Here’s a slide deck to help introduce people to the theology of productivity that I give in What’s Best Next the book.
It can serve as a good refresher for those who have read the book, and also something that you can easily share with those who haven’t read the book.
Here’s the direct link to it on Slideshare.
(Note: I love slideshare! It makes it super easy to share and spread presentations.)
Here are two helpful points from Tim Ferriss’ quick, short chapter in 30 Things to Do When You Turn 30:
1. Question the criticisms and even suggestions of people with low expectations, even well-intentioned ones
The reason is that having low expectations is actually unrealistic. People are capable of far more than most people think. To lower expectations is to lower efforts as well, and thus the low expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When the lower expectations (but not, as a result, the higher ones) are met, the person with the low expectations then says “see, isn’t it such a good thing we lowered expectations?” But the answer is: not at all. The only reason you met only the reduced expectations is because you didn’t strive for the high expectations.
Good leaders are like the good teachers that hopefully all of us have had the experience of having — they refuse to let you settle. They have soft hearts, but are tough-minded in their expectations. They refuse to let you settle.
2. Test the self-limiting assumptions others accept at face value
“When people tell you you can’t do something, it’s important to keep a basic question in mind: What’s the worst thing that could happen? If you’re risking a small or transient failure for a potentially life-altering permanent benefit, it’s almost always in your best interest to experiment.”
This doesn’t mean you will always succeed. But it does mean that smart experiments are part of the necessary path to success.
Don’t close off a door because someone says “that can’t be done.” Test things out and give it a try. In doing so, feel free to start small, so if you fail, “it’s a fast and affordable failure.” But don’t let the small expectations of someone keep you from trying.
My article for Catalyst on The Five Components of Effective Delegation is now up at their site. Here’s the start:
WITH SO MANY THINGS ON OUR TO-DO LISTS AND SO MANY NEW THINGS COMING AT US EVERY DAY, HOW DO WE STAY ABOVE WATER AS LEADERS?
One common answer is delegation. That’s good advice, but it’s often incomplete. The problem is that we often aren’t taught how to delegate effectively. As a result, when we finally overcome the mistake of not delegating at all, we easily end up making the other mistake of delegating in the wrong way. Unfortunately, this mistake can be even worse! Bad delegation results in frustration, confusion, and discouragement for the people we delegate to.
So how do we delegate in a way that works? That is, what does real delegation actually look like, and how do we do it?
This is so, so important. I don’t think there is any place for cynics on a high performing team (or in theology, to make what may seem to be an unlikely connection but which matters a lot). But there can be a place for skeptics.
The difference is that skeptics are genuine, and thus convincible. Scott Belsky, in Making Ideas Happen:
As you cultivate your team’s immune system, you will want to differentiate between skeptics and cynics. Cynics cling to their doubts and are often unwilling to move away from their convictions. By contrast, skeptics are willing to embrace something new — they are just wary and critical at first.
To expand on this a bit: the problem with the cynic is not that they will not move away from their convictions per se. People should not move away from convictions that are true. The problem with the cynic is that their convictions are false, because they stem from a false view of reality. A cynic is not guided by principles, but by themselves. They are “wise in their own eyes,” and that’s the reason they will not move away from their “convictions.”
A person whose convictions, on the other hand, are based on correct principles is something else altogether. Namely, a leader.
At the end of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done, I give a summary of the book in 500 words so that people can easily take away the core concept and a few key practices (and share them with others).
Here it is:
Gospel-Driven Productivity in a Nutshell
We need to look to God to define for us what productivity is, not simply the ambiguous concept of “what matters most.” For God is what matters most.
When we do this, we don’t enter a realm of spiritual weirdness, as we might fear. Good secular thinking remains relevant as a gift of God’s common grace. Neither do we enter a realm of over-spiritualization where the things we do every day don’t matter.
Instead, the things we do every day take on even greater significance because they are avenues through which we serve God and others. In fact, the gospel teaches us that the good of others is to be the main motive in all that we do and the chief criteria by which we determine “what’s best next.” This is not only right, but also the best way to be productive, as the best business thinkers are showing. More importantly, when we do this in God’s power and as an offering to him, he is glorified and shown to be great in the world.
In order to be most effective in this way in our current era of massive overload yet incredible opportunity, we need to do four things to stay on track and lead and manage our lives effectively:
The result of this is not only our own increased peace of mind and ability to get things done, but also the transformation of the world by the gospel because it is precisely in our everyday vocations that we take our faith into the world and the light of the gospel shines—both in what we say and in what we do (Matthew 5:16).
If You Only take 5 Productivity Practices Away from This Book
Learning and especially implementing productivity practices can be hard. It is easy to forget what we learned or forget how to apply it. One remedy is to keep coming back to this book (of course!). But to make this as simple as possible, if you can only take away 5 things from this book, they should be these:
This post from Harvard Business Review nails it — totally nails it — on the importance of daily planning, and how to do it well (it is very simple).
I have an interview up at Ed Stetzer’s blog today about What’s Best Next, answering the question “How Do You Get the Right Things Done?”
Lots of time management books talk about the importance of values. But that’s not enough, because you can value the wrong things.
My answer — and the answer of the book — is that the ultimate way to get the right things done is to value what God values, and act in accordance with that. This leads us to the counterintuitive notion that love and generosity — not efficiency — are actually the ways to be most productive.
My short ebook How to Set Up Your Desk: A Guide to Fixing a (Surprisingly) Overlooked Productivity Problem is on sale for $4.99 through next Tuesday.
Whereas What’s Best Next gives a comprehensive view of why our work matters and how to be more effective in it, How to Set Up Your Desk takes a very specific area of productivity and shows you how to maximize it.
It’s easy to think that you don’t need to give thought to how you use your desk. But in reality, your desk setup matters immensely because your desk is actually a workflow system. Setting up your desk well minimizes the resistance to getting things done — and makes it a lot more fun.
So in this ebook I outline the basic principles for how to set up your desk well (yes, there are principles for this!). Then I apply them to help you make your whole desk setup more effective so that you can get get things done with minimal drag and get rid of the clutter that so easily sucks your energy and creativity.
(Note that I originally published this as a series on this blog, available for free, but I’ve updated the introduction and added some other things for the ebook. Also, getting the ebook is a great way to help support the blog!)
Shortly after What’s Best Next came out a few months ago, a commenter on another blog said I should call the productivity approach I outline in my book “Scripture-centered productivity” rather than “gospel-driven productivity.”
It’s a good question. Why isn’t it enough to just call it “biblical productivity”? Why do I have to call it “gospel-driven productivity?”
On Not Being Boring
The first answer is simple: The phrase “Scripture-centered productivity” sounds awkward and annoying! The term “biblical productivity” would be a bit better, but that phrase is still just plain boring.
This might seem superficial, but it’s not. God commands us to communicate in ways that are interesting (Colossians 4:6). The phrase “biblical productivity” is just plain boring in most contexts, and so I reject it on biblical grounds.
The Gospel is the Heart of the Scriptures
Someone might say to this “but why do you have to put the ‘gospel’ label on it? Isn’t it actually more accurate to just say ‘biblical’?” My answer is that it is not more accurate. The reason is that the gospel is at the heart of the Scriptures. Therefore, any view of productivity that is truly “Scripture-centered” must necessarily be gospel-centered. I want to draw that connection, because it is essential.
The Essence of Gospel-Driven Productivity
The chief implication the gospel has for our productivity is that the guiding principle in all the things we get done should be the good of others. Just as Jesus in the gospel put our needs ahead of his own, even to the point of dying on the cross, we are to see all that we do as an avenue for serving others — putting their needs ahead of ours, just as Jesus did for us. And we are to do this from acceptance with God on the basis of the gospel, not for acceptance with God.
That’s the heart of what it means to be “gospel-driven” and live a truly productive life. “Scripture-centered productivity” doesn’t capture that. “Gospel-Driven Productivity” does.
What it Really Means to be “Gospel-Driven”
Using the phrase “gospel-driven” also helps capture other thing — namely, that if you say “wait, the term ‘gospel-driven’ doesn’t communicate that to me at all,” then you are not understanding the gospel.
In other words, everyone who considers themselves gospel-centered needs to understand that you cannot claim that the gospel is the center of your life if you aren’t living your life first of all for the good of others rather than yourself.
This means if you are a “gospel-centered” leader, you lead for the welfare of your people first, not your own advantage, comfort, and advancement (Matthew 20:25-28). (This means getting rid of command and control, authoritarian leadership that sees people only as tools to get the job done, rather than as valuable people in the image of God to be treated with respect.)
If you are a gospel-centered business owner, you manage your business to make a real contribution to society, not simply make a profit.
And if you are gospel-driven in the way you get things done (as all Christians should be), then you make the good of others your motive in all you do, rather than just doing things to get to the bottom of your list or increase your own personal peace and affluence.
I see many who claim to be gospel-centered because they really like proclaiming the gospel, but who don’t allow the gospel to guide and shape their actions at work. They are sometimes just as selfish in the way they do things as the world is (often more so! a true irony). This is a terrible testimony and it does a lot of harm. It undermines the gospel and therefore is not gospel-centered in the slightest. We need to change this, and become truly gospel-driven in our deeds as well as words.
Is the Term “Gospel-Centered” Cliche?
It is certainly true that some have attached the term “gospel-centered” to their ideas without actually knowing what it means. When the term “gospel-centered” is used in a trite and superficial way, it is unfortunate.
But when you understand what gospel-centered really means, it is anything but trite or superficial. It is not the “flavor of the month” in Christianity, but rather at the very core of Christianity.
In Sum
Thus, from all this we can see why a phrase like “Scripture-centered productivity” actually doesn’t communicate my point. Certainly I am trying to say that we are to be guided by the Scriptures in how we think about productivity. But I’m trying to say more. My point is that since the gospel is at the heart of the Scriptures, when we think of the Scriptures we are to first think of the gospel. It is the gospel, not just the concept of Scripture in an abstract sense, that is to guide our productivity.
And to be guided by the gospel is to be guided by love, of which the gospel is the greatest demonstration in all the universe.
This is a great video of Tony Schwartz speaking at the 99U conference on the importance of managing energy, not just time, in order to be productive.
We often act like our digital devices — as though we can just work constantly without letup. And those who take a break to, for example, hit an art museum or play frisbee golf in the afternoon in an attempt to renew their energy are accused of being slackers.
But renewal is not slacking; it is the key to staying mentally alert and keeping our energy up. While he doesn’t use the examples of frisbee golf and art museums, in this video Tony Schwartz (author of The Power of Full Engagement) makes a great case on how we need to understand better how to manage our energy if we are going to increase our capacity to get things done.
(HT: Asian Efficiency)
Tony Schwartz: The Myths of the Overworked Creative from 99U on Vimeo.