… and how to get there, and most importantly, what to do when I get there!

If any of you saw the movie “The Bucket List ” starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman you’ll know pretty quickly where this post is heading.  And before anybody asks, no I’m not dying (other than in the context that everyone is dying or going to die eventually).

I saw the movie quite some time ago but was actually even more inspired by a blog I read called 250 while I’m 25.  In it Jo Walters, at the ripe old age of 25, explains why she’s put a list together and how she was helped by friends, colleagues and readers.

So I’ve decided that this is a worthwhile venture in my own life.  After all, use of eProductivity to implement GTD (Getting Things Done) has highlighted to me the need for a balanced life!  I’m not sure where a journey like this will take me so I’m really going into it as a step of faith.

This blog post is my invitation to you to participate in my journey by making suggestions about what I should have on my very own “Bucket List“.

There’s three ways that you can make a suggestion:

1. Leave a comment either on this post or on any of the pages that relate to my bucket list challenge.  (My Bucket List | The Challenge | The Rules | Rejected | Maybe
2. Send me an e-mail at Paul(AT)nzgardner(DOT)com
3. Twitter me your suggestion – @PGardnerNZ

Thanks very much for helping me start this adventure.  I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I’m sure I will.

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.

Photo credit: torley

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.

Thanks Eric.

What do you reckon your job is as a pastor?

• Communicating the vision?
• Loving and visiting the people?
• Developing new leaders?
• Teaching the Word?

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.

Photo credit: jontintinjordan

GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen is much more than a productivity methodology.  Its much more a life style.  So although I’ve moved the emphasis of this blog from productivity to leadership I’m still a GTD evangelist.

Photo courtesy of mag3737

Today I want to give you 5 reasons all leaders should get into GTD.  Tomorrow I’ll be more specific about leaders in ministry.

1. You’ll Focus More on What’s Important

Or in other words, you’ll empty your head of what you shouldn’t be thinking about.  Having a trusted system lets your brain know that it doesn’t have to keep reminding you about other things all the time.

2.  You’ll Escape Email Hell

If you’re anything like me the most debilitating thing is getting stuck in email hell and the most freeing thing about GTD is the escape from this. I used to dread turning my email program on in the morning but since I discovered eProductivity for Lotus Notes (which is how I implement GTD) my whole mindset has changed.

3.  You’ll Spend More Time Looking Ahead

There’s an old saying that you can’t drain the swamp when you’re too busy trying to stop the alligators biting your backside.  A decent implementation of GTD lets you spend more of your time draining the swamp… Or even looking far enough ahead to work out that its the wrong swamp!

4.  You’ll Spend More Quality Time With Your Family

Possible the most important benefit of all.  The greatest thing you can ever gain from GTD is balance.  If you’re using it just to gain productivity, working the same hours to get more done, or even working longer hours becauae of the extra benefits… then you’re really a GTD heretic!

A Call to Action

I dare you to give it 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.

Great news.  The people who gave us eProductivity will soon give us sidebar widgets to make things even better.

Have a look here for details.

This is a wonderful addition to the best GTD (Getting Things Done) application on the market.

Being a really big fan of GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen I naturally want my kids to get into it as well.  After all, why shouldn’t I help them have a great start in life (I wasted so many years in my muddle, they might as well learn from my mistakes!).

The Problem

As we use Lotus Notes at work I use the amazing eproductivity by Eric Mack as my GTD tool.  It simply works and allows me to keep my head empty, not be captured by the urgent and really get into the important.

But we don’t have Notes at home and I’m not really in a position to buy it etc.  My kids do, however have laptops so I went searching for a good, free application for them.  (Yes I know that GTD is not reliant on a computer program but they enjoy their computers so much I figured that they’re more likely to “click” if we went down that route.)

What I Came Up With

I downloaded Thinking Rock and have installed it on James’ laptop.  He’s sitting beside me now doing a mind dump into it.

Explaining GTD to Kids

My kids are older (12, 18 & 20) so I don’t want to dumb things down.  But I do want to keep it really interesting.  So here’s how you can help me…

How do you get your kids to buy into GTD and how do you make it really interesting for them?

Thanks for your feedback on this most important subject.

Picture courtesy of xERxOS

You may have noticed that it’s been a while since I posted regularly.  There’s a few  good reasons for this but I really want to share something exciting with you now…  and into the future.

I’m Taking This Blog in a New Direction

Up until now it’s been mostly about “Productivity”, hence the title.  From now on  it’s going to be a lot more about leadership, and more precisely about leadership  within ministry.

I want to move from heroic leadership to non-heroic leadership.

Why the Change?

Last week my wife, Raewyn, and I have been at our 5 year officer  review.  We’re Salvation Army Officers leading a church in Johnsonville (Wellington,  New Zealand) and during that time of reflection and learning we once again got to discussing the SHAFTE model of leadership.

