Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Do you work best in the mornings or the evenings? Are you someone who procrastinates or likes to get the big tasks done first? Do you work best with deadlines or do you like to set your own schedule?

A finance job or a job at a newspaper will usually have a clear structure and hierarchy that will help an inexperienced (or experienced but unorganized) employee get their tasks done on time and give them feedback. For church staff, whose work sometimes doesn’t have clear deadlines or easily measurable goals it’s helpful to know yourself and your work habits well, so you can create the environment you need to get things done.

This may mean being careful to take your day off or your work and your mood suffers (my coworker calls this “the red zone”), making sure to take a walk when you run out of steam at 2pm every afternoon. The worker who needs deadlines can set them for herself or get a supervisor to help set them. The volunteer who likes to help but in reality has limited time has a responsibly to say when he just doesn’t have enough time to take on a new project.

In one project I’m working on, for example, we’ve learned to keep things fairly simple and the pressure low. Everyone working on the project is a volunteer with full personal and professional lives, and if we set unrealistic goals rather than working harder, everyone gets overwhelmed and the project stalls.

While sometimes we will need to change our bad behaviors, other times, rather than constantly fighting against ourselves, it’s better to know ourselves, and use that knowledge to work better. Personally, I’m trying out a system called managed procrastination, which basically means procrastinating by doing other, smaller tasks that need to be done.

Better to be honest with ourselves and up front about how we work best, what we can and cannot do, than do neglect our tasks or do them poorly. This goes for any job, of course but especially applies to a small church or volunteer driven organization where there is no one to look over your shoulder or no monthly sales goal to meet. Whatever we do, it is up to us to know you’re limits, tendencies, and needs, and then ask for help when we need it.