Multi-Tasking and Sermon Preparation

I ran across a quick article from Matt Perman of Desiring God, that addresses the issue of multitasking. Surprisingly (at least to me) his article outlines some findings from a research study at Stanford University that discovered the more a person multi-tasks, the worse they get at it.

Multitasking, in short, is not only not thinking, it impairs your ability to think. Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other people’s ideas, or memorizing a body of information, however much those may sometimes be useful. Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself. You simply cannot do that in bursts of 20 seconds at a time, constantly interrupted by Facebook messages or Twitter tweets, or fiddling with your iPod, or watching something on YouTube.

Pastors and preachers, if anything in the world requires all of our concentration, it is sermon preparation. In the world in which we live, it is tempting to do sermon work in very unstable environments (a term I use loosely here, not as in a war zone) filled with distractions. We must work and strive to find time away from distractions and interruptions to spend time alone with God focusing on hearing his voice and then clearly planning the communication of God’s word to God’s people.

This isn’t easy, but it can be done. I find great times of productivity at home before anyone else wakes up. Sometimes for the sake of concentration on sermon preparation, I actually leave my office and find a quiet hide out so that I can’t be found easily by well-intentioned visitors to my office and harassing sales calls. Develop a plan to get away and get alone. God will be glorified, your sermons will be better, and God’s people will reap the benefits.