Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to the Shepherding Time podcast, where we ask pastors and ministry leaders how they shepherd their time. And we're grateful to be able to spend time today with Regan Rose. Regan is a Bible teacher who talks about personal productivity from a biblical perspective.
Speaker: And so we're grateful to have some time to talk with Regan because we have already learned so much and look forward to learning more. Regan, let me just jump in and ask you this. This may be an obvious question. It's kind of a big question for a short podcast, but I'm curious, how did you personally move into such a place of focus on personal productivity and now into what is a pretty recognized, helpful platform to help others in the Christian life in that way?
Speaker: You know what's funny? It actually started in ministry. Like when I first started thinking about this topic, I had read a lot of self-help book, a lot of time management stuff, just trying to get my life in order.
Speaker: And then I started going to seminary and I was looking around at some of the other guys that were in classes with me. Some of them were in ministry, some were, you know, obviously planning to after seminary. And there'd be guys who would turn to me and be like, oh, that paper was due today.
Speaker: And and i I would talk to them and there was there was no skillset. There was no, they just hadn't gotten it in discipleship or from their parents or somebody along the way. And so I started writing originally actually about pastoral time management. And then I shifted and broadened out later on to, to talk about it more broadly for Christians in general. So, so when, when you guys reached out and we're talking that you were talking about pastoral time management, I thought these are my guys. This is so, so needed. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, you have such a careful perspective and a detailed perspective. I'm curious, how do you see the, i guess I'm going to say, time management landscape today across ministry leaders, pastors, and others that are in the same kind of realm?
Speaker: Yeah, i I think that there's just a lot of holes sometimes. ah A big thing ah I've noticed is a lack of sort of a holistic view on one's time that somebody might be pretty good at managing their hours when they're quote unquote on the clock.
Speaker: and But then the other parts of their day are just kind of up for grabs. And and I'm not saying we need to always be working, but if all of our lives are a stewardship, all of our time is a stewardship. And so like there's a way to ah be thoughtful and intentional in how you steward the hours when you're resting. And that doesn't mean doing more work, but it means you you use that time in a way that glorifies God. And the same thing when you're on the clock, same thing with your family, same thing, you know, even in the evening. So that's a big thing I see is is sometimes people will get narrowly this idea of, i need to be more purposeful, more efficient with how I use my time. But they don't, they don't zoom out to the big picture lens and think,
Speaker: No, in light of eternity, how do I steward this one life well? And I think that's what truly Christian time management is all about, is is stewarding a life well.
Speaker: So, okay, so so let's let's bridge those two together. And ah what are some what are some specific changes for you that's really been helpful as you kind of, as everybody discovers that who their God is, how he thinks about time, what is before us. And then each person, as they have that commitment, they start to make some practical, specific changes. There are some um dynamics that have been helpful for them. So for you, what have been a couple of changes that you've made to your ah weekly schedule that's had the biggest effect on your schedule?
Speaker: um holistic, holistic development as a Christ follower. And in particular, that is, has helped with effective life and ministry. Yeah, I'll give you two that I think have been the the highest leverage ones. The first one is having a plan for the morning or like a morning routine. i started, when I got married 15 years ago now, my my wife and I had vastly different schedules. I went to sleep ah very late. I was a night owl and she would go to sleep very early because she needed needed more sleep than I did. And the the guy who was doing our premarital counsel, pastor at our church, he said, hey, one thing my wife and I have done is we always go to bed at the same time. And my wife and I were like, sure, let's try that. And little did I know, she went to bed at 9.30 PM. so I was like, oh, my night owl days are done. But that's actually how I became a morning person is that we we stuck with it. And it was a a rough couple of weeks at first, ever being married. And then I got into this routine where i was like, hold on, i have all this time in the mornings. started waking up earlier, obviously. And I started experimenting with a plan for well what what is the best way to spend my morning? And so i ah i have i have followed basically the same routine for the past 15 years. i call it like a power morning. It's just a simple acronym to keep help me to remember it. Prayer, organize, word, exercise, practice.
Speaker: reading is the R. And if I just, it doesn't take that long, but if I do each of those, start the morning first with prayer and the word before, this critical, before I check email, before I go on the computer, before I look at any devices anything, like the first thing I'm doing is meeting with God. It orients my heart towards the day. If I spend a little bit of time organizing, making a plan for the day, saying, what's the priority? When am I going to do it? If I spend a little bit of time exercising, doesn't have to be a full workout necessarily, but just get moving. And even, you know, it's, it's, once you start stacking habits, you know, it gets easier. Why not tack on a few pages of reading in there as well?
Speaker: And so I've done that for about 15 years and I can tell you it's dramatic, the difference between the days when I actually follow through and do that. And the days when I'm like, ah, I'm not going to do it. It's just that that, that the first thing you look on during the day, the first few things you do, it really sets the, the, the day and how it's going to go. And so that, that's the biggest one for me.
