By: Carey Nieuwhof

Let me guess. You feel like you really need to de-stress.

2020 has been unreal, and almost unbelievably trying—far different than any year you’ve led through before.

Every leader I talk to is tired. Well, more than just tired. Stressed. Deeply stressed.

And kind of exhausted.

There’s a fatigue that comes with crisis that’s a little hard to describe.

The adrenaline that got you through the first month gave way to the sustained drone of decision after decision, assault after assault, and disappointment after disappointment.

So you’ve lived for your summer break. I get it.

Everybody has.

There’s a fatigue that comes with crisis that’s a little hard to describe.Click To Tweet

Now the bad news. And as tough as it is to hear, your time off this summer probably won’t be enough to refuel you or even fully destress you.

Yeah, I know.

In fact, if you look back on your leadership, you probably already know that you rarely if ever completely destress on your time off. If you’re not sure about that, just ask your spouse or kids. They’ll tell you what it’s like to vacation with you.

And even if you get a few fleeting glimpses of peace at some point in your weeks off, they usually evaporate the moment you head back to work. It’s like two weeks of progress get erased within minutes of heading back to work.

So two questions:

First, “why?”

And second, “what should you do?”

Let’s tackle each in turn.

Why Doesn’t Time Off ‘Work’?

1. Time Off Won’t Heal You When Your Problem Is How You Spend Your Time On

The problem with most leaders is not how we spend our time off. It’s how we spend our time on.

I learned the lesson of time off that doesn’t refuel you the hard way. The worst summer of my life happened back in 2006.

Personally, after 11 years in leadership, I was burning out. I suspected burnout but I thought I could stop it with a vacation, because, you know, I’m strong like that and only weak people burn out. (Yes I know, but tell that to young me who didn’t listen well.)

I took three weeks off that July. I was convinced I would heal and everything would be back to normal by August 1st.

What scared me to death that year is that instead of getting better during my vacation, I got worse.

I moved into a deep slide and cratered out in August…a burnout deep enough that it took me months to get out of and then a few years to finally shake.

You know what I learned in that season (along with about 1 million other lessons)?

How I spent my time off wasn’t the solution, because how I spend my time off wasn’t my problem.

Your time off can’t save you if the problem is how you spend your time on.

Your time off can’t save you if the problem is how you spend your time on.Click To Tweet

The problem for most exhausted and depleted leaders isn’t how you spend your time off, it’s how you spend your time on.

Back in 2006, my crisis was personal. I was living at an unstainable pace. As the church I led grew, my formula was more people equals more hours. And that’s fundamentally unsustainable.

Today, the crisis is global and we’re all going through it. If the formula is more crisis equals more hours, we’re all doomed as leaders.  Sure, the initial stages of a crisis require long hours and hard decisions. But when you head into a prolonged crisis, well, you need a new strategy.

Which takes us back to this summer: when you’re exhausted, how you spend your time off isn’t the solution. How you spend your time on is.

The initial stages of a crisis require long hours and hard decisions. But when you head into a prolonged crisis, well, you need a new strategy.Click To Tweet

2. This is Why Sabbaticals and Leaves Generally Don’t Solve Burnout

You might be thinking, Exactly, Carey—which is why I need a sabbatical or leave of some kind. 

Well, maybe. But probably not.

For years I’ve puzzled over why so many sabbaticals and other forms of leave generally don’t solve burnout.

I can’t tell you the number of leaders I’ve known on the verge of burnout who have taken a sabbatical to deal with their stress or fatigue, get better, and then come back only to feel as bad or worse within months of their return. And then often, they leave—for good.

Although I’ve never taken a Sabbatical or extended leave, I think they can be great when they have a defined purpose and you’re not running into them or back out of them into a frantically unsustainable life.

A Sabbatical isn’t the solution for an unsustainable pace. A sustainable pace is the solution for an unsustainable pace.

When the way you’re living and leading is broken, all the time in the world off won’t fix it.

When the way you’re living and leading is broken, all the time in the world off won’t fix it. Click To Tweet

So…What Will Help?

If the problem is how you spend your time on, here are a few things that can help.

First, when you’re off, take some time to take stock of what happened.

You have been through so much and my guess is you’ve hardly stopped to process it.

I found myself unusually tired a few weeks ago. There was nothing ‘wrong’ with my schedule. I’d taken a full weekend off,  and my day wasn’t jammed full with meetings.

I actually had writing time scheduled in my calendar, which is something I love, and it was designed to help me finish writing a new course on leading a better team we’re launching in a few months.

But I was struggling to get motivated. I was far more tired than I should be.

When I wondered what was going on, I realized that although I love writing and producing online courses for leaders, I was writing my fourth course in four months, something I’d never done before.

That, on top of all the crisis leadership all of us have been through left me feeling, well, not myself.

In the end, the course production and filming went really well, but the lesson wasn’t lost.

What’s the best thing to do about that? Well, name it, surrender it and make a note to file for the future you that writing and producing four courses in four months is super taxing.

Until you understand why you’re tired, it’s hard to figure out how not to get that tired.

So what’s making you tired?

If your answer is everything, take a little more time to break it down. You’ll likely discover some things weigh more heavily than others.

Until you understand why you’re tired, it’s hard to figure out how not to get that tired.Click To Tweet

Finally, grieve your losses. A mentor once told me that ministry is a series of ungrieved losses. Oh man, is he right.

