February 17, 2026

 Business by the Book

Nehemiah 2:6  And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be? and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

Years ago a survey about job satisfaction published its findings. The number one vocation that brought its practitioners the most personal satisfaction was carpentry. The survey reported that carpenters were able to look at the finished project with pride and the gratification of a job well done.

Evidently non-carpenters have a difficult time maintaining personal satisfaction concerning their work. In today’s verse we learn one step in the ever challenging task of finding and sustaining workplace related satisfaction. That one tactic is to set a deadline. The king asked “how long,” obviously the cupbearer set a time and the king agreed,

 for Artaxerxes approved Nehemiah’s deadline. (On a side note, the king wanted Nehemiah back in the castle doing his job when his work in Jerusalem was complete; he was valuable to the king) 

Setting deadlines benefits workers in at least three ways. First, they give the mind rest knowing that the task is limited, it has boundaries, and it will not drag on and on and on. Second, it aides in planning. Each and every step involved in the task at hand must be planned in light of the final deadline. And third, setting a deadline allows a time to look back on a finished product with the satisfaction that it was well planned, well organized, finished on time, and now the next task can be entered into without lingering leftover baggage.

Within every big deadline there are numerous little deadlines. Each minor deadline that is met contributes to the completion of the final deadline. For example, if it is your task to build an office building, the overall deadline may be years away. If the only satisfaction one achieves on this job is the end there may be years of dissatisfaction. Small deadlines like get an appointment with the electrician, pour the concrete for the foundation, have the interior walls ready for paint, there could literally be thousands of small deadlines that all totaled bring the overall deadline to a satisfactory completion.

Rejoice in each and every deadline accomplished. Probably each sales professional has been trained that it takes so many “no’s” before they get a “yes.”  Each “no” brings a determined sales representative closer to getting that “yes.”  If only 10% of prospects actually make a purchase, then the first nine who say “no” get you closer to the one who will say “yes”. If all a salesperson ever does is call on people who will actually purchase their product they will starve. Likewise, the more complicated a big project, the more important it is to have small deadlines which, if completed, act as propellant to move the project to successful completion.

Each day each successful person needs a deadline. If nothing else is completed that day except that one deadline, success will ultimately follow and satisfaction can be experienced. Think about it, if there are 250 work days in a year and you complete one important deadline each day, you will successfully complete 250 deadlines each year. That is called being a top producer, and job satisfaction always accompanies top producers.

Dr. William Howe