In addition to the author meet up on Tuesday night at T4G, I’m also doing a brief event on Monday (tomorrow) at 10:00 am at the Lifeway Bookstore at Southern Seminary.
The bookstore is on campus in the Honeycutt center.
I’ll talk a bit about the book, answer questions, and I think some other things. Also, they will be giving away some copies.
So if you are in Louisville, and especially if you are a student at SBTS, it would be great to see you Monday morning!
If you are going to be at Together for the Gospel this week, my friend Alex Chediak and I will be doing an author meet up and we’d love to see you. It will be in the lobby of the Galt House on Tuesday night from 10:00 – 11:00, after the final panel. (Note: the lobby is in the first floor of the Suit Tower.)
It will be very informal. Stop by to say hi and hang out a bit, and we’ll also have a brief Q&A time about our books — so bring your hardest questions. We will also be giving away some free copies of our books.
I love really, really, really hard questions, so the harder the questions, the better. Further, you can ask questions about anything; our books would be the best, but you can ask questions about the sovereignty of God, the Trinity, social justice, leadership, social media, hard passages in the Bible, or anything else. Literally anything and everything.
We’ll give some free books to people who ask the best and most difficult questions. (I recognize, of course, the irony there, because if you are asking questions, you’ve probably read the book and thus don’t need one! but then you’ll have another to give away.)
My book, obviously, is What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done, which is about how to get things done and be productive in the new economy, in a gospel-centered way. It first gives a biblical vision for understanding our work, productivity, and the things we do every day; then, it gives a practical approach for improving our effectiveness for the glory of God in all areas of life (something which is sorely lacking right now in the church, in my view).
Alex is the author of several books, including Thriving at College and his latest, Preparing Your Teens for College. His books are about far more than college — at root, they are about what it means to be a mature adult and live life in a Gospel-centered way as a self-governing, competent individual. Hence, they are very related to the issue of productivity, as productivity is ultimately rooted in character and competence — which is what both of Alex’s books are ultimately about.
We look forward to seeing you!
Stephen Covey, in his stellar book First Things First:
For most people, the large majority of waking time is spent communicating or interacting with people — or dealing with the results of poor communication or interaction.
Effective interdependence is core to the issue of time management. But the traditional literature essentially deals with it in a transactional way. This transactional approach grows out of the mechanical, controlling, managing “things” paradigm. People are essentially seen as bionic units to whom we can delegate to get more done, or as interruptions to be handled efficiently so that we can get back to our schedule.
But fourth-generation interdependence is not transactional; it’s transformational. It literally changes those who are party to it. It takes into consideration the full reality of the uniqueness and capacity of each individual and the rich, serendipitous potential of creating synergistic third alternatives [see note below on why these aren’t just buzzwords] that are far better than individuals could ever come up with on their own.
Fourth-generation interdependence is the richness of relationships, the adventure of discovery, the spontaneity and deep fulfillment of putting people ahead of schedules, and the joy of creating together what did not exist before.
In other words: Just as leadership can be transactional or transformational, so also our approach to productivity can be transactional or transformational.
In leadership, the transactional view sees people merely as means to an end. They are a tool to accomplish a task, rather than also being valued in themselves. In a transactional view, people are viewed as expendable. If this person can’t do it, then that person will. Instead of adjusting jobs to fit people, people are “adjusted” to fit a standardized view of a job (all in the name of “efficiency,” of course; note: this hardly every works out well for people!) People with a transactional view say things like “why is this taking you so long? I’m not paying you to learn, I’m paying you to get a job done.” Truly horrible. I mean that.
In transformational leadership, people are not seen as a means to an end. People are valued as well as tasks. People are seen as important and valuable in their own right. Thus, the goal becomes not simply to get tasks done, but to build people up in the accomplishment of tasks. This is the only view of leadership consistent with the Scriptures, which teach us that people are created in the image of God, and thus are always to be treated with respect, value, and love.
As with leadership, so also with productivity. In the transactional view of productivity, we think of others either as tools to help us get more done, or interruptions who are getting in our way. This is disrespectful and unbiblical, just as transactional leadership is.
