{"id":26510,"date":"2026-08-05T22:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T03:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maiglobal.org\/?page_id=26510"},"modified":"2026-08-05T22:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T03:36:19","slug":"time-management-life-balance-and-avoiding-burnout-with-soo-inn-tan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/maiglobal.org\/es\/time-management-life-balance-and-avoiding-burnout-with-soo-inn-tan\/","title":{"rendered":"Time Management, Life Balance and Avoiding Burnout with Soo-Inn Tan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Time Management, Life Balance and Avoiding Burnout<\/strong> with <\/strong>Soo-Inn Tan<\/strong><\/h2>

When we feel constantly busy and tired every day meeting demands at work, home and every area of life, what can we do? Soo-Inn Tan shares why turning to the Lord should be our first step. <\/em><\/p>

Let me start with a quote that I first read in 1981, when the book first came out. It’s from Henry Nouwen’s Making All Things New<\/em>. He writes:<\/p>

“One of the most obvious characteristics of our daily lives is that we are busy. We experience our days as filled with things to do, people to meet, projects to finish, letters to write, calls to make, and appointments to keep. Our lives often seem like overpacked suitcases bursting at the seams. In fact, we are almost always aware of being behind schedule. There’s a nagging sense that there are unfinished tasks, unfulfilled promises, unrealized potential, and unrealized proposals. There’s always something else that we should have remembered, done, or said. There are always people we did not speak to, write to, or visit. Although we are very busy, this is the irony here, we also have a lingering feeling of never really fulfilling our obligations.”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Compared to someone who lived 50 years ago, I suspect all of us are more busy and doing more, yet still having this growing sense that we are not doing enough.<\/p>

It struck me that Nouwen wrote these words in 1981, when the internet was just beginning to impact society. I wonder what he would write if he were still alive today.<\/p>

Where we are today<\/strong><\/h3>

If Nouwen’s observation was true in 1981, it would be magnified many times in terms of what we are experiencing in our lives today. I suspect for many of us that the key terms are “We are busy” or “We are tired.”<\/p>

And although we are committed to various things that God has called us to do, I’m sure if you are associated with MAI or with any of the ministry organizations that you are committed to, it’s a question that we are not serious about what we are doing.<\/p>

We want to do well; we want to be productive. But yet we can’t function in a vacuum.<\/p>

We continue to want to do all we think we should, but there’s always this sense of being pulled in many different directions, a sense of being tired all the time.<\/p>

Frenetic, fragmented and addicted<\/strong><\/h3>

There are various things that make our lives much more frenetic and fragmented today. For one thing, the very communication technology that is meant to help us, the communication technology that we are taking advantage of right now. It’s a help, and yet it’s also a pain.<\/p>

Most of us, if you’re not careful, are on all the time. Either we are online, on the computer, or with our smartphones. We are online all the time. We find ourselves always reacting to stuff from the outside. Each time I open my inbox, there are diverse things that require my attention. I feel myself pulled in many directions and always responding to someone else’s agenda.<\/p>

If I’m quiet and listen to the Lord, I will be able to think and pray through what I should initiate. But most of the time, I’m responding to all this stuff coming in. I’m actually just responding and reacting to queries, to invitations, and to initiatives from other people.<\/p>

It’s actually quite scary to go on holiday because when you come back, there will be tons of emails in your inbox. And the fact that we can access it through our smartphones means that we are plugged in all the time. All the studies are coming in now that show that this is not good. It doesn’t give us the kind of downtime, or quiet space, to reflect or to think through new initiatives for the things that we face.<\/p>

So the very communication technology meant to help us has resulted in us being swarmed and being logged in all the time. It actually can become quite addictive. We find it very hard to switch off. We may experience withdrawal symptoms when we are offline. Although some of you may have found freedom from this bondage, many of us still struggle with it. For many of us, internet addiction is a reality.<\/p>

A plethora of information and feeling the need to be on top of things<\/strong><\/h3>

