Daily Dose 24: Executive Oversight 3: The Agenda

Almost every complaint I have had with myself about not having adequate time to do whatever I thought needed doing, has been resolved by the spiritual impact of the Lord’s Day on my wrong thinking, and by the practical impact of my Executive Oversight time to puzzle through to a solution of how to do what must be done in the time available.

So many wonderful things happen on Sunday, I don’t like to “waste” any of it, even for a regular nap. Of course, I have both enjoyed and needed an occasional Sunday nap, but draw the line at laundry, mopping floors, or even routinely cooking big fancy dinners.

No, there is nothing magical about the day, but there is something compelling about the focus on Him and the life He has given me. I know He should be forefront in my mind every second of every day. I know I should pray without ceasing. I know I should thank Him for all things. I know I should make captive every thought. The reality is, I have trouble doing those things even on the day reserved for Him, a day emptied of many of the responsibilities and pursuits of the other days. The lessons learned on His day are what shake my distracted thinking later in the week. Plans made away from the daily fray, may not work quite as well in the fray as I planned—but almost always something else is a bonus: an unanticipated activity fits into the schedule. A problem is resolved even before it becomes a problem. A behavior issue gets the attention it needed. Some part of the house work product gets the professional treatment.

What happens in Executive Oversight Meetings

Three basic things happens in an Executive Oversight session:

• Schedule review and coordination
• Priority review and planning
• Project review and planning

I’ve found these three basic meeting points help me have effective meetings without overlooking anything crucial. Here are a few more details about these three basic components of an EO time. Get your calendar and notebook, and go to your favorite meeting place!

1. Schedule review and coordination:

• look over week ahead checking for: appointments, special meetings, events that require special meal times, early or later leaving the house (or returning). Decide on a time filler activity for waiting times, note conflicts and determine how to resolve them; cleaning projects and meal plans for the week reviewed; school and/or work assignment due dates and deadlines
• look over month ahead: fill in dates and times for appointments not on the calendar; check for birthdays, other such events: plan when to mail cards/write notes, purchase gifts, etc. for such events, call for appointments that must be made
• plan leaving times for all traveling appointments, special meetings
• pray over the weekly schedule, as well as more major events within the next month or two

2. Priority review and planning:

• first step is to take the biblical priority information and mesh your personal priority list with it. The biblical priority overview (at least for women) appears as a Daily Dose tomorrow
• as they are developed, review your priority guides for yourself and specific family members, as well as home, work/school and ministry considerations to determine which priority needs attention for the coming week
• schedule when you’ll attend to selected priority work projects during the week

3. Project review and planning:

• begin to brainstorm about possible projects in several areas: yourself, specific family members, home processes, work/school obligations and ministry opportunities. Collect them as a list and schedule them, only one at a time. Don’t go overboard…the list will be available forever…if you write it down in a place it can’t be mislaid
• review any project you are currently working on (like building a priority and value list, for example): make a guess about how much more time it needs, what you still want to do
• if time, work on a project, or plan a time or two in the week to do so.

Don’t fret about not doing “everything” in one meeting. This is an ongoing project and those three areas will begin to fill with specific ideas and projects as you continue. Except that right now, we are all sitting out on the curb of an empty lot, holding a blueprint, and have no house in which to do a weekly meeting! We need the keys, the front door, and en suite in short order before we can continue further.