Encouraging Words from Cary Schmidt » organization

The Hidden Values of Preparation

caryschmidt — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:06:45 +0000

Have you ever conducted an event that was ill-prepared? Have you ever been disorganized or caught off guard in some ministry environment? There’s nothing worse than being thrown off balance by a lack of preparation.

I could fill the pages of a book with tough lessons learned through a lack of preparation. Even after years of learning the hard way, I still get bit by this at times.

There’s a side of preparation we don’t usually think of—benefits that are not readily apparent. Whether you are leading a church service, a youth activity, or a Sunday School class—your preparation produces something in the group you lead. These are what I would call the “hidden values” of preparation:

Everybody values the event or environment more—when somebody arrives at your environment and finds things ready, their respect and value for what is happening skyrockets. If you want people to value the Bible lesson, then have the room perfectly prepared. If you want someone to respect teen camp, then have the buses filled with gas and ready to go. If you want someone to value the church service, have the outline well-prepared and the music well-rehearsed. Flying by “a wing and a prayer” is always obvious—and it causes people to naturally lower their value of that specific environment.

Everybody has higher expectations—because good preparation raises everybody’s value, it also raises expectations. When people arrive at a well-prepared ministry environment, they naturally expect more, anticipate more, and raise their level of awareness. And when it comes to teaching or preaching, that’s a GREAT thing!

Everybody responds at a higher level—people behave differently in a well-prepared environment than in a poorly prepared one. Put a group in a well-prepared environment and they will more naturally come to order, respond to leadership, listen with the heart, and interact well. Take the same group and place them in a poorly prepared environment and you will have a tough time getting the group to focus and respond. You may even have a tough time bringing the group to order at all.

Everybody benefits from added value—the bottom line, a well-prepared event or environment delivers more. Because of preparation, you put more time into the study, more thought into the decor, more effort into the creative dynamics. Because of early preparation, you had more time to make the whole event or service a better experience. As a result, people walk away with much more!

This works with children at home—children tend to feel more agitated in a home that is disorderly, but they behave better in a well-kept home.

This works with teens—young people intuitively sense if something is well-prepared, so they listen better, expect more, and have higher respect for what’s happening.

This works at work—team members are more productive and better co-laborers when they have decent work environments and the right equipment.

This works at church—an entire congregation is more receptive to teaching and preaching when the rest of the service, including the bulletins and pre-service set up, is well-prepared and in order before they arrive.

This past week I had one of those “well duh!” moments. For years our youth conference has had open seating with the doors opening an hour before service, at which time there’s a mad rush for seats. Some months ago we began wrestling with what to do and decided to reserve seating for every group. It took a lot of logistical work to make it happen, but every conference delegate was assigned a seat at registration. I was shocked by the results.

People arrived at a reasonable time, rather than an hour early. They arrived in a relaxed state of mind, went to their seats, and were able to enjoy the prelims without frenzy or frustration. As a result, the entire congregation was calm, responsive, and orderly throughout the entire week! It was like someone had literally zapped the stress and tension from the room. The excitement was still there, minus the negative experience of scrounging for seats. This one decision of preparation impacted the entire conference!

When you go to the extra effort of preparation, everybody wins!

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: (Titus 1:5)

7 Ideas for Your Personal Planner System

caryschmidt — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:21:49 +0000

This fourth and final post on an annual planner is just for ideas. Please contexualize this series properly—I’m certainly not the expert on this stuff. Like you, I just enjoy comparing notes with others and gleaning helpful ideas. Thank you for the positive feedback. If you’re coming in late to the series, previous articles are as follows:

You might also find these articles helpful to this topic:

Throughout this series, I’ve referred to a personal system—the tools you will use to manage information and remind yourself daily of the plans you have made. There are many helpful tools, especially for computer users, but here are the ones I find most helpful and how they are used. Perhaps you’ll find an idea you can use:

1. A Leather Binder—it’s portable, convenient, and never needs recharging. It contains as little as possible (I hate clutter).

