Jeffrey C. Long » Lifehacks

It takes time

jeffreyclong — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:53:06 +0000

I’ve put a lot of time into trying to organize my world and read a lot about personal productivity. Always with the mindset that I am not accomplishing all I could, and am dropping balls. But this quote from Howard Thurman on the Inward/Outward site says that there is something else to be gained from ordering our lives.

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

Save every scrap

jeffreyclong — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 13:20:50 +0000

I’ve been mulling over the amount of information that I archive. It seems a little obsessive, even self-absorbed. My poor children are going to have to cope with it all when I am gone. I have five 3″ binders filled with my writings from about 5-10 years ago. And now with the computer and internet, I’ve been collecting more: Nearly every email dating back 3 years; every sermon and the notes used to write them for the past year and a half; brainstorming; web pages I’ve captured; lyrics; over 40 gigs worth of mp3′s; 607 bookmarks in del.icio.us.

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.

Purge!

jeffreyclong — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 11:48:33 +0000

I’ve lately discovered the glory of a good purge.

We’ve been in the process of moving in the last year. It began when our house in Ephrata sold and we had to pack up all our worldly belongings and put it in a storage unit awaiting the construction of our new home. We had a dumpster for garbage that was emptied multiple times, as well as many trips to the dump and Goodwill. From out of all of that, we kept the things that were essential so that we could live in our small house before the new house was completed.

Fast forward nearly a year. House is built and we went back to Ephrata to collect our stuff. Two large u-hauls worth. We unloaded everything, putting furniture and the things we knew we needed in the house. Over the next couple weeks we moved things into the garage that had been overlooked when we were moving in.

Here’s the punchline. Even after the purge in Ephrata with all the garbage dumpster and trips to the dump, we now have an entire garage full of stuff that we aren’t using. So here comes another purge.

Second story: I’ve been on a campaign to keep backing up my computer because it has had a problem crashing. One of the things that I’ve noticed is that every time I restore it, I am keeping less on the drive, it is better organized, and I am using fewer applications. Again, the purge.

Going through periodic times of getting rid of stuff, sometimes without initiating it, is very healthy. My world is cleaner, and more organized and easier to keep up when I periodically go through and am forced to get rid of stuff. What I need to do is do it on my own rather then wait for the times when it is forced on me.

So go for it! Purge!

Slow down

jeffreyclong — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 11:12:20 +0000

In “The Contemplative Pastor” Eugene Peterson writes

“How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place.”

I’ve recently begun a discipline of slowing down and absorbing more of my world. I’ve noticed that I hurry through things unnecessarily and as a result am not experiencing life as much as I should. I think this is an important discipline for a pastor to experience for a couple reasons. First, the sermon of our lives is as important as the sermon in the pulpit. We all need to slow down, and one way for it to begin is by pastoral example. But second, the world around us is the parchment upon which our sermons are written. In order to touch people, we need to be in touch ourselves. When we hurry through life, we miss details and meaning that helps to color and contextualize the message of the gospel.

A simple practice that has become a symbol of my decision to slow down has been the signing of checks and credit card receipts. I remember in high school taking the time while I should have been listening to my teachers practicing my signature to develop the swoops and curves that would make it my own. As time has gone on, it has become a hurried sloppy mess. I read somewhere that a sloppy signature is easiest to forge. So I decided that where I was going to begin slowing down was in the signing of my name. Now whenever I sign a check, it is an opportunity to craft my signature rather then hurry through it so I can get on to the next thing I’m going to hurry through. The end result has been attention to other details of life where I am slowing down and absorbing more of the world around me. It has served me well, and could for you as well.

Reading in your calendar

jeffreyclong — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 17:05:40 +0000

Amendment 2005/01/04 I discovered that there is a limit to the number of characters that iCal can hold in the notes section. So this isn’t ideal. I’ll have to come up with a different way. Does anyone know how to create a hyperlink to a file that is on the computer, rather then in cyberspace? I am pretty sure you can do this in windows.

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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Flat surfaces day

jeffreyclong — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 17:07:25 +0000

I’ve begun a ritual I like to call Flat Surfaces Day. You may be like me and gradually made stacks all over kingdom come on anything that is horizontal. Often when I clean, I’m trying to vacuum, get things off the floor, re-shelve books, put things away. But what accumulates are the things that are on flat surfaces: papers on my desk, unfiled stuff on my bookshelf, stacks of bills sitting on the coffee table. So I am going to declare “Flat Surfaces Day” and solicit the help of my family and begin to deal with the top of my dresser, the coffee table, the top of the bookshelf, etc. Give it a try and see if it doesn’t get rid of some of the clutter in your life.

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Use associations to remember things

jeffreyclong — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:12:36 +0000

This is a simple little trick to help you remember to do things. The first place I learned it was from the book Mind Hacks which showed that you can combine the reward system of caffeine with something you need to remember on a regular basis. I have medicine that I’m supposed to take twice a day that I had a hard time remembering in the morning. Evening wasn’t so hard because I associated it with going to bed. So, I began taking my medicines when I made my first latte in the morning. It is interesting that we not only associate the caffeine reward with the morning cup of coffee but also the rituals that go into making it, including grinding the beans, microwaving the milk and the mug that you always use. Adding another habit requires a little practice, but soon enough, it is part of the ritual.

This can be done with other things. The key is rituals. Doing the same things over and over and associating them with multiple tasks.

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