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Resources on Productivity

The Crazy Way Productivity Works

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Productivity is not always a linear thing, and in today’s knowledge economy, lists and deliberate plans aren’t always what get things done.

A classic example is what I am doing right now. Usually as I work on projects and process my email throughout the week, I put key documents on my desktop when I don’t have the time to file them in the right spot immediately. Then, once a day or ever few days, I process those files just like I process my inbox, identifying any actions they might imply and putting them where they need to go. (Basically, it’s like processing your inbox because it is an inbox.)

Right now I’m processing my desktop from the files that collected there this week. One of the files on there had my notes from Catalyst Atlanta (here are the notes I’ve posted so far). I’ve had it on my list for a while to finish posting them, but have had some other projects I’ve needed to get done.

When I came to that file while processing my desktop tonight, though, it felt easiest to just finish posting the rest of the notes, rather than put them in their project file and rely on my list to remember to get the rest of them posted.

And that’s the semi-arbitrary nature of work today in our knowledge economy. There are so many things I get done simply by setting out to process my inbox, or email, or in this case my desktop, and I think that’s probably true for most of us. Seemingly mundane actions, that aren’t even very well defined (“process desktop”? — what a broad term that can take you down a thousand different paths), often result in getting some important things done.

You’d think that the best productivity results from highly detailed, deliberate plans. And, there is definitely a place for that. But a lot of our productivity also results from more cursory, spontaneous things. That’s in part because of the way email and computers are set up — you have these inboxes and desktops that aren’t good at natively organizing their content into natural groupings. As a result, a lot of things get done more randomly.

And, as long as you don’t do everything randomly, allowing that to happen is actually one of the subtle tactics for maximizing your productivity. When something is before you that you have the energy to do, just do it.

It is Possible to Stay on Top of Your Work!

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As I wrote my book, I thought hard about the question of whether it is truly possible to stay on top of our work. Sometimes, there is so much coming at us that it seems like it actually might not be possible at all, and that the solution is to give up the hope altogether. Further, in one sense that solution can sound very “spiritual.”

There will always be times in our lives where the realities of the situation exceed our capacities. The process of writing the book was one for me. I simply was not able to keep up with all of my work during that time. If I had more money, I would have hired lots of help to keep my day-to-day non-book routines and actions in motion. But given the limitations I had, I often had to let my email and other tasks build up. I eventually got through them all, but it took a long time to catch up.

Extreme situations aside, it is indeed possible to stay on top of your work. This is our natural instinct to believe, and if we reflect on it a bit, we see that it is indeed correct.

For example, if I’m at McDonalds and the lines are going really slow, I don’t think to myself “well, it doesn’t matter; I’m just glad I’m able to get lunch at all.” Not at all. Unless there is a crisis, emergency, or other extreme need, that would be a truly horrible over spiritualization; a denial of the doctrine of vocation. I don’t have that mindset, and the manager of the restaurant, let alone the corporate offices, doesn’t have that mindset either. If things are going really slow and are held up, they find a way to fix it and resume their standard of providing fast service to people. That’s part of the reason they exist. If you look at most successful companies, they’ve developed systems that enable them to meet customer needs in a timely way. This is one of the callings God has given to businesses.

And if businesses are able to keep up with demand, you are able to, as well.

What I’ve found is that the key determinant in whether you are able to keep up with your work is whether you believe that you can keep up with your work.

If you don’t believe you can keep up with your work, then you’ll never be able to do it. But if you believe you can, you will be able to figure it out.

The challenge is this: the practices for keeping on top of our work are not widely known. Developing the capacity to keep up with things takes effort and creative thought. It doesn’t come automatically. But if you take the time to step back, retool, and learn the practices for managing your work effectively in the knowledge era, you can do it.

Though I didn’t start our writing this post with the intention of pointing to my book, one of the reasons I wrote my book is to help you with this. The book will be coming out in March, and hopefully you will find it helpful practices for getting on top of your work and, even more than that, an overall framework of thought for how to do all of your work, in every area of life, for the glory of God and good of others — which is, ultimately, the essence of true productivity.