First section—personal ministry: information on those I’m reaching, ministering to, following up on, etc.
Second Section—teaching or preaching: notes for any upcoming speaking times.
Third section—my work day: this is the very center of my binder and always has a bookmark so it is easily opened. On the left is a page for today’s notes, on the right is always the most current project list for easy reference and constant perusal (and prayer!). Just behind the project list is a page that lists every priority for that month.
Fourth Section—information by ministry: a tab for each ministry, a flow chart, and any information needed. This section also has a tab for major events like Leadership Conference.
Fifth Section—calendar: printed two months per page, two years worth, primarily for quick reference.

Anything that doesn’t have to be in this binder isn’t. If I can get to it through the phone or some other way, I try to leave it out of the binder. The binder is for things that must be referenced quickly or physically (like teaching notes), and it’s a landing place for items throughout the day—a place to jot notes, store things, and generally process information to other places.

2. iCal Calendar—there are plenty of good calendar solutions. I use iCal which syncs with my iPhone and also is available online from any computer through MobileMe. It’s very ubiquitous, which makes it very functional. If you are not familiar with “cloud computing” and getting your calendar into a subscribable, ubiquitous format, it’s well worth learning about.

3. Things—there are many good solutions for managing projects, tasks, and details, but this one is just awesome. Every task and project ultimately finds its way into this part of my system. This is the heart of point 2 in the last post—where tasks and details are placed on specific dates to be remembered at the right time. Things handles tasks, projects, people, areas of responsibility in a way that’s very fluid and simple. It also syncs with iPhone.

4. iDisk—this is only one of many useful solutions for online document storage and accessibility. All key documents are stored on iDisk, synced to all computers that I use, as well as accessible from iPhone. Many things that used to be in my binder were removed because they can be accessed from iDisk through the phone. Having files on iDisk keeps them backed up, sycned across multiple locations, and accessible from basically anywhere.

On iDisk is a simple folder structure (four to be exact). They are as follows: Ministries (wherein resides a folder for each ministry, more for long-term storage), Current Projects (where anything related to a present project or event rests), Key Docs (a folder containing the documents used most frequently), and Teaching Notes (a folder with all outlines). All other files are archived elsewhere.

5. Evernote—worthy of its own post! Evernote is a free service that allows you to store almost anything: text, files, webclippings, audio, photos, etc. It’s simply incredible! The Evernote team is amazing—having developed a web client, a desktop (Mac or Windows) client, and mobile clients for all the popular platforms. Presently I’m using Evernote for all dictation (which means dictation can be done from anywhere and my secretary has access to it immediately over the web), phone calls (by simply creating a note of all calls that need to be made or returned), trips/itineraries (a place for all information related to any travel), receipts (stored snapshots of any receipt I need to keep), and writing research (notebooks for saved research related to upcoming projects).

To be honest, Evernote is so awesome, I’m barely scratching the surface. It’s like having another memory. I’m still in the mode of trying to retrain my brain to think of new and better ways to use this tool. It’s an incredible resource, and it’s free!

6. Project List—this is a simple, less-than-interesting excel spreadsheet of all open projects. It’s updated and printed for the binder every couple of days and serves as a constant, ever-present course corrector. It also resides on iDisk and can be accessed easily there as well.

7. Current Items Folder—this is a plain manila folder where I throw every material thing that matters. If I can’t get to it online, then it goes in here for later reference or access.

These things, along with a contact program and a cell phone basically comprise my current system. It changes regularly as life demands. These all boil down to information management—putting information where it is safe, retrievable, reliable, and accessible. In the information age, this is a moving target because we have so much stuff flowing toward us constantly. The more sensibly you can manage information, the more clutter-free and manageable your life will be. I hope these thoughts and this series of articles have encouraged you!

Your turn! What’s in your system that others can benefit from? What questions has this post raised? Add a comment below…

Implementing Your New Year Plan

caryschmidt — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:03:34 +0000

The “final article” on the new year planner has become two. First—let’s discuss putting it into practice. In the next article—thoughts on developing an organizational system that works. (Click to read the first and second articles in this series.)

So you’ve spent several hours or days mapping out vision, goals, projects, events, calendar, details, and tasks—now what? Do you hit “save” and close the file, sending it into “Neverland?” Do you print it, bind it, and place it on your bookshelf to collect dust for the next twelve months? What brings the plan into a functioning reality? What will prevent it from merely becoming good intentions that grew older?

Without making it practical and practiced, building a planner means we’ve spent a lot of time accumulating a well-described wish or even a fantasy.

