July News Update

Since I don't have time to write anything worthwhile I will just give a quick and general news update. (It's sort of a compromise.)

First of all, I'm starting a new job this coming Monday which I'm stoked about. I will be working for a youth and family services center which runs programs to help restore first time juvenile offenders. It will be challenging, but will probably be fulfilling as well. I've had one friend ask me if it is going to be too much, and here's what I told her: this is my ticket to a different place. Starting this job is like stepping onto a plane that promises to fly me to new and better opportunities. I may or may not like it enough to stick with it for years, but one thing is for sure I am going to stay on that plane until I know I can safely land, because if I step out before the plane lands all I'm going to get is a nasty fall.

Second, I'm moving to a new apartment in Shippensburg on Friday. I will have one roommate, Jason; he is a great guy and I think we will get along fine. The apartment is brand new and very beautiful, the city is beautiful, and I think I'm really going to enjoy living there. Eventually I'm going to go crazy with room design and be my very own design star. I'll start small of course; getting a bed trumps any decorational impulses.

And here's a few random things taking up my time and thought. I've been playing the ancient and wonderful game of go at least every day with the free program igowin. I am not quite ready to play an experienced human (my college professors), but at some point will have to swallow my pride and enjoy the learning experience of getting my butt handed to me. I found a fantastic turn-based strategy game for my phone, "Mobile Battles: Reign of Swords"; it's a great way to pass time when I'm stuck somewhere and don't have any light reading to pass a few minutes. It even offers an online component to battle other players. Much too fun for a phone. For reading, I put aside anything periferal for awhile and am starting to work through Plato's Republic. I am also starting an intensive study of Philippians. In very very tiny bites.

And here is one more thing I am really excited about: my philosophy professor has announced a new online graduate program which is unlike anything ever offered by that place. It will be a Great Books program focusing on sustained reading and discussion of books representing the major western worldviews throughout history. For example, the first course pairs study of Homer's Iliad representing poetic polytheism with Plato's Republic representing philosophic monotheism. I don't know if I'll be able to take one of these classes this fall (though I'd love to if time permits), but it looks like I may be able to start pursuing a Master's after all. And heck, even if it was for no degree at all, they are still going to be incredible courses. Knowing how great the teaching will be, I would probably sign up anyway. The great books courses would take 15 of 30 credits required for a Masters of Science in Biblical Ministries. Oh and my favorite seminary professor is in charge of the MSBM program so whatever else I would need to take would be excellent.

So on the whole, life is getting exciting. Finances are still pretty scary, and the Escort has "issues", but I think things will hold together. Maybe I'll give a monthly news update or something. Ciao.

Review: Getting Things Done

I have not had much success applying strategies from productivity gurus. I am referring to books like "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Steven Covey, and other books which share use top-down strategies to order our lives. There are two reasons why these have not worked for me. The first is technical: day-to-day life happens on the level of "stuff". The myriad of small tasks of varying importance and in multiple contexts hampers the effectiveness of top-down approaches. The second reason is a personal one. The entire mindset of these books is very unappealing to me. Books which simplify and systemize our entire lives, such as Covey's books, seem to suck the imagination and life right out of living. Peter Pan would barf and toss these books to his crocodile buddy.

Incredibly, one productivity book has managed to overcome my objections: David Allen's "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" has succeeded where other books failed. "Getting Things Done" (from now on I'll refer to it as GTD) has made quite a splash since its release in 2001. It's influence is already pervasive and some of the most useful blogs on the internet swear by it. I probably see it randomly mentioned every week. So for anyone who doesn't know much about it, I'd like to summarize the book and at the same time show how beneficial Allen's method has been for me.

First of all, GTD is not a top-down approach. Allen explains that "...most people are so embroiled in commitments on a day-to-day level that their ability to focus successfully on the larger horizon is seriously impaired. Consequently, a bottom-up approach is usually more effective." Allen is dead on. I already do plenty of big-picture thinking, and it really hasn't helped me deal with the nitty-gritty details of whatever messy projects and tasks are on my plate. Allen admits that a lot of times what is needed are a few tricks. GTD has equipped me to better deal with my responsibilities, and in some cases gave me some trick that helped make all the difference.

The second problem I've had with productivity books is more complex. I believe it is important to maintain a little bit of a child-like disposition in life. My impressions of the professional world are that it creates uniformity and kills creativity. It's very easy to figure out where my attitudes come from: I grew up watching Mary Poppins and Peter Pan, and Peter Pan was the first "big book" that I owned and read. I think I got that book out of my grandpa's library after his funeral. Both of these stories portray growing up as a very dangerous thing to do, and I've never stopped worrying that I will become old, dry, boring, and bored. But whether I like it or not, life happens, and responsibilities accumulate. And here is how "Getting Things Done" succeeds where others fail: without wasting time suggesting a cookie-cutter pattern for my life, it aids in conquering mundane tasks and responisibilities so that my energy can return to the activities that excite me. As I've implemented Allen's method, I've found myself able to mentally relax and in general am feeling a lot more creative again. That's pretty much fantastic!

