It’s probably more than a little cliché to point out that we are a busy people who live in a busy time. And while we tend to think there is something unique to the modern context that pushes us especially hard toward overwork, as I have read the books of previous eras I have come…
If I have my timing right, the last conference I spoke at was the 2020 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. It was early February and we were just beginning to hear unfamiliar words like “COVID” and “coronavirus.” (A search through my inbox shows that the first mention of it was from an old Adam Ford newsletter…
Many years ago I discovered a set of tools and procedures that allowed me to be most productive. Since then, I have pretty much stuck with those same tools and with that same system, save for a few minor tweaks here and there. (See Do More Better) In the past year, though, I have discovered…
The great part of every life is made up of duty. While we certainly experience many delights and enjoy many distractions, there is more of duty to life than anything else. The God who creates and calls us also assigns to us many obligations, many responsibilities, many tasks and assignments. The great majority of what…
My family moved a number of times when I was a child. The first home I remember was near the center of Toronto, a little house that has long since been torn down and replaced by a modern monster. From there we moved to one of the city’s up-and-coming eastern suburbs where we had an…
The way you spend your time says more about your spiritual condition than you may think. Ephesians 5:15-16 says, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” In this clip, I try to expose two ways in which we…
During a recent trip to China , I was invited to spend some time with some friends who live there. They asked me questions that ranged far and wide, but here we talk about productivity and how we can remain productive over the long-haul. Transcript How do you continue to come up with new ideas…
While in Zambia during a recent EPIC trip, I held an Ask Me Anything event at Central Africa Baptist College. Here are a couple of the questions and answers: one concerns how to become a writer people will read, and the other is about how to maintain productivity in work. The answer is slightly ironic…
I am, for the most part, an organized person. I actually wrote a whole book on productivity in which I laid out the system I used (and still use) to remain organized and, hopefully, effective in what I do. I have begun my days in roughly the same way for many years now, and have…
We’re nearing the end of the year, which means we’re already beginning to turn our attention to the next year, aren’t we? Now for most of us, that means we’re evaluating the year that was, and starting to determine, how can we do better in the year ahead? In this edition of 3 Minute Thursdays,…
I tend to think the best comedy is the kind that is universal. It picks up on themes we can all readily identify with, no matter who we are. Brian Regan does a great little bit on getting a new pair of contacts, and it always makes me chuckle. He talks about the long procrastination…
Is there anything more tragic than time? Is there anything that brings about deeper grief than seeing time pass us by, than acknowledging how much has already elapsed and how little remains? We who were made to live forever are now given a mere “threescore years and ten” (Psalm 90:10) before we are gone. “If…
Our digital world is both a blessing and a curse for our growth in godliness. Today’s Christians have more sound, biblical resources at the tips of their fingers than all of our forefathers could have imagined. Through our phones, we can keep in constant touch with distant fellow Christians and benefit from the spiritual gifts…
“Productivity? But I’m a stay-at-home mom!” That’s roughly how Aileen replied when we sat down to talk about the fact that our lives were veering out of control. We were emerging from an especially busy season but coming up to what promised to be an even busier one. Our son was ready to begin high…
There’s no doubt that life is difficult. We are finite creatures who encounter an infinite number of opportunities. This forces us to make constant decisions between better and best, between the millions of things we could do and the few we actually should do. We are also weak creatures who have limited strength, foolish creatures…
The digital age has brought with it a proliferation, a full-out explosion, of communication tools. In fact, it’s not difficult to argue that the digital revolution has primarily been a communications revolution. Just consider how many of today’s innovations in both hardware and software are designed to help us communicate better and faster, to take…
Over the years I’ve found that one of the trickier parts of blogging, or any regular writing for that matter, is maintaining an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is a means of organizing current and future writing projects to take them from conception to publication. It organizes the process of progressing from vague ideas to…
With a new year approaching, many of us are considering how we can make the most of the opportunities it will bring. Many of us are considering how we can actually generate opportunities that will help us make the most of 2017. I have invested a lot of effort into defining and pursuing productivity through…
My friend Peter Krol loves the Bible, he loves college students, and through the ministry DiscipleMakers he loves to bring the two of them together so college students can better understand, appreciate, and obey the Bible. I recently spoke to Peter about some of the challenges faced by college students today and asked whether the…
It seems appropriate that during a season when so many of us—myself included—are enjoying times of vacation, we should pause to consider matters of work and vocation. I was recently brushing up on some of these things myself, especially as they are laid out in the book of Ephesians. There we find Paul addressing the…