Not only is this final part of the process the most fun (at least for me), it is also what makes stuff happen. So let’s dive in:

1. You Must Have a Daily-Life System—I don’t care if it’s a pad of construction paper and some crayola crayons, or if it’s the latest, greatest techno-gadget that vibrates, beeps, and dresses you in the morning; you must have something that you will live by and look at every day. And this system needs a place for every day of the year—a spot where you can park things reliably and not have to remember them until you need to. Two essential rules about your system: you must look at it every day (or you won’t trust it) and you must not leave anything on yesterday (or you will only increase your stress exponentially). Your system should work for you, that’s all that really matters.

2. Every Project, Task, Detail from Your Planner Should Be Placed into Your System—yes, this is really simple work (sort of mindless) but WOW is it liberating! It might take you a few hours, so find a comfortable spot, make some coffee, build a fire, play some music, and settle in for a while. Start with the first page of your planner and enter every single “pre-planned detail” into your system on the day you want to remember it. Give yourself some lead time! Don’t enter it on the due date. Enter it on the start date. This is very important. Otherwise, you’ll go through the entire year only remembering things on the day they are due! That’s enough to make anyone self-destruct.

3. Live By Your System—If you’ve done your planner correctly, then you know what day you need to purchase your wife’s birthday present, what day you need to line up a guest speaker, and what day you plan to begin preparing a new series of messages. If you’ve given yourself lead time, then the exact day isn’t all that important. Living by your system means you can give yourself permission to forget all those things and focus on right now. Most of the things you need to be reminded of will show up in your system when they need to. Until then, look at today, this week, this month, and press ahead.

Once everything is entered into your system, the actual planner basically becomes a dust-collector. You might read through it periodically. You might reference it for next year’s planner. But now you live the plan by referencing your system on a daily basis. Just remember, if you don’t look at it and live by it every day, or if you leave things behind on yesterday (and the days before) you are merely building a stick to beat yourself with.

And finally, I can’t over-stress the importance of margins—lead-time. In every event, think of how much lead-time you want, need, and how much is reasonable. Too much lead-time means you will be reminded of something too soon and simply disregard it. (ie: “I don’t need to do that anytime soon…”) Too little means you’ll be living in a state of constant urgency with little flexibility. (ie: “Aagghh!”) Just a lovely way to live!

Your turn! Consider sharing this series of articles or posting a helpful comment below…

More on Developing a New Year Planner

caryschmidt — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:09:34 +0000

Thank you for responding to the article on the contents of a new year planner! Many of you have emailed and asked for the sample planner mentioned at the end of the article. In finalizing my planner the past couple days, I’ve decided to do two more articles related to planning the new year. This one focuses on some general thoughts about the philosophy of a planner. As you assemble a plan, consider the following:

1. It should reflect a biblical philosophy of life and ministry—Behind your planner should be a very focused philosophy of ministry, and the planner should simply be a tool of making it a reality. For instance, our student ministry is highly personal, highly biblical, and highly integrated into our entire church program. It is not a stand-alone entity. Therefore our student ministry planner reflects one-on-one ministry, plenty of Bible teaching, and student involvement in the whole church program.

2. It should be unique to your life and ministry—Every family and ministry is different. Every pastor has a unique vision. Not everything that works for another church will work for you. Your planner shouldn’t necessarily be a blueprint taken from other ministries. It should be a road-map for your own church.

3. It will not be exhaustive—No matter how hard you try, you just can’t plan many things! Probably more than 50% of ministry cannot be planned because it is in response to the needs of people, or the assignments given to you. Most of ministry is organic and dynamic—about relationships which are alive, growing, and always changing. One primary point of developing a planner is so that the things that can be planned ahead, are, so there’s greater flexibility to respond to things that cannot be planned.

3. It is not an end in itself—A planner must be put into action, or there’s no real sense in making one. Every detail listed in the planner should be placed into a computer program or daily organizer (on the day) and then lived by. (I will detail this in the next article.)

4. It must be flexible—Realistically, not everything you put in your planner will happen. Every year I look back at the previous year’s planner and find things that didn’t get done. Sometimes the plan changed. Sometimes higher priorities took over. Sometimes a project or goal is moved to the following year. And sometimes, even more was done than the planner indicated. The point is, a lot more will get done because you planned ahead. Don’t expect 100% completion, but choose to rejoice in the progress.

