Core ContributionnsThe questions have been asked before: What are the big rocks? The core contributions we’re supposed to be making? How do we allocate significant blocks of time to do those? The higher you are in leadership, the more important it is to look at your whole year. Most of us get so wrapped up in day-to-day operations we don’t think strategically enough about blocking out times for prayer and planning for seasonal projects.

For example, let’s say you want to think through you leadership development process. You want to think and pray about each of the key people in your ministry with their strengths and growth opportunities in mind. Doing this will allow you to be more intentional about what longer-term assignments you ask them to do and have those assignments correspond to the development of that person.

Doing this will require setting aside a significant block of time. For instance, you might set aside specific blocks on the summer to read about leadership development, to pray about the specific people in your ministry, and to plan advance assignments for them to embark on during the fall.

If you do that during the summer, your summer schedule may look quite different from your fall schedule in terms of how you spend your time. Yet both are reflective of your priorities over the course of the whole year.