When he shared that with me I realized how many losses I’d experienced that I never grieved (as small as someone leaving your church, which isn’t that small).

Ministry is a series of ungrieved losses. So is life.

Do you know how much loss you’ve experienced since March?

Take some time to pray through them, grieve through them, and maybe even sit down with a good friend or therapist to process it all.

You’ll be glad you did.

Ministry is a series of ungrieved losses. So is life. Click To Tweet

With all that processed during the relative quiet of summer, how do you avoid being eaten alive heading back into leadership?

While I have a deep and robust strategy that’s helped me deal with everything life and leadership have thrown at me for years now, here are three things that can help right now.

1. Make Some Categorical Decisions

Categorical decision making is a superpower for leaders who have too much to do, which these days is most leaders.

By default, you make decisions one by one in leadership…as they come at you or need to be made.

One of the best ways to simplify decision making is to think in categories.

For example, when the COVID crisis hit, I had a lot of internal decisions to make as a leader (things my organization needed to do to survive), and soon I was faced with a bunch of requests for podcast interviews, webinar appearances, online events and even to join staff meetings virtually.

At first, my team and I looked at each request individually, but as they piled up (often a half dozen requests a day), we moved to categorical decision making. I decided to politely decline all podcast interviews, virtual events, webinars, online events of staff meetings.

Done, decision made.

We made a couple of exceptions, but not many.

The result? My team had clarity. I had clarity. And people understood.

Plus, I had time to work on some big projects I needed to get done.

Heading back into leadership, what things can you categorically eliminate?

This will take you a while to think through, but over the years I’ve done things like categorically eliminate doing weddings and funerals, pastoral visitation,  breakfast meetings (I’m most productive in the morning), lunch meetings or even meetings over an hour (and much more).

This will also force you to create systems for these important things that are not dependent on you and far more deeply empower your team.

I always get asked Do you make exceptions? And yes, I do.

I’ve done a few weddings, some visitations, a few funerals and even the odd breakfast meeting. But the exceptions are so much easier to manage than the deluge of yesses that probably should have been nos. And if I participate in your wedding, it’s probably because you’re on my staff or are family, a pretty easy exception to explain.

And ideally, your elimination of one category should free up time to focus on something more important or strategic. Another way to think about it is to reach more people, I need to eliminate X. 

If you’re skittish or worry about FOMO, try this: make it time-limited. In other words, for three months I’ll do no breakfast meetings. Or until the end of the year, I won’t do outside projects or requests.

Categorical decision-making saves mental energy and a tremendous amount of time because you already made the decision. Case closed. Move on.

Categorical decision-making saves mental energy and a tremendous amount of time because you already made the decision. Case closed. Move on.Click To Tweet

2. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

This one’s easy to understand and very difficult to do.

At the best of times, complexity is your enemy. And many leaders have a strategy that’s overly complex.

Complexity doesn’t scale, and at a certain level, it’s also exhausting.

Complexity doesn’t scale, and at a certain level, it’s also exhausting. Click To Tweet

Simple is not simplistic.

As Woody Guthrie is quoted as saying, “Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.”

Great leaders stick with a problem or idea long enough and engage it deeply enough to clear away the fog and reduce the concept to its simplest forms so anyone can understand it and implement it.

Ask yourself, what things can you stop doing so you can start doing more important things?

A simple, leaner model will likely help you thrive in complicated times.

One easy cut from most churches or organizations is anything you have to ‘manufacture’ energy for (I explain that here).

The more complex the world becomes, the simpler your approach to it needs to be.

The more complex the world becomes, the simpler your approach to it needs to be.Click To Tweet

3. Ditch The Endless WorkDay/WorkWeek

If you haven’t worked from home as much in the past as you are presently, the boundaries between work and home and likely as blurry as they’ve ever been.

I’ve been working from home part of the time for much of the last 25 years and full-time for the last five. It took me years to figure out how to do it well, but I’m more convinced than ever that you need a strategy to make sure your work doesn’t envelop your life.

Technology has not made this simpler.

You’re watching Disney+ with your daughter after dinner and a co-worker texts you about your expense report.

You used to go to the office, but thanks to technology, now the office goes to you. And it’s fully capable of interrupting you any time, anywhere, even on vacation.

Because I love what I get to do, I’ve had to force myself to make hard stops, putting my laptop away, turning off all notifications on my device, moving my phone out of my bedroom at night, and deciding that some things can wait.

Want a good little hack to help you break your work/technology addiction? Get a hobby.

You’ll get so engrossed in it that you’ll lose the desire to even check your phone.

You used to go to the office, but thanks to technology, now the office goes to you. And it’s fully capable of interrupting you any time, anywhere, even on vacation.Click To Tweet

Something To Focus On

Since I burned out, my mantra has been to try to figure out a way to live in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow.

I think that’s a good principle. I don’t always get it right, but when I do, things are so much better.

If you’re not thriving—and many leaders aren’t, even in the best of times—adjust today to improve tomorrow.

Living in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow will help you win the marathon ahead.

Simplify the Changes You’re Going To Make…

How are you going to make the change you need to make without exhausting yourself or your team?

As complex as things are, having a simple framework to navigate the change will make the task ahead much easier.

If you want to position yourself for the future, my brand new online training, the 30-Day Pivot, will show you how to develop your agility as a leader and as an organization to position yourself for growth.

The 30-Day Pivot is a simple 3-step process you and your team can utilize every as often as every 30 days to respond to the change around you and capitalize on it.

