I have to admit something: a few weeks ago, in my “scheduling rest” post, I originally had several references to rhythmic weeks, and even had a line that was something like, “you can read more about rhythmic weeks here” with the intention of linking to a blog post about rhythmic weeks. Only to find that I had never written one. 

This was shocking to me; the rhythmic week is one of MINC’s core tools for helping leaders develop a sense of balance and peace in their often very full lives. The rhythmic week is something I’ve written curriculum on, coached leaders through and personally used since 2016, but it had somehow never made its way to the blog? Ridiculous. Good thing that it can be corrected.

So without further ado: the rhythmic week.

Many of us who are in ministry find that we don’t operate on the same assumed default schedule as the world around us. We all work on the weekend, and many of us work at least one night a week, so its easy for us to wind up working a standard 9-5 schedule plus the additional time that most people have off. We feel guilty when we aren’t at work, we feel guilty when we aren’t with our families, and we generally find ourselves in a schedule that feels a bit unwieldy and unpredictable. 

The goal of the rhythmic week is to create an intentionality, balance and well, rhythm, to our routines and allow us to make choices that prioritize our families, our faith, and our work in its appropriate measure. 

Here’s the steps to make that happen:

1. Make a 7×3 table, on paper or on a spreadsheet.
   • Label the columns as the days of the week.
   • Label the rows as morning, afternoon, and evening.

2. Lay out your Sabbath and off time.
   • Mark your Sabbath, which should be 3 blocked chunks of time in a row.
     • These can be morning, afternoon, and evening of one day, or, evening of one day and morning and afternoon of the next, or afternoon and evening of one day and morning of the next. They don’t need to be all one day but they do need to be consecutive.
   • Mark at least 3 more slots you’re completely off (if your schedule allows more, take them).

3. Mark your Program Times
   • Designate protected, consisted “programming blocks.” For a pastor in a “traditional” programming context this might be Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. 
   • This is not staff meetings, office hours, or other non-programming work.

4. Mark your Balcony time
   • Mark one block of uninterrupted “balcony time,” or uninterrupted strategic planning time. This will be a block where you can plan your upcoming week, look at big picture issues, get caught up on important but not urgent things like checking in with your vision statement. 

5. Mark your GSD (Get Stuff Done) times
   • These blocks are designated for a strong focus on getting things done, including meetings, emails, phone calls, event planning, program prep, etc.
   • For a full-time job, the number of blocks will vary depending on program commitments, but it will ordinarily be between 6 and 9 blocks. Your GSD blocks plus your program blocks should total a max of 10 blocks. 
   • If you don’t work a traditional full-time job, you should still try to limit your all-in maximum effort “work” time to 10 blocks. In my season of life, this looks like 6 work blocks, and 2 blocks of solo childcare responsibilities for my twins, including their appointments, enrichment activities, and more (which winds up being a lot more effort than “work” anyway most days)!

6. Mark the remaining blocks as Flex time. 
   • Flex time is time you can be interrupted or schedule a meeting or do work that needs to get done. 
   • Flex time is different than sabbath or off time, when you are intentionally disengaging and unavailable as possible. 
   • As an example, for me, my flex time in the mornings is often when I’ll take the kids to the playground and then the drop-in care at the YMCA for an hour or two. I might use the time to go for a long run, or take a meeting, or answer some emails. My flex time in the evenings is often filled with volunteer board meetings I do after the kids go to bed.

I started using this system when I was 24 and was working 25 hours a week and in school 15 hours a week, and it worked for me then. It then helped me manage the transition to full-time work and grad school, then full-time work and consulting, and now part-time consulting and being a parent.

Having a simple way to think about your time that intentionally schedules things that aren’t work helped me feel like I got to make decisions around my time and priorities. As coaches and consultants at MINC, we have found that this system has worked for tons of other leaders as well. There is no magic bullet for finding balance in your life, but being able to establish rhythms and routines that prioritize Sabbath and rest, and which allow for flexibility in some areas and boundaries in others, can make a huge difference. 

Try out a rhythmic week schedule for the next few weeks, and see how it feels. Reach out to us for more coaching on how to make changes, implement systems, and build sustainability in your ministry and your life as a minister. 

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Sabbath	Balcony Time	Flex	GSD (work)	Flex	GSD (work)	Flex
Sabbath	GSD (work)	GSD (childcare)	GSD (work)	GSD (childcare)	GSD (work)	Off
Sabbath	Off	Flex	Off	Flex	Off	Off