I’m lucky enough to work only about 20 minutes walk from where I live. Friday morning dawned beautifully fine so I decided to walk my 4 1/2 month old puppy Georgie to work with me.
My plan was for a brisk 20 to 25 minute walk (I knew we might have a stop on the way) followed by my normal morning quiet time. Then I would have enough time to read my RSS feeds, and do my GTD weekly review using eProductivity for Lotus Notes to set the day up. I figured I could achieve this easily before I joined the GTD webinar which started at 9 AM New Zealand time.
Not unexpectedly, Georgie didn’t have the same focus in mind. To who walk has nothing to do was getting to the place you want to go to and everything to do with investigating every leaf she could find on the way. It’s not that Georgie’s approach to walks is wrong, it’s just that her purpose is very different to mine.
It occurs to me that in everything we do we need to make sure we know our purpose for doing it. Sometimes we need to focus very carefully making sure we are not side tracked by the many leaves on the path.
But other times we need to intentionally be unfocused. A couple of times I can think of like this are:
Wandering through a nature reserve with the family and darting off to follow something that catches the eye;
During creative discussions; Most of my best ideas flow from way out thoughts that wouldn’t have happened if I’d been blinkered (read “focused”) by the goal;
No doubt you could add many more to this list!
I must thank both David Allen (of GTD fame) and Eric Mack (eProductivity) for giving me the tools that give me the freedom to be intentionally unfocused at the right times.
This is the second organisation that I’ve been with that uses Lotus Notes. In each case although I could see that there was a lot to Lotus Notes that the organisations weren’t using I got frustrated with it because it seemed merely to be a clunky e-mail client.
But then, to be fair, none of the other e-mail clients (desktop or online) help me manage my e-mail problem any better.
The Breakthrough
Then one day I came across a book called “Getting Things Done” by David Allen and I had one of those “aha” moments. Quite clearly I was trying to do my work the wrong way. Trying to multitask. Trying to remember everything. Trying to work without lists because I’ve always hated lists.
GTD revolutionised the way I looked at my work. It revolutionised the way I approached life altogether. GTD made so much sense to me that I knew I had to put it into effect.
The E-Mail Problem Continues
Many times I started GTD with enthusiasm and gusto. But every time I did, I had the same blockage. It wasn’t that I couldn’t get my e-mail is down to zero. No, that was easy. The real difficulty in implementing GTD successfully was integrating the e-mails with the lists.
Either it was well nigh impossible to keep track of the e-mails from within the list without doing amazing electronic contortions (or reverting to printing all e-mails and running a paper-based system), or if trying to run the lists from within the e-mail program, ideas captured from outside of e-mail keep dropping off the map.
The Solution Was Staring Me in the Face
Lotus Notes was my saviour! To be more precise, Lotus Notes with a template called eProductivity (by Eric Mack) was what pulled me through. Now I have an integrated e-mail/GTD based projects and actions client that literally it saves me hours every day.
Do You Run Lotus Notes?
If you do you should definitely give eProductivity a try.
Wow, I’ve had a lot of interest in my last eProductivity video tutorial about the eProductivity Reference Database and Quick Paste. It even got featured in the eProductivity newsletter!
Out of that I’ve been asked to do a quick video on the Quick Paste feature also. Here it is:
I hope you find this helpful too. If you have any ideas for future tutorials let me know.
I have a few reservations about some of his suggestions. (Most importantly, I think he misses out the questions – “What really bugs you when done wrong?” and “What injustice makes righteous anger boil up inside you?”) That said, its a pretty good list and something I recommend everyone should look at. It’s very similar to what Marcus Buckingham suggests in his book “The Truth About You“.
Vaughan Rivett has posted a good article on how good the quick-capture and quick-paste features of the eProductivity Reference Database are.
It reminded me that when I first started using eProductivity, even though it’s very intuitive, I didn’t use the reference database facility because I had enough on my plate already. Then, thanks to Eric Mack, I discovered its potential and I haven’t looked back since.
So I thought I’d do a quick tutorial about installing the database, integrating it with eProductivity mail and using Quick-Capture. I hope you find it useful. (The clip is 5.50 long)
(If you’re viewing this in a feedreader or email and you can’t see the video click here)
With the latest update of eProductivity you can now keep your “Today” view visible at all times.
This is a great boon so I thought I’d try a quick video tutorial to show you how to get it working.
eProductivity for Lotus Notes by Eric Mack is an implementation of GTD (Getting Things Done by David Allen. GTD is one of the most widely accepted methodologies for both productivity and life balance.
This is my first video tutorial. Please let me know if it’s useful to you and, if it is, what other aspects of eProductivity you’d like me to do future tutorials on.
Even though I try to keep my email inbox at zero I often find myself working from within this view. Maybe this is because I’m comfortable there. The problem is, if I keep this view open then I lose sight of what I’ve planned for the day as this is in my Today view.
Last week Eric Mack was kind enough to walk me through getting the new Today (sidebar) view in eProductivity into a separate window for me so I could have it always available.
This is an incredible improvement. among many, in the latest version of eProductivity for Lotus Notes which is the absolute best way to implement GTD (Getting Things Done).