In the 30-Day Pivot, you’ll learn:

A simple 3-step process your team can use to arrive at your next pivot in 90 minutes or less.
An approach that fosters team-generated innovation.
An implementation and evaluation framework that will help your team move quickly and accurately.

I’ve led teams through multiple pivots, and in the 30 Day Pivot, I show you the strategy and framework you need to make quick, accurate and responsive moves that can position your organization for growth, even in the midst of deep uncertainty and change.

Some organizations and churches will thrive in the new normal.

Others won’t.

While the future is uncertain, yours doesn’t have to be.

What Helps You?

What helps you figure out the relationship between time off and time on?

How do you refuel in every season?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post Why Your Time Off Will Never Be Enough to Truly DeStress You appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: Why Your Time Off Will Never Be Enough to Truly DeStress You

The post Why Your Time Off Will Never Be Enough to Truly DeStress You appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: Brandon A. Cox

Source: Time Management Matters in a Pandemic More Than Ever

The post Time Management Matters in a Pandemic More Than Ever appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By Shawn Lovejoy: Too many leaders are paralyzed by perfection.

While perfect may be inspiring in a moment or for a season, it is impossible when leading for long-term impact. To lead day after day, year after year, chasing perfect will wear you out. It’s simply not realistic.

In a recent podcast episode I discussed how high-impact leaders, the kind with courage, charge forward, even in the face of uncertainty.

In fact, I believe courageous leaders don’t focus on their failures. They focus on lessons learned! They take risks and tackle the unknown. These leaders fully embrace Sheryl Sandberg’s statement that, “Done is better than perfect.”

I want you to be a leader full of courage, with a propensity towards action. So I am exposing 3 problems with trying to be a perfect leader who only accepts “perfect” as a result.

Perfection robs productivity.

Leaders execute.

They get things done. Quickly, consistently and (hopefully) with little drama. Perfectionist leaders get trapped “waiting” on something to be perfect. Conditions must be ideal and every wrinkle ironed out before a perfectionist can take action. The problem is, opportunities don’t wait! Too often we allow perfect to slow up our progress. Done is better than perfect.  

To move away from perfect and closer to productivity, pull the trigger on a task when it is 80% complete. Go public with a plan before you have every detail figured out. Allow someone to hold you accountable to execute instead of waiting too long.

Execute Quickly. Make pulling the trigger a habit. Set dates for yourself for going public. Tweak Consistently. As soon as you go public, begin to make adjustments. Google uses the “beta phase” of any project to allow for improvements. Tinker Occasionally. Never stop improving. Habitually adjustment to better any system, project or idea.

Perfection can masquerade as excellence.

Everyone should strive to do their best work. Excellence should be a value that guides your work, drives you to deliver more than is asked, and pushes you to constantly improve. However, excellence has a dark side. Unguarded excellence creates unrealistic standards of perfection. Excellence isn’t an act, but a habit. Perfection is a singular, elusive moment.

In his book, Moving Past Perfect, Thomas Greenspon referred to the following quote:

“Excellence is risk. Perfection is fear. Excellence is effort. Perfection is anger and frustration. Excellence is openness to being wrong. Perfection is having to be right. Excellence is spontaneity. Perfection is control. Excellence is flow. Perfection is pressure. Excellence is confidence. Perfection is doubt. Excellence is journey. Perfection is destination. Excellence is acceptance. Perfection is judgement. Excellence is encouraging. Perfection is criticizing.”

Perfection doesn’t scale.

Chasing perfect chokes growth. Why? Because perfection depends on you! To maintain perfect you have to make every decision and approve every move. Perfect does not scale because you do not scale. Perfection demands an expert talent; excellence requires an empowering leader.

Our tendency to hold on to the past for too long or control every move stunts our team’s growth. The growth of your organization depends on you raising your own leadership capacity. You scale your leadership when you pour it into other people. The results may not be perfect, but it will be powerful.

As you tackle today, do so with excellence. Make it a habit you value. Excellence will lead you to be more fulfilled, more effective and less stressed than the pursuit of perfection ever could.

talk to a coach

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Source: The Liabilities of Being a Perfectionist

The post The Liabilities of Being a Perfectionist appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Shawn Lovejoy: Everyone is busy.

The temptation is to think that just because we’re very busy, that we’re being effective, or productive.

Let me be clear: Busy or not, if you are not being productive…you are wasting your time!

I am more convinced than ever before, that we can be VERY busy and yet be VERY ineffective.

How can we be BOTH effective, and busy? The answer is incredible simple to understand and incredibly difficult to do.

Being both busy and effective requires:

Doing the right things: WHAT is important.

At the right times: WHEN it is important.

For the right reasons: WHY it is important.

Example: Returning phone calls is important to me. However, spending time with God and nurturing my own vitality are the MOST IMPORTANT things for me. So…I don’t take or return many calls early in the morning, because that is when my mind is the freshest and I want to give my best mental energy to God. I rob from the urgent to focus on the most important.

If I answered every phone call at everyone else’s whim in the mornings, it would be impossible to devote large chunks of uninterrupted time when my mind is the freshest to this task.

So I have scheduled time slots each day when I return most phone calls. If I can’t connect with that person then, I try at the end of the day.

This approach to managing my day allows me to be both busy and effective. What about you? What are ways you think you could better be both busy and effective?

What are YOUR right things? Right times? Right reasons?

