Memo to Fellow Staff
Memo:
As you probably know, I have been working in a church office for over 25 years. During this time, serving in youth ministry and in missions ministry fit my personality. For the most part, I can regulate my own workload. With an inbox that is always full, I can choose to move back and forth throughout the day between:
- Creative work (publicity and promotion)
- Detailed cognitive work (planning, evaluating, developing strategies, etc.)
- Relational work (calling church members, meetings, mentoring, social media, emails, etc.)
- Times of learning and prayer (reading, praying, learning).
For over a quarter of a century, I have been blessed to be supervised by leaders who cared more about the results of ministry than the micro-managing of my daily workflow. Of course, there are times that things fall through the cracks, but having amazing assistants has keep my major embarrassments to a minimum.
I also work well in blocks. I remember that when I first came to Southcliff, the network server would shut down to back up at midnight. At least once a month I was shut out of my work when this happened.
I usually work with my office door open. I enjoy connecting with everyone in our office and enjoy knowing what is going on in your lives.
Yet, I have struggled lately with having the time to dig into new projects, projects that are far from superficial. Things, like evaluating Southcliff’s guest assimilation, creating a new environment to inspire our people to mission engagement, and evaluating mission trips / partnerships, are always on the back burner of my work day.
As a part of my doctoral studies at Portland Seminary, I have just finished the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. Below is a link to a summary of the book:
https://paulminors.com/deep-work-cal-newport-book-summary-pdf/
I want to try an experiment in my work week. It will begin this Monday and will last through June 19.
I want to set aside a period of time each week for uninterrupted “deep work.” I would like to do this on Mondays from 12:30 PM until 4:00 PM. This will give me 3.5 hours to dig into some tasks that need a more deeper focus.
I have already moved my weekly 1:15 PM meeting with Kevin to Mondays at 4:00 PM.
I am also planning on making these changes between 12:30 PM until 4:00 PM on Mondays:
1) I will close “Microsoft Outlook.” This will keep email notifications from appearing. I will not look at (or respond to email) during this block of time.
2) I will keep my office door closed.
3) I will not be making any appointments nor agree to go to any meetings during this time. I can meet in the morning or at 4:30 PM. Since I am usually on campus until 8:30 PM on Tuesday Nights and Wednesday nights, I usually make appointments with church members during these times. I will set aside Tuesday afternoons to meet with staff.
4) All phone calls sent to me will go to voicemail between these hours. I will check them after 4 PM. I will try not respond to text messages or calls (with the exception of my family) during this block of time.
5) While I am “all in” with Dr. Marr’s admonishment that “we are in the people business,” I feel that setting aside a few hours a week to be unavailable will not prevent me from living up to that expectation. If I am in the office between 40-50 hours every week, I feel that I can set aside 3.5 hours on Monday afternoons to focus on uninterrupted work. This means that other staff will need to meet with guests who come during this time who are looking for financial assistance, crisis counseling, etc.
6) I will turn Facebook notifications off and will not look at Facebook during this time.
7) If someone has a simple question, they can email me. I will respond to them before I leave the office.
8) Of course, I will be available for true emergencies/security issues. Anyone can contact me on the intercom if there is an emergency.
Thank you for allowing me the freedom to explore ways that I can become more productive.
Stu Cocanougher, Share Strategy Pastor
Newport, Cal. Deep work: rules for focused success in a distracted world. New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing, 2016.
About the Author
Stu Cocanougher
8 responses to “Memo to Fellow Staff”
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Stu, what a great post and you are a brave man! I do agree that 3.5 hours my not seem like a lot of time, but it can make a big difference. I’ll be interesting to hear how the how the experiment went. Please keep me posted.
Stu, I was “all in” with you until I got to #6. Seriously? All those FB messages I was planning on group messaging– you’ll miss those! But… send us all your cell number so we can just text you on Monday afternoons instead. 🙂
Ok, Stu. You have my permission to ignore us on Monday afternoons. Just kidding.
That was actually one of the parts of the book that I thought was great. We need to respect each other’s time. I thought Newport did a great job with all of the suggestions to protect your time for your “deep work” while not offending anyone.
You have a really important job with lots of responsibility; I hope your experiment works for you.
No worries, guys. Our weekly ZOOM session is at 10 AM my time, so we can text and FB message all we want.
Thanks Stu for your practical post with your honest strategy plan for creating more deep work. I can tell you thought a lot about this. Let me know how this works for you.
25 years in a church office! Impressive! Tough profession but you sound like you’re made for it to be in it that long. What’s the secret?
Some great ideas there Stu. Let us know how it goes?! I will be checking.
This is really good, Stu! I’m looking forward to hearing how it works for you. Sorry you’ll miss our awesome comments on group chats, but I know we can count on you to catch up. 🙂
I love the plan to organize and schedule. I will borrow it. I will make it my own. LOL
I must say this book does inspire one to get it together but as with anything, it’s how do I keep it going.?