If you’d like to keep up with plans for the book launch, receive any early excerpts, or otherwise stay in the loop on things, I’d love for you to be a part of things as we get ready for the launch. Subscribing to the blog would also be the best way to do that at this point, and I’ll have more details for how you can be involved down the road.

An Interview on the Gospel-Productivitiy Relationship

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Last summer I had the privilege of discussing my upcoming book on the gospel and productivity with Loren Pinilis for his podcast on Christian Time Management.

Part two is now posted, where we talk about:

  • How to balance our competing roles in the modern age of knowledge work
  • The importance of aligning lists with roles
  • A process for reducing workload
  • Spatial thinking as it relates to time estimates and priorities
  • A realistic model of using plans
  • The common but wrong disdain many Christians have towards hard work
  • How we should and should not respond to someone who is having problems managing their time
  • How workaholism and laziness both reflect idolatry
  • The importance of rest in a biblical framework and how to practically incorporate rest into our lives
  • A biblical call to mission statements and understanding our mission
  • A fascinating, biblical approach to delegating out of love
  • Some tips for delegating in the home and family

(You can also find part one here.)

Crazy Busy, and a Hilarious Interview

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I cracked up watching this interview between Justin Taylor and Kevin DeYoung regarding Kevin’s new book, Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem. It is truly hilarious!

I’ve been reading Crazy Busy off and on over the last month or so, and I’ve been really enjoying it. It’s very well done and fun to read. As always, Kevin does a great job combining biblical truth with a very accessible and engaging presentation. I commend the book to anyone who is dealing with being crazy busy (which is all of us!).

HT: Between Two Worlds

Be Better Than Average

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This is something we continually need to be reminded about. I am amazed by the militant commitment to mediocrity of so many people — including in the church. Brad Lomenick gives us a great exhortation to continually seek to be better than average.

Keeping Your Computer Cables Organized

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This is one of my favorite new products. Finally, someone got cord organization right. You don’t need anything complex. You just need something…like this.

It’s compact, just sits on your desk or table, and uses rubber grip things. And, it’s not ugly, which is what I like most about it.

Wait, there’s actually one thing I like even more about it: it was designed with a crowd-sourced approach. That’s the model utilized by quirky, where anybody can submit new product ideas. The top concepts are chosen (voted on by real people) and then refined by the community.

I love the creativity of this approach, and submit that that process is one of the reasons this product is so awesome.

Is Competence Christian?

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Most of us immediately recognize that the answer, of course, is yes. But there is no shortage of overspiritualizers out there today who like to rain on the parade of common grace, and sometimes (strangely enough) the quest for competence can be wrongly labeled as idolatry.

Hence, it is important — not to mention interesting — to see the biblical foundation behind truths that are very clear simply from the light of nature alone. Competence is one of them.

One of the most fascinating passages here is Proverbs 2:2-4, where competence is said to be a component of wisdom, and we are exhorted to seek it diligently.

You don’t see this directly in many translations, because they tend to translate the term for “competence” here simply as “understanding” (and, obviously, there’s a relationship). But Tremper Longman brings this out most clearly in his more precise translation of the passage in his commentary on Proverbs:

My son, if you grasp my speech and store up my commands within you, bending your ear toward wisdom, extending your heart toward competence — indeed, if you call out for understanding, shout for competence, if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure…

So, to everyone who has an innate desire to do good work and be effective at what you do: be encouraged. This desire is not unspiritual, but is a reflection of the image of God in you. It is a very spiritual thing to be competent; indeed, God exhorts us to it.

My Gospel at Work Message

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Here’s the audio from the breakout session I did on productivity and the gospel at the Gospel at Work conference at Covenant Life in January.

I talk about three main things:

  1. Why we need to be theological and practical as Christians.
  2. A new vision for the things we do every day: how understanding our work and lives in light of the gospel changes the way we go about everything and gives us new purpose, direction, and meaning.
  3. A new understanding of how to be truly productive: I argue that love — that is, putting the other person first and treating people the way you want to be treated — is actually the way to be most productive, both before God and in this world (usually!).

And in the midst of this I answer a bunch of questions about motivation, leadership, the world of work, and other things. (Wait — it sounds like the questions are not included; very sorry!)

It was a fantastic conference and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of it. (You can also watch the keynotes and listen to the other breakouts on their site.)