It Takes Time

               

Howard Thurman

                

               

It
is true that for many people the demands upon their lives are so great
that only careful planning in terms of a workable time table can see
them through. Even where the demands are not great and overwhelming,
the economy, the efficiency of an established way of functioning, is
undeniable. The purpose of such a pattern is not merely to accomplish
more work and with dispatch, but it is to increase the margin of one’s
self that is available for the cultivation of the inner life. It takes
time to cultivate the mind. It takes time to grow in wisdom. It takes
time to savor the qualities of living. It takes time to feel one’s way
into one’s self. It takes time to walk with God.

               

Source: The Inward Journey

But what I’ve discovered is that it is worth saving this stuff… all of it, even if I only occasionally need one thing. Because if I didn’t save it all, I wouldn’t have that one thing. This happened recently when I was looking for an article I’d clipped 10 years ago. For some reason, I had page one, only to discover that I was missing page two. I emailed the author to see if she still had a copy which she said she’d have to dig for. So I went into my trusty three ring binders, and lo and behold, there it was. Similarly, I needed an article called paradoxa that I posted to my Journey blog, and again, it was right where I left it… sandwiched however by pages of things I may never need.

The point is: save every scrap. I know this may drive some secretaries and wives nuts. But if I didn’t have 607 bookmarks, I wouldn’t have the 3 that I need.

<snip>

I was just trying to figure out how to make a link from inside my @toread list in iCal to an article on my computer that I wanted to read. Suddenly it hit me that I could just copy the whole article into the notes section of the calendar. I still have it archived for future reference. But I put the item to read right into the @toread list. It’s so basic, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it a long time ago. The formating is a little tiny. Sorta like watching a TV episode on that little box in iTunes.

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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.

This post is licensed under the Creative Commons license.

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1. Turn it off. Or at least check it at greater intervals. Same goes for instant messengers like MSN and AIM. I’ve read this in lots of productivity sites but only recently put it into practice. It singlehandedly has increased my productivity in multiple areas.

2. Get different accounts for different purposes. This is a recent trick. I own the domain name jeffreyclong.com so I can create multiple addresses for different uses. For example, all my discussion groups go into talkATjeffreyclong.com. Registrations for sites go to register@jeffreyclong.com. This keeps stuff out of my regular inbox so that important things don’t get lost. A simple solution for those without their own domain is to set up multiple accounts at gmail and use their POP service to read email from your mail client such as Outlook, Thunderbird, or Mac’s Mail.app.

3. Filter flamers.

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If you subscribe to email discussion groups, you’ll discover flamers. People who get easily upset, tell you what to do and generally cause problems in the group. I’ve spent way too much emotional energy dealing with these people. And honestly, I believe that we need an extra level of filtering when we are participating in groups online then face-to-face. So lately, I’ve been setting rules in my client to automatically put messages with so-and-so in the subject field, from field, or body. And after a season of not talking to certain people in my messengers who weren’t healthy for me, I’ve deleted them from there as well. What remarkable peace of mind this has brought. This is probably a little controversial, but Proverbs 22:24-25 teaches us to “not befriend a hot-tempered man,

and don’t associate with one who harbors anger lest you learn his ways, and ensnare your soul.” Establishing relational boundaries is very important to all of us, but I think especially pastors.

4. Use IMAP, or a version of POP that keeps email on the server. As I said, I’ve had multiple email accounts on 4 different computers. Most of my accounts were POP accounts where the messages were downloaded onto my computer when I logged in, and taken off the server. So, when a computer crashed and wasn’t backed up, I lost all my email. Now, given, most of that wasn’t a terrible loss. But my email correspondence has gotten more important to me and I’d really hate to lose what I have now. With IMAP, or server side POP, a copy of each message is downloaded to your computer when you log in, but everything stays on the central server. This allows for two things: The first is that if you are on a trip and away from your computer and need an important email, you can log in from any computer and view your emails like you would a yahoo or gmail account. The second and most important though, is that if your hard drive crashes, you haven’t lost everything. It’s all there on the server ready to be downloaded again next time you log in.

Hope this helps. I’d love to hear your email tips. Please comment below.

This post is licensed under the Creative Commons license.

This is what’s called a lifehack. A trick to better handle the perplexities of our lives.

Another one, is from a friend. Many months ago, I was at a banquet and I needed to remember something but didn’t have pencil and paper. My friend told me to associate what I needed to remember with an object. He handed me a sugar packet and said that whenever I felt the packet in my pocket, I’d remember that thing. It worked.

I need hacks. And lots of them. As I’ve continued to wade through Getting Things Done, I’ve discovered that I keep my mind like a disorganized closet. It is so full of stuff, that I can never find something when I need it. I’ve been learning to clean it out by doing a brain dump of everything that’s on my mind and to find hacks like these to take the load off of the stuff that I have to keep in my mind.

If you’d like to learn more about Lifehacks, the following links will do you good.

Danny O’briens Notcon conference video talking about Life hacks

43folders.com Where I first discovered the Lifehacks movement and Getting Things Done

Lifehacker.com

Interview with Danny O’Brien, father of “life hacks”

Wikipedia entry for Lifehacks

del.icio.us tags for lifehacks (I subscribe to the RSS feed for this)

What tricks do you use to get through this information saturated world we live in?

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Thought I’d share a few things that are working really well for me.

The first is buckets and notecards. A bucket is a consistent place where things go. An inbox is a bucket. A file folder is a bucket. The basket on my dresser where my pocketpc and ipod go is a bucket. Through an article on the HipsterPDA, I discovered the usefulness of 3X5 notecards. I generate a fair number of ideas and plans in a given day, and have been struggling with a system for managing them. An example: I have an elders meeting at the church this Sunday that has a fair number of agenda items. Thoughts have hit me throughout the week. Combining the 3X5 cards with a bucket, I created a file folder labeled “elder meeting.” Now everytime something hits me about the elder meeting, I just scribble a note on a separate 3X5 card and throw it in the file folder. Then when Tuesday comes I will go through the cards and develop an agenda and plan. Very helpful system.

Finally, a few articles on scheduling. Really helpful. How I learned to stop worrying and love my schedule and How I schedule actions and tasks

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Presentation Excellence Powerpoint presentation from Tom Peters on giving great presentations. “My brother-in-law, a senior ExxonMobil exec, and I got into a discussion about presentations the other night. We both heartily agreed that “presentation excellence” was a great boon to one’s career/professional success. We also agreed that there is little or no formal training in preparing/giving presentations. The discussion motivated me to make my own list.”

Timer software FOB for Mac and Cool Timer for Windows. I’ve been using the timer to set a time for prayer or meditation. Disciplines are like exercise. Setting goals and measuring help us to grow stronger in them.

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