5. It should require a team—A good planner contains more than one person can accomplish. Don’t merely focus on planning for yourself. Let God expand your vision so that it requires you to enlist and train a ministry team to help make it happen.

6. It should reflect balance—The only way to find balance is to plan it. Without looking ahead and staying focused on the long-term, we get way off balance. One of the best reasons to develop a new year planner is that you can, with God’s help, envision doing the things He calls you to do in a way that is synergistic and effective—balanced! The heat of the battle is not the time to find balance. If you have a busy life, balance must be worked into the calendar before the year begins. This is about the only way to insure both sanity and productivity in the new year. (For more on this read Thoughts On Planning the New Year.)

Up to this point the topic has been simply putting the plan together. The best part of a ministry planner is implementing it into your daily system and routines so that you can maximize your efficiency in life. There are some very specific ways to do that. We will explore this in the next article!

I’m missing something, so that’s where you come in! What are your thoughts about planning the new year? What works for you? Comment below…

Contents of a New Year Planner

caryschmidt — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:31:01 +0000

‘Tis the season for new year planning! In support of the recent Spiritual Leadership Podcast on annual planning, I thought it would be appropriate to dissect a ministry planner and give an inside glimpse of what’s included. Perhaps these thoughts will equip you in planning and preparing for a great new year of ministry. So, here goes—the contents of my ministry planner:

1. Last Year in Review—this part is a simple summary of the high points and great moments of the last year of ministry. This always provokes deep gratitude for what God has done, and challenges in areas that need improvement for the next year.

2. Personal Life Section—this section covers family and personal items like walking with the Lord, reading, studying, preparing for writing and teaching/preaching, family nights, vacation, date nights, and get-aways with my wife.

3. Twelve-Month Calendar—one page per month, but each month has been worked on carefully. All of the church events are in place. Each trip, activity, and critical season is mapped out. This ministry and personal calendar drives much of the rest of the planner. Of course much of it changes over the year, but it’s good to start with a twelve-month overview.

4. Months-at-a-Glance Project Lists—this is a one page per month list of the major projects of each particular month. It’s really a summary of the whole planner, by month. Each area of ministry is listed with the primary projects for that month. It’s a help to read this list every few days to make sure things are on track for the month.

5. A Section for Each Area of Ministry—in addition to a personal section, the planner includes a tab for every major area of ministry. For instance, mine includes youth, publications, etc. Each section contains the following: Vision, goals, projects, details. That’s a critical sequence—vision, goals, projects, details—because they flow one to the next.

6. Vision, Goals, Projects, and Details for Each Ministry—start with vision (given by God through time with Him). Then develop goals that realize the vision—make them measurable. Then create projects or events that fulfill the goals. Finally, put details like dates and steps to the projects. For example—a vision for youth ministry might include the transfer of biblical truth. A goal for that vision might be to lead a weekly Bible study time. A project to realize that goal might be to begin a teen Bible study or to teach the Ten Commandments. The details would include the step by step of when and how you will prepare those lessons or launch that new effort.

7. Particular Planning Tools for Each Ministry—for music ministry, this includes twelve months of music schedules. For youth ministry this includes a curriculum plan for what each class is teaching and when. For a radio ministry this would include the broadcast schedule. Each ministry has its own unique planning needs.

8. Flow Charts—each area of ministry usually has a team (even if they are volunteer). This chart shows who does what and how the work and ministry flows.

9. Ministry Budget—each area of ministry or each major event needs a budget—planning out the income and expenditures.

If these thoughts have prompted you to create a ministry planner, I would be happy to send you a sample section from a recent student ministry planner. Just shoot me an email. You might also reference two other articles previously posted about planning for the new year—Thoughts on Planning the New Year and also Making the Busiest Time of Year the Best.

What have you found helpful in planning for the new year?

SL Podcast: Developing an Annual Plan

caryschmidt — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:07:44 +0000

The December edition of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast has just posted!

Originally taught ten years ago, this lesson is entitled “Developing an Annual Plan.” In this session, Pastor Chappell shares thoughts on creating a new year plan for your life and ministry. This is one of the most popular spiritual leadership lessons Dr. Chappell has ever taught, so don’t miss it!

