file6151303951841I’m in a season of planning right now as we finalize the plans for the rest of 2014 and look into 2015.  Planning is one of my favorite things to do – I know, I know, I’m a little strange.  But I find great freedom in planning.

I’ve talked to leaders who like to lead by the seat of their pants, responding to what comes as it comes.  I’ve talked to pastors who don’t plan weeks or months out, but every Monday they are looking at a blank screen or a blank sheet of paper and wondering what they’re going to talk about on Sunday.

I cannot imagine living either way.

Leadership has enough surprises inherent in it to keep me on my toes.  Living my life reactively instead of proactively is just not how I’m wired.

I’ve experimented with different workflows and systems, and this is where I’ve landed right now.  It’s always subjects to being tweaked and I will adjust as needed. It’s based on David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, which if you haven’t read, you need to stop right now and go read it.  Seriously.  It completely changed my workflow and helps me to maximize my productivity every single week.

  • Each week on Sunday evening, I review the week to come.  I go through my current Projects list and my Next Actions list for the week (both in Evernote, which I HIGHLY recommend to you).  Does every one of my current projects have a next action that’s captured and on the list for the week? Do I have bandwidth this week to move any of the projects on my (separate) Someday list over to my current Projects list?
  • I plan my teaching in series.  A typical series will run from 3-6 weeks, with the occasional one running 7-8, but if it’s longer than 8, we’ve noticed it begins to drag.  As I’m planning the series, I need to have three things per week:  the Scripture I’m using, the title of the week’s message, and the big idea/takeaway for the week.  That helps Andy and our creative team to think ahead of time about ways that we can enhance the spoken message with music, videos, etc.
  • For years, I’ve planned my series 12-18 months out.  This helps me to make sure I’m providing a “balanced diet” of teaching that is relevant and helpful no matter your learning style.  I do exegetical verse by verse series through a book, topical series, felt needs series – whatever will help us communicate the message of the gospel.  Tying myself to one style doesn’t make sense to me – people learn in different ways, and I want our services and messages to be helpful to your spiritual journey no matter where you are on the path or what your learning style is.  This year, for the first time, I’m shooting to have a year ahead planned out to that level of detail.  Our hope is that this will help us to get even more creative and help the main ideas each week to be “stickier” in the minds and hearts of the listeners.

You might be wondering – how does any of this leave room for the Holy Spirit to work?  Aren’t you planning the Spirit right out of the picture?  That’s an excellent question.  I believe that the Holy Spirit can be as present in the planning process as He is in the moment  🙂  See, He knows what will happen; past, present, and future are all the same to Him.  I bathe this whole process in prayer, and if I’m listening to the promptings of the Spirit, I believe that this planning can honor God by providing a path to excellence.  I believe that excellence honors God and inspires people.  I do all that I can do, and I pray that God would do what only He can do – change lives.  And if I get a strong prompting that we need to bump a series and insert one that wasn’t planned, we do it!  Twice this year we’ve done just that, and I find that inside planning there is tremendous flexibility.

I believe planning is essential in the life of a leader.  If we don’t, we will find ourselves simply responding to every fire and never getting on the proactive side of things.  It’s hard to be intentional without planning, and I believe that intentionality is one of the things that separate a good leader from a great one.

My planning process is obviously geared around what I do each week; yours will be different.  But I encourage you to develop an intentional planning workflow that helps you to maximize your efforts and your time.  You’ll never regret being intentional, and I believe it can propel your leadership to a new level.

What planning workflow tips would you share from your own experience? Do you recommend any planning tools other that the ones I mentioned above?

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