We also live in a time of information overload. Every day, tons of new articles and books are churned out. And whatever subject matter that you are dealing with, you’re always feeling that you are never on top of things. You need to continue to find that new seminar, that new book, that new article that is so key to your purposes. There’s so much for us to process.<\/p>

Because of the internet, we also now know about things happening of some crisis in some other country, or in another church, or some individual is having a problem. The knowledge of that issue then spurs us to have a sense of responsibility. We wonder, \u201cWhat do I do now in response to that issue?\u201d<\/p>

We feel this sense of never being on top of things, always concerned to try to catch up to be able to respond properly to new information and new situations.<\/p>

May of us also live in an urban world. Living in an urban place like Singapore or Kuala Lumpur means that one of the realities of urban life is the need for a daily commute. You may stay in one place and work in another; your church meeting is somewhere else. Hours are spent every day travelling, sapping our energy, and really is an assault on our health as well.<\/p>

Competing to be faster, better and cheaper in every area of life<\/strong><\/h3>

Globalization is another reality with huge implications.<\/p>

We now live in a world where the competition to be faster, better, and cheaper is constant. If you work in sales or marketing, you used to compete with local businesses. Now you’re competing with everybody in the world. The pressure to be much more productive, much faster is there. I see many young working people come back very late at night, having exhausted most of their creative energies at work.<\/p>

Globalization also means that we travel more. We jump on a plane. Today I’m here; tomorrow I’m in Hong Kong or I’m in America. All of this takes time and energy and the need to interact with diverse cultures, which all require adaptation and energy.<\/p>

We can see all this eating into our time and emotional resources, and this feeling of being tired, of having to be productive in so many areas.<\/p>

We live in a consumer world. Unknowingly, we spend a lot of time buying things or services that are supposedly essential for us. Ironically, this applies even to ministry. There’s a new book, or a new program, or something that you must have to make your ministry successful.<\/p>

These are just a sampling of the forces at work in our lives today, which result in us being pulled in so many directions and having to be on top of so many things. We are not surprised that many of us feel the time crunch.<\/p>

So what are some implications? Let me just quickly run through a few.<\/p>

Lack of respect for God\u2019s rhythm of work and rest<\/strong><\/h3>

Because of this pressure to be productive, we value productivity, and not a healthy work-rest rhythm. If someone were to say, “Well, I pulled an all-nighter. I stayed up all night to finish a project. Everybody will say, “Wow, that’s fantastic.” But if you were to share, “I had a good night’s sleep,” what’s the big deal? Rest gets no respect.<\/p>

We highly value productivity, but productivity without respecting God’s rhythm of work and rest means that we will break down at some point.<\/p>

If you’re in some kind of vocational Christian ministry, you also have to deal with this idea that we have to sacrifice. After all, aren\u2019t we supposed to carry our cross? But we sometimes apply this in wrong ways. We think, we must work hard and sacrifice. After all, souls are involved. And ministry work, by and large, has no clear boundaries. A lot of ministry work is developmental. We can never say we’re finished.<\/p>

Less rest means less energy to connect with others<\/strong><\/h3>

This constant sense of “I need to do more” leads to working hard with minimal energy for rest, which leaves little energy to connect with others.<\/p>

The loneliness of many of us who are working very hard, either in ministry or even in the modern marketplace, is destructive. It will come back and bite you. This is one of the fallouts of a world that prizes productivity but not rest and relationship.<\/p>

Emotional shifts throughout the day<\/strong><\/h3>

I remember the days that I was a pastor. In the morning, I could be conducting a funeral. I would enter into the grief of my friends and parishioners, my brothers and sisters. In the afternoon, I may have to conduct a wedding, and I have to shift my emotional gears from grief to great joy. In the evening, there may be a board meeting where I now have to come on as this wise pastor, shepherd person. This kind of constant shifting from emotional context to emotional context takes a lot out of us. And we may not recognize this again until some form of physical or emotional burnout comes.<\/p>

Addiction to adrenaline<\/strong><\/h3>

My last point is the irony of it: that we get addicted to this instant adrenaline high.<\/p>

