Once we have developed our F8 Goals the next step is to craft a weekly schedule that will allow us to accomplish these goals. Having a schedule is absolutely necessary to accomplishing your goals. Many people don’t like the idea of a schedule because they feel that it traps them or is too hard to develop but they do not understand that it actually frees them to be purposeful with their time and get the most out of each day, week and month. 

Many times we can feel that we do not have enough time to accomplish our goals but in reality we often are not stewarding the time we have.  

For example: there are 168 hours in each week. If you block 56 hours for sleeping (8 hours per night), 50 hours for work (8 hours per day plus hour commute each way), 20 hours for meal prep/eating, 7 hours for church involvement (service, small group, G12) you still have 35 hours to spend as you like (if you use your commute time towards your goals you would add an extra 10 hours)! 

The key is allowing the Holy Spirit to help you set a schedule that empowers you to use each hour instead of wasting it. 

The steps to developing a workable schedule are as follows: 

1. Break your average week down into individual hours (168 total) 

2. Plot out the major time commitments that you have – work, sleep, ministry and block them in. For example you may block 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday for work/commuting, sleep from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. on those days, devotions from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., G12 Meeting Tuesday night from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and so forth. 

3. Once you have blocked in all of your major commitments begin to consider commitments that don’t happen as often but may still affect your schedule (monthly meetings etc.). 

4. You now should have a clear picture of where you have free blocks of time. If Monday night is free what do you want to do on that evening? What about Saturday? Begin to plan what you will do in these times – it could be your prayer/study times, spending time with your spouse, working on a project, watching TV – really whatever you chose. The power of this process is that we often to do not plan ahead regarding our time and so we end up on Monday night thinking ‘what am I going to do?’ or worse go to bed thinking ‘what did I just do?’ 

5. Begin to live out your schedule and grow/fine tune it. Your schedule is not meant to be a prison but a guide. There are weeks where things come up and you can’t keep it and that is ‘ok’. If you keep your schedule 75% of the time you will accomplish far more than someone who has no schedule and no plan. You will shift your schedule as you find out what really works for you or as you move into a new season of life. Even if it changes the very fact that you have one and are approaching your life this way will give you far greater opportunity for success.