Article: Rethink

Article: Rethink

Yesterday’s Accra campus devotional afforded me the opportunity to have a rethink. I was asked to speak on how to strike a balance between academics and spiritual life. In the professional world, this would be termed the work-life balance.

Interesting to note that the two are often presented as two competing forces: one always prevailing over the other. This is probably a 21st-century problem because the Bible doesn’t separate academics/work, life and family. In the ancient world, these were often integrated. If a student invests time to excel in academics while counting on God for strength and knowledge, it ends up glorifying God and makes the Gospel attractive.

Another rethink we talked about involved thinking of time management in terms of priority management. We looked at our activities as falling under one of four quadrants: the first quadrant (Q1) are things that are both urgent and important – like preparing for and writing exams within a limited time-frame, which many of the students are currently doing. These are DO NOW items.

The second quadrant(Q2) are things that are important but not urgent – like preparing for exams way ahead of time. These are DO NEXT activities! The third quadrant(Q3) are things that are urgent but not important with regards to personal development or vision. These are DO LATER items! The last set of activities are neither urgent nor essential and fall under the DON’T DO bucket. Unexpected or unscheduled activities generally fall under this quadrant.

Amazing how this is already helping me sort out many of the items I currently have on my plate -thanks to a friend who shared these insights with me.

My goal is to function most of the time in Q2, where I am working on critical or important items ahead of time, without the rush or pressure that comes with limited deadlines.

Where do you spend most of your time? In which of the quadrants? Where can you affect changes as you begin a new day and month?

*Col. 3:23-24; Mark 1:35-38; Luke 13:31-33*