Since this is the time for New Year’s Resolutions and because, if you order this book on Kindle, you can have it today, and because it is an outstanding book, the book of the month selection for January 2016 is Do More Better by Tim Challies.
The book really is practical and helpful. Productivity guru books can either overwhelm you with OCD details that don’t match your personality, because they only match those of the author and his fellows in the asylum, or they might be unhelpful in the other direction because they are filled with gauzy platitudes — “find out what works for you.”
This book starts with the theological foundations, going through a brief biblical catechism on what constitutes good works. No sense getting the car to go faster if you are on the wrong road. He defines productivity as “effectively stewarding [your] gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm for the good of others and the glory of God.”
He does get to methods and their electronic helpers, but he excels in hammering home the principles first. One of the first is to define what your basic responsibilities should be (in order to be able to see the difference between that and what they currently are).
When it comes to organizing, his basic principle is this: a home for everything, and like goes with like. That has profound ramifications, as you will see when you read the book.
Challies insists that you will need three basic tools, all of which are electronically available. They are a task management tool, a scheduling tool, and an information tool. He recommends Todoist, Google calendars, and Evernote. I was already using two of these, and am checking out Todoist.
Highly recommended if you want to make it into February still encouraged.
Thanks. I just put it in my shopping cart. I am still addicted to those paper things called books.
The book is well worth it!
Obviously, this book is going to be in my house anyway, but does anyone familiar with it have any idea whether it would be useful for an almost-empty-nested SAHM, or is it more of a (traditional role) guy kind of thing?
Jane, happy new year! A Mrs Suzanne Jackson over at Amazon dot com reviewed the book from a perspective that you will find helpful (and she liked it).
Thanks much, Gianni, I will go check it out! And Happy New Year to you also.
This book is a great resource! And so you know: He recommends Todoist because it is available on every device and every platform.
But if you live in AppleWorld like I do with my MacBook and iPhone, he recommends what he uses: OmniFocus. Tim hopes to write up some OmniFocus guidance on his blog in the near future. I’ve been using OmniFocus for a couple of weeks and really see the value of it — although it’s pricey at $30 for Mac and $30 for iPhone!
“Appleworld”. Sure, and I live on Kumquat Island…
No, Apple makes a solid machine–its ‘trains run on time.’
I expect I’ll order my copy of the book payday (Fri.).
Meanwhile, re. apps: Are Todoist and Evernote web-based like Google Cal? And do all three of them work just as well on Apple, PC and Droid platforms (home, work and phone)?
Yes and yes to Todoist and Evernote. They are accessible on all platforms, via apps and browsers.
This book starts with the theological foundations, going through a brief biblical catechism on what constitutes good works.
Feeling convicted already.