Source: How To Stop Wasting Your Time

The post How To Stop Wasting Your Time appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Carey Nieuwhof: Ever notice your day seems to vaporize and you wonder what happened to all your best intentions?

You’re ready to leave work but you barely even dented your to-do list. As a result, you’re going to have to try to justify squeezing an hour of work in once you get home, or just get up at a ridiculous hour tomorrow to try again.

Not only is that pattern unsustainable, it’s mysterious. You try not to have it happen again, but it does anyway.

So…what causes that?

At the root of it is likely repeated patterns and behaviors.

There’s also another problem more leaders struggle with than ever before, and that’s distraction.

As I indicated recently in this post, I’m changing my mind about technology. I used to be a raving fan. Now I’m much more circumspect. To be fair, I’m not a luddite. I have all the latest devices. But I’m using them radically differently than a few years ago.

As research and experiments have shown, workers get interrupted as often as every 11 minutes during the workday, and it takes 25 minutes to refocus after each interruption. The math doesn’t even exactly add up, but you get the point. That’s why it feels impossible to get anything done.

I’m working on a book on overwhelm that will come out in September 2020. It will be a complete guide to getting out and staying out of overwhelm and burnout, and it will have far more to say about how technology is working both for us and against us. (You can get my latest book, which has a section on burnout, here.)

But in the meantime, here are 7 little things that massively stifle your productivity.

Get rid of these distractions today and you’ll have a better tomorrow.

1. Push Notifications

Every single app in the world starts off its relationship with you by asking “Allow Push Notifications?”

Your automatic answer as a leader should be no. Every single time (except one…I tell you which exception I think you should make below).

You don’t really need to know everytime someone sends you an email. Similarly, it’s useless to be notified every time someone comments on your Instagram.

Why? Well, think of push notifications as someone tapping you on the shoulder. If someone tapped you on the shoulder somewhere between 30-300 times a day every day, you would either punch them or get a restraining order.

Every time your phone vibrates, that’s what’s happening.

And don’t think the people you’re in real life conversation with aren’t bothered by your constantly buzzing phone and your incessant need to check your screen. It’s hard to respect or follow a distracted leader.

It’s hard to respect or follow a distracted leader.Click To Tweet

Being busy isn’t a sign of respect anymore. It’s a sign you’re not managing your time or priorities well.

I disabled push notifications on my phone and turned on the Do Not Disturb on my devices a few years ago. I don’t miss the constant buzzing at all. Nor do my friends and family.

Instant notifications about your messages aren’t that important.

Actually, I’m not actually that important. With all due respect, neither are you.

Being busy isn’t a sign of respect anymore. It’s a sign you’re not managing your time well.Click To Tweet

2. Text Messages

You’re probably thinking, I get the part about not getting notifications about Instagram, but come on, text messages? Miss those, too?

Here’s what I’ve done with my text messages. Before I tell you, know that I do not give out my cell number freely. Not a lot of people have it. Even then, I don’t want to be a slave to it.

So, I allow push notifications for text messages, but I keep my phone on Do Not Disturb, which means I don’t feel them or hear them.

When I’m ready to take a break, I pull out my phone and do a quick check. That way they don’t interrupt me.

But wait, you argue. I can’t miss any text messages. What about my wife and my kids? What about my super important projects?

First, remember when you were a kid? Your parents had no idea where you were, and after a few hours, they’d call the neighbors. You survived. So did they.

Ditto with work. People used to get work done at work. Remember those days? Now you don’t get any work done at work, and constant interruption is one of the reasons.

What’s happened is you’ve confused importance with urgency. Texts may be important, but mostly they’re not that urgent if you’re going to look at your phone every hour anyway.

But wait, you say, what’s if it’s a true emergency?

Well, if you’re waiting for a new kidney and the doctor is texting you that you need to come to the hospital right this second or you lose the organ, sure…keep your phone on.

But that’s not what ruined your day last Tuesday. In fact, you can’t even remember what the texts that ruined last Tuesday were about, can you?

Nope, you can’t.

Which is why you should ignore what’s going on on your phone until you’re ready to take a break.

The planet will keep spinning. I promise you.

And you will get more done.

Text messages may be important, but they’re not nearly as urgent as you think they are.Click To Tweet

3. Your Idle Curiosity

The challenge of working in an online environment is that the world is literally at your fingertips.

The distractions are a click or tap away. It takes tremendous self-discipline not to go down the rabbit-hole of the internet, from social media to mindless Googling of things that really don’t’ matter, like the surface area of the sun or who invented the straight-razor.

Curiosity is a great thing, but idle curiosity that produces nothing…not so much.

We blame our office environment, co-workers, endless email or whatever. But eliminate all those things, and you still have you to contend with.

I don’t need an enemy. I have one. It’s a perpetually distracted me.

You don’t need an enemy. You have one. It’s a perpetually distracted you.

You don’t need an enemy. You have one. It’s a perpetually distracted you.Click To Tweet

4. Inefficient Email

If you can’t totally escape email entirely (I’ve experimented with that in seasons), limit it.

Turning off push notifications is a great start, but it won’t solve all your problems.

Try changing your email practices from ‘always checking all the time’ (which is the default for almost all of us) to tiny pockets where you check it at different points in the day.

For example, try doing a small window of say 15 minutes in the morning to make sure nothing’s on fire. 90% of the time, things aren’t on fire.

