Cal Newport has a solid older blog post on the concept of “Monk Mode Mornings.” Essentially, going monk mode in the morning means spending the morning doing deep work and scheduling any other meetings/people time in the afternoons. Applying the monk mode to pastors would mean focusing on your sermon prep and writing during the mornings and any meetings in the afternoon. All meetings, then, should be held after 12:00pm.

Such a schedule means that you should not schedule breakfast meetings. Why? Because a breakfast meeting slips you into “manager mode” and could disrupt your whole morning for sermon study and preparation. Instead of breakfast meetings, schedule lunch meetings, coffee “grabs,” or dinner meetings. Your congregation will thank you because your sermons will be better!