The correct view of productivity is transformational. People are not merely means to help us get more done, or obstacles to doing what we really want. Rather, relationships are seen as part of what it means to be productive at all. True productivity comes from working with others, and doing so in a way that recognizes and values their individuality and seeks to help them grow through the process of creating something great together.
The essence of the transformational view of productivity or leadership or anything else is this: see people as people who are valuable for their own sakes, having been created in the image of God, and thus even when you have tasks to accomplish, make the aim not to “get things done through others” but rather to “build people up in the accomplishment of the tasks.” Value people as well as tasks, and more than tasks. For it is the effect you have on people that is the true measure of your productivity.
Here’s the note I mentioned: Covey is often criticized for using terms like “synergy” and “paradigm” too much. I think that’s a very wrong-headed criticism. Sure, lots of people use those terms not knowing what they are talking about. That’s annoying.
But when someone who actually understands such terms uses them, it’s not something to criticize; it’s something to pay attention to. If we criticize people every time they use a word that has become “common,” we undermine all teaching. For teaching is about making important concepts universal. If we then make fun of those concepts because they have become so common, haven’t we then undermined the whole enterprise of teaching?
It is so completely strange to me that really odd naming conventions for computer files continue to persist to this day.
I have probably over 10,000 documents on my computer (Word documents, spreadsheets, keynote presentations, PDFs, and so forth). If I followed the usual naming conventions that most people seem to use, I would be totally lost. I’d never be able to find anything.
For example, one of the things I do in my consulting is write business plans for people. Sometimes, when the client takes the first attempt at writing the business plan, the file will be named something like “plan234.doc.”
???
It’s as though we think we need to intentionally give our computer files cryptic, obscure, hard-to-grasp names. This, in turn, makes it really hard to find the file when you are going to work on it, since it’s not like it’s the only file you have.
Far better to call it what it is. In this case, the best file name would be: “Business Plan for [Name of Company].doc.” Then, you know what the document is right away when you see it in your files. You don’t have to guess or, worst of all, open it in order to know for sure what it is.
I see this type of mistake made over and over again: people continually give their computer files names that are hard to decipher. I don’t know if the aim is to save space or what; if the aim is to save space, the need to do that went away about 20 years ago. It used to be that file names had to be kept very short, because we were limited to just a few characters. Those days are over.
And, spaces are OK!
In one of the call-out boxes in What’s Best Next, I summarize these principles as one of the immediately-applicable productivity tips I give. Here’s the box:
How to Name Your Computer Files Well
- Give the file a name that actually means something.
- Don’t abbreviate (it makes no sense and makes it harder to know what the file is at a glance!)
- Make the file name the same as the title of the document in the file.
Good name: “Bookstore Procedure Manual.” Bad name: “Bkstr_2305.”
If someone says: “The type of file name you suggest is too obvious,” my response is: That’s the point! If you don’t make it obvious, you’ll forget what the file actually is down the road or the next day. By making it obvious, you save time.
The principle for naming your computer files well is the same as the principle for making websites effective: “Don’t make me think.” That is, minimize your cognitive workload by making the file name something obvious. The aim is to know right away, at a glance, what the file actually is so you don’t have to spend time trying to figure out which file you are looking for after all.
My guest post today at Michael Hyatt’s blog.
Stephen Covey would often talk about people climbing the ladder so fast that they would get to the top, only to discover that their ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.
So how do we set goals that actually take us to a place we want to be? I give seven principles. The first is that a good goal always starts by asking not “what do I want to do,” but “what needs to be done?” That’s the question that orients you toward contribution and service, which is the core principle for being effective in any area.
In the back of the book, I mention that there is an online toolkit with additional resources. The toolkit is here.
In it, you will find some chapters I didn’t have space to include in the original book (such as on setting God-centered goals and what it really means to work in your strengths), some quick checklists, and a few really short articles on common issues in productivity.
