NATILIE Moments III

On summer vacation I read Jim Collins book The meaning of a life. (Interesting there are a few books out on the market right now talking about life and meaning, including our own book Jesus, the Rich Young Man and the Meaning of Life) Collins introduces a simple concept he calls NATILE moments. The acronym stands for: Not All Time In Life Is Equal. We can look at this in a few ways: knowing the season of our parish, the rhythm of the year, the rhythm of the week, and the rhythm of the day. In this blog, we are going to look at the rhythm of our week.

The best tool for understanding the rhythm of your week is creating an ideal week. The ideal week does not mean your week on vacation at the beach, which are my ideal and favorite time of the year. An ideal week means your plan to accomplish your work and practice self-leadership and soul care. It’s your plan to get the most out of the week. It’s called ideal because it’s a plan. No plan survives the battle. We aim for our ideal week acknowledging reality will get in the way. For example, I block out four hours, three days a week for what I call “content creation.” This means writing time or practicing for a message if I am speaking. Rarely do all twelve hours in my week get utilized in that way. Something encroaches on them, but because it is on my calendar, I am more likely to protect it or push back when someone tries to take that time.

Creating an ideal week helps you to focus on your priorities and set aside time for what Cal Newport calls “Deep Work.” Deep work is the work that requires focus and concentration. It is writing a homily, thinking about strategy or how to solve a problem. He contrasts deep work with the superficial work or distracted work of answering e-mail or doing other small tasks that are often necessary but can fill up our schedule.

An ideal week helps you get the most important work done that requires your best energy and efforts. To create an ideal week, start with your daily rhythms. Daily rhythms are time for prayer, exercise, sleep, meals. I’ll talk a little more about them in the next blog. Then put in the the most important work you need to do. These are the “big rocks” as Stephen Covey calls them. Block that time off. For me, it is content creation. For you, it might mean your most important meetings or the time you work on a project or goal.

After you block out what is most important, add in your weekly or regular meetings. My weekly meetings include our Rebuilt leadership team meeting, Nativity team leadership meeting and our Monday message meeting. The most important meetings are ones you know you need to attend. As you add weekly meetings to your ideal week, pay attention to any meetings that don’t feel important. You can move them to bi-weekly or maybe cut them out completely.

Then go and block time for ad-hoc meetings, miscellaneous tasks or to catch up on e-mail. Schedule when you will answer e-mail rather than just catching up on it as catch can. This is a tip I need to apply to myself.

When you create an ideal week, craft it so that you match your most productive times with your most important work. Father Michael works better in the later afternoon so that’s when he works on his homily. I am the opposite. By the later afternoon my creative mind is done. I am most creative and productive before noon. That’s why I work to reserve mornings for content creation. You know yourself so craft your ideal week

You can create your ideal week in about 15 to 30 minutes and it will give you a much better perspective on the rhythm of the week. Note that when seasons change, you will need to review it and adjust. For example, your summer will look much different than Fall. If you have kids, their sports schedules or driving them around might change how you approach your week.

Writing this blog has helped me realize I am way overdue for this exercise. Much has remained the same on my schedule, but much has changed since I last looked at my idea week. The exercise helps you be intentional about your time and priorities. If you know would like some help with the exercise of creating an ideal week, reach out to me at Tom@rebuiltparish.com

Rooting for you,
Tom