Jeffrey C. Long

I’m sure there are many of you like myself who have stacks and stacks of books spread out between office and home. This has always been a problem for me, even when I wasn’t ministering. I get an idea in my head, think about a book to pull off the shelf or buy from Amazon, and next thing you know I’ve got a stack up to my knees.

A trick I’ve adapted from Getting Things Done is to create a toread file on my computer. Now, when I get an idea to read something, instead of pulling the book down and carrying it around with me. This has saved me a few pennies at Amazon as well. Instead of buying, I put it in my wishlist and wait ’til the new-book-fever is gone to make my decision.

If you are a user of Getting Things Done, there are a few other categories that books can go into. The first is “someday/maybe.” When I first moved to Idaho to pastor, I lived for 6 months without my family. Towards the end of that time, I thought “this is the perfect time to start learning Greek.” So I bought a Greek book with workbook. Haven’t touched it. I occassionally think to start it. But it has a new home in my someday/maybe list. This keeps it from stressing me out that I _should_ be doing it. Someday, I’ll make the time. Until then, I have a placeholder for it in this list which keeps it from nagging me.

The other place to put book ideas is in your projects support materials or next actions. Right now, I’m working on nailing down how I give invitations and how I will lead people in the process of moving from visitor-to-seeker-to-new-Christian-to-disciple. A book that I want to read on the subject is “Ancient-Future Evangelism” by Robert Webber. Again, instead of carting the book around, I put it on my next actions list. Then when I decide to pursue the subject, I’ll reach for the book.

The main thing that all of these hacks do is that they move reading and stacking from being impulses to being intentional. I still do some impulsive reading, but more often then not, it’s for pleasure, not for study or work.

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