Doing the Work

I have been incredibly busy these last few weeks, with very little end in sight. I have a major research project that continues to go untouched, a chiseled in stone weekly deadline, which is actually at least three deadlines in one and quite a few other content creation things, like this blog which has been a little neglected in recent days. I recently got a commission for a new piece of art, and other things are popping up all the time. That’s the life of a pastor artist. All of it is pretty important. The art I do keeps my skills sharp and keeps my creative muscles developed. The ministry work is my calling and is hopefully beneficial to the people I serve directly and beyond and my hope is that the content creation work is helping people as well. How do I keep all these balls in the air? The truth is, I don’t always. I am working on priorities so hopefully nothing falls through the cracks. Beyond that, it is just doing the work. Here are a few things I’ve learned that will hopefully keep you own track.

1. Have a schedule. My ministry work especially benefits from this. I have a standard time frame when all my work must be done so that it can all be distributed through the proper channels.
2. Prioritize. To be honest this year some of may busyness is self inflicted. I set goals that are not quite realistic. Next year, for example, I am going to cut back on the frequency of these posts. My idea is to do larger posts less often. Hopefully the actionable content will make up for the smaller amount of posts. I will also be doing less art in the coming year. The exercises I have been doing are really beneficial to my skill set, but my art skills are pretty set at this point, and there are projects that need to get finished that will be more beneficial to everyone in the long run. Stay tuned for that as it is likely that my research project will become a regular feature here as well.
3. Eliminate distractions. Social media is the way I stay connected with the outside world and so I really don’t see a way to cut it completely, but I am going to minimize it. Who of us has not started out checking messages and ended up spending an hour or two without realizing it’s gone. I don’t have an hour or two for such pursuits. I have meaningful work and family time that needs to come first,
4. Work smarter. Some of the things I create are applicable across multiple channels, and some more of my work with a little tweaking could be. My desire is to have everything I devote my limited time to, to have maximum impact and help as many people as possible and this year, that is going to be a focal point for me, especially in the area of content creation.
5. Rest. Rest is the one thing I always end up sacrificing. The thing is my health is more important in the long run if I am going to finish what I started, and walk out my calling in faithfulness.

I hope some of these have been helpful to you. At the end of the say, I look at everything I am doing and I see value in it, but I would be lying if I said I felt like it was doing all the good that it can do, I think I need to be less busy and more effective, how about you?