The Spiritual Leadership podcast is a free resource from Striving Together Publications (a ministry of Lancaster Baptist Church and West Coast Baptist College).

You can subscribe to this podcast through iTunes and listen on your computer or iPod. You can also receive the complimentary outline with each lesson. Click here for more information about subscribing to the outline.

Enjoy the lesson as you prepare for a new year of ministry!

How to Write Readable Emails

Cary Schmidt — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:01:12 +0000

Have you ever received an email that, at first sight, completely sent your brain into a revolt? Funny. Regardless of the message or your affection for the sender, your brain just wants to immediately hit “delete”! Why?

Perhaps some basic things made the email appear to be a huge mental hurdle—long lines, huge paragraphs, and a buried main point. On top of this, more emails are begging to be read, so you just want to move on. Our eyes really don’t like swimming through a sea of alphabet soup!

If you would like to make life easier on your recipients, read on. Here are a few ideas for making your emails more quickly readable:

Get to the point—most emails don’t require lengthy salutations and warm introductions. (Unless you’re writing more of a personal letter, which I will address below.) The easiest emails to deal with are the ones that say “hi,” and then quickly get to the point.
Use quick thoughts and short sentences—when processing email, our brains are deluged with information—so we’re quickly looking for the pertinent information. Keep this in mind. Break it down and help your reader get through it by keeping your thoughts concise.
Use paragraphs—the return button is a wonderful thing! It gives your brain a break—like a little party between thoughts. So use it, and give your reader some space. Whatever you do—don’t send 150 lines of text with no breaks.
Keep it short, or warn your reader—the best policy is to keep email short, unless you warn your reader. And the longer the email, the longer you might wait for a reply. Let your recipient know where this is headed and why. It’s just good courtesy.
Make your request stand out clearly—your email will be more responded to if you make the request stand out somehow. Place it in first paragraph, set it apart, bold it, or emphasize it. Just be sure someone can quickly see your point.

None of these ideas are to suggest that long, personal emails are not important and valuable. I really love getting them. In fact I usually save them! But the vast majority of email communication I receive has a different point and purpose. The same is probably true with you.

Someday there will be a guidebook for email etiquette. But until then, maybe these ideas will save our readers some brain-revolt along the way.

What are some things you love and hate about email? (share your thoughts below…)

Honored to Work with a Winning Team

Cary Schmidt — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:53:25 +0000

What an awesome privilege it is to work on a team with incredible, talented, godly, committed people! The people I get to work with truly are great, in every sense of the word. Over the past week, I have been reminded, humbled, and sincerely blessed over and over again at the spirit and heart of our team—particularly those I serve closely with. Here are just a few things I believe make them great:

A Winning Team Believes in the Cause—This team is not made up of hirelings! They have bypassed worldly ambition—as every one of them could have been highly successful in the world’s eyes. They have embraced the eternal cause of Christ, and they contribute their gifts, abilities, and personal strengths without reservation! It’s awesome to work with people who are so committed to one cause, that literally, none of us have a “plan B”!

A Winning Team Has a Positive Spirit—Today we met briefly about two major projects, among others that must happen in the next twelve days. When one might expect some reservation or negativity, this team didn’t talk about “if” it could happen. They just talked about the right solutions—with energy, excitement, and anticipation. It was awesome to see. I love the “we can make this happen” spirit of a winning team.

A Winning Team Rejoices in Collective Success—Teams accomplish more together, and that’s an amazing experience. When I look back over the past three months, I’m speechless at how our team has labored and served and invested themselves. The fruit is abundant and the results honor the Lord. It’s great when everybody on a team is interested in everybody else’s success.

A Winning Team Has No Individual Agendas—A personal agenda in a team environment is like a blinder—it drastically limits your perspective and your vision, so that you will accomplish far less, and alone! Dropping personal agenda is like being freed from yourself—it’s taking the blinders off and being a part of something far greater than just one miniscule person or perspective.

A Winning Team Sacrifices Together—It’s often at this time of year that our team comes to a collective realization that some longer work days, or nights, are ahead. Not only do they embrace the challenge, they almost anticipate it. Having “clock-watchers” on a team is like trudging through mud—they slow everybody else down. Because even when they are on the clock, they’re watching it so much that they accomplish very little. Having a non-clock-watching team is a refreshing experience. (And that doesn’t mean they live out of balance either.)

