Welcome back to part two of Know your WIP. If you’re just jumping in, make sure you go back to Part 1: Just in Time, or this isn’t going to make any sense. Also, if you haven’t done the Fresh Challenge from Part 1 yet, I’d encourage you to do it before diving in below.
As I mentioned in Part 1: Just in Time I have been on a journey around project management and learning how to navigate my work and the work of my team better. A few years ago, I was feeling overwhelmed with everything on my plate. I had a very long list of things I needed to get done, projects that were on hold, and projects that were coming that needed my attention. Around that same time, I started to learn about the Agile Framework and things like Scrum and Kanban. I don’t want to dive too deep into those things, but they all have one common element that is important in managing any project you’re doing—knowing your Work In Progress (WIP) limit.
I was in a course on Agile when this concept was first introduced. In the course, we talked about the idea that everyone has a WIP limit and that no one can truly multitask. I learned that we have limited capacity to actually “task switch,” and we lose 20% of our efficiency overall every time that we do. It also takes about 12 minutes to get into the zone. But as soon as you’re interrupted, the clock resets—and so does your efficiency. So when our WIP limit is off and we are juggling projects, we are actually being less effective.
A WIP limit is the amount of work you or your team are capable of doing in a specific amount of time. Within the Agile framework, this time limit is often called a Sprint. The idea is that within a set sprint of time (let’s say two weeks), you have a limited number of projects you can bring to completion or complete enough that there is a deliverable that is usable. At its most basic, think of it as the amount of work you have on the go at any given moment.
I promise this applies to ministry 😛
One of the challenges we have in ministry is that we not only have a WIP limit, but we also have a lot of Just in Time work (review Part 1). Here’s where the challenge comes in: often, our project time and our Just in Time work collide, and we run out of time—because we often have too many projects at once and/or there is an unpredictable stream of extra people, meetings, tasks, etc., that demand our attention. Mix in the reality that people can’t multitask as well as they think they can, and you run into a situation where work is either not getting done or is so delayed that it becomes a whole new level of stress.
The solution is similar to what we did with the Just in Time work. We need to identify our projects, assign them a time value, and prioritize the work—which is what we are going to talk about in the next post in this series.
Fresh Challenge
This week, I want you to focus on two key steps. You can again use the Just in Time Worksheet from last week but you can now also download the Project List Worksheet.
- Refine Your Just in Time List: Keep reviewing your Just in Time list. As you go through the week, continue to tweak and adjust it—especially the time estimates you’ve assigned to each task. Pay attention to how long things are actually taking to complete and update the list accordingly.
- Identify and Track Your Projects: Now, let’s shift to the bigger-picture work. Make a list of all your current projects, events, trainings, or initiatives that are not part of your Just in Time work. These are typically larger, longer-term efforts that require more time, energy, and planning.
Then, do the following:
- Write each item on its own sticky note, or use the Project List Worksheet (or digital equivalent).
- Color-code your sticky notes into the following categories:
- Admin: Policies, paperwork, or standards that need updating
- Creation: Writing, curriculum development, or content creation
- Events: Anything you are currently planning or coordinating
- General: Ideas or “someday” projects you want to pursue
- Estimate the time needed to complete each project and write that number in the corner of the sticky note.
For example: When I wrote Youth Content, I knew that one lesson took me about 2 hours. So, a four-lesson series would take 8 hours, plus 2 more hours for editing and posting—10 hours total. I’d write “10” in the corner of that sticky.
Next time, we’ll use these notes or sheet when we talk about priorities and how to bring all your work together into a manageable system.
Fresh Ministry Consulting 