As I use a two screen configuration at work it also means that I can have it visible even when I’m working in other programs such as MindManager.
Eric has put a good tutorial up as to how to get this new view working correctly.
I’m not going to argue with you whatever your answer is because we all have to come to our own theology of leadership within the local church.
But
It’s highly likely that you spend a lot less of your time doing these “important” things than you would like too. And conversely you probably spend an inordinate amount of time on mundane, energy sapping administrative type work that may or may not be necessary.
So What Should You Do?
You need to put a system in place that frees you up to do what God called you to do.
For me, that system (or, more correctly, methodology) is GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen.
What Are The Benefits for Me?
1. I Spend More Time With God
Obviously Pastors should spend regular time with God but we, along with everyone else, struggle when we’re being nickeled and dimed to death with little things.
I recall Bill Hybels saying (though he may have been quoting somebody), that he was “too busy not to pray”. We all know the truth of this. GTD simply makes it easier to make it happen.
2. I Spend More Time With My Wife
Not because I work with her, (as Salvation Army Officers we are actually joint senior pastors), but because when we’re not at work I don’t have to have lots of ministry stuff racing through my head all the time.
3. I Spend More Time With My Kids
Children of Pastors will often tell you that they feel like second class citizens because Dad (and Mum) make sure they look after their flock before their children.
Being so much more organised has allowed me to be intentional about spending time with my kids.
4. I Spend More Time With My Leaders
This is one of the imperatives to my role but used to get a bit lost amongst the myriad of forms and reports that needed completing. Not any more!
5. I Spend More Time Listening
I used to struggle with actually hearing what people had to say. I’m certainly not perfect now, but I am improving.
What used to happen is that my brain would still be processing something else I had going on at the time. I guess it was worried that I’d forget it. But now I have a trusted system (read eProductivity for Lotus Notes) my brain can let that go and concentrate on the person I’m conversing with.
6. People Trust Me More
Does that mean they didn’t trust me before?
Well, in a way, yes. At least, if they asked me to do something they knew there was a good chance I would forget it. Once again, with my trusted system, that is now a rare occurrence.
I challenge you to give GTD a go. Seriously, you may be dubious about it but the proof of the pudding is in the eating! Buy the book. NZ readers go here and overseas readers here. Note both are affiliate links.
This is a guest post. If you’d like to be a guest poster please check out the guidelines here.
Ben Brooks is a productivity blogger at Productivity Hacks, striving to keep things meaningful, to the point and productive so that he can enjoy life.
“Productivity” for many is defined as ‘getting a lot of stuff done in an efficient manner.’ It is measured by how many things we have done in any given day, instead of exactly what we have done. To that end, many people try to finish as many tasks as possible during the day, thus fulfilling the need to feel productive and simultaneously make their bosses happy.
I argue that those of this mindset have been going about being productive incorrectly. In thinking about being productive, you must realize that true productivity isn’t only about what you do, but about adding value to your work. Doing things for the sake of doing them, rather than for the sake of adding value, will sap your energy and stifle your creativity. To be clear, I mean value here as meaningful and thoughtful work that, due to its nature, leads to personal growth, professional growth and development.
It is very rare that one ever stops to ask himself, “is there any value in doing this?” There will always be times when you must do something to appease someone, even though no value will come of the task (Googling something for your boss comes to mind). However, if you do something that has no value, then is completing that task truly a productive use of your time?
Reclaiming Time and Doing Less
In my productive endeavors, both personally and professionally, I seek to only do those tasks from which I gain and to which I contribute value. To determine this, I start by asking myself why I am doing something and what will happen if I don’t. I have learned that if not performing a certain task makes little to no difference in the outcome than actually performing that same task, that task is essentially meaningless. So, stop wasting time with the meaningless and start creating more free time.
(As a side note to this, there is an important distinction to be made between the aforementioned meaningless task and pure laziness or necessity. You cannot classify the stuff that you simply do not want to do as “meaningless.” Sometimes, you must complete a few monotonous tasks, but what I’m saying is your time shouldn’t be consumed with these.)
If you are in an office where having free time is frowned upon, consider taking more time to add even more value to your work. Double check your work not for perfection, but to see if you might be able to add more value to it by making small changes ( e.g. making sure it gets to the point, making sure your research is complete, etc.). Try to avoid as many of those meaningless tasks as possible that only rob you of your energy and time; those that aren’t giving back to you as far as your own development and to which you feel you have made no genuine contribution.
A Hard Worker vs. an Amazing Creator
I personally hate being labeled as a “hard worker.” I know I am not just a hard worker because instead I seek to amaze people with the quality of the work I produce.Perhaps what I mean to say is that I’m focusing on adding value to my work and taking up my time with only what’s valuable overall, instead of “getting a lot done.” Because of this, I have more free time that used to be taken up by mundane tasks. I use that time to pursue other things that add value to my life such as reading, writing and human interaction just to name a few.
I know that these are not always things that can be done in a typical office setting, but there are other things for which you can use this extra time as mentioned above. Doing a bunch of meaningless tasks throughout the day keep to myself employed is not a viable option for me. Creating amazing things of true value is what in the end will make me successful.