Although we say that we are overworked and we are stressed, when we actually have some time off, after a while we begin to be fidgety and we find that we don’t have the kind of high that comes from being engaged all the time.<\/p>

It’s almost like some kind of addiction that we work all the time or that we complain about how tough it is. We’ve actually trained our bodies and our emotions to function with an understanding of the norms of this sort of life.<\/p>

That makes this discussion about how to be more balanced in terms of work and Sabbath much more difficult. We may actually find it uncomfortable when we actually slow down. But there are very serious consequences of this sort of being on all the time with minimal rest.<\/p>

Exhaustion, depression, escapism and suicide<\/strong><\/h3>

One of the consequences\u2014and we see 1 Kings 19 as a classic study of this in the life of Elijah\u2014is exhaustion and depression.<\/p>

Already, even in the ranks of MAI, we see key publishers or writers really doing great work, and suddenly they find they are exhausted, they’re depressed, and they just can’t carry on. I’ve gone through clinical depression at some point in my life. When serious depression hits, someone switches off all the switches, and you just can’t carry on. We see Elijah in 1 Kings 19: “I can’t carry on. Lord, take my life.”<\/p>

And I’m afraid this describes too many of us.<\/p>

With that comes escapism: “I want to go somewhere else. If only I have another job or I go to another country or move to another organization, then it’s going to be all right.”<\/p>

So, although we are in a given place and a given role, we are fantasizing about being somewhere else.<\/p>

All this fantasizing takes up time and energy too, and really doesn’t go anywhere.<\/p>

We experience a sense of being alone, that we have no key relationships, nobody understands us, and we\u2019re afraid and feel trapped and don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way out.<\/p>

Unfortunately, some find themselves so trapped in their situation that one form of escapism is suicide. Even in the circles of those of us who are in any sort of ministry, there are friends and dear ones who have taken their lives because they’ve come to a point of despair.<\/p>

Anger, self-righteousness, and sin<\/strong><\/h3>

When I talk about this topic, I have a deep burden about the kind of cost in all our lives if we don’t take this issue seriously.<\/p>

Anger and a self-righteous spirit are quite common. If you are tired, then you have a very short fuse. Elijah kept saying, “I’m the only one who hasn’t sold out. It’s only me; I’m the only one who is truly Yahweh’s.” We find out later, there are about 7,000 more who have not bowed to Baal. But this is what Elijah feels.<\/p>

When we are tired, we feel that we are the only ones who are doing important work, and we get angry; we get frustrated with people who don’t seem to be pulling their weight. You remember the Martha and Mary story. Martha was very upset that her sister wasn’t pulling her weight.<\/p>

Thus anger is another characteristic of this burnout phase of life.<\/p>

Finally, when we are tired, our discernment and our guard are down, and we fall into sin. We find many key leaders who fall into sin, and most of the time, you can check their lives and see that they have been running on empty for a long time.<\/p>

Return to the Lord<\/strong><\/h3>

We see the causes that cause burnout in today’s world. We see some of the destructive effects.<\/p>

So, what do we do?<\/p>

Sometimes, people have to go through pain to make them really address an issue in life. Sometimes, pain can be an opportunity for us to review our life and our relationship with God.<\/p>

The tendency in our world is to look for some method or technology that will save us. Is there some app that can balance our lives? Is there some method that can make it all okay again? We are tempted to find solutions apart from God.<\/p>

If you want to seriously begin a journey back from burnout and exhaustion, the answer is relational. You need to return to the Lord.<\/p>

There are at least three things that we can do to live a life that has a better work-Sabbath balance: returning to the Lord, recognizing our roles, and respecting rest.<\/p>

Claim your primary relationship with God<\/strong><\/h3>

The first way back from a life of burnout and exhaustion is really claiming afresh our primary relationship with God: that we are children of the Living God.<\/p>

You may ask, what has returning to God got to do with time management or finding relief from burnout?<\/p>

That’s because a lot of our response to the many calls upon our lives stem from our hearts. If I am clear that God is my Father, then I look to Him meet my deepest needs\u2014including the need for love, the need for purpose, and the need for significance.<\/p>

