The Productive Pastor

Bob Franquiz has written a blog post about getting more out of your day.  I like his thoughts, which I believe he gleaned from a Brian Tracy book.  Good stuff.  Read about it by clicking here.

After a four a half month hiatus, I’ve decided to begin blogging again over at this site.  My main blog, “Faith Untamed” is still going to feature some productivity articles but I think I’ll shorten them a bit in favor of longer writing on such subjects here.  As I come back from hiatus, I wanted to give you a link to a great article on becoming a power user with “Google Docs”  The “LifeDev” blog recently featured some hints on how to use this online application more effectively.  You can check it out by clicking here.

As you can see by the layout, Google gives you a simple interface to work with.  From this site, you can create text, spreadsheet, and presentation files all designed with MS Office person in mind.  For a while now, I’ve used OpenOffice exclusively for my day to day work.  The only MS Office need I have is in writing college papers.  As I’ve used Google docs more, I’ve gradually begun using Open Office only for specific tasks and have pretty much moved all of my day to day work to Google docs.  Why?  Well, for one, Gdocs (as we’ll call it from here on out) has a sharing feature which allows me to share a non-editable version of my work with anyone who wishes to view it.  It also features a collaborative mode which allows me and my worship leader to work together on certain projects without have to email attachments back and forth.  The document is always current so we can both be working on it and making changes.  Late last year, I switched my sermon calendar, sermon text, and order of worship files to Gdocs and my worship leader now has his “Stage Matrix” (for laying out the stage musicians for my tech guy) and worship song list on file.  As we diversify our ministries, we will require all leaders to manage their documents on line so they can be accessed anywhere, at anytime, by ANY machine.  That last part is a bonus because I have a LINUX laptop in use and soon, I’m sure someone we have on staff will have an APPLE.  Gdocs makes it easy for us to have files that all machines can see, edit, and use within seconds.

I will try to write more about how we are using Gdocs for our work here in the church plant I pastor but read this article for yourself and see if you don’t agree that Gdocs is a great addition to your productivity software.  The best part?  It’s FREE.  All you need is a gmail account and you’re ready to start using Gdocs today!

Well I did it.  I finally took the plunge into a new notebook system this afternoon.  I ordered some “Circa” materials from the Levenger company.  I’ve had some envy for their notebooks for some time and decided to order their “Starter Kit Set” and their made to last paper punch.

Each of the kits above has all the forms you need to stay organized and use the patented “Circa” rings to bind it all together.  I have a pastor friend here locally that uses this system and he swears by it.  I must admit, looking at his sermon notebook made me envious.  The Circa system holds paper much like the old “Rolodex” system used to work.  You can easily move pages around in your planners and notebooks and combine paper from one style to the next.  My friend would use his sermon notebook to hold his sermons and then He had colored 3×5 index cards for special notations he made to add to them as he planned.  It was pretty cool to say the least.  Even my beloved Rhodia notepads can still be used and the notes custom punched to put into my notebooks with this system.

I’ve reads reviews on the paper punch that it was made to last so I figured why not.  Doug Johnston over at the DIY Planner said it was made so my grandkids could inherit it!  I think that’s worth the price then.  We’ll see.  Otherwise, my wife will kill me when she sees the bill.  Good thing I had a 15% coupon.

I have a number of notebooks and such that I use but as I move my church office back into my home (logistical move), it makes sense to cut back on the clutter and settle into one system.  This, I hope, is it.  I can custom make books myself (With the purchase of additional rings) and I can custom design the books I want for my lifestyle and productivity purposes.  I plan on using the middle book (from the picture at top) for my sermons, the notebook size for my schooling and leadership notes, and the compact size for handing small items and my “next actions” list (for all you GTD junkies.)

Have you tried or are using this system?  What are your thoughts?  Do you like or dislike it?  Let me know.

If you’re like me, more and more you get your news from the blogosphere.  Newspapers make their feeds available on blog readers like Google’s excellent “Google Reader”.  Not only that, but you can also put more specialized content in your readers to custom make a list just for you.  But how do you get through that stuff day after day?

Robert Scoble is a tech type guy I was introduced to through the blog of Tim Ferriss.  Ferriss interviewed Scoble on his method of blog reading that allows him to keep up with over 600+ feeds in his reader.

