Time Management

In writing about personal growth, I have underlined the importance of community and the integration of your faith with academic and outside concerns. Clearly, both of these things take time and energy, two resources chronically in short supply for students. A third indispensable ingredient for growth must be introduced as you figure out exactly how these principles are to take shape in your life. You must learn to make choices about your use of time.

My first year in college, I was diligent in my academic studies. I took some difficult courses, played varsity volleyball, and frequently attended InterVarsity's large and small group meetings. I enjoyed the intellectual stimulation, got very good grades, and made some friends on the volleyball team. On the other hand, I gave no time to developing Christian fellowships, and very little time to developing non-Christian friendships. It was a pretty lonely and growthless year.

That spring, I became much more serious about following Jesus (at the InterVarsity Fort Lauderdale Evangelism Project!). The next year, I was strongly urged to remember that only two things last a lifetime -- God and people. (Physics would not.) I was also asked to be a leader in the IV fellowship.

Life changed. I was on the Exec team, led a small group, organized monthly campus-wide evangelistic meetings and weekly contact evangelism expeditions, organized and produced a Christian fellowship newsletter, attended daily prayer meetings, led the large group meeting, attended seven conferences (including STIM preparation for my upcoming summer overseas), took three lab courses, served as an academic advisor, played volleyball -- and almost died from exhaustion.

I had gone from eight hours of sleep a night to four hours, from proactive studying to reactive deadline meeting, from straight A's to frustration. Again, it was a pretty lonely and growthless year.

My last two years as an undergraduate were spent trying to find a balance between two poles: being a Christian leader with an eternal perspective, and being a student who seizes the many God-given opportunities for intellectual growth surrounding me at college.

I wish I had a clear-cut solution for you. For two reasons, I don't. First, time management is an area in which I still struggle. Second, the best ways to manage one's time look different to different people, and they may change for the same person from time to time. However, I can offer three principles.

Set Priorities
The establishment of clear priorities based on God's call in our lives is non-negotiable. Learning how to set these priorities and live by them will be a lifelong process. Nevertheless, you need to begin this process now. Without a sense of God's call, and therefore without a sense of what your priorities should be, you will have no basis for decisions about what to do and what not to do.

Ask for Help
You cannot make important decisions very well in isolation. It is very difficult to keep things in perspective while making such decisions, and you need to rely on the help of your Christian friends.

My decision not to play volleyball my junior year opened tremendous avenues for growth. Yet I never would have chosen this on my own. You see, I had rationalized my desire to play by convincing myself that I needed to be there to reach out to my teammates. That wasn't true. There was very little spiritual interest among my teammates, and my relationships with them had very little to with my faith. I wanted to play volleyball partly because I felt insecure about completely throwing my lot in with the Christian fellowship, and partly because playing volleyball fit in with the "successful at everything" image I wanted to project.

I'm not saying there are never good reasons to play on the volleyball team, but my reasons were not good ones. I had convinced myself that they were spiritual reasons, and I was adamant enough about that that most people left me alone. Thank God, one friend cared enough about me to push me on my reasoning. With her help, I began to see more clearly. My friend enabled me to make a difficult, but freeing and enriching decision.

I know that it takes time and energy to pray and think through some of the difficult choices involved in time management, but the cost of shortcutting those steps is high. Asking other people to help you make these decisions and live by them will be far more effective than struggling through them on your own. Throughout my life, I have made the best decisions about my use of time when I have done so in sincere consultation with my partners on campus and in my church. I have experienced the most growth and joy when, with their help, I have tried to live according to this focus.

Learn to Be Efficient
Setting priorities and learning to live by them is a major part of time management. Sometimes, however, our problem is not that we're doing too much, but that we're being inefficient with our time. We procrastinate. We start projects that we'll never finish. We try to do everything ourselves.

Strategies to avoid wasting time abound. These strategies only work if they fit your personality and your situation. If you feel that you might not be using your time wisely, seek advice -- from your staff worker, pastor, or someone else who knows you and your environment well.