We often try and give tips and hints to youth workers that provide ways for them to improve their program administration. We’ve provided information on time management skills, workload management skills and ways to make sure your work is professional.
Often youth workers have a hard time showing what they’ve done and therefore come under criticism from their supervisor, church board or other stakeholders. And honestly, it’s easily done. You do some planning, you grab a coffee with a colleague, you research some games for a youth retreat and book a venue for a service trip later in the month.
It’s easy to sit for a just a minute to research a youth group game or venue and have it take 45 minutes, because you see this other link or think of that band you wanted to check out to play at your next big youth summit. Your coffee was meant to be a quick catch up and instead you end up extending it into lunch. You start by doing some planning and get sucked into a book you were using as a resource and end up spending an hour reading.
None of these things are bad in themselves, but day after day and week after week and you begin to feel more behind, your programs start to suffer and suddenly everyone starts asking for outcomes and proof of what you’re doing all day.
Here is one easy way to provide information about your whereabouts, and the added benefit is that you will most likely end up increasing your performance and outcomes:
Write everything down you do each day and log the time (rounding to the quarter hour).
You will begin to keep better track of your time and this alone will help you use it more productively and will increase how much you’re able to do in a day. If you’re accountable to anyone – even if it’s just yourself – you’ll be more likely to accomplish more each day.
It will also help you be more aware of time you spend not really doing anything. What was once a couple of brief chats with coworkers in the office, when you’re tracking it, becomes more than an hour each day spent being unproductive.
Not that you can’t have the occasional chat, or the coffee that runs long or the research that goes off on a rabbit trail. But this will help you get more from your hours each day and should help you keep your work at work and your life outside of work more fun and relaxing. This is because you won’t need to work as many extra hours or bring things home that you didn’t accomplish each day.
Question: Do you keep track of your work by writing it down? How does it help or hinder you each day? Share your experiences in the comments below.
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