Then come back to email at a set time later in the day and pound through it. Do it when your energy is a little lower, and spend your best energy instead on the tasks that are most important to you that day.

That way when you get home, you’ll have accomplished something significant and not spent your time on things that matter less.

The less time you spend on email, the less it will consume you.

Second, don’t manage or lead by email.

Here’s how it happens to most leaders. Someone thinks of an issue, so they send an email. Someone adds a thought, and they reply all.

A conversation that might take 5 minutes in person (or less) drags on a through a series of useless replies that go on for days.

We’ve adopted some practices on my team that have helped.

First, don’t email people about everything. If you have an issue that could be just as easily handled by phone or in person, park it on a list (use something like Asana or Wunderlist to keep track).

Then, once you have a list of 5-15 items, do a simple 15-minute check-in phone meeting or stand-up meeting in person to handle them all. You’ll be way more efficient.

Similarly, if a direct report emails me something that’s not urgent, I’ll just ask them to wait until our weekly meeting with it. It can almost always wait.

If it’s truly urgent and there will be a lot of back and forth, pick up and phone and call or do a quick text exchange. People are always shorter on text than on email.

Not everything is urgent, so don’t treat it like it is.

If you really want to get radical, give yourself some space and basically bail on email for a day, a week, or longer.

Like you, I get far more requests for my time than I can handle, and I wondered how to tackle that this summer as I’m writing.

This is literally the auto-responder I put on over a month ago.

Hi!

Thanks for getting in touch with me!

I’m completely off email until July 15th, taking some family vacation and writing my next book. My team will be in my inbox to respond to anything urgent.

As a heads up, but I’ll be in monk mode until late August 2019 working on my next book. Which means I’m not taking meetings or doing interviews this summer so I can devote my full attention to my book, other writing and preaching responsibilities and podcasting. Thanks for understanding!

Enjoy the summer! Talk in a few months!

Carey

Have I peaked in my inbox? Sure. And I’ve dealt with a few things. But it’s probably cut my email time down by 90%.

I just wish there was an autoresponder for text messages.

Not everything is urgent, so don’t treat it like it is.Click To Tweet

5. Too Many Meetings

We live in meetings, and our productivity dies in them. Meetings are a huge distraction in a world where leaders often simply need to get work done.

Patrick Lencioni, Al Pittampali and others have effectively critiqued the way most leaders live in meetings.

We live in meetings, and our productivity dies in them.Click To Tweet

If I’m not careful, I can spend three-quarters of my week in meetings and have only a few hours left over for writing messages and leading what matters most.

Meetings expand to fill the time you’ve set aside for them. So just set aside less time.

Meetings expand to fill the time you’ve set aside for them. So just set aside less time.Click To Tweet

6. An Open Schedule

Chance are you only write appointments with others and meetings in your schedule, right?

Big mistake.

Make appointments with yourself. Write in writing time, thinking time, date nights with your spouse, family time —everything you need to get done.

Why?

Then when someone asks to meet, you can say you have a commitment. If it’s truly important, schedule them in during your next available slot.

I show you exactly how to do that in the High Impact Leader course. 

An open schedule is a guarantee you’ll spend your time on everyone else’s priorities, not yours.

Conversely, a fixed calendar can fix your life.

An open schedule is a guarantee you’ll spend your time on everyone else’s priorities, not yours.Click To Tweet

7. Conversations Without A Purpose

Conversations can waste tons of time. And they happen all the time to leaders.

Sometimes you feel trapped in one.

What do you do when someone corners you?

Be pleasant and move on. You’ve got work to do.

Turn that 20-minute conversation into a two-minute conversation. Be pleasant, thank them and if need be, tell them you were on your way to get something done. Then go do it.

If you work in an actual office, close the door or put a sign on the door that you’re doing focused work.

If you’re in an open office, you can even devise a signal with co-workers that lets them know you’re not free to chat. I’ve seen leaders put a small orange traffic cone or another kind of marker on their desk that effectively says “do not disturb.”

If you can shut down meaningless conversations, you’ll ramp up your productivity.

If you can shut down meaningless conversations, you’ll ramp up your productivity.Click To Tweet

Move Beyond Hacks – Get Your Life and Leadership Back

My next book won’t be out for a while, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t help.

I know what it’s like to be overwhelmed, and I’ve figured out how to keep overwhelm and burnout at bay. I’ve helped over 3000 leaders do the same with my High Impact Leader Course.

The #1 question other leaders ask me is this: How do you get it all done (write a blog, host a major podcast, work full time, speak and write books AND have a decent family life with some actual hobbies).

I show you the answer in the course, and also share you how can get far more done in far less time.

In it, I’ll show you 100% customizable principles that will help you reach your highest level of leadership at work AND help you spend more time with your family.

The course can also help you thrive by helping you find healthy, sustainable rhythms that move your life and leadership to a new level.

Check it out here.

What Does The High Impact Leader Do?

This 10-session online course will show you highly practical, proven strategies on how to finally get time, energy and priorities working in your favor. It includes 10 videos, an online workbook and 10 specific exercises that will help you create a personalized plan to help you get productive and accomplish the things you know are most important, but rarely have time for.

The course, which proceeds at your personal pace whenever you’re ready to tackle a unit, is designed to help you:

Get your most important priorities done early in the week, every week.

Spend more of your time at work doing the things that energize you and less time doing the things that drain you.

Invest more of your time with the people who energize you and less time with the people who drain you.

