Finish Your Work 7 Days Earlier for Success

Growing up I was never a good student. I had good marks, but I wasn’t a good student. I never took notes, rarely paid attention, and didn’t take my homework seriously. I thought to myself, “I’m doing good enough. In fact, I’m doing better than most my friends.” This attitude continued right up to high school graduation.

My whole life all I wanted to be was a gym teacher (getting paid to smoke kids in the head with a dodgeball seemed too good to be true). When applying for a spot in the Kinesiology program I realized that my overall average in high school was 1.6% short of the minimum requirements to get in to this program. Panic.

Long story short: It was at this moment I realized the importance of “working ahead." I define "working ahead" as: always working on things that aren’t all up in your grill. Smarter people than I would state it differently but this just makes sense to me.

I've been using this model in youth ministry for a while and it has greatly benefited myself, my family, and my ministry. The essential idea behind it is this: Always be finishing things that are at least seven days ahead of you.

That goes for almost everything: sermons, creative elements in programming, meeting agendas, events, and all those little “to-do’s.”

Here’s why working ahead is important:

1. It creates “Brain Space.” Having your work done seven days in advance creates space in your brain to dream and be creative in your work instead of just "getting it done."

2. It takes the pressure off. Working ahead makes ministry way less stressful. The demands of the job are stressful enough. Don’t add to the pressure by waiting until the last minute to complete your tasks!

3. There are no dropped balls. We’ve all had that moment before a service or event when you realize you forgot to do something important. Finishing the task seven days ahead of time means you have a much better chance of catching those things that get lost when you’re working on a looming deadline.

4. It shatters the “good enough” mentality. Youth pastors tend to be a gifted set of people. The majority of us can pull off a "good" event that the students seem to enjoy with little prep time. I had this mentality in high school and learnt that it eventually catches up and hurts you in the long run. "Good" is the greatest enemy of "excellent."

5. It allows you to meet and tend to urgent needs and crises. This has happened to all of us. We have our week planned out with just enough time to squeeze everything in, but no more. We work right to our margins. But inevitably crises will pop up: a need in the church, a funeral, a student learns their parents are getting a divorce, something happens in your personal life...etc. Those urgent, important tasks end up taking precedent and you either: a) kill yourself trying to finish your work, or b) don’t get your work done.

6. It gives you a better perspective of ministry. If you're always on full speed trying to get the week’s work completed, it’s hard to lift your head up and see what’s coming up next, because ministry is always moving. Working ahead gives you a better vantage point to see what's working and what needs work. It’s hard to fix your engine when driving at 100mph. Working ahead affords you the luxury to stop.

7. Your family will be grateful. Finishing your tasks way ahead of time means you won’t be working when it’s time to be with your family.

Consider working ahead in your life; the payoffs are enormous.