If I don’t allow God to meet those needs, then I have to meet them in some other way. And usually, we meet those needs for significance and purpose through our performance. We write a good book, we preach a good sermon, people are very happy with us, and we get addicted to this way of feeling good.<\/p>

So, we work more and more.<\/p>

We find it very hard to say no, because when we do these things, people tell us what a good person we are. We look to work as the source of our deepest needs: the need for significance and love. But if we let the Lord meet those needs, then we don’t need to let our performance be the source of our significance.<\/p>

It doesn’t mean that we\u2019re lazy. What it means is that once our deepest needs are met in God, we\u2019re free to be able to discern carefully what we should do and what we should not do.<\/p>

If I’m not walking with God or letting Him fill my heart, then I will work more and more to try to feel good about myself.<\/p>

Returning to the Lord is critical because many issues in life are really not time management issues\u2014they are issues of the heart.<\/p>

You may have the most sophisticated time management structure in the world, but if your heart is empty, you will still gravitate toward doing all sorts of things and working until you’re burned out to meet those needs. We need to look to the Lord to meet our deepest needs.<\/p>

The second reason why we need to return to our heavenly Father is that I must learn to be like Jesus and to look Him for direction as to how to use my time. We are told that Jesus only did what the Father told Him to do.<\/p>

There are all these opportunities in the global world, all these invitations before us, all these projects that call for attention. Often when invitations come, we say yes, we do everything that people tell us to do\u2014and we wonder why we are burnt out.<\/p>

Our first step is to look to Abba, Father, and say, “Abba, Father, which of these things are my responsibility and which of these things are not?” When I return to the Father, I let Him meet my deepest needs, and I also let Him direct my life.<\/p>

When we have that clarity from God, then we have the courage to say yes when the Lord is guiding us to do something, and we have the courage to say no as well when the Lord says, \u201cThis is important, but this is not your responsibility.\u201d<\/p>

A need is not a call. The Christian ethic is not heroism\u2014doing as much as I can\u2014but obedience and faithfulness.<\/p>

So, we need to learn this secret: drawing close to God our Father, allowing Him to meet our deepest needs so that we don’t need to look to our work to meet those needs, and being able to hear Him guiding us on how to say yes and how to say no, which things we need to do and which things are not our responsibility.<\/p>

Nurturing our walk with God in solitude and community <\/strong><\/h3>

To be able to nurture our walk with God, we need two things: we need solitude and we need community.<\/p>

No matter how busy your life is, you need to carve out that space where you can be quiet before the Lord and hear His still, small voice.<\/p>

Even in our attempts to hear the Lord, the heart is deceitful above all things, so we need community as well\u2014encountering God through the lives of our friends in Christ.<\/p>

If you want to return to the Father, you need to invest time in solitude and in community so that you can draw close to Him, let Him minister to you, and let Him guide you as to what you should and should not do.<\/p>

This does not mean that there aren’t times when God may call us to act sacrificially, but at least we know that we are doing it because God has called us to do so.<\/p>

Our default position is not heroism, where we do more and more until we burn out\u2014our default position is obedience.<\/p>

At times, God may ask us to go all out on a given project, but if God has called us, He will provide the resources we need, and we won’t run ahead of Him.<\/p>

Returning to Father is the first step in returning to some semblance of work-Sabbath balance.<\/p>

Role stewardship over time management<\/strong><\/h3>

The second principle of gaining work-Sabbath balance is recognizing our roles.<\/p>

If you watch the Summer Olympics, the glamorous event is the men’s 100-meter sprint. Who will be the fastest man on earth?<\/p>

But there’s another event that has been going on over a period of days: the decathlon. To win, you can’t just do well in one event\u2014you have to do well in over ten events. It’s not just a quick ten-second spurt\u2014you have to be faithfully doing reasonably well in all ten events.<\/p>

The decathlon is a better picture of life. Life is not just about one thing. Life is about being faithful to all the roles that God has given to us.<\/p>