Here is a quick summary of the GTD method. Allen describes a five-stage workflow: collecting anything that commands our attention, processing, organizing the results, reviewing the options, and taking action. Going through these steps for the first time is a huge project; Allen suggests taking several days to do this. It took me quite awhile to get all the papers and "open-loops" collected or written down, and several hours of work to organize them. Fortunately, Allen does plenty of hand-holding through this. If someone as absent minded and flighty as myself can do it, anyone can. Allen also includes chapters on developing and tracking projects (really excellent stuff) and deciding what to do next at any given moment. As a manual, it is very well written. It gives brief overviews of everything before going into greater detail. By the time you are implementing it, you already have a decent grasp of the material.

Allen sold me in the early chapters, so I dived in with both feet. It took awhile, but the results are wonderful. I have no loose unorganized papers anywhere. Before I did GTD, my mind felt like it was completely in knots. It's felt that way for years. Now that I don't carry the anxiety of lots of unidentified mental baggage and millions of unsorted papers, my mind feels relaxed and focused. GTD also helps me keep a clear picture of any tasks in front of me, and it's much easier to decide what to do next. Tackling a "next action" list feels a bit like a game. I hope to get one down to zero someday. I am more productive and am feeling more energetic. The method is also somewhat flexible: everyone's implementation will vary a bit. I use a clipboard with next-action divded by context, big wallets to hold file folders in place of a file cabinet, basic office supplies, a paper calendar, and four trays for "inbox", "next action / outbox", "data entry" (for business cards and such), and "waiting for". Very low tech, which is how I like it.

Only time will tell what effect all this will have on me. Increased responsibilities will be the real test of GTD's effectiveness. Although GTD will hold special appeal to workaholics and productivity worshippers, it is potentially beneficial to anyone who struggles to keep track of all the little tasks we need to get done. Check it out!

Book Recommendation: The Shack

Last night I finished reading William Young's "The Shack". For anyone who doesn't know, "The Shack" is a fictional account of a man's encounter with God. Here is the description off the back of the book:

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives as the shack on a wintry afternoon and walk back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

I could talk about the plot more, but I don't want to spoil anything. I want you to read it for yourself. But before I give my official reading recommendation (which I am going to do), I need to make two things clear.

First of all, this book could and should ruffle some theological feathers. Theologically, I don't agree with everything in this book. Some things in it bother me. I will probably follow this up with Timothy Keller's “The Reason for God” as well as finishing a John Piper book so that I don't veer off into any emergent confusion. (And I may follow that book up with “A New Kind of Christian” just to keep myself on my toes.) There is a good deal of controversy and some fairly heated debates surrounding this book. Of course that's almost a given with any popular Christian book. If you are not able to overlook this sort of thing, take my recommendation with a grain of salt.

Second, this book has changed me. It has hit on some pretty deep stuff for me. That does not mean it will change you. And it does not mean you will like the book. But, having given those disclaimers, on the off chance that this book could have the sort of effect on you it had on me:

Read this book!

I did not read this book in one sitting. It actually took me about a month, which is pretty slow going for a book clocking in at 246 pages. But the good part about that is that it's easy to pick up, put down, and pick back up awhile later and not feel lost. Parts of this book made me cry, parts somewhat bored me, and parts of it floored me. On the whole, whatever its faults, I can't ignore it. If you don't want to read it, they'll probably make a movie eventually (and some people are already working on that).

And now I'm going to switch gears very slightly and deal with one other thing. I picked this book up at Wal-Mart based on Eugene Peterson's incredible recommendation on the cover: “This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good!”

For anyone who respects Peterson's work, that's hard to ignore. So after reading it I have to ask myself if what Peterson said is likely or possible. Now, historically speaking, I know Pilgrim's Progress is huge. I'm not an expert at all, but I remember reading in an editor's introduction something about it being in nearly every Christian household right next to the Bible during its early printings, or something bizarre like that. As far as what effects it had, I don't know how to measure that, but I would guess: really huge.

Could “The Shack” potentially have an effect like that? I don't think so. First of all, it's not as great as Pilgrim's Progress. It just isn't. It's good but not that good. Second, I am sure that it can produce some change in some people. Maybe a lot of people. But the world is very different. And we're in a time when there is some pretty serious theological unrest which is not going to disappear anytime soon. This book has riled plenty of feathers. But who knows? And maybe the movie will be a big deal too. You just never know. The reason for this little tangent is that I don't want this book over hyped, but if you decide to read it, be open and you might find yourself changed when it's over.

Follow Up

I was not disappointed. The memorial service, and the weekend, were a bit overwhelming.