Category Archives: productivity

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Loose accountability: 3 best practices for getting help with moving your goals forward

This morning, a fellow blogger sent out a missive declaring his best intentions to reignite his blogging fervor and commit to weekly postings. This, of course, reminded me that I am not turning my best intention of blogging thrice weekly into even a meager reality of once monthly.

So, I sent a Hangout to my friend asking if he wanted to hold each other loosely accountable to blogging weekly.

In my world, ‘accountability partner’ is a throwback term from the evangelical ghetto of the 90‘s where man after man would hold each other accountable to do or not do various things. It was a really a guilt-ridden response to their hidden porn problems, but I digress. Accountable relationships rarely worked in the realm of long-term moral change, because moralism supported by external structures rarely (if ever) works for the long haul.

But ‘accountability’ does work sometimes, so I thought I’d explore that a bit as it relates to our desire to live impactful bi-vocational lives. Here are my 3 best practices for useful accountability.

First, don’t ask someone to help you do something that you don’t really want to do. If you are asking someone to help you do something you think you ‘ought’ to do or ‘should’ do, then you will fail. You must really ‘want’ to change something. Jesus once asked a most profound question to a sick man – ‘Do you want to get well?’ There must be an inner desire to really change, so don’t ask for help until you have committed to a course of action in your own heart.

Second, make sure the thing you want to change is deeply tied to your God-given missions and God-given vision. This is an exciting step, because it forces us to come to clarity about those missions and that vision. When we are pursuing a God-initiated calling, then we have divine assistance in our own transformation towards that calling. It isn’t external moralism that is controlling us at that point, but rather inner transformation of character. From a Christian perspective, it is Jesus working through me over against striving by my own strength.

Since you are reading this blog, you have already established that you want to succeed at both your vocation and your avocational mission and home life.  If you tie your intentions for change to these things, it it a good indicator that you really want to change since you’ve dedicated so much of your life to these things, and you certainly want to optimize them.  My desire to blog flows from God’s call on my life to teach. My desire to build a platform that I can monetize flows from my call to do bi-vocational ministry without financial burden on those I am trying to help or lead.

Finally, ask for encouragement to turn your intentions into reality.  The metaphors that you should establish are more along the lines of ‘watering a seed until it flourishes’ or ‘cheering on until the finish’ instead of ‘yelling at you if you don’t perform properly.’  Watering a seed is a great metaphor because your ‘accountability friend’ is simply trying to nurture what is already growing from the a very organic place.  Nothing artificial here.  Nothing externally imposed.   There is not guilt language or performance language tied to the success of the task, and responsibility for success remains with you instead of your partner.

I hope these 3 tips are useful.  I can already think of several more that I’ll likely blog about in the future, but for now: What tips would you add to the list in regards to accountability and goal achievement?

 

 

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Top 5 non-traditional tools to help bi-vocationals be super productive

productivity wordcloudLet’s face it – successfully juggling more than a few life commitment takes some skills.  In another post, I will detail my specific digital tools that help me stay focused and productive; tools like Evernote, Nozbe, and Dropbox.  This article, however, is about some non-traditional tools that allow you to live each day with purpose and clarity:

1. A day job that lets you time-shift or place-shift your work.  Tim Ferris’ The 4-Hour Workweek has some great tips about how to be more productive away from the office than at the office.  In my opinion, having full flexibility as to where and when you work is essential for a serious bi-vocational.  If you are a key leader in a 2nd job, then that job will inevitably encroach on your day job.  It is important, however, not to shortchange your day job for your 2nd job.  To make this happen, you need huge amounts of discretion as to where and when you work on each job…and a large amount of integrity to give each job its due.

2. A routine built around essential priorities.  When two jobs are pulling at you, you must build a schedule that puts first things first.  For me, that means waking up around 4:45 am and putting coffee, prayer, Bible reading, meditation, exercise, financial management, day planning, journaling, and sermon prep FIRST.  The only sure thing is the first thing.  This puts self-care, soul-care, sermon-prep, and organization right at the front of my schedule…they almost always happen because they are first.  I have other time slots set aside for blogging, family time, and other things that are my highest priorities.  The ‘big rocks’ concept from Stephen Covey really is important.  If you you don’t put the big rocks in the jar first, then they will never fit.

3. An off-shore virtual assistant.  I must admit, I have only experimented with a VA for a few weeks, but I am totally hooked.  For just over $100 per month, I get 2-3 hours of assistance per week from some friends in India.  I use them to research sermon illustrations, transcribe ideas that I’ve dictated into Evernote, book travel reservations for my day job, send gifts, edit and proofread writing, and any number of other tasks that can be done WHILE I AM SLEEPING!

4. A well-prepared set of responses to common requests for ‘more’.  People from both jobs will always ask for your time and energy.  Frankly, there is less of you to give out because you are trying to maintain at least two lives.  In advance, you need to learn how to say ‘no’ graciously.  “I would really like to help you, but I’m really at my limit as far as new commitments go this week.  Could I refer you to _____ to help you in the near future, or would you like to schedule some time with me next month?”

5. A support team.  These are the 2-3 people who are closest to you who are watching your back for signs of burnout or misplaced priorities.  In my case, I have an board of Elders at church and a super supportive family.  They almost insist that I take time for hobbies and rest, and that I give each of my commitments their proper due.

Your turn – What non-traditional tools or structures are in your life that help you stay productive?

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A blog for people who work two jobs

pulled two directions

This blog is for bi-vocational people. Maybe you work full time and then also work or volunteer as a youth leader, or a scoutmaster, or a fireman, or service club officer. The key thing is that you probably make your primary living from one thing, and then choose to invest in a second thing because of some core value in your life. That might be supporting a family, and needing a second income to do so. It might be a sense of greater mission or calling, like it is in my case.

I am a bi-vocational pastor. I work a full-time day job, and also pastor a small church. Trying to juggle a growing family and two demanding jobs while also maintaining some sense of personal wellness is not easy, but I’ve been doing it for 20 years, and I think I’m ready to share some of the lessons I’ve picked up along the way.

What topics interest me? Productivity and life management, personal mission, work-life synergy, technology and productivity, small church leadership. Let’s look at some upcoming blog topics:

  • “The tools I use to make the most of every day.”
  • “Don’t cheat your day job for your night job.”
  • “How to do what you really want to do without resenting what you have to do to get there”
  • “Practicing what you preach”
  • “Why bi-vocational pastors are better pastors”
  • “How a part-time pastor makes for a healthy church”
  • “Everyone is bi-vocational if they are living God’s call on their lives”
  • “Keeping track of all the details when you are being pulled 100 different ways”
  • “Work and ministry: striving for synergy”
  • “When everyone wants a piece of you, how do you keep a slice for yourself?”
  • “A new look at priorities – it’s more than putting the big rocks in first”

I’d like you to join me for an ongoing conversation about bi-vocationalism. There are some limited blogs and podcasts out there on this topic, and a handful of books. Unfortunately, there isn’t much fresh content being produced or curated. My goal is to become the most recognizable curator or subject matter expert on these topics as they relate to people working two jobs.

A curator has the privilege of sampling a lot of great content. The true heroes are those who came up with great ideas, often through years of toil, trial, and triumph. But, sorting through the good, bad, and ugly, and giving a community the context to celebrate and learn from the best ideas is the role of the curator. I get to show off people who are smarter than me, you get to converse about it, and we all become better at doing the things we love.