Check out the interview by clicking here.

I personally don’t recommend 600+ feeds.  In fact, part of my quarterly processing is to take a routine scan through my blog feed list and take out old blogs I no longer have an interest in or shore up those who have quit posting.  I now keep up with about 60+ feeds including my news and sports, specialty feeds, productivity, etc.

Just another way to give you more time in your day to be productive.

If you’re like me, you hate filing paperwork but part of being a productive pastor is developing an effective and meaningful way of filing things.  Much paperwork these days can be scanned and efficiently stored in a digital system.  I routinely scan my receipts for tax purposes and order them in an OpenOffice Calc spreadsheet but what do you do with the other stuff lying around that you need from day to day or perhaps month to month?  What about annual stuff?  Enter the low-tech and unconventional “Noguchi” filing system named after it’s inventor, Noguchi Yukio.

A few years back, a website surfaced with information about this different way of filing your necessary paperwork using letter sized envelopes and a spare shelf on your bookcase.  The site owner has since taken the images and information down, claiming theft of his work even though he himself was reproducing Noguchi’s work on his site.  In any event, information about the system is hard to track down since most of the sites still link to the now extinct site.  Dave Gray has probably the best one page synopsis of the system now available through the web but let me try to give you the nuts and bolts of Noguchi’s system.

To Start:

This system requires you to cut the top off of an envelope like you see at left and then, on the right side of the folder, you will place the date and the title of the document stored on the envelope.  Color coding may help in finding this file a bit quicker but is not necessary.  It would be easy to combine church, home, and related documents into various colors so you knew what to look for.  Once the file is labeled and the document stored, you may then place it in your filing system by storing the file on the far left side of the shelf you now has assigned for the Noguchi system.

As you can see by this diagram, the new files are added to the far left of the shelf and older “aging” files gradually make their way to the right of the system.  As you access files in your new system, you place them back not where you found them but on the far left side of the system.  In this manner, files that are not used gradually end up on the far right and become “Holy files” as Naguchi calls them.  The “Holy” files are then stored away in a box if you feel you need them or, if you are looking to remove clutter from your life, thrown away.  In my case, if it’s something I feel I absolutely want to keep and it’s on the far right side, I scan the document inside and save it to my hard drive before killing the paper file.

I’ve used both traditional “alphabetized” filing systems and Noguchi’s system and can say without reservation, that Noguchi’s is more intuitive than the traditional method.  Why do I feel this way?  Think of how we access our digital files these days.  Gmail through Google automatically places new conversations at the top of your inbox if someone emails you and links the old messages in the system on a similar thread into one “conversation” so you can remember the context of what you were discussing.  This would be similar to Noguchi’s paper system.  What about when you’re looking up that really good site you found by accident on the web two days ago?  Do you go to your bookmarks to find it? (Provided you bookmarked the site).  Perhaps what you might do, and what many others do is go to the “history” file in their browser cache and find the file that way.  This would also mirror the processes in Noguchi’s system.

While we’re becoming a paperless society, there will still be a place, albeit a much smaller place, for paper.  It makes sense that a new, more intuitive way of filing papers would also develop.  The funny thing is, from what I can tell, is that Noguchi’s system of filing is dated at least as far back as 1993.  It’s just in the past year or two that it’s benefits came to light on the web via the blogosphere.

Who knows, it might be worth a try to get you organized and get the pile of paper off your desk and into a meaningful system of organization that even busy pastors can use to find what they need, when they need it!

48 minutes.  Depending on what you’re doing, it seems like a long time or very little time at all.  For me, the power of 48 minutes helped me in my productivity pursuits.  How?  Read on…

On the blog, “Success Begins Today”, I read about a man who used this block of time to do some incredible things in his work.  The method is pretty simple.  We tend to want to multi-task, especially as a pastor.  There are sermons to finish, people that want our time, leaders in the church who need directing, professional reading we want/need to do, and other tasks that are always before us.  I used to focus a lot on trying to work on two or three things at once and still do for some smaller items but what I found was that when I brought a larger item into the mix, it corrupted my thoughts and put me on edge to get more done in less time which was unreasonable.