We have to take seriously the roles that God has given us, because if we aren’t aware of all these roles, then we tend to gravitate towards certain roles that make us feel good\u2014again, usually work.<\/p>

In Ephesians and Colossians, the Apostle Paul talks about the main responsibilities we have at work, with our spouses, and with our children.<\/p>

God has assigned us different roles that we have to play.<\/p>

For myself, I’m a husband to Bernice. I’m a father\u2014between the two of us, we have four sons. I’m a child because we still have one remaining parent, my mom. I have been entrusted with these roles. I’m a worker, a publisher, and a teacher of the Word. I’m a friend. I have an extended family. I’m a citizen\u2014a citizen of Malaysia and a permanent resident in Singapore.<\/p>

I see these as various roles that God has entrusted to me, and my desire is to be a faithful steward of all my roles.<\/p>

We start by listing all the possible key roles in our lives. Each of our lists may be slightly different. Come before the Lord and ask, “Which are the key roles in my life that God has entrusted to me?”<\/p>

Then, week by week, ask the Lord, “Is there one or two things I must do to be a faithful steward of each of these roles?”<\/p>

I want to shift the discussion away from just “things we need to do.” Usually in time management, we write down a to-do list, but there’s no guidance to evaluate the relative importance of those tasks.<\/p>

I want us to move one step back and ask, \u201cWho am I?\u201d<\/em> Then ask how to be a faithful steward of each of these roles week by week. It’s not just time management\u2014it’s role stewardship.<\/p>

In 2 Corinthians 5:10, we are told that one day we will be judged for all we have done in the flesh\u2014all the roles that God has entrusted to us. So instead of starting with a to-do list, begin by thinking about who you are and asking, “This coming week, to be faithful to this role, what is one thing that I must do?”<\/p>

After establishing that, the remaining time can be filled up with other important tasks, but at least you know you’ve touched base with all your key roles.<\/p>

I first encountered this concept in a Navigator Press book, How to Balance Competing Life Demands<\/em>, by Doug Sherman and William Hendricks, which presented the same idea.<\/p>

All our roles actually build upon each other. For example, you cannot be productive at work if your marriage is in bad shape or your children are struggling. If you have a strong family life, that gives you energy and creativity that you can bring into your work.<\/p>

These roles are not pulling us in different directions\u2014all our roles build upon each other.<\/p>

By keeping my roles before me on a regular basis, I ensure that I don’t lose touch with them.<\/p>

We tend to gravitate towards doing things that give us the most immediate joy or affirmation, and we may neglect working through a tough marriage or raising children, which often may not give immediate emotional rewards. But these are things we must still work on week after week.<\/p>

Recognizing our roles and asking the Lord for wisdom week by week about one or two things to do to be faithful is another key principle of returning to balance.<\/p>

Respect rest and be renewed in the Lord<\/strong><\/h3>

The third principle is respecting rest.<\/p>

The difficulty of talking about rest in today’s production-obsessed world is that everyone talks about how much they need to do, but very few talk about the need for adequate rest.<\/p>

As Christians, our response to rest cannot be merely pragmatic (“I need to rest so I can be productive”). We need a theological understanding of rest, which brings us to the Sabbath.<\/p>

The first time we encounter the Sabbath commandment is in Exodus, when God provides Israel laws to shape their lives after rescuing them from Egypt: one day in seven, they are to cease from all productive activity. The root word for “Sabbath” means “to cease<\/em>” or “to stop.”<\/p>

Life is to be lived in this rhythm: six days of hard work and one day to rest.<\/p>

The principle of the Sabbath appears even earlier in the creation account. On the sixth day, God created Adam and Eve, declared it excellent, and gave them the responsibility of taking care of creation. On the seventh day, instead of immediately working, God set aside time for rest and blessing. The seventh day is set aside especially for God.<\/p>

This statement shows that our primary call as human beings is to relate to God, and out of that relationship flows the blessing that enriches whatever work we are called to do.<\/p>

