For any task you do in your ministry, time is required to set it up.

This is even true with your thoughts. It has been psychologically proven that people are incapable of thinking about two things at once.

Your consciousness can only focus on 1 thing at any given time.

When you multitask, you mind shifts back and forth between two or more things rapidly.

Your mind sends an electrical signal along a neural pathway, accesses the particular area of your brain needed for that task, then uses it to execute the task. When you switch your focus, it takes time for your mind to repeat this whole process (setup) before you can perform the new task.

Multitasking has been shown to significantly reduce the ability to complete tasks. This also reduces efficiency at which tasks are done, because of the extra time and resources wasted in the repeated setup process.

You have probably seen this principle in action before, especially if you’ve tried to print t-shirts for your ministry team. When you print shirts in bulk, you get a discount because it maximizes the use of the machine without having to repeat the setup process throughout.

The same is true for your ministry. Every time you set up for a new program or a service, there is a required resource drain. Every time you stop to answer the phone then try to get back to what you had been doing, it takes resources to get yourself situated again.

To most effectively steward ministry resources, ask yourself how you can reduce the setup cost.

Could the vacuuming be reduced to once per week so the chairs and tables don’t have to be put away after every program? A simple change like this reduces the times your volunteers will have to put away the chairs weekly, freeing up their limited energy, time, and attention for more important ministry activities. It also reduces the amount of time spent vacuuming and frees the custodian to do more important things as well.

If you let your team know that you needed to be left undisturbed for certain blocks of time, you could then use those blocks to do difficult tasks with complete focus. That way you can get into the flow of the task and capitalize on your limited ability to focus while you have it -and do all of this distraction free.