One of the journeys I have been on over the last few years is to better understand what it means to be a Project Manager. I had the opportunity a few years ago to do an Agile Bootcamp. Agile is a management philosophy that uses a number of tools to help you get a handle on the work you and your team are doing.
Over the next three weeks, we are going to talk about what it means to find your Work In Progress (WIP) limit. Your WIP is the amount of project work you can handle at one time and deliver on (more about this next time). This has been one of the most important tools I’ve picked up in the last few years, but in order to understand your WIP limit, we need to first talk about your Just in Time work.
One of the challenges we have in ministry is that there is a steady stream of work happening all the time. If you work within Kids, Youth, or Adult Ministries or are the Sr. or Lead Preaching Pastor, the reality is that Sunday is always coming. That means every week there is a list of work you need to do to be ready for the next Sunday. You can’t really work too far ahead because the next Sunday is coming sooner than everything else.
This can also be known as your Just in Time work. By that, I mean the work that can really only be done just before you need it. For example: setting up for the event, week-of communication to volunteers, lesson plans going out on a Thursday, weekly receipt submissions, team resorts, sermon prep, etc. Whatever it is, it needs to be ready when you need it—not really before, and certainly not after.
Before you can get a handle on your project work and understand your WIP limit, you need to first work out what your Just in Time work looks like each week. Often, this is predictable work, and we know how much time and effort it’s going to take. The problem is it’s often not prioritized, so we allow projects, people, meetings, and emergencies to interrupt the work. Then it gets pushed, there’s a time crunch, and stress follows because you need it done just in time.
A wise friend of mine once said she tries to get all her weekly work done before Wednesday morning each week. That way, the last half of the week is left open for projects, meetings, and people—while also leaving room for the fact that if she “gets hit by a bus” (her exact words), she knows Sunday will be okay.
What she didn’t realize she was doing was prioritizing her Just in Time work to be as tight and contained as possible to better free up her time to do other things and tackle the projects she wants to see completed. Make sure you check back next week as we dive into a look at knowing and understanding how to navigate our project work.
Fresh Challenge
This week, I want you to work through the following steps and feel free to download the Just in Time Worksheet to help you out. We’ll revisit these time estimates in part three when we bring all the tools together.
- List all your Just in Time work.
Write down everything you do every week and every month—no matter how big or small. Make a big, random list that captures all these tasks. - Group similar tasks together.
For example, you might send multiple lesson emails, write a sermon, and create graphics and social media posts related to that sermon. Try to keep these related tasks in the same category. - Assign a time estimate to each grouped task.
Think about how long it actually takes to complete each task or group of tasks. Write that estimated time on a sticky note or beside your list.
Bonus: Over the next week, track how accurate your time estimates are. Notice where you underestimated or overestimated, and adjust your times accordingly.
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