mindmapping your way to productivity

I’m not really sure what it is about mindmapping, but I have found it to be an incredible tool to help me get my head around a project. I’m sure there has been psychological studies done on why that is, but I don’t know the details on that. All I know is it works.

My only wish is that my mindmap would somehow export into my omnifocus app and be able to be managed from there. As it is right now, I have just added another step to my project planning. Instead of just opening up my omnifocus inbox and start adding stuff for a project now I mindmap it and then take those items from my mindmap and input them into omnifocus. It is a little cumbersome.

Here is the link to the mindmapping online app that I use. It is free and has the capabilities to do collaboration with multiple users.

Never finish a book

All growing up you are told to read books and the expectation, especially in college, is that you finish the book you are reading. When I was at North Central University, you even had to sign a piece of paper saying that you read 100% of the book.

The older I get the more I realize how much of a waste it is for me to finish a book. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading and even more than that, I love learning. I just don’t think that you need to finish books in order to learn. At some point over the last several years I just decided that I’m not going to feel guilty anymore for starting a book and not finishing it.

I have never been able to master any speed reading techniques, but what I have learned to do is get what I want to get out of a book. Looking through the chapter titles and the section headers in those chapters I can usually easily recognize what I want to gain out of that particular book.

I thought since I am advocating not finishing books I would give you a couple of my great learning resources that have completely changed the way I view personal growth.

1. Executive Book Summaries–This is one of the greatest learning resources ever created. Every month I get the top three business/leadership books delivered to my door in print and audio. I can honestly say that I truly learn from these and they are easily accessible to me because they are tabbed with their subject for filing purposes. This $200 yearly investment is well worth it to anyone that wants to be in the know on the most current leadership thinking.

2. Google Reader–I know blogging has been around for a long time now, but for some reason I was late in the game on being a subscriber. Everyday when I have down time I open up my google reader and read the latest from everything from well known authors to unknown productivity guru’s who share their daily nuggets of insight.

My favorite right now is Seth Godin’s blog. I have read his books for years, but nothing is better than 250 words a day that are as up-to-date as they possibly can be from him.

For all those who have anguished in the guilt of not finishing books for years I hope this has been an encouragement to you.

Time Sucking

I have to hand it to the week in and week out preachers out there. I’m preaching at The Gathering for the first time in 2 1/2 years thus needing to write a message for the service. I forgot how much time it takes to write something that is worthwhile for people to listen to for 25 minutes.

As I was pondering (rather than writing) on how much time this takes I was reminded of a great quote from The Princess Bride. “I’ve just sucked one year of your life away. I might one day go as high as five, but I really don’t know what that would do to you. So, let’s just start with what we have.”

So that is how I feel sermon writing is. “It has just sucked one week of my life away.” I guess that is why I love administration so much. I feel as if I get so much more done. God bless you preachers of the word!

Productivity Backsliding

As a teenager there were countless times I felt as if I was backsliding. In other words, there was something I knew I should do, I committed to doing it, and then 1 month, 1 week, 1 day, 1 hour later I found myself not doing what I thought I should do. (See Romans 7:15)

Those “backsliding” moments were so frustrating as a young person. I felt as if it was impossible to get it RIGHT for any length of time. Every time there was a chance for recommitment, I thought to myself, why would I do that, I will just mess up again.

As you grow older and mature in the faith, you begin to realize that with every recommitment, you don’t start at zero. You are actually stronger than you were before. You also realize that it wasn’t so much backsliding as it was the process of becoming.

All of that as a backdrop to write about the same cycle that I feel like I am going in my quest for a great productivity system. Instead of calling it backsliding, it is more commonly known as falling off the wagon. Basically, when I feel like I have put in a good system for making sure I am productive in life and ministry and then 1 month, 1 week, 1 day, or 1 hour later I have found myself not doing what I wanted to be doing.

This is where that important lesson that I had to learn in my late teens and early 20’s comes in handy. As frustrating as it can be to come up short, I have to be ready to answer the productivity altar call and get back on the wagon. That is one of the strengths of the “Getting Things Done” system, the ability to pick up right where you left off.

So if you are struggling with your walk with God or your productivity system, don’t let your recent mess up stop you from going at it again, and know that you are further along than you were the last time.