Discover time to finally exercise, pursue a hobby,  launch a blog, start a podcast or write that book.

Actually be OFF when you have a day off.

Be far more focused on your family when you’re with your family.

Learn how to say no nicely, so you can free up time for the things you’re truly called to do.

In short, it’s designed to help get your life and leadership back, or maybe find them for the very first time. Plus we have a Facebook Group, calendar templates, a bonus time hacking resource and other extras that can help you get the most of it all.

Learn more.

What High Impact Alumni Are Saying…

Haley Bodine,  a writer, leader and young mom says:

“A few months ago, I was drowning. When my kids needed me I was just praying for bedtime. Then I discovered the High Impact Leader calendar. What we’ve found is that by calendaring our priorities, my husband and I are healthier. We’re communicating better and we’re healthier than ever and getting more done than ever before. Thank you!”

Dave from Invitation Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a married pastor of a new church plant who has two kids under the age of five says:

“Just wow. Thank you. The course helped me identify my priorities and work to bring clarity in all phases of my life.  I feel SO, SO, SO much more freedom.”

Isaac saw a complete turnaround:

If you asked me earlier this year if I would want a repeat of 2017 I would have said, no way.

After walking through the High Impact Leader though, I would and will repeat what I have been doing in the last few months.

It has allowed me to be more strategic with my time, energy, and priorities like never before. I have held a full schedule for the last few months and unlike ever before, my family did not feel the weight of it, my family was prioritized at the top of it.

Thank you, Carey, for helping the end of 2017 be great and I’m very excited about what 2018 is going to hold!

And that’s the goal. I hope that’s what will happen in your life.

We’re currently offering some free, limited time bonuses for everyone who jumps in on this offering of the High Impact Leader course.

To learn more or to enroll now, click here.

What About You?

What distractions keep you from being productive?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post How to Crush 7 Little Things That Are Ruining Your Productivity appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: How to Crush 7 Little Things That Are Ruining Your Productivity

The post How to Crush 7 Little Things That Are Ruining Your Productivity appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Rich Birch: Do you remember the world before the smartphones came and invaded all our spaces?

I have a hard time recalling how we got along before these little rectangles of glass, metal and plastic lodged themselves firmly into our everyday lives.

These devices have had simultaneously a profound and subtle impact on our people. Analogous to shifting sands under our feet, although the change is very minimal and hardly evident at the beginning but over time it becomes increasingly obvious.

I’m not adopting a “technology is bad” point of view in this article. In fact, I’m not taking a “technology is good” point of view either. Rather than debate the value of the smartphone in our people’s lives I’m asking us to consider the impacts these instruments are already having today on our people and suggest ways in which our churches need to respond.

Here are seven ways in which smartphones have already changed your people and what you can do about it.

Hundreds of Friends Within Reach at a Moment’s Notice

The development of smartphones has been equally matched with the rise of a rewiring of the very social fabric of humanity. I know that may sound overly dramatic but it’s simply the truth! We take for granted that people are able to instantly like, share and comment with their friends both near and far. This hyper-connectivity is redefining friendship and changing the way that we interact with people.

One doesn’t need to search long for examples of how this new level of interconnected relationships have impacted the world around us.

Remember the 2014 social craze “the ice bucket challenge”? Only made possible with the ubiquity of smartphones and pervasive social networks. In the end the challenge raised $220 million towards A.L.S. research that is continually making new discoveries! [ref]
During the next natural disaster watch closely how the people on these social networks care for each other in amazing innovative ways. This was evidenced after Hurricane Irma decimated parts of Florida; it was heartwarming to see people turn to their phones to help others and offer comfort. [ref]

Ultimately, when you combine smartphones and social networks together you have people more connected with the fringes of their social circles. Today we’re more aware of what is happening in the lives of people who we are loosely connected with compared to a generation ago. This is a great opportunity for your church because it’s these loose connections that drive the growth and development of your church. Here are some examples of how to leverage these opportunities for your church:

Develop sharable social content … that people want to share! // Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat and other online social networks that might be developed in the future aren’t designed as another place for you to share announcements about your church. These networks are essentially driven by people sharing content that is humorous, intriguing and thought-provoking, so you need to release content which the people are encouraged to share online. The primary goal is to create sharable content while the secondary goal is to drive results for your church.
Encourage your people to develop content. // The ice bucket challenge is the high water mark for seeing masses of people develop content that spreads to their friends thereby driving an organization’s outcomes. How can you encourage your people to check-in, take photos, film videos and generally generate their own content about their connection to your church? Ask them to take out their phones during your services and go online to tell their friends they are with you or share a quote from the message. Find the people in your church that are the most active online and take them out for a coffee to pick their brains on how you can encourage more people to share and like the church-oriented messages online.

Rewiring Our Minds from Knowing Answers to Knowing How to Find Answers

Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. – 2 Timothy 4:2

When I was a student I read 2 Timothy 4:2 and to me, it meant that I needed to have ready answers for a wide variety of issues that might come up as I interacted with people about faith. I remember memorizing lots of scripture and studying apologetics widely to prepare answers, which I could use at a moment’s notice to defend the faith.

What difference does ubiquitous access to virtually the entire breadth of human information in everyone’s pocket make to this aspect of the Christian life? To me, it is as profound as the access of the printing press was to the faith. In several ways, the Protestant reformation and explosion of knowledge about the faith owe a huge debt to the access to information that the printing press afforded. We’re still on the front end of understanding how all this access to information will shape and form our faith today.

