time management. Then the actual scheduling can begin. I’m sure that Jesus had a sense of how long He wanted to be in each village before moving on to the next. He accomplished what He needed in one town, even though He might not have healed every person or cast out every demon in the people He encountered, and then moved to another town.
Think about that for a second before I move on to talk about scheduling.
Scheduling is something that works well for me.
I schedule my work days in 1,5 hours time blocks.
In the morning, I’d like to do what they call “deep work”. I focus on a specific task that requires focus and thinking and I work undisturbed. In these deep work sessions, I mostly write. It could be copy for my clients, or newsletters, blogs or Bible plans for the Born to Fly community. And then after those sessions, I plan time blocks for shallow work like answering emails or posting on social media or prepping talking points for the podcast or creating a prospects list.
But it doesn’t stop there.
I schedule a lot outside of business too:
For example, I schedule when I clean the house. Or when I do laundry. I actually have a laundry day! Every Monday I cycle everything through the machine.
Of course, not everything can be scheduled. And there are exceptions when I have to ditch the schedule and just go with the flow, which regularly happens when you have a newborn.
Prioritizing and scheduling, it sounds so business-y and boring, right? There’s nothing attractive about those words.
But it boils down to discipline, and that is actually part of our spirit, see 2 Timothy 1:7, and the fruit of the Spirit, read Galations 5:22.
Being disciplined in reading the Word and praying is gonna help you create a better relationship with God. So being disciplined in going about your work and other roles you are called to, will help you become a better steward in those areas too. The reason I want to be a good steward in those areas is so I can glorify God. All I do is for His Kingdom, and that better be good, right?
Alright, that concludes why I want to be a time genius like Jesus. I want to be like Christ in everything I do, and time management is one facet of that.
I hope this little snippet has brought you some encouragement. If it did, let me know at hello@borntofly.faith
And if you want to go deeper into becoming a time genius like Jesus, read the 4-day Bible plan that’s available on YouVersion. It will be linked in the show notes.
Have a blessed day and talk to you next time.