The short articles might be especially interesting since they are quick reads and because I take a perspective contrary to conventional wisdom. For example, I argue that the concept of “workaholism” is often over-used and misused, and that mistakes are not something to fear at all costs.
I’m getting my email to zero right now (a bit late in the day), and came across a great example of how productivity is not just about getting as many things done as quickly as you can, but generating ideas and even taking some potential rabbit trails.
So, here’s how I work. I’m going through my messages one by one, determining the next actions and what responses are needed to each. One of these emails is yesterday’s blog post by Seth Godin on a new marketing class he is offering at Skillshare.
So, what’s the next action on that email? Just read it, decide I don’t have time for the class, and move on? That would be the efficiency model of productivity, which I reject.
Instead, with this email I sat back and asked myself some questions and observations like these:
So, though I am not going to enroll in his course, the value of this email from Godin’s blog is far beyond the fact that it notified me about the course. It helped build my thinking, and gave me an opportunity to think about how I do things and how I craft ideas.
That is a huge impact, and an impact that cannot be measured by the response rate to the actual post. That shows how productivity is about much more than tangible outcomes; intangibles (affecting how people think) are just as important — and, in fact, something that actually will result in tangible outcomes and great effectiveness down the road.
And this process also shows how productivity methods, like getting your email to zero every day, are not about rigid structure and just getting things off your list. Rather, they provide a framework in which exploration can happen. If we think of productivity as just getting things checked off our lists faster, we will miss the most important and enriching moments of life.
The other day I was on Connecting Faith, a program here in the Twin Cities on Faith Radio hosted by Neil Stavem, talking about What’s Best Next and what it means to be productive in a God-centered way.
I really enjoyed the time, and you can listen to a highlight or the whole interview on their site (just scroll down and hit play), or right here:
Highlight:
The whole thing:
That’s one of the questions from my interview today on the book with Matt Mitchell.
Matt asked fantastic questions, and I really enjoyed doing the interview. You can read the interview at his blog, where I talk about why the book took so long, how productivity relates to sanctification and Christian discipleship, how it builds on but also differs from GTD, and much more.
And, here’s my answer to the first question, on whether “what’s best next” should be taken as a statement or a question:
1. What does the title, What’s Best Next, mean? Is that a statement or a question or both?
It’s first of all a statement. This book is about that which is best next, which is doing the will of the Lord (Ephesians 5:15-17).
So, what is the will of the Lord? We all know that what Jesus wants from us is love. So that’s what’s best next — love — and that’s the heart of the book. All of our productivity needs to be grounded in love — first, in terms of our motive (the good of the other person) but also in terms of how we make decisions at all.
And that’s what’s often overlooked: love is not just our motive in what we do, but is also supposed to be the guiding principle by which we decide what to do. What is best for the other person? That’s the question love asks, and therefore that’s the guiding principle of productivity. You don’t make choices based on what’s best for yourself next, but you make the welfare of the other person the motive and criterion for deciding what to do.
And so “what’s best next” is, second of all, also a question as well. We have so many things coming our way today. We have almost limitless options and opportunities now, and a massive amount of information to deal with every day. How do we make good decisions in the midst of this age of unlimited options? “What’s best next” is a question we can use to help guide us. The point is: you don’t need to do everything that’s next. You just need to do what’s best next.
The core principle of productivity is to do what’s most important first. So when you have a thousand things to do, stop and ask “what’s best next?” Then do that. Likewise, don’t do what’s easiest next; do what’s best next. This is a question we can continually use to guide us.
The book reached #244 on Amazon Wednesday…and then Amazon sold out! They placed another order on Wednesday, and are showing that they will have the book back in stock on Tuesday (but it will probably be sooner).
However, there are still copies in stock at Barnes & Noble and Westminster Bookstore. And, of course, the Kindle version doesn’t run out of stock and, incredibly, is only $8.99.
Let me say that the guys at Westminster Bookstore are especially great, and I highly commend them to you not only for What’s Best Next, but for your book buying in general when it comes to God-centered, gospel-oriented books.
Update: Sounds like Westminster is sold out as well! But they should be shipping again on Wednesday.