A Winning Team Appreciates Different Strengths and Personalities—No two members of our team are alike, which makes for some of the best discussions, ideas, and collaborative efforts. It’s amazing to watch God take so many different personalities, strengths, and gifts, and gel them together to produce spiritual and fruitful outcomes. These are often the things that pull teams apart—but that goes back to the point of “no individual agendas.”

A Winning Team Serves with Little Recognition—With a winning team, no one really cares much who gets the credit. It seems, almost constantly, that various people on our team are getting credit for the work of others on the team. (Sometimes that goes both ways—successes and failures.) But, it’s great to actually see people laugh at it and seem to secretly relish the fact that someone else got credit for something they did! That’s just a great spirit—and one that God will bless on any team!

A Winning Team Delights in the Details—This one is big! How often do people on teams get bored with repetitive details?Each member of a team often does the same things over and over… and over again. How many times does a secretary make a phone call or type a letter? How often does a designer lay out a page? How boring can filing music be after 500 weeks of it? On a winning team, everybody owns their details with fresh energy every day.

A Winning Team Celebrates Together and Gives God the Glory—For our team, this has something to do with sushi! It’s just good to end every day or to complete a large project knowing that you served with a spiritual team in the will of God for the glory of God. I thank the Lord for the excellent spirit and the tremendous heart of the people on our team. It’s humbling to be a part and to see God use them. I thank the Lord every day for allowing me to labor in the presence of such greatness!

“…who is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord.” (Colossians 4:7)

Three More Huge Principles for Personal Productivity

caryschmidt — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:26:24 +0000

Do you like to live “to the hilt”? Do you like to pillow your head at night exhausted, spent, but fulfilled? Do you find great enjoyment in doing the best you can with the resources and opportunities God has given you? I sure do. In a recent post we looked at three HUGE principles of personal productivity—they can be read here. These principles rise far above your “system” or your software. Without these in place, it doesn’t matter what gadget you use or how streamlined your plan is—you’re still going to be frustrated. So, let’s jump into three more:

Principle #1—Building Strong Relationships is the Most “Productive” Thing You Can Do—Relationships don’t “feel” productive, but there is nothing more important than people. The problem is, you can’t check relationships off of a “to-do” list. When I work on my “to-do” list all day, I can look and see all the things I’ve checked off—which means I can feel good about my day and my accomplishments. I can relish my “busyness” and I have tangible proof of how “effective” my day was.

Yet, I can spend all afternoon with my wife or child and not “check anything off” my list. Oh, how deceptive this feeling is! Truthfully, I accomplished more in that afternoon than a to-do list could possibly contain. Relationships are organic—they require time and nurture, not checklists. And relationships are dynamic—always changing. In other words, with the people I love, I’m always either growing closer to them or further from them. Relationships are never static—they aren’t accomplished, they are developed. Therefore, because they aren’t accomplishments, they don’t “feel” productive, but there is nothing more important than relationships! Don’t ever allow projects to take precedence over people.

Think of it this way—no matter how much you get done and how organized your life is, if the vital relationships in your life are suffering, you are failing. Relationships always come first. That’s God’s plan, that’s what Jesus modeled, and that’s why God instructs us to love one another.

Principle #2—Restoration is Productive—Down time is not wasted, it is vital. Sometimes our minds work against us in this. We push ourselves as though we think we can beat the human condition. How silly. God created us—hard wired us—to need rest. It’s just a fact of life. Precious few people on this planet legitimately need only 3 hours of sleep each night—and I’m NOT one of them. You probably aren’t either. Just like breathing involves inhaling and exhaling—so life has a rhythm—a God-created pattern of expending and restoring, laboring and resting. And this applies not only to your physical needs, but also your spiritual and emotional needs. Everyone needs regular patterns of physical, emotional, and spiritual restoration. It’s just a fact of life.

Quick personal illustration: Recently I was buried in a huge project. It was needfully consuming. For two weeks, it’s safe to say I expended myself—happily. By the time that project was wrapping up, I could tell that I was in need of restoration as well as family time. So, I planned it—two days off to sleep in, spend time with Dana and the kids, and just restore physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It was GREAT!