What is abundantly clear is that this access to information is changing the way we think. Constant access to databases and search engines have altered the way our memory works. Instead of remembering information, we now remember how to find that information. [ref] This presents a profound shift in our relationship with information as the smartphone transform into an extension of our memory and mind in a very real way because we rely on it to store and access the expansive information we need in our everyday living.

This shift in our relationship with information implies that we need to change how we manage the information we “dispense” from our churches. A few shifts that your church should consider:

“So What?” Preaching // People are overwhelmed with the amount of information they can access and hence need communicators to help them make sense of what to do next with the available information. More than ever, today we need teaching that creates simple and obvious next steps for our community. Preaching that lands with “there’s some information you need to know” won’t move anyone anymore. The drive of preaching has always been towards helping people take action on what they know but in an information saturate climate this drive is not operative.
People (still) don’t care what it says in the Greek. // I’m not sure when people were impressed with what the text said in its original language but there are communications that talk about the original text like it’s wildly impressive. It isn’t. People need a synthesis of understanding the text and how the original hearers of it would have applied it to their lives as essentially a bridge to understand how we should apply it to our lives. Pronunciation of the words aren’t necessary and can come off as random trivial facts in a constantly connected world.
Intellectually Honest. // There are several schools of thought within the body of Christianity. We’ve been emphasising on various aspects of scripture over others for hundreds of years. There might have been a time when we could have convinced our people that we simply “preach the word!” However, today our people can literally find other interpretations of the texts underpinning our sermon or message, from their seats on their phones during the interaction. Our teaching needs to acknowledge the spectrum of thought and still help people navigate the frameworks to the people where they understand why we’ve landed where they’ve landed as well. Dave Bowman from New Horizon Church in North Carolina did this recently in a message when he referenced a spectrum of thoughts around science, evolution and the evidence of God and it’s worth listening in to. The Meeting House in Toronto did this superbly a number of years ago by taking a summer to hear from teachers from a wide variety of background on their convictions around Christ.

Driving Us to Get More Done

Smartphones are helping people get more done. These devices are propelling our productivity and helping us draw more out of every day. In fact, a recent study showed that smartphones save people 22 days per year over our 1990s selves! [ref] That’s almost an extra month’s time every year to invest in the rest of our lives. All those emails you’re responding to from bed or texts that you send from the bathroom are actually driving you to accomplish more

But more importantly, they are shifting all of us towards a state where we are looking to accomplish more with our time. Today, we’re more time aware than we’ve ever been owing to these devices in our pockets, which are structuring our time more than ever. This implies that our churches need to be even more effective in how we invest our people’s time when they are with us in a variety of ways:

Don’t Waste People’s Time // Time is a precious commodity and our guests are looking for high-value experiences when they are with us. If people perceive this to be a low-value experience they will simply check out mentally and start accessing their emails or flipping through Facebook on their phones. We need to drive compelling and relevant experiences that are more enticing than what people can access on their phones.
Set Clear Expectations (& Then Exceed Them!) // With people developing a sense of high value for their time, they ensure that their expectations are properly gauged for every engagement with your church. If people clearly understand how long the event is and what they’ll get out of it they are willing to invest time but if these aspects are unclear they will opt out. Be clear on what they should expect and then overdeliver.
Teach on Time Stewardship // Most churches talk about financial stewardship but people are increasingly interested in leveraging their time to honor God with their life. Show them how balanced and healthy rhythms of work and rest are a part of what God desires for His people. Help your community deal with the pressures of increased productivity and live a life honoring God in how they spend all their time!

We’re Not Bored Anymore

When was the last time you were really bored? I mean … really bored. Absolutely nothing to do and nothing to think about. At their core, these smartphones have removed boredom from our lives by constantly stimulating us and seeking our attention. Studies have shown that the boredom actually has value for us when we are looking to do or are doing some of our most meaningful or deepest works:

U.K. psychologist, Sandi Mann, found that when subjects do something really boring and then try a creative task they come up with their most novel and innovative solutions. [ref]
Watch the following video done by WNYC that counts the number of people just walking down the street who are on their phones. It’s a vivid illustration of how dependent we’ve become on these devices to fill our quiet moments. Watch here: How Many People Can’t Walk Without Their Smartphone?
An app named Moment tracks the total amount of “phone time” that a user spends every day as well as the total number of times people check their phone during the day. Most users are shocked with the stats they learn from the app … go ahead and try it.

What implications does all this activity that continuously engages our minds to have on our spiritual development? Brother Lawrence was a monk who (famously) found great spiritual enrichment from doing the dishes and using that time to pray and connect with God. It would seem that if Brother Lawrence was around today he’d find himself listening to podcasts or checking in on the news in between the piles of dishes.

What if we declared boredom as a spiritual discipline? What if we challenged our people to just unplug and do nothing for a day? (Or even an hour?)

Maybe we could build a week-long challenge that would help people unplug from technology and plug into the things of God. Each day would up the ante and be more “disconnecting” to create space for the things of God. It could follow a pattern that may be something like this:

Day One // On the train, bus, sidewalk, or passenger seat, keep your phone in your pocket and notice people around you that you could pray for.
Day Two // We take 10 billion (yes, that’s a “b”) photos per month, mostly on our phones. Today, don’t take a single photo with your phone and just attempt to notice the things that you want to store an image in your phone. Maintain a journal of what you notice about that pattern.
Day Three // Your instruction for today: Delete one app. (Double dare you to delete two.) Take time to read an extra chapter of scripture today.
Day Four // Craft an inbox away-message and put it up for an hour, an afternoon, or the whole day. Reach out to friends you haven’t connected with for a while and ask them how you can pray for them.
Day Five // Put away the phone. Get out a large pot of water and boil it … stare at it. (A watched pot does eventually boil!) Once it’s boiled, take time to journal what you’ve learned about yourself this week and share it with your small group.

