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How to Get More Done Without Doing More

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This is the converse of yesterday’s post, where I made the point that you have to be OK with not doing everything and instead focus on what’s best next.

Here’s the irony: When you focus on what’s most important, you often get all the other stuff “thrown in.” This happens by virtue of the spillover effect. Doing the most important thing leads to positive ramifications that often accomplish the aims behind all those other things you weren’t able to do.

I’m not saying you will literally find that all the things you decided to leave undone are accomplished. Some of them will be. But more significantly, the point behind them will often be accomplished through the spillover effect.

That’s significant.

But if you try to do everything directly, you often end up accomplishing nothing. (Or, almost nothing.)

You Have to be OK With Not Doing Everything

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The point is to do what’s best next, not everything that’s next.

And the reason for this is the simple fact that there will always be more to do than you possibly can do. It is simply impossible to do everything.

And, if you know what’s best, if you know what’s most important and what really counts, you will be OK with that.

Identifying the Purpose of Life

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Here are some notes I jotted down when I was working on the chapter in my book on mission statements. They are brief and scattered, but here they are in the event that they are helpful to you.

In my chapter, I go against a major problem in most books on productivity. Most of them talk about having a “mission” or “purpose” to your life, but they say “that’s a very personal thing, something for you to decide for yourself.”

I think that’s wrong. Pretty bad, in fact. The reason is that since we didn’t create ourselves, we cannot define our own purpose. God himself defined the purpose of life. What we need to do is identify the purpose he has defined, say it in a way that captures the unique angle on that he has placed in our life, and align ourselves around it. Or, better, align ourselves not first around our “purpose,” but the gospel, with our purpose directing us but the gospel empowering and defining us.

Interestingly, the Bible talks about the purpose of life a lot. You even see mission statements all over the place, especially in Paul.

Here are my brief, rough, notes:

Criteria any Potential Purpose Must Fulfill

Must create happiness. Flourishing. So when the Bible talks of “blessedness,” we are in this domain.

It must create a happiness that is eternal, not fleeting. And happiness that is great, in itself invincible, and that can endure through immense trial and difficulty.

What the Purpose of Life Is

Making God look good. Making “good reports” about him abound. Making joy in him abound.

But not just anything does this. Mercy is at the heart of it. And justice. And, you must really do it for his glory. Micah 6:8; Isaiah 1:18; 58:1-13; Mt 5:16

What This Does

You can fulfill it each day, and yet never fully complete it. There is always more.

It drives your actions, gives purpose, and cannot be exhausted or wear out.

"But Everything is Important"

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That’s why we need to go beyond the common practice of distinguishing the urgent from the important to distinguishing the imperative from the important.

Don’t just think in terms of urgent vs. important. Think in terms of imperative vs. important.

Is it Wrong to Ask God to Bless Your Plans?

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Sometimes it is said that we shouldn’t make our own plans and then ask for God to bless them; we should ask God what his plans are, and align ours with his.

Now, this is good advice if this is meant at the high level — that is, if the definition of “God’s plans” here is “God’s moral will revealed in Scripture.” God’s plan for us, in this sense, is that we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with him (Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:23). That’s our mission in life.

God also gets more specific: in marriage, we are to marry only another believer. In our jobs, we are to have full integrity and work with enthusiasm and skill as unto the Lord. In our giving, we are to be generous.

In this sense, we are to seek God’s plans, not our own. That is, God has defined our ultimate priorities in life. We are to seek what he has revealed for us, rather than just coming up with whatever we want to do.

Now, within this framework, there are many areas that God’s word does not address specifically. Should you seek to have another child or not? Should your company add those 3 new positions? Should you buy this house or that one? What major should you chose, and what are your overall objectives for your career?

In this realm, as long as our ultimate aims are governed by and stem from God’s moral will, we are to make plans. And, the teaching of the Scripture is that we don’t look for some specific sub-plans that God has for us. Rather, he wants us, indeed, to make our own plans (with Scriptural wisdom and prayer) and seek to accomplish them.

More than that, the teaching of the Scriptures is that, in the main, we should look for God to bless our plans. Our plans will change and adapt, because God is ultimately sovereign. But it is striking that, when addressing the subject of godly planning, the Bible emphasizes not only that the success of our plans is subject to God (Proverbs 16:9), but that, when we plan in dependence on him, God seeks to bless what we do. He doesn’t say “you should have done this or that — that’s what my plan was.” Instead, he says: “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established” (Proverbs 16:3).

Commit your work to the Lord — don’t be godless in your work and planning — and your plans will be established.

Likewise, Psalm 37:4 tells us: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Whose desires will he give you? Yours.

Too often as Christians we almost paralyze ourselves by thinking that our desires and plans don’t mean anything — that God plans on defeating our godly plans time and again because he has some other plan for us different than what we sought to do.

The emphasis of the Bible, though, is that God wants you making plans, he wants you doing this in reliance on him, and he wants these plans to reflect his ultimately priorities (glorify him, love others, seek justice). If you are doing that, the Scriptures indicate that you should look for God to work with you in your plans. He surely will adjust and improve them, but your plans will be established — that is, when he changes them, he will change them for the better.

Great Ideas Don't Happen Simply Because they are Great

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Scott Belsky, in Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality:

Ideas don’t happen because they are great — or by accident. The misconception that great ideas inevitably lead to success has prevailed for too long. Whether you have the perfect solution for an everyday problem or a bold new concept for a creative masterpiece, you must transform vision into reality.

Marcus Buckingham's New Book, Standout, Now Available

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Marcus Buckingham’s new book, StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution, is now available. I’m very much looking forward to reading it, and the new strengths assessment that has been released along with it sounds very helpful.

Michael Hyatt has an excellent review. Here’s an excerpt:

As usual, Marcus does a great job striking the balance between theory and practice. He gives you just enough of the theory to understand the statistical validity of the testing instrument. Yet he does this without making your eyes glaze over. He also does a fabulous job of providing lots of real-world illustrations and personal anecdotes.

If you enjoy self-assessments, want to further exploit your strengths, and make your greatest contribution, this book is for you. If you lead a team, it would be well-worth the investment to read the book, take the test, and then discuss the results as a group. It will provide you with insights into how you can better tap the strengths of your team and recruit roles that aren’t currently represented.

And here’s a video of Buckingham talking about the book:

The Alternative to Failure

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Great post by Seth Godin:

“What would you have me do instead?”

To the critic who decries a project as a worthless folly, something that didn’t work out, something that challenged the status quo and failed, the artist might ask,

“Is it better to do nothing?”

To the critic who hasn’t shipped, who hasn’t created his art, anything less than better-than-what-I -have-now appears to be a waste. To this critic, progress should only occur in leaps, in which a fully functioning, perfected new device/book/project/process/system appears and instantly and perfectly replaces the current model.

We don’t need your sharp wit or enmity, please. Our culture needs your support instead.

Each step by any (and every) one who ships moves us. It might show us what won’t work, it might advance the state of the art or it might merely encourage others to give it a try as well.

To those who feel that they have no choice but to create, thank you.

Why Success Often Starts with Failure

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A helpful article from the 99%.

Here’s the first part:

“Few of our own failures are fatal,” economist and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford writes in his new book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure. This may be true, but we certainly don’t act like it. When our mistakes stare us in the face, we often find it so upsetting that we miss out on the primary benefit of failing (yes, benefit): the chance to get over our egos and come back with a stronger, smarter approach.

According to Adapt, “success comes through rapidly fixing our mistakes rather than getting things right first time.”