Entries Tagged 'Change' ↓

Back in July 2008 I wrote about my task management journey, my search for systems to help me be more and more productive. I stated my believe that “there’s always a better way!”

I also discussed my latest attempt at using an online application, Remember the Milk. While I like the (free) service, I have concluded that I still need to see everything at a glance and be able to take it with me wherever I go. It’s was the same thing with a PDA several years ago. While I could take it with me, I couldn’t see everything, easily, at a glance, or or record notes on the fly.

So, what’s next?

Believe it or not, I may be coming full circle, where I started two decades ago. I am seriously considering going back to a paper planner (like Franklin Covey).

The thing I miss about a paper planner is having a central location to record notes, thoughts, and action items. And, with adding a child to the mix in our lives, having an effective centralized system becomes that much more important!

Franklin planners start on the quarters so I have till January (the next quarter) to decide if this is indeed the direction I want to go, so stay tuned for 3.0 somewhere down the road.

On the surface, this might sound contradictory to what I recently wrote about change. Often, when we think about routine, we think of monotony and things that stay the same.

But really, routines are simply habits or systems for getting things done. and to be most effective, the habits/systems/routines must change from time to time.

I like to change or tweak my routines, periodically. My recent post on task management is an example that. In order to keep growing, you must have routines, but you must also keep changing them.

I first learned about the importance of shaking things up from weight lifting. Weightlifters make their greatest gains (strength, endurance, muscle growth) when they first start out because the new routines are a shock to their bodies/muscles. However, muscles become resistant to the routine after a few short months. In order to keep growing, weightlifters must change up their routines every few months. It’s called the “confusion principle.”

Our routines have been thrown into a whirlwind in 2008 (a good whirlwind, but a whirlwind nonetheless), but we have still tried to have routines in our lives. Some of our daily, weekly, and monthly routines include …

• Daily/weekly planning
• Sermon prep (which I’m planning to write about in the future)
• Regular day off (on Fridays, a change from Mondays which we’ve always done before!)
• Tracking personal income and expenses (using spreadsheets) including a number of ministry and/or tax-related documents/spreadsheets.

But the newest routines we’ve developed this year have been related to Ethan — an evening routine that includes getting Ethan ready for bed, reading a Bible story, prayer, and taking turns each night giving him his milk in a sippy cup (formerly, formula in a bottle); whoever puts Ethan to bed, gets him dressed the next morning and prepares his breakfast, etc.

However, it’s some of our before-Ethan routines that we’re in the process of reestablishing and redeveloping. Having been a family of two for 14 years, our rhythms were fairly well set. Ethan has dramatically changed how we do life and we’re still finding our new rhythms. Adding a move to new ministries to the mix, needless to say we’re still discovering and settling into the new rhythms, including …

• Morning TWG (”time with God”) — works best when we rise earlier than Ethan, who is an early riser himself!
• We want to get back to practicing the weekly Wesley Fast (see my post on fasting from last year).
• Reading — after a 4.5 year degree program, we have to redevelop our own reading habits — choosing our own reading material and reading it on our timetable. But we have plenty to choose from as can be seen in our previous post, Reading Pile; BTW, the pile has grown since that post!).
• Exercise — before hitting crunch time with our dissertations at the beginning of the year, followed by becoming parents in February, we had an exercise routine that involved lifting weights and/or walking most days of the week; now, we try to walk as often as we can by taking Ethan in the stroller. But as we get settled into the new life, we hope to redevelop some better exercise habits.

What are your routines? Which are most helpful? Which are in need of a shakeup?

How do you manage and keep track of your tasks? Do you scribble notes on a piece of scrap paper or write a daily/weekly To-Do list? Do you use a daily planner, a PDA, or use an application on your computer or on the Internet?

Lately, I’ve been thinking about my own journey of managing tasks. Since one of my core beliefs is …

There’s always a better way!

I’ve spent nearly two decades looking for a better way to manage tasks.

When I was a junior in college, I bought a Franklin Day Planner after hearing a pastor teaching other pastors / future pastors how to use the Franklin Day Planner in their ministries. I used the day planner for 6 years.

In 1995, I stopped buying the refill pages from Franklin and started printing out my own sheets, adapted from Franklin’s. Around 2000 or 2001, I bought an electronic PDA and used that for a while. I didn’t like using the tasks program on the PDA, mainly because I couldn’t see all of my tasks at a glance. The PDA was good for contacts (as well as Solitaire and Scrabble ).

For the next few years, I went back to printing out my own master task list. But in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been feeling the there’s-gotta-be-a-better-way itch. I’m sure it’s partly due to the new life of having a child and beginning new ministries.

This time, I’m doing a couple things. Joleen and I have set up 4 different Google Calendars, each with a difference color (each of us can view any or all of them on one calendar): Randy’s Work, Joleen’s Work, Our Work, and Personal & Family. We’re hoping the calendars will provide a central location for planning work and family activities.

The other thing I’m doing is checking out some of the latest online task management applications. After a little research, I decided to try out a free service called, Remember the Milk (RTM). Using RTM, I have created personal and ministry-related lists.

But it’s more than simply putting task items on a list. Last year, I read Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. I especially like the subtitle!

There seems to be quite a movement devoted to “Getting Things Done” (GTD) and there are a number of resources online, including: David Allen’s Web site, 43 Folders, LifeHacker, Wired.com, and Wikipedia. And to help incorporate GTD with RTM, I followed some of the advice in this article: Advanced GTD with Remember The Milk.

It’s too early to tell if I will like using RTM, or any other an online task management system. But even if I don’t like it/them, I still expect to learn some things from the experience that will help me with my next system.

I often say (somewhat cautiously) that I like change. For one thing, I’m in the business of change — is there any greater change than the kind of life transformation (i.e., change!) people experience through Christ?

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5.17, NLT)

Leaders are change agents. Christ-following leaders are called to bring about change in people’s lives. Often that involves being an agent of change in the way the church operates so that it can be more effective, and thus, bear more fruit for God’s kingdom.

I say “somewhat cautiously” (that I like change) because it’s easy for leaders to say they like change, especially if the change is their idea! The real test of their commitment to change comes when the change is someone else’s idea.

But I think I’m safe saying I like change. I get bored when things stay the same too long. Not only is it boring; worse, it produces ruts which keep us from being effective!

Now that Ethan has been with us for a while, he is teaching us some things about change. Not only have we had to change the way we do life, we’ve also paid attention to the changes he experiences through his daily growth and development. Much of that is positive. It’s exciting to watch him learn new things and develop new skills (watch for more on that in an upcoming post).

But (and this is why many people do not like change!) with change also comes loss. To begin doing new things involves letting go of other things. To do something a different way means not doing it the old way anymore.

After two weeks of taking a step here and there, all of a sudden one day, Ethan changed his preference from crawling to walking. He gave up crawling (which was working just fine, thank you very much) for walking (even though it meant having to relearn his whole concept of getting around; it also meant falling a lot, in the process).

Some of the things Ethan used to do or say, he doesn’t do or say anymore (including some of the things we listed earlier in Some of Our Favorite Things).

While we miss some of those things, we realize that change comes with the territory. It’s all part of growing up! (and I’m not just talking about the getting older kind of growing up ).