The highlights of the SHAFTE model of leadership can be found here and most specifically are :

1. Work to your leadership strengths;
2. Fix your fatal leadership flaw; and
3. Do the rest with your team.

The model also talks about the need to be post-modern leaders and this is a major challenge for me because  I’m naturally a command and control type leader.

You would think this would be a good thing in a command and control type environment like The Salvation Army but I think it would be even better if I could bring a more post-modern leadership style to this most definitively modern leadership environment.

In terms of the SHAFTE model of leadership it could be said that I want to move from heroic leadership to non-heroic leadership.

This then is the start of my journey.  I hope you’ll come along for the ride .

Photo courtesy of Koka Sexton

Will You Still Post about  Productivity

I hear you ask.

Absolutely!  You will know by now that I use GTD and eproductivity extensively and I certainly intend to keep this going.  I think by definition a leadership style blog will always include quite a number of other things also.

So you can still expect to have posts about productivity, book reviews and the occasional rant along with miscellaneous other posts.  It’s just that my prime focus will move toward leadership in ministry.

Is There Anything I Can Do to Help?

Another good question.

Yes.

The main thing you can do is enter into the conversation.  Some of what I say is likely to be self evident but hopefully a lot will be contentious and worthy of discussion.

Also I need to decide whether I maintain the “Simply Productive” name for this blog.

Should I change the name of my blog? If you think I should, then what to? Please leave your thoughts as a comment. Thanks for your help.

This is for all those people who use Lotus Notes and want to be more productive!

Maybe you’ve heard about GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen?

Maybe you’ve heard about eproductivity for Lotus Notes by Eric Mack?

Here’s a chance to try out eproductivity and maybe win a $500 GTD pack at the same time.

“What do I need to do?” I hear you asking.

Download the evaluation version of eproductivity

Simply click on this link. Make sure you read all the steps.

Send feedback to the good folk at eproductivity

By using the “Send Feedback” option in the eproductivity dropdown menu.

Important

If you want to in the draw for the $500 GTD system then you need to include my name (Paul Gardner) and email (paul@paulgardner.info) in the additional comments section of your feedback.

If you like it…

You’ll have the chance to purchase at a very special price.

Important Note: If you do purchase, then I will receive $50.

That said, I have promoted eproductivity without the opportunity of receiving compensation in the past simply because it works for me and I believe it’ll work for you too.

We often see lists on productivity sites giving you little ways to increase productivity.  Everything from taking lots of micro breaks through to finding the time when your energy levels are highest.

But for many people, no matter how much they follow these self help lists, things get better for only very short spaces of time.  Why is this?  Why do most people continue to struggle to maintain productivity?

There are 4 main issues that people allow to stop them being all they could be and they’re not necessarily what you expect.

Worry about a relationship

While you’re worrying about an important relationship, whether it be with a spouse, a son or daughter, a parent or a friend, you’ll never be able to give your full attention to any task you’re on.  At least, not on an ongoing basis.

Difficult as it may be, you need to deal with the issue.  it may involve forgiveness, reconciliation and even saying sorry.  You need to bite the bullet if you want to get on track.  Unfortunately, sometimes this means you have to accept some relationships end.  If that’s the case, allow yourself time to grieve before you worry too much about your productivity.  (But that doesn’t mean you allow yourself to wallow in self pity for a length of time and to a degree that you cripple yourself emotionally)

Worry about personal finances

This is an area that affects most of us at one time or another.

There are, of course, no easy answers or silver bullets to this problem.  But if you are worrying about finances then make sure you take some action.  From the point of view of your productivity during these times you need to take just a few steps:

• Don’t bury your head in the sand.  Your brain still knows there’s a problem and won’t let you forget it.  It also knows that if you do ignore it, things are getting worse as you try not to think about it!
• Do put a plan in place even if it doesn’t feel like it’ll solve the problem entirely.  You’ve got a better chance to put the worry to one side if your head knows there’s a plan.
• Put the plan in place.

Not having a purpose

Seriously, if you want to be able to be productive you need to have a purpose.  Doing stuff that you don’t really know the reason for means there’s absolutely no chance that you’ll be productive.  You’ll simply be bored!

Even if you’re in the most mundane job in the world you should have a purpose to what you do.  If your employer isn’t great, meaning the organisation has no real vision, then you need to make sure you use your initiative to put a vision in place for your area (or even just for you).

Not capturing all your to do’s into a trusted system

This is the defining aspect to David Allen and his GTD methodology.  His premise is that unless you capture everything into a truly trusted system your brain won’t let you forget that there’s something you need to remember.  So no matter how much you try and concentrate on the task at hand, your mind keeps you in two (or more) places at once.  If you haven’t caught up with this methodology get it here (Amazon affiliate link).

Deal to these issues

Because if you don’t, all those other little things that you’re doing to try and get better are pretty much going to be a waste of time.