The way this method works is to purchase a clock or timer with large digits like the one above (I purchased mine from Wal-Mart in the kitchen section for about $5) and set it to 48 minutes.  Then, as you begin work on a larger project, begin the timer and focus your attention on that project and that project only for the entire time.  When the timer sounds, take a 12 minute break and repeat if necessary.  The 12 minutes is enough time to get refreshed, brew a cup of coffee, and focus on what needs done in the second block of time.  A good example of how efficient this was for me was a personal item, preparing my taxes.  I hate preparing my taxes for my accountant and it seems I’m always piecing together what I need for him over several weeks.  When I tried this method one morning when I was off for the day, I was able to prepare all the documents and files needed in two blocks.  I started at 9am and was done by 11am (10:48 technically).  By 11:15, I had the documents sent off by email and was enjoying lunch by 11:45.  I was amazed at how efficient the time was used.  Perhaps it’s just a mental thing but the idea of having that large item off my plate took a huge weight off of me to focus on some other things that day that I REALLY wanted to do on my day off.

I’ve since used this approach for sermon prep, desktop publishing work for our sermons series, and preparing audio files for our praise team.  Each time, I set the timer for 48 minutes and focus.  It’s been a huge help.  I recently introduced this idea to my kids for chores.  Saturday, I set the timer for 48 minutes and had them focus on folding clothes.  They were amazed at how much the three of them got done and they still had time to go out for ice cream (which was my reward for their focused effort).

Try it..see if it doesn’t work for you too.

Each day when I sit down to plan out my actions, I do so with what I believe is the best notebook made.  The Rhodia pad.  I know you could use any old notebook but Rhodia’s hold up great.  I use several different kinds for different tasks. 

• When I’m brainstorming, I use one of their mid-level pads (no. 16) to write down my ideas and thoughts to process later.
• I use a smaller book (no. 11) to jot down quick thoughts for later.  For those of you who use David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” system, this is my “inbox” collection pad.
• I use a slightly larger book to write down items such as sale prices on things, email or URL addresses, etc..that really don’t pertain to any actions.

I used to use a PDA for all of this and someday, I may have one of those all in one phones to do all this but I don’t think so.  My PDA ate up battery juice pretty quick.  I always had to worry about it getting dropped, rained on, or have someone spill soda or drop food on it if I was out with a client.  Not any more.  The Rhodia pads are built to a level of quality that make them geekishly fashionable to the professional crowd while being relatively affordable (about $2-$4 a pad depending on size and how many you buy).  Part of being a productive pastor is writing down the myriad of things that come at you from all different directions.  If you’re a church planter like I am, there’s even more debris flying at you from everywhere.  Rhodia pads are great to take with you to write stuff down as it happens.  They are built to hold up well under normal use and they are not nearly as expensive as a Moleskine.

For my money and overall use, I choose Rhodia.  Pick one up and see if you agree with me that the quality versus price make them a real value for your work.

John at the “Success Begins Today” blog has an excellent post about achieving your goals.  His post is based on a new book by Tim Ferriss called “The 4-Hour Workweek“.  The point of the post is below:

“Tim sets goals based on their excitement level. He says that most
people base their life’s goals on Happiness. To Tim, happiness
can be had in a pill, but excitement is what really drives people to
accomplish a goal…Excitement is the motivation that can keep us going when things get tough.”

You can read the whole of the post here.

Goal setting is so important for us as God’s shepherds.  Do we take the time to set “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” like those talked about by Jim Collins in “Good to Great”?  I think so many pastors get burned out because of the lack of excitement in their work.  Many times, it’s just about maintaining the status quo.

Let’s get excited about goals again.  The first one, make it a goal to sit down in the next few days and outline a few goals for your ministry.  What gets YOU excited?  Write them down and put an action plan together to move forward in achieving them.  I’ve found that it’s great to have goals but if I don’t write them down somewhere and review them regularly, they will fizzle out over time and I run the risk of never achieving them.

Good luck!

Welcome to the “The Productive Pastor”. This is a weblog designed to share productivity tips and tricks with others to help them become more efficient and organized in their work. As a Pastor/Church Planter myself, I know how hard it is to stay on task and keep organized when you’re not punching a time clock and have many things to get done. I hope to collaborate with others eventually to help make this a valuable site that will help all of us to be more efficient and effective in doing the Lord’s work. He deserves our very best!