When finally back in the office on the third day, my clarity, my decision making, my whole thought process was completely different, not to mention my attitude was better! (Let’s face it, exhaustion can give us all a pretty bad attitude at times.) I honestly got more done in the two days after I rested than if I had worked all four days straight through. The restoration was absolutely one of the most productive things I could have done in the moment. It impacted everything else—including my relationships. All that to say, sometimes you just need to crash, get some sleep, take your spouse on a date, snuggle your kids, pray, read your Bible, and refill your tank! We all function much better on a full tank.

Principle #3—The Leading of the Holy Spirit Beats All of Our Other Plans—Planning and “redeeming the time” (Eph. 5) is important. God is a God of order and desires for us to “set things in order” (Titus). But our best laid plans never replace the daily guidance of the Holy Spirit. In fact, our best laid plans should actually make way for the Holy Spirit—clearing our lives of the clutter and helping us to focus on what God truly has for us. If you really want to pillow your head with a clear conscience and a full heart—no planner system can help you find that—it is purely a product of knowing and doing the will of God moment by moment. Hearing and heeding the Holy Spirit’s promptings is essential for a truly productive life.

Does this mean we shouldn’t plan? No. It means our plans should be fluid—flexible—so that God can bend and shape them throughout our day as He leads. When your day doesn’t go how you planned it, how do you react? Do you get bent out of shape? Don’t. Just be flexible in God’s providence and let Him intersect your day with His Divine appointments. And most likely, those appointments will involve relationships.

Last night we had a family moment that embodies all three of these principles. We decided to grill out hamburgers and eat by our fire pit in the back yard—sort of spontaneously. As the sun set, the evening was beautiful and we lingered by the fire talking, laughing, and being a family. After a while, we began roasting marshmallows and teaching Haylee how to make s’mores. She had never roasted marshmallows before! What a delight. At first she was afraid of the flaming sugar ball at the end of her coat hanger, but her tongue quickly overruled her fear! It was relationships and restoration and the leading of the Holy Spirit all wrapped into one unforgettable evening! Who would have thought that roasting marshmallows could be so productive and spiritual!

Whatever system you use to organize your life or to find greater productivity—make sure you have the BIG principles in place first. People come first, restoration is productive, and the Holy Spirit beats our best plans. (Oh yeah—and roasted marshmallows always increase productivity.) Now it’s your turn… what are your thoughts about big principles for productivity?

Three Huge Principles for Personal Productivity

caryschmidt — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:28:57 +0000

A few weeks ago a pastor asked me if he could look through my leather binder. I happily sat down and showed him page by page through this veritable extension of my arm—for it pretty much goes wherever I go all the time. Thinking back, I get asked about organization, personal productivity, and balance quite a bit—it seems that there are a whole bunch of us trying to grow and refine our lives in these areas. So in this post I want to share a few personal insights—big picture stuff that the Lord has taught me over the past two decades of striving for growth.

Principle #1—Personal Productivity and Organizational Systems are Dynamic—they are always in motion, evolving, and changing, or needing to change. Just about the time you think your system is really refined and functional, you’re going to outgrow it! This is the nature of the growth curve.

Here’s how it works. You start falling behind—too busy, spread too thin, in over your head. Then you get frustrated and your life becomes tense and sort of “on the ragged edge.” At that point, you either give up or grow. If you give up, something or someone always loses. Opportunities are passed. Relationships are missed. Greater doors of service, ministry, or effectiveness are closed. People you could have helped don’t get helped. Things you could have done for God, get left behind. Giving up is basically a choice to stay the way you are and where you are in life—to pass up on being stretched to greater potential and usefulness.

The alternative—growth—is when you embrace the added pressures and responsibilities with a desire to grow into them. (Not to neglect of family, etc.) This is when you buy books, go to seminars, research software, gadgets, technologies, and anything else that promises to help you have a slight edge. It’s when you sit back, get a big picture perspective, and restructure your life with the hopes that you can have a “break-through.” Your looking for that balance—but balance that still allows you to tackle bigger things more effectively. After a lot of prayer, seeking God, studying, and learning—growth happens. Your shoulders get broader, your structure gets refined, and you set up a system that helps you manage the new weights that fall to you.

