Christian productivity tips are not just about accomplishing more; they are about living each day in a way that honors God. We live in a crazy busy, fast paced world that has so many more demands on our time than we can possibly meet. Time is a scarce resource and we just can’t do all that we want with the hours available to us. If we are not careful days, months and years will slip away leaving a trail of things we wish we had done and a trail of time we wish we had spent differently.
This is not how anyone wants to live. What can we do, though? Some seek guidance from time management specialists. Numerous books and articles have been written to help people become more productive at work and better manage their personal and domestic lives. Much of this information can be helpful, but what believers need is more than secular time management systems. They need Christian productivity tips that are grounded in Scripture and anchored in eternity.
But the truth is that God’s Word is to be our primary source of guidance. The Bible has a lot to say about time management, but it is more about helping us live truly successful, balanced lives than it is about increasing production or work efficiency. Ephesians 5:15–16 tells us to “walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The expression “redeeming the time” means to use it to the best advantage and to use it in such a way as to please God and not to be governed by the desires of the body. Similar verses tell us to “number our days” (Psalm 90:12, 39:4-5; James 4:14) and remember how fleeting life is. This will help us to manage time well and not waste it. These are the fundamentals that all true Christian productivity tips must rest on.
The Bible is very clear about how we are to order our time and what our chief concerns ought to be. Here is a summary of five of these time management concepts. All are as relevant today as when they were written.
1. Prioritize Things That Have Eternal Value
Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. That means putting time and effort into the things God values. Most importantly, we should set aside time each day for Bible study, prayer, and meditation on biblical truths—all of which help us grow closer to God. When we put God first, our lives begin to come together around other things.
Marriages and families, including our church family, are our highest priorities outside our relationship with God. The Bible teaches it takes time to properly care for our family, as 1 Timothy 5:8 instructs. In addition, we need to develop relationships with friends, especially church brothers and sisters, and find time to help others, even those not in our social circle (Galatians 5:13, 1 Peter 4:10), so that there can be mutual support (Hebrews 10:25).
Examples of time well spent in everyday life include a long phone call to “catch up” with a friend, a visit to a lonely widow, sitting around the dinner table and discussing the day with family members, and having meaningful conversations or even playing games with church brethren to get to know them better.
It means that these uses of our time are honoring God and have meaning and value beyond our physical lives. The things we have been discussing have eternal value. That is what God wants us to prioritize. Matthew 6:19-20 tells us, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. In this day and age (if that), we shouldn’t be focusing on things that are only temporarily valuable or on self-serving objectives.
Of course we are physical beings. And a lot of our daily work is entirely related to worldly concerns, such as making a living, cleaning house and yard, preparing meals, etc. This is to be expected. But we need to ask ourselves whether we work so much or whether “nonessential” hobbies (playing video games or scrolling through social media or binge-watching TV) take up so much of our free time that we have no time for things that are timeless.
2. Ignore Outside Distractions
Proverbs 4:25–27 in the English Standard Version emphasizes the importance of being focused and undistracted: “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Consider the path of your feet, and your ways will be made firm. Turn your foot away from evil; turn not to the left or right.
It can be difficult to do, and it’s one of the most practical Christian productivity tips you’ll ever put into practice—distraction is not just a time management problem; it’s a spiritual problem. During our working days, we are constantly being bombarded with phone calls, texts, emails, social media alerts, and interruptions from colleagues that divert our attention from what we were doing and ultimately hinder our productivity. Some time management experts recommend shutting your office door, silencing digital notifications during your work, and instituting self-imposed limits on how often you check your phone.
Biblical time management teaches us not to let the “cares of this world” (Mark 4:19) pull us away from things that are eternally valuable. Even good activities can become distractions to be avoided if they are distracting us from God. Luke 10:38-42 records that Martha was distracted from Jesus Christ by the dinner she was preparing. Keeping our eyes on God’s priorities for our life will help us not get sidetracked by distractions but keep our focus on what matters most.
3. Make a plan for how you’ll spend your time
Make priorities a conscious endeavor. Set aside a certain time every day to read the Bible and to pray. Write down important appointments, meetings, activities, etc. in a daily or weekly planner. Then determine how much time you can dedicate to your family, to volunteering, or to other important responsibilities. Be willing to say “no” to things and activities that pull you away from your priorities or that require more energy than you have to give.
The idea of planning is definitely biblical. Proverbs 21:5 tells us, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty surely to poverty.” Luke 14:28 compares planning to weighing the costs of building a structure. Planning makes it more likely that we will achieve our goals. On the other hand, if we are always impulsive or living our lives in reaction to things as they happen rather than planning, we will likely miss out on what should be our first priority. Intentional, Spirit-led planning is thus one of the most overlooked Christian productivity tips in today’s busy church culture.
4. Don’t be a workaholic, but work hard
Scripture praises and promotes effort and hard work. The NLT says, “The lazy person craves and gets nothing, but the diligent person is richly blessed.” Proverbs 13:4 also says that “in all labor there is profit” (14:23), “the hand of the diligent maketh rich” (10:4), and “will rule” (12:24). We are told in the New Testament to work hard (Colossians 3:23) and not to expect to eat if we don’t work (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
However, we should not let work dominate our lives. God designed our bodies to need regular rest periods. Most importantly, Exodus 20:8–10 tells us that He created the Sabbath as a weekly day for us to rest from our physical labor, focus on Him, go to church, and spend time with our brethren.
We also need a certain amount of sleep each night (usually 7–10 hours) so our bodies and minds can rejuvenate. Restful sleep is a blessing from God (Proverbs 3:24; Psalm 127:2) as Scripture points out. It is also a good idea to schedule in some downtime for rest and relaxation during the work days. Jesus himself modeled this. From time to time he withdrew from the masses to recruit his strength for his earthly mission. Mark 6:31: Jesus, after a long journey, told the disciples to “rest a while” and to do the same.
Recreation, or relaxation, replenishes our bodies, minds, and spirits. Most of us do much better when we have a little “elbow room” in our schedules.
5. Don’t put off accomplishing what’s crucial
We may delay doing things on our “to-do” list that we know are important because we are busy doing other things or we don’t want to challenge ourselves at the moment. For example, we may have drifted apart with a relative we used to be close to and realize that we need to have a conversation, but we convince ourselves that we can wait and deal with that at a later time. Or we might decide to delay the Sabbath observance until perhaps next year, knowing that that would mean giving up our weekend work.
The problem may be that there’s no next year or “later on” to do the stuff that needs to be done. God wants us to understand this hard fact. The New Living Translation of Proverbs 6:4 says, “Don’t put it off; do it immediately! Keep going until you don’t. Proverbs 27:1 (NLT) Don’t boast about tomorrow, for you don’t know what tomorrow may bring. The point is there is no guarantee of tomorrow. We have to move now, while there is still time to fix any critical situations. We don’t want to be on our deathbeds wishing we had made peace with a friend or spent more time with our loved ones.
The most important lesson of all these Christian productivity tips? Our time is God’s. Remember the apostle Peter tells us that we will be judged by God for the way we live (1 Peter 4:3-6). Our lives are what we make of every hour that he gives us. Real Christian productivity looks like prioritizing eternity over urgency, God over busyness, faithfulness over frantic activity. Don’t waste the time that God has given you.
