Ore Reads: Redeeming Your Time

Last week I completed another great read. This time it was “Redeeming Your Time: 7 Biblical Principles for Being Purposeful, Present, and Wildly Productive” by Jordan Raynor

I first came across @jordanraynor when I used a devotional of his about how to serve God through our work.

A common notion is that in order to serve God “properly”, we must leave secular work behind and focus on ministry. However, Jordan Raynor reminds us that God calls us to walk different professional paths and it is through our journeys that we can be the most effective ambassadors of Christ and evangelists of His message.

Anyway that’s not really the focus of this book. For that message, check out “Master of One: Find and Focus on the Work You Were Created to Do”.

This book talks about how to make the most of the time we have on earth to be as productive as possible. He lays the foundation by letting us know that we were created to serve God and so our work should glorify Him.

The next thing we need to acknowledge is that we cannot expect to finish our work during our time on earth, so we need to recognise that we can only do so much. Knowing that, how do we make the best use of our time to make the most impact?

And that’s what the book shows us, highlighting relevant bible verses.

My key takeaways were:

• Consolidate all your To Do lists in one place (No more random bits of paper)
• Do deep work in the morning or when your energy is highest
• Do deep work in blocks of 90 minutes, interspersed by 15-30 minute breaks
• Breaks should rest whatever muscle you use for deep work I.e. if you work with your mind, rest with your hands, and vice versa
• Ideally no more than 4 hours of deep work per day, otherwise you become tired and unproductive
• Schedule shallow work for when energy is at its lowest
• Get 7.5 – 8 hours of sleep every night by reverse engineering from time you need to wake up
• Make time to pray especially when you have a lot to do (It may sound counterproductive but it works)

You can be busy without being hurried like Jesus. Being busy means having a lot to do. Being hurried means being frantic about all the things you have to do and not building enough breaks between each task.

As Christ followers, we aren’t meant to run through life “in an aimless fashion….. to be everywhere all the time.”

Rather, we are called to be “self-disciplined in everything.” And that starts with how we prioritise and use that most precious and finite resource of ours: our time.