It’s Impossible to Get Lost Now

Sometimes the changes are so profound and yet so subtle that it is hard to perceive their implications in our lives. The ubiquitous maps and GPS features on our phones means that no one is ever lost. We’re just on the front end of the implications of this innovation.

Arguably the megachurch movement is a logical extension of the ubiquitous access to the car. It took about 50 years for the innovation to exert a profound impact on the local church. However, once people got used to driving to access services they sought and wanted; it was only logical that they drive past their local “parish” and go to a church on the edge of town offering all the services they wanted. This innovation drove churches to locate themselves close to major highways and introduce lots of parking spaces to accommodate all those people in cars. Consider, what impact will the universal access to directions have on our ability to reach people?

SEO Matters // People being able to find you online is arguably as important as a simple location to drive to. If people can’t find you on Google they are going to have a hard time punching in their address on their phones.
Location … Matters Less // Drive time will probably emerge as a bigger issue in comparison to the ease of finding locations. There is evidence that people are driving less than they did a generation ago. [ref] Usage patterns show that people just look at how long the drive will take when entered in the maps app rather than considering the complexity of the drive.
Retail Opportunities // We gather people together to “do” church on a regular basis. There has always been a “retail” aspect to our ministry. With online shopping continuing to kill traditional brick and mortar shopping, the available spaces will open up new spots for churches looking for advantageous locations. (The Movement Church in Ohio already has two similar locations!) These spots have the benefit of legacy planning that put them in great community location and have lots of parking, which is normally needed for churches.

Constant Availability is Expected

There was a time when businesses could afford to say “the check in the mail” and that would buy a few extra days for them to do what they needed to get done. Those days are long gone! Consumer standards have risen to the point where instantaneous communication is expected. Always on and available constitute the new standards of communication. Smartphones have freed us up to deposit our own checks, self-service trips around the world and generally stay connected at all times.

Our churches, today, cannot just provide “services” on Sunday but need to be available to help and assist people throughout the week. We need to tune and align our communications to respond rapidly to guests and church members when they reach out to us. Although, this becomes increasingly difficult to do as a church scales up with a rise in the number of contacts and complexity of the issues at a seemingly increasing exponential rate. Therefore, thoughtful and considerate leadership is needed to increase responsiveness and conduct communication in a way that provides instant excellent care.

Here are some potential online tools and systems that might help your church provide “ridiculously responsive” service to your community:

OLARK Live Chat // Add a new feature on your website for visitors to be able to chat with a member of your team. This service provides a simple WordPress plug and team interface to make the implementation quick and easy to use.
Bonjoro Video Emails // An incredibly simple tool for sending quick video emails to people … a perfect “onboarding” application for your new guest process!
BOND Notes Service // Handwritten notes that you can submit from your phone on the go … wowers! It’s magical.
Freshdesk Ticket System // A service for dealing with all the inbound email your church receives. Tackle it as a team to move it along quickly to ensure people get the answers they are looking for.

(speed + personalization) x surprise = delighted guests

Leverage technology to respond to people quickly with a personal help and they will be delighted for a long time to come. Find tools that build into your systems and enhance the features to help delight your guests!

Access to Robust Content Providers

Smartphones are providing unprecedented access to thought leaders through a mixture of podcasts, social connections, blogs and more. Beyond just providing a tool for connecting with ideas or concepts these platforms are now building personal connections at a large scale. The personal nature of the smartphone accords that people sense a deep personal connection to these thoughts leaders. There’s something deeply personal about listening to someone speaking in your ear through earphones and seeing what they are having for dinner on Instagram that drives a close connection.

Church leaders need to leverage all of these tools in combination to build a personal robust platform in order to connect with their people. These tools come together to help extend their ministry beyond just the weekend and into the rest of the week. Rather than shying away from the combination of content and personal connections we should be aligning these to develop even deeper personal connections with our people. With these initiatives, we do not aspire to become a larger than life “personal brand” that extends beyond our local church. Contrarily, we undertake these steps because we want to help minister to the people in our church using the channels through which they are being inspired and lead already by leaders outside of our community.

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Source: 7 Ways Smartphones Have Changed People at Your Church (And What to Do About it!) – unSeminary

The post 7 Ways Smartphones Have Changed People at Your Church (And What to Do About it!) – unSeminary appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: 5 Steps for Leading Yourself as a Church Planter

The post 5 Steps for Leading Yourself as a Church Planter appeared first on Passion for Planting.

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By Dave Travis on May 29th, 2017

I was an engineer, then a pastor, then a denominational worker. Through bad luck and bad timing I was adopted by Leadership Network. Fortunately for me, over my tenure I have learned a few things and have the honor of leading a great team of investors, staff and work with the greatest clients in the world. I live with my family in Atlanta, Georgia. I have written several books on innovative churches and their practices. They don’t sell very well but make my parents proud. Connect with me here…

Source: Advance – Eight Major Changes in Churches the Past Ten Years

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