As a result, you do more and you do it more effectively, which means you have set yourself up to hit another wall. And yes, about the time your new system is working really well—WHAM—you’re going to find yourself “in over your head” again. Just get ready—it’s going to happen so long as you are trying to reach your full potential. No system will work forever. The best system or the most strategic restructuring is going to have to be refined sooner than you think. So, if you desire to keep growing in personal productivity, get used to having to reinvent your system every so often.

Principle #2—Personal Productivity and Organizational Systems are Personal —What works for some time management guru or personal productivity author may or may not work for you. It would be great if everybody could fit their organizational style into the same box or the same system. That won’t happen. I’ve known people who really beat themselves up because they couldn’t make a Covey system or a Day Timer system work for them. Sure, sometimes there are issues of personal discipline or laziness—but not usually. In my experience, if you are a person trying to find greater order and productivity in your life, it’s not because you’re lazy! Usually those systems don’t work because they don’t think like YOU think! Your personal organization system MUST think like you think—or else it’s going to make your life more miserable, not more effective. If it doesn’t think like you think, then you’re just building a stick to beat yourself with.

Finding or creating a system that thinks like you do is a great challenge—but one worth undertaking. You’ll end up trying a lot of things just to find a few that work well for you. Illustration: My system of organization and my wife’s are completely different—but equally effective for our worlds and our brains. For instance, while I can tell you exactly how many youth workers are needed for a given event, I wouldn’t have a clue which medications my kids need and when. Our organization worlds, while closely connected, are quite different. Her system works for her, and mine works for me. And I would only bring stress if I tried to fit her to mine, or vice versa.

So, if it doesn’t work for you, and you’ve honestly tried—then shoot straight with yourself. Let it go. Try something else. There are ways your brain naturally tries to process, store, and retrieve information. (The whole left brain, right brain thing is a topic for another post.) Rather than trying to cram yourself into someone else’s system—seek to understand your way of processing information and develop a system that facilitates that process rather than getting in its way.

Principle #3—Personal Productivity and Organizational Systems are about Storing Information—in other words, most of us don’t need to be told or reminded what to think about right now. Usually we know exactly what we’re supposed to be thinking about this moment. The problem is, we are afraid of what we’re forgetting. And we expend so much energy trying to remember what we might forget, that it clutters the “now.” Rather than giving our best focus and energy to this moment and what’s going on right now in our lives and relationships, we cloud the “now” with the stress of trying to remember all the “later stuff”—like what’s coming this afternoon, who I’m supposed to call tomorrow, and what I promised to do next week.

Many systems try to make you plan now, when you probably don’t need a lot of help with now. What we primarily need is practical, effective, and reliable “storage tanks” for stuff we can’t afford to forget. It’s defining those storage tanks and making them reliable that ultimately defines our system. How do you categorize the “stuff” you’re trying to remember? How does your brain naturally try to retrieve it? Where do you look for it? What goes on the computer and what goes on paper and what goes on your phone? These are the questions that should determine your system. For instance, if you naturally look at your refrigerator door for a calendar more frequently than you would a computer—then use what works! What good is a computerized calendar that you never look at?

Honestly, it doesn’t matter where or how you store the information that you need—as long as you know where it is and you trust the system to remind you, when you need to know. You could have the most intricate system of files, techno gadgets, and software programs—but if you can’t train your brain to rely upon those systems, you are going to be frustrated. Example—for years I was taught to have an A-Z file of things that I need to save and reference later. My problem—I don’t think alphabetically and my brain is wired to instantly forget everything that I place into a drawer. So I would put stuff in my file—only to instantly forget it! Then every four years or so, I would clean out my file and spend an hour going, “Oh… I forgot I had this!” Duh—someone else’s system of “storing information” didn’t work for me.

The information we typically need falls into five basic categories—contacts, appointments, tasks, projects, future reference. So, a good system for you is any system that takes that information and places where you can easily find it when you need it. A good system makes you confident that your important information is safe and easily retrieved. This will give your brain the ability to really focus on what’s important right now. You can stop living afraid of what you might forget. This is one of the best reasons to develop a system that works for you—the freedom of focus.

These are fairly random thoughts that I’ve wanted to jot down for some time now. If they were just stupid—feel free not to comment. If you find yourself identifying with these thoughts, or if you would like me to expand on this post and share additional thoughts, then let me know. Also feel free to share other helpful comments!

Thanks for reading!