The Sabbath is a 6+1 rhythm: six days of work, one day set apart for God.<\/p>

Why the Sabbath? <\/strong><\/h3>

First, to dethrone work. When we take our work seriously, it can become an idol. We structure our lives around work rather than around God, and it is hard to tell the difference because we are serving God anyway. Stopping one day in seven is a reminder that God is the center of our lives, not our work.<\/p>

Second, we need time to renew our lives and be replenished. We are not machines created to run without downtime. We are humans created for a 6+1 rhythm. We need to renew our lives physically (taking care of our bodies with exercise, diet, and rest), emotionally (taking time to process anger, depression, or joy), socially (reconnecting with friends and family), and spiritually (spending quiet time with God in worship and listening to Him).<\/p>

One day off in seven also reminds us that God is the main worker in our lives.<\/p>

Eugene Peterson reminded us that the Jewish way of counting time is night and day: you begin your day by going to bed. While you are sleeping, God continues His work. When you wake up, you enter into a world that God has continued to work on.<\/p>

Sleeping and resting reminds us that the world doesn’t collapse without us, because it is on God’s shoulders.<\/p>

This side of heaven, there will be no perfect balance. I prefer to talk about living a responsible<\/em> life. At any given point, what does it mean to live responsibly?<\/p>

\u00a0When Bernice and I were caring for our first spouses when they were ill with cancer, our lives were completely unbalanced, but we were living responsibly.<\/p>

Life stewardship is not an individualistic exercise. We live connected to others. There are times when someone else picks up the slack for us, and times when we pick up the slack for them.<\/p>

Putting things into practice<\/strong><\/h3>

Consider practicing this: plan a week ahead. List down your roles, identify one or two things you need to do for each, lock in your Sabbath experiences, and then let other tasks fill in around them. Remain open to interruptions and fine-tune your plans as you go along.<\/p>

If we live by these three principles\u2014returning to our heavenly Father, recognizing our roles, and respecting rest\u2014we can go a long way toward experiencing the Shalom of God and serving Him healthily for many years without burning out prematurely.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Q&A with Soo Inn Tan<\/strong><\/h2>

What if someone finds themselves in a situation at work where one’s schedule is not one’s own and it just feels like work is becoming all, and quitting the job is not an option?<\/strong><\/h3>

What I presented is a guiding framework. Each of you will have different circumstances. I understand this.<\/p>

In the situation you have described, I want to emphasize that I cannot provide a one-size-fits-all answer. I would want to sit down with the individual and pray through it with that person. We go back to the Lord.<\/p>

You can pray, “Lord, this is a tough situation. What would you have me do?”<\/p>

The Lord may say that you must tough it out for a while. You can then pray, “Well, God, if that’s what you want me to do, you’ve got to give me the special anointing or strength I need.”<\/p>

The Lord may say, “Well, I release you from this very destructive situation,” then we have the freedom to go.<\/p>

So, instead of any sort of standard answer, I think each person in acting must seek the Lord.<\/p>

And I, again, advocate strongly a way of seeking the Lord in community with friends who can help you to pray. Sometimes, on our own, we are either too hard or too soft on ourselves. Having reliable friends to pray can help us to discern in each situation what God would have us do.<\/p>

Sabbath is meant for rest, but often writers’ minds continue to think during the Sabbath, even though nothing is written. How do we control this?<\/strong><\/h3>

For most of us, writing is part of life. It’s not just some segment of life, so it’s kind of hard to switch off. We are thinking and reflecting all the time.<\/p>

You need to replace this with something else. You can play some competitive game like badminton, see a concert, have a meal. Structure renewal activities that can occupy your heart and your mind and give you joy. That’s my immediate answer.<\/p>

It’s very hard not to think of the things that you’re working on, but you could carve out experiences in your downtime that would occupy you, things that you like to do, which will then take your mind off your writing.<\/p>

It’s a very real situation. Whether I’m writing or teaching, I’m thinking about it all the time. So, I must structure something to replace it.<\/p>

How do you suggest we guide our employees when we do have aggressive productivity targets, but we also wish to protect our employees from burnout?<\/strong><\/h3>

I understand. If you’re running a company, there are deadlines, there are things that must be done.<\/p>

