Some workers need to give up the slow methods of work which prevail, and to learn to be prompt. Promptness is necessary as well as diligence. If we wish to accomplish the work according to the will of God, it must be done in an expeditious manner, but not without thought and care.—Manuscript 24, 1887. (Ev 650.1) MC VC

Organizing Our Routine Work—Persons who have not acquired habits of close industry and economy of time, should have set rules to prompt them to regularity and dispatch. George Washington was enabled to perform a great amount of business because he was thorough in preserving order and regularity. Every paper had its date and its place, and no time was lost in looking up what had been mislaid.—Gospel Workers, 277, 278 (1880). (Ev 650.2) MC VC

To Use Initiative—When a laborer is set in a certain portion of the Lord’s vineyard, his work is given him as a faithful laborer together with God to work that vineyard. He is not to wait to be told at every point by human minds what he must do, but plan his work to labor wherever he is needed. God has given you brain power to use. The wants of the believers and the necessities of unbelievers are to be carefully studied, and your labors are to meet their necessities. You are to inquire to God and not of any living man what you shall do. You are a servant of the living God, and not a servant of any man. You cannot do the work of God intelligently and be the shadow of another man’s thoughts and directions. You are under God.—Letter 8, 1895. (Ev 650.3) MC VC

Promptness Saves Confusion—There is among the workers a lack of aptness, a confusion, a lack of mutual understanding and promptness. Things are not done on time. As a result, complications and difficulties arise, which it is hard to overcome from a lack of united action. This state of things, if it is not remedied, will be seen and felt still more in the future than in the past, for the work will grow and the need of a perfect understanding of affairs in this house will become greater. The unfortunate habit of neglecting a special work which needs to be done at a certain time trebles the difficulty of performing it later with exactness and without leaving something neglected or unfinished.—Manuscript 24, 1887. (Ev 650.4) MC VC