Speaker: um The other one I was going to mention is a more recent thing is I'm not ah ah a, a Sabbatarian by conviction, but I'm starting to become more one by practice. I guess the older I get, the more I see the wisdom of that pattern God laid out.
Speaker: And one of the things I found is, you know, like, You have to prepare for Sabbath. Like, if if you're going to try to do your six days of labor in six days and take a day off, you have to prepare. So, there's sort of this knock-on benefit of practicing that day of rest, which is is wonderful and excellent for the refreshment, for the time with the Lord, for just taking you know time to be human before God.
Speaker: But the fact that I have to prepare for it makes me more organized the rest of the week. It makes me more intentional and more productive. And that's something until I started like trying to do that, I didn't realize that you can be more productive by spending less time working, which seems backwards, but I found the opposite to be true.
Speaker: Yeah, so so so, okay, so you're tapping into something that Joe and I have been thinking a lot about, and that is that in for all people, but especially for those in ministry, there are, let's say, different kinds of time.
Speaker: And one of the concerns that we have wrestled with is most Pastors and ministry leaders, when they think of time management, they think of a method that allows them to do more. And I think that's kind of natural because if you think about those who lead churches, those who lead or start ministries, those who plant churches tend to be, not in every case, but they tend to have a personality that really is driven from the Driven to do more, pack more in But what I appreciate about what you're saying, and I'd like to hear you say some more about it, is the importance of using a careful stewardship of our time, not just to keep doing more, but actually in a way to do less.
Speaker: Or do more things that give us margin. You know, what are some some ways you have found that to be true in your own life and especially from those that you have been helping?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm right there with you. I think that one of the mistakes we make is thinking all times created equal. it's It's not. There's different ways to manage different types of time.
Speaker: So I have a little, let's see if this resonates with you. I have a little paradigm that I've been thinking through. have four types of time I think about. I think and they're all G's. Goal time, grow time, grit time, and gift time.
Speaker: This just helps me to recognize having some balance in my week. So goal time is what are the long-term things I'm working on? What are the the goals? This is deep work time for a pastor. I think this would be um developing sermons, but maybe working on books, materials like that that requires extreme focus. So I want to carve out time for that. And that I think, you know, you got a lot of stuff, Cal Newport, the deep work stuff really is applicable to how you manage that time well. don't want to be focused.
Speaker: But also have grow time. and that's a different type. like That would be the morning routine. That would be the the focusing on the stewardship of my body even and and the different things God's given me where the objective is i want to I want to grow in these things. So that takes a different type of mindset too.
Speaker: And then grit times like the, um and don't know, all the admin stuff, that's email, that's the meetings, that's the frustrating little things. And and one of the things I've noticed about that one is that most time management advice tends to focus on grit time because that's the one that most admits of efficiency. I can, with a couple of life hacks, be more efficient at email, more efficient with these things. But what happens is it kind of takes this totalizing effect on your time where instead of freeing up more time through these efficiency gains by focusing on that way on grit time, I end up just filling it with more grit time. You You Like, because that's, if I think only that way about time management, then all time become, has to become that time. So it works under that mode of thinking. Yeah. And then the last one is gift time. That, that is where like the rest, the Sabbath stuff, where the objective there isn't to get stuff done.
Speaker: It's just to rest. And it's not, it's not even instrumental. This is something I have to wrestle with my own heart. I'm not resting so I can get more done. i'm I'm resting and enjoying, like the the objective is worship and glorifying God. The objective is as gratitude, like gratitude in and of itself is an act of worship. It doesn't need to be like ah instrumental to something else. I can just say, thank you, God, and so and sit on the couch and enjoy a night off. and And I'm doing something because I'm praising God by thanking him. So that's some of the stuff I've been thinking through along those lines. Yeah. That's the good stuff, Reagan.
Speaker: Oh, man. Thank you so much for helping us to be able to think with you, to take a few moments ah to help our listeners to to have a category of thinking. and i my hope is is that um something that we are able to talk to about and to hear from you might be of encouragement to them. Hey, listen, let me ask you this.
Speaker: ah What is, uh, what's something that's on your plate right now? Something that you're excited about a project that, uh, you're working on that we can share with our listeners. Yeah. um I've been focused a lot on the YouTube right now and and trying to ah to serve people that way. so I've been doing podcasting for years. I've moved over onto YouTube as well.
Speaker: um So if if folks are interested in productivity from a Christian worldview, that's my jam. You can just check out Redeeming Productivity on YouTube or my website, redeemingproductivity.com. I've got tons of free resources, tons of articles, a huge backlog of stuff. um that will be right up your alley if you're the type of person interested in pastoral time management and shepherding your time well.
Speaker: Fantastic.
