Godward Toil

Challies on his tools

I've mentioned before that I admire Tim Challies. He wrote a nice post this week titled, "How I get things done," in which he describes a few productivity tools in his usual concise, elegant manner.

Related posts:

Response to Mac Switcher interested in productivity

Using Prayer Journal to pray in concentric circles with daily themes

Autoresponses and filters to delay responding to email

Doodle scheduler: Tool for kingdom productivity

Inspiring quotation about the value of writing by Harvey Newcomb

Christian brother Mark Kakkuri at 360 Writing has been putting out some really helpful posts. If you need inspiration to write or want a wise and wonderful way of framing the value of writing for a young person, read this extended quotation by Harvey Newcomb that Mark posted. I plan to borrow heavily from Newcomb as teach my children how to approach the writing assignments they are starting to get in elementary school.

Matt Perman on Connected Kingdom Podcast

Tim Challies, a brother whose work on the web I admire and appreciate, has a relatively new podcast called the Connected Kingdom (iTunes link). This week (episode 9) he hosted Matt Perman, the senior director of strategy for Desiring God. Matt blogs about productivity and other kingdom work at What's Best Next. The discussion between Tim and Matt this week will be a great interest to readers of this blog. These two godly men tackle many of the themes I've blogged about here, and do so from an intelligent, gracious, and measured way.

Here are some of the topics they discussed and the approximate timecode when each starts:

• Matt's testimony and recent biography (0:55)
• Defining productivity as getting the right things done (7:30)
• Risk of making efficiency and productivity functional idols (10:15)
• Productivity and list management software, and the "strange" mindset one can fall into  (12:50)
• Getting Things Done (GTD) strengths and weaknesses from a Christian perspective (15:15) (includes incisive contrast around the 23-minute mark between the approach to peace of mind in GTD and Philippians 4)
• The value of forgetting, and the potential tyranny of lists (27:00)
• Recommended books (28:15) (includes helpful discussion about reading Covey with discernment)
• Life at Desiring God Ministries with John Piper on leave of absence (33:30)
• Gospel-oriented book on productivity Matt is planning to write in August (35:00)

Near the end of the episode, Matt mentioned that he is writing a book this summer on productivity in the context of the Gospel. That is a book that I have desired to write (and read!) for a long time, but which I've never believed God had called me to commit to. I'm thrilled that God has given a reformed brother like Matt that desire, and the resources to accomplish it. I will pray for him in this effort. Please do the same--the Church needs it!

 

Procrastination and your ministry

Michael McKinley over at the 9Marks blog has posted about something God is showing him about procrastination and his ministry.  I always appreciate McKinley's thoughtful and honest approach:

"But recently I've come to grips with the fact that my procrastination does not serve well the people I lead. It works out OK for my sermons since my family has learned to adjust to my way of doing things (yikes... I don't like the way that sounds). But I notice that large administrative tasks that I must address as the pastor (e.g., the church budget) often get done at the last minute, with unnecessary stress to people who are more organized and scheduled than I am."

In response, he points readers to a series of posts by CJ Mahaney about productivity and procrastination.  I had missed these posts, so I'm grateful that Michael passed on these links, which I join Michael in commending to you.

eProductivity blog honors mothers, challenges fathers

eProductivity guru and brother-in-Christ, Eric Mack, posted a touching tribute to his wife, and a biblical challenge to fathers and husbands yesterday.   

A Heritage of Habits: GTD for the family

I desire to have children who are fruitful and focused for the Lord, and family that lives in a next-action mindset, ready to take whatever next steps in faith we are called to take.   

In that vein, I have been thinking a lot over the past two years about how to incorporate the GTD methodology and other principles of productivity in our family's life, and how to instill these practices in our children from a very early age.   I mindmapped a bunch of ideas about this a couple of years ago, including how to leverage knowledge of child development to instill next-action thinking in kids.    Here is an example (.pdf) of one such map (note: it's pretty busy, so you'll need to zoom in to read small font in some parts).  I have others that I hope to share as I blog more about this.   

I was inspired to re-look at these old maps by a terrific post by Micheal Sliwinski that I read today at GTD Times.  The article offers good, concrete advice for families based on Michael's experiences implementing GTD at home.   I recommend checking it out if you're thinking about how to do this with your family.    From what I can tell, Michael Sliwinski will be contributing regularly about this topic, so I'm eager to learn more from his experiences.

The inspiration to revisit my maps and ideas about GTD in the family comes at a good time.   First, I am preparing to teach a three-part seminar in Sunday School at our church.   This seminar will build on the pilot seminar I presented a year ago to three couples from our church.   The presentation this month will have many more participants, God willing; and I suspect those who attend will be at various points in the life cycle.   I know that family life and child rearing is important to this group, so I need to refocus myself on these ideas in order to be as helpful and relevant as I can be.   

Second, it's a good time for this to resurface because our family is preparing to move to new home in June.  So, we're in major planning and set-up mode.   We're doing lots of things to try to build GTD into our new living space.   For example, we've dedicated what was the dining room in the house to be a "family office," with the idea of having a dedicated productivity hub for the kids.   I'm also building a home office where I'll have my own hub.   It's an exciting time to think through how we want to order our lives and our children's habits.

With a move and a job change coming in the next two months, I doubt I'll blog any more than my usual 2-3 posts per month.   But I'm eager to use some of these opportunities to gather and pray through my developing ideas about GTD for God's family.

Do you (I) need an Internet diet?

Eric Mack has written a great post about a three-month "Internet Diet" where he unplugged and really got things done.   It is a persuasive and, for me, convicting post.   I highly recommend it.  Before you read it, ask the Spirit to do Psalm 139 in you as you read:

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts! 
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! 

Link to Piper Health Wealth Prosperity Message .mp3

Here is the .mp3 of the full Piper sermon excerpted in the video posted earlier today.   

[Via comment on Between Two Worlds by Tony Byrne, pointing to comment by Rae at Purgatorio]

Hyatt: Don’t Leave God Out of Your Plans

Michael Hyatt is CEO and President of Thomas Nelson, a large Christian book publishing company.  I have linked to him in the past, and yesterday he wrote an excellent post that gets at the relationship between our work and God's, which I have explored here in the past. 

GTD overview for creative types

There is no shortage of GTD resources on the web, but Mysterious Flame recently did a nice concise overview.  The author of this blog is interested in productivity in creative endeavors.