Keeping Your Goals on Track

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👋 Happy Thursday!

I pray you are experiencing the joy of the Lord this week as you seek to serve Him with your time and talents.

“And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.” –

⏳ Well, I’ve got another Roundup for you of the best-of-the-best resources on productivity and the Christian life that I came across this week.

Also…

I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my course on morning routines and will be announcing the launch next week (Lord willing).

So stay tuned!

Below I share a little more about the course to whet your appetite 😁


☀️ A little teaser for my upcoming course

I’m so excited to share this course with you next week!

POWER Mornings is a hyper-practical plan for implementing basic personal productivity habits in your life.

The course will takes you step-by-step through creating your own morning routine to help you:

  • Be more consistent in spiritual disciplines like prayer and Bible study
  • Establish daily personal development activities like reading, journaling, and exercise
  • And create a system for cultivating deep habits that you’ll actually stick with for the long-term
Who wouldn’t want to listen to that goofball talk about morning routines?

It’s 2.5 hours of teaching content with tons of high-quality worksheets to help you plan and apply.

By the end of the course you will walk away with a complete, custom-tailored game plan for slaying your mornings to the glory of God.

If you want to hear more about this course when it becomes available, just click here to let me know you’re interested.

🔈 This Week on the Podcast

RPS #79 — The Power of a Weekly Review

Weekly reviews are one of the best tools to keep us on track toward our goals, but they are also the easiest to neglect when we get busy. In this episode, I talk about weekly reviews, why they are so important for productive believers, and some suggestions on what to include in your review.

✍️ Quote of the Week

"We have little fire for an otherworldly lifestyle, because we have little connection to the other world." – Owen Strachan

🧑‍💻 What’s Happening on the Web

Now for some links from around the web that I think will be helpful in your journey to become a more productive Christian.

The Productivity Funnel

This is a helpful three-layer model for thinking about productivity.

In the most general sense, productivity is about navigating from a large constellation of possible things you could be doing to the actual execution of a much smaller number of things each day.

To make sense of these varied journeys from a broad array of potential activity to the narrowed scope of actual execution, I often imagine the three-level funnel diagramed above.

Sometimes when we think about productivity, we’re often dwelling just on that middle level of organization. At least for me, that’s where I can get stuck nerding out on all the nifty apps and time-management systems. But just as important are the levels of selection (what you choose to work on) and execution (actually doing the work).

As far as the unique way Christians approach our work, I think it’s at these upper and lower levels that our faith makes our approach the most distinct.

What I choose to do and why I choose to do it differs greatly from the world, because my purpose is different. At the level of organizing work, we often leverage the same tools as anyone else. But again at the execution level, the way in which I work (heartily unto the Lord), and the attitudes that must be present in my work (desire to glorify God, not grumbling, thankfulness) to actually do works which pleases God are just as important as the work itself done.

Something to think about.

Don’t Underestimate the Value of Rest

This might be exactly what you need to hear today.

Much like rest in a marathon training plan, resting from the work of ministry can produce massive results. We burn out quickly if we push too hard. Once we start catching our stride — feeling youthful and strong — the temptation to push harder and gain ground is always enticing. Don’t fall into the mindset that downtime is wasted time. It is not. You will go further faster if you slow down and rest.

Speaking of the value of rest. A new study found that sleeping less than the 6 hours per night in midlife can raise the risk of dementia 30%.

Just one more reason to make sure you’re getting those Zs.

New Apple Products

If, like me, you’re a fan of the Apple ecosystem for your gadgets, you may be interested in the product announcements they made earlier this week.

This big ones include:

  • New iMac design – Lots of colors and come with the new M1 chips
  • New iPad Pro – will have M1 chip as well
  • AirTag – Apple’s version of Tile Trackers that you can attach to things like keys or bags and track them using Find my iPhone (Tile is not happy about the new competition, by the way).

There were several others, including a pretty major overhaul to the creator side of podcasting on Apple Podcasts. I haven’t had time to dig into it yet to see how any of it might effect The Redeeming Productivity Show.

Ministry, Personal Limits, and Saying “No”

Important thoughts for those of us who struggle to say no.

but saying “no,” like everything else that calls for wisdom, is complicated. The idea of sacrificial love creates one of those complications

The whole article is great, but these three pieces of advice were my biggest takeaways:

  • If your life feels like chaos, look for things to remove (similar to advice I gave on Ep. 68 – Via Negativa)
  • When someone asks for your time, don’t say yes immediately.
  • If you have not been walking with the Lord for a few days, let your default answer to new commitments be no.

Review: ‘A World Without Email’ by Cal Newport

I enjoyed Daniel Patterson’s review of Cal Newport’s new book (even though he used the phrase “human flourishing” 🤢).

I recently purchased A World Without Email and haven’t started it yet. But this review made me eager to dive in.

A World Without Email

I’ve benefited immensely from Newport’s other books, Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, (the first article in this Roundup was also by Newport, btw) so I’m really looking forward to digging into A World Without Email.

What Is Biblical Justice?

So this isn’t really productivity related, but I just had to share it with you.

This is the best and clearest message I’ve ever heard on a biblical definition of justice. Providentially it was very timely that it was delivered just this week by my friend and pastor, Mike Moses.

We are living in crazy and often confusing times. It behooves Christians, therefore, to make sure that our understanding of critical issues are being shaped by the Bible, not the world’s definitions.

If you’d rather read than listen, this guide breaks down the key points from the message.

I promise, it is well worth your time.

Apparently, I’ve been tying my shoelaces like a doofus my whole life

Many people are tying a “Granny Knot”, which sits crooked and comes loose. Learn the “one simple trick” for keeping your shoes neatly and securely tied.

I had no idea! The question is, now that I know, will I actually change my habit? 🤔

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