Time Management

(Time Leadership, Part 2)

What kept Jesus on the cross?

That’s been the subject of many a sermon or song.  And the answer is always the same, ranging somewhere between the ugliness of our sin and the beauty of His love.

You know He could have come down, don’t you?  When He was mocked and taunted, Jesus could have called a legion of angels and put an end to the whole shebang.

But He didn’t.  So what kept Him there?

Hint:  the answer to the question is not, “love.” [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

You can accomplish every task set before you, live your life as a model of get-it-doneness, and die with a clean desk… and a completely unfulfilled life.

It’s possible to check off every box on your to-do list today, yet go to sleep tonight completely joyless… only to do it all over again tomorrow.

You may be the one everybody calls for help with prioritizing, streamlining, simplifying and ordering, only for your phone to grow cold when it’s hang-out time.

I think I may have found the problem… and the solution.

Get out of time management.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit too strong.  Let me try again… Don’t just manage your time.  Lead it.

There’s a huge difference between the two.  [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The Waiting List

by Andy Wood on January 21, 2011

in Life Currency, LV Cycle, Time, Waiting

This is a season of Death-By-To-Do-List.  The quiet pause, lethargy, and feeding frenzy of the holidays are followed by the jump-started, resolution-driven frenzy of the New Year.  So this morning I started my journaling by listing one or two things I still haven’t done this week.  And the one or two became six or seven.

“I swear, I’ll die by checklist overload,” I wrote.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s missing in our life planning.  It’s so easy to get lost in the whirlwind of the frenetic or even the focus of the goal-directed that we neglect some of the most significant parts of the plan.

Like waiting.

I’m all about making mission statements that lead to goals lists that lead to action steps toward making those goals and mission a reality.  I get it.  I completely understand that if you aren’t taking massive action in the direction of your dreams you are probably kissing some of them good-bye.

How do you respond, however, when the dream or passion is completely authentic, but there is literally nothing you can do about it today – at least in outward to-do-list fashion?  How do you keep the important, important, when it’s not front-and-center in your appointment book? [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Quick question:  What would you do if you knew that you only had 30 days to live the life you now have?  After that, your will life will be completely redefined. 

You aren’t dead – just relocated.

Every relationship:  history.

Every past accomplishment:  strictly a thing of the past.

Every possession:  soon to be somebody else’s.

Maybe, for the sake of playing out the fantasy side of the question, it’s a witness relocation effort or something.  But regardless, the clock is ticking, and life as you know it is drawing to a close.

What would you do?  Who would you do it with?  How would you approach the growing, grim reality? [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

So many random thoughts or snippets of wisdom (or something)… so little time.  Here are seven more ideas that are still in my “oven”.  And if you’re a sucker for these kinds of things, and just can’t get enough from Facebook or Twitter, check this out.  Or maybe this or this.

Not long ago I read about this great procrastination test on the Psychology Today website.  The test helps you target patterns of procrastination, then do something to change them.  I clicked on the link and left it on my browser for a couple of days until I could get to it.  Yes… I procrastinated taking the procrastination test.  Until the browser locked up and I had to restart it… and lost the test.  Ugh.  The good news is, I found it again (thanks, Google).  The bad news is, I’m still procrastinating.  If you’d like to load it up and procrastinate taking it with me, you can find it here. [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Jugglers fascinate me.  Not the run-of-mill, three-balls-in-the-air type, but the ones I call the Master Jugglers.  I love the guys or gals who can toss torches, chainsaws, balls and small animals all at the same time.   Well, maybe not the small animals part, but you get the point. 

In a sense, we’re all jugglers.  Only, instead of swords or bowling pins, we juggle life.  And that’s who this article is for – the jugglers.  For the ones who have multiple “balls” in the air – time balls, relationship balls, money balls, even ambition balls.  Every one claims to be a priority.  Every one demands attention, and often wants it now.  In the middle of all that, you and I have a choice:  Handle them – or they will handle you.

In order to successfully juggle rather than being tossed around yourself, there are four issues you will need to settle: [click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

LaughterI mentioned in my previous post that it’s possible to live in such a way that laughs at the future. Just so we’re clear, we’re in “life hack” territory.  We’re talking about what to do with your money, your time, your relationships, your attitudes, and your spirit.

Look at this biblical description:

“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” (Proverbs 31:25)

What is it about this woman that put her in a place where she wasn’t wringing her hands every time somebody predicted the end of life as we know it?

1.  Establish trust in those who know you best.

“Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm,all the days of her life” (v. 11-12, NLT).

For years I assumed that her husband trusted her in a moral sense, but this is much deeper.  This man trusted her with his business, his family, and his money.  She had earned his trust.  How?  By adding value to his life.

By doing a little more, being faithful to tasks assigned, or by keeping the trust of those who know you best, you create a compelling future.  Take it from somebody who has both earned and betrayed trust:  it takes months and years to earn trust, and you can destroy it – and your confidence in the future – in a matter of minutes.

2.  Buy like an investor, not like a consumer.

[click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }