(continued from Part 1)
In my searches, I looked at lots of productivity systems, including the most common ones. I eventually found my way to David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) work via the MindManager world. I had purchased Mindmanager a week earlier, and had barely begun to experiment with it. I don't remember the exact search string, but it doesn't take long to find GTD if you enter "Mindmanager" and almost any productivity-like term. I started surfing blogs and blogrolls, and eventually understood enough about GTD to know that I wanted to know more. It was a case example of the power of Web 2.0 social networking (though I had never heard that term at the time).
I borrowed the book from our wonderful town library. As a Christian,I am wary of any kind of self-help book. Most pop psychology or self-help books glorify the inner power of the human being. They make much of people, and little (or nothing) of God. They offer people the promise of change and happiness, if only they will believe in...themselves. I understand and respect the earnestness and good intentions of authors in the genre (and, in a previous time looked for Answers in these and New Age spirituality books), but most are not compatible with a Biblical worldview.
So, I approached the book with skepticism and caution. In fact, I was even a little embarrassed when I checked it out of the library. And, indeed, I did find some of the hallmarks of humanistic self-help and the elevation of human potential (in the last couple of chapters of the book, in particular). But I also found a methodology that was manifestly sound, and, in ways I didn't expect, adaptable to my worldview.
The bottom up approach of GTD is what makes it so compelling in this way. The methodology can be applied as a discipline, without even needing to buy into "stress-free productivity" (the subtitle of the book) as a primary goal. Rather, the methods can help a reader bring order to his life, such that he can more effectively discern and pursue the right ends (telos).
Nevertheless, the Biblical Christian does need to do some work to filter, alter, and morph GTD in order to bring it under God's authority and to make it consistent with a life of Godward orientation and childlike dependence in faith. That is the work I aim to do in the seminar I'm developing and in this blog.
To be continued in Part 3...
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