Saw a great question online today from a YM friend. She was asking about keeping track of hours in youth ministry. I'm lucky in that I don't have to keep official time-sheets or anything like that in my job.
HOWEVER, there are two things I do that I consider healthy practices:
#1 - I always keep my pastor and my administrator informed of what I have going on. Meetings, lunches, projects, etc. Even communicating in a general sense what I'm up to helps them to know where I'm at and lets them avoid having to give an "I don't know" or other awkward answer to the question "what is the youth minister doing?"
#2 - I keep a flexible "time map". This is a basic guide to what I'm doing during the week. I break each day down in to three sections - morning (8-12), afternoon (1-5), and evening (5-9), and then assign each block the general tasks I seek to accomplish during that time. If you're interested, here's what my time map looks like:
MONDAY
Morning - Staff meeting, administrative tasks.
-----
Afternoon - Office stuff, calendar review (long and short term), event/activity planning.
-----
Evening - Family time.
TUESDAY
Morning - Midweek program prep/set-up, office stuff, miscellaneous ministry "to-dos".
-----
Afternoon - Midweek program prep/set-up, relational time with students.
-----
Evening - Family time.
WEDNESDAY
Morning - Message prep, reading, writing, web stuff (from home).
-----
Afternoon - Midweek program "finishing touches", visioneering, "marketing" (newsletters, e-mails, FB stuff, etc.) (from home).
-----
Evening - Midweek youth program.
THURSDAY
Morning - Small group prep, volunteer connections (from home).
-----
Afternoon - Weekend worship/program prep, office stuff.
-----
Evening - Flex-time (sometimes family, sometimes relational time with students).
FRIDAY
Morning - Flex-time (finishing up anything left to do for the weekend, from home).
-----
Afternoon - Home/house stuff (cleaning, laundry, etc. - yeah, I do that stuff!).
-----
Evening - Family (date with my wife!).
SATURDAY
Sabbath/family time ALL DAY.
SUNDAY
Morning - Worship/program time.
-----
Afternoon - Flex-time (family, students, or meetings).
-----
Evening - Program time.
That's it! What does your week look like?
HOWEVER, there are two things I do that I consider healthy practices:
#1 - I always keep my pastor and my administrator informed of what I have going on. Meetings, lunches, projects, etc. Even communicating in a general sense what I'm up to helps them to know where I'm at and lets them avoid having to give an "I don't know" or other awkward answer to the question "what is the youth minister doing?"
#2 - I keep a flexible "time map". This is a basic guide to what I'm doing during the week. I break each day down in to three sections - morning (8-12), afternoon (1-5), and evening (5-9), and then assign each block the general tasks I seek to accomplish during that time. If you're interested, here's what my time map looks like:
MONDAY
Morning - Staff meeting, administrative tasks.
-----
Afternoon - Office stuff, calendar review (long and short term), event/activity planning.
-----
Evening - Family time.
TUESDAY
Morning - Midweek program prep/set-up, office stuff, miscellaneous ministry "to-dos".
-----
Afternoon - Midweek program prep/set-up, relational time with students.
-----
Evening - Family time.
WEDNESDAY
Morning - Message prep, reading, writing, web stuff (from home).
-----
Afternoon - Midweek program "finishing touches", visioneering, "marketing" (newsletters, e-mails, FB stuff, etc.) (from home).
-----
Evening - Midweek youth program.
THURSDAY
Morning - Small group prep, volunteer connections (from home).
-----
Afternoon - Weekend worship/program prep, office stuff.
-----
Evening - Flex-time (sometimes family, sometimes relational time with students).
FRIDAY
Morning - Flex-time (finishing up anything left to do for the weekend, from home).
-----
Afternoon - Home/house stuff (cleaning, laundry, etc. - yeah, I do that stuff!).
-----
Evening - Family (date with my wife!).
SATURDAY
Sabbath/family time ALL DAY.
SUNDAY
Morning - Worship/program time.
-----
Afternoon - Flex-time (family, students, or meetings).
-----
Evening - Program time.
That's it! What does your week look like?
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