I, again, find it very hard to find a solution.<\/p>

One of my good friends who is a manager sits down for half an hour per week with each member of his team to ask them\u2014how are you doing, how can we help you achieve those goals, are those goals responsible goals or not? I think this kind of personal touch from the boss is important. They know the boss cares for them and they’re not just using you to get something, but they really care for you. I like to think that someone who feels love will also want to work hard as well because they care for you.<\/p>

Ensuring that our employees do not burn out is good for productivity because if your employees burn out, they can’t be producing. In different societies, there are different expectations of adequate work-life balance. I think sitting down with individuals, having some understanding of their life, helps. \u00a0<\/p>

I was always very touched by this example of a friend of mine who was the country manager of a company with enormous numbers to chase every month. And he said that he felt committed to Scripture and convicted from Scripture. His employees, most of them, if not all of them, were non-Christian. But the Sabbath is also for the foreigner in the land, as we see in the Old Testament.<\/p>

He implemented a very strong Sabbath rhythm. He told his employees, \u201cI want you to go all out five days, five and a half days max, but your Saturday’s a half day or full day on Sunda. You mustn’t be working. I will call you in if I see you working on a Saturday, especially on a Sunday.\u201d<\/p>

What he told me surprised me. He said, \u201cWhen I took Sabbath seriously, we met our targets every year. In fact, we met more than met our targets every year.\u201d<\/p>

Coming to the Lord is most important. Yet when I get depressed, finding help from a clinical psychologist is very helpful. It helps me. What do you think?<\/strong><\/h3>

Each of us will come from different situations.<\/p>

Some of us may just be exhausted and stressed, and it doesn’t take that much to bounce back and to adopt a more healthy balance.<\/p>

Some of us have been running on empty for a long time.<\/p>

I say this as someone who went through clinical depression myself.<\/p>

There are some of us in a situation where we really do need some kind of professional help, and we should not feel ashamed or that we are not trusting God if we need some professional help. If we reach a stage of our journey where we really are in clinical depression and we seek the help we need, I think it’s a wise thing to do. It’s a beneficial thing to do.<\/p>

I realize the importance of rest, but how do you encourage a laid-back person to be more productive and responsible?<\/strong><\/h3>

This inquiry is a very good question. In fact, the people who hear this talk often will ask me this question. They’re afraid that there are others who are not burnt out. They’re slackers. They’re not pulling weight.<\/p>

I guess this is a whole management lecture! First, of course, where possible, we must discern whether a person really fits into a role or a company that he’s working for. We discern whether someone should be working for our team. We should try our best to see whether the fit is good.<\/p>

A laid-back person has some disconnect between their work and what the company or the ministry is trying to do. Do they receive enough training for what they’re doing? Is there some constant encouragement from the leader, especially the leader he reports to? Are they giving enough encouragement? There’s no standard answer.<\/p>

These are the things I would look for in helping to motivate people. But again, I must discern in a given situation why this individual is not productive. There could be a whole host of reasons why this is true. Only when I discover that would I be able to help the person to be more productive.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Soo-Inn Tan<\/em><\/strong> is co-founder and director\u00a0of <\/em>Graceworks<\/em><\/a>, a ministry committed to promoting spiritual friendship in church and society.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From our Resource Library Time Management, Life Balance and Avoiding Burnout with Soo-Inn Tan When we feel constantly busy and tired every day meeting demands at work, home and every area of life, what can we do? Soo-Inn Tan shares why turning to the Lord should be our first step. Let me start with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2000,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-26510","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTime Management, Life Balance and Avoiding Burnout with Soo-Inn Tan - Media Associates International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/maiglobal.org\/es\/time-management-life-balance-and-avoiding-burnout-with-soo-inn-tan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Time Management, Life Balance and Avoiding Burnout with Soo-Inn Tan - Media Associates International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From our Resource Library Time Management, Life Balance and Avoiding Burnout with Soo-Inn Tan When we feel constantly busy and tired every day meeting demands at work, home and every area of life, what can we do? 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