THE OVERLOADED DRIVE

I had just completed editing a video and went to save it. My computer thought otherwise. A rather disconcerting message appeared on my screen, “Export Drive Does Not Have Enough Memory.” I wasn’t happy. Long story short, (the purchase of a new external hard drive and a lot of time spent deleting, editing and moving files)  I am now back in business.
 

WHAT LOST SHEEP AND OVERLOADED HARD DRIVES HAVE IN COMMON

The experience reminded me of the parable of the lost sheep. I heard a pastor this weekend preach on that passage so it was fresh in my mind. My thought was this, sheep don’t plan on getting lost. They don’t try to get lost. So how do they get lost? Answer: Sheep creep. They have their nose to the ground nibbling here and there. They gnaw at whatever looks good and is adjacent to whatever they last ate. Bit by bit, bite by bite they creep away from where they should be.

 
So what does that have to do with my hard drive becoming overloaded? Well, people get overloaded and far from God. They don’t set out to do it no more than I set out to max out my drive. They creep their way there. They nibble a bit of this and that with no attention to the direction it is taking them. I know that is how I get overloaded and far from God.
 

DON’T MISS THE “MY DRIVE IS ABOUT TO OVERLOAD” SIGNS.

What about you? Where are you in relationship to God? Are you either overloaded or feeling distant? Have you made little decisions repeatedly that didn’t seem like much at the time, but now you are in a place you never planned on being?
 
Often times there are signs, but you can miss them by being too focused on what’s immediate. That was true for my hard drive. I am sure that it was getting much slower and less efficient. I don’t recall it getting slower, but now that I have removed a bunch of files, I can’t believe how fast it is. When effects are extremely gradual, we don’t noticed them until a whole system crashes.
 

WHEN MY PERSONAL DRIVE MAXED OUT

This quiet evolution was certainly the case when I went through depression several years ago. I never saw myself getting depressed. I seemed to just suddenly find myself there. Signs were abundant, but I missed them all. I was too close and shutting down. It wasn’t until I was struggling to function with simple things that I new something was wrong.   Metaphorically speaking, one day life said to me, “Export Drive Does Not Have Enough Memory.” Ouch.
 
I turned to God. I needed a purging and a system reset. I gradually worked my way back home. I started in the dark, but God lead me, inch by inch back into the light. Praise God.
 
All of that said, take a moment today and lift your head up from the grass. Look around you. How close is the shepherd? Have you nimbled too far? Have you been too fixated on what immediately tastes good? Do you see any signs that you have wander away?  Going back to my hard drive…How is your system operating? Is it bogged down? Inefficiently working? Ready to crash and burn?
 
If so, don’t wait. Do something about it right now. Today. If you are literally overloaded, as in overcommitted, you may want to do the ‘Time to Change’ course that I put together. If you are emotionally overloaded, you may want to seek out a counselor who can help you ‘download’ some of what is maxing you out. Either way, look for the signs today and do something immediately to restore your system and get you back on the path closer to your Master.
 
Blessings from The Practical Disciple
 
p.s.  I noticed a flurry of registrations for ‘Time to Change’ yesterday on the release date.  But please note: that was a release date and not a deadline.  Anyone can register anytime to get these 15 videos of time management solutions. The videos are short, free and I believe packed with value for anyone trying to come up with a time management plan to make life more livable.  There’s also a number of tips in the videos to declutter your life.  A word to my regularly readers: I’ll stop harping about the videos soon.  I am just very excited by them and hope people will join the fun.  Sign-up using the box in the right hand column. To see the topics cover visit this link, ‘Time-to-Change’.

Balancing Life

As many of you know, I have been working on a time management solutions mini-course to help people bring their lives back into balance. I announced this effort about a month ago. I am very excited to announce that the ‘Time to Change’ mini-course videos are complete. There are 15 videos in all. The individual videos are brief, all less than 10 minutes, some less than 5 minutes. Collectively these 15 videos contain over an hour and a half of instruction. I am in the process of having all of the videos transcribed. Transcripts and audio will be available for those of you who would prefer to read or listen. I want to tell you a bit about what is in the course, but before doing so I want to share with you why I am doing this.
 

Why I am offering time management solutions on a blog about discipleship

People’s lives are chaotically out of balance. I see numerous people stressed and overcommitted to the point that God is crowded out of (or at least to the edge of) their lives. This is a huge spiritual problem. I think it is very hard to serve God excellently and honor Christ fully if you are stressed, fatigued, disorganized, and unfocused. I know that has been true for me. Furthermore, all the spiritual disciplines in the world are not going to help you grow in your relationship with God, if you don’t have time to use them. I am hoping that the ‘Time to Change’ mini-series can both free up time and alleviate stress so that people can be more fully available to God and their families.
 

So What’s in the Course?

I gathered together all of the ‘best of the best’ time management solutions that I have personally used and therefore know work. I have not only included time management solutions, but lots of tips to help you declutter your life and reduce stress. For example, lesson 8 deals with eliminating what I call ‘irritants’. Irritants are those incomplete tasks that you know you should do, but never seem to get to. Irritants are silent sources of stress and drain energy. In lesson 8 you learn how to rapidly eliminate unfinished tasks. In the last 30 days, I have knocked out 11 of 25 unfinished tasks that have been stressing me for months. I explain exactly how I did it in the video. Or for another example, Have you ever wished you were better at saying, “no”? Lesson 11 explores common reasons people say ‘yes’ when they really don’t want to. In lesson 11 you learn why you should give yourself permission to say no and how to do it. These are just a couple of examples of the numerous topics addressed in the 15 videos.
 

How to get the lessons?

Sign-up using the box below or the box in the right side bar. This sign-up is distinct from a normal subscription to The Practical Disciple. I will not be posting the lessons as normal posts. The only way to receive them is to sign-up specifically for the ‘Time to Change’ mini-course. Once you have entered your name and email address you will be sent a brief email to confirm your request.
 

Below is a list of the 15 topics that are currently in the series.

• Lesson 1–The Big Five: Creating a Workable To-Do List.
• Lesson 2–Interruptions: Eliminating and Managing Interruptions to Increase Productivity
• Lesson 3– Scheduling: Creating Priority and Margin
• Lesson 4–Living in Ideal Time vs. Idealized Time
• Lesson 5–Eliminating Clutter One Bag at a Time
• Lesson 6–Ordering Clutter with the 10 Minute Tidy and TRAF.
• Lesson 7–Sabbath Basics: Establishing a Pattern for Rest and Holiness
• Lesson 8–Irritants: Ruthlessly Eliminating Unfinished Tasks
• Lesson 9– Goals: Goal Setting Basics
• Lesson 1o–Evaluate: The Importance of a Daily Inventory
• Lesson 11–How to Say No
• Lesson 12–Batch Processing for Greater Efficiency
• Lesson 13–The Chore Deck, an Almost Effortless System for Keeping a Clean House
• Lesson 14–Keeping it Altogether with a Planner
• Lesson 15–Establishing and Repeating a Weekly System

 
The lessons will be released beginning Wednesday, September 15th. You will receive a new lesson every other day for thirty days.  Blessings to you as you seek to establish a more Godly rhythm to life.
 

 

Picture from the 'Click it or Ticket' Campaign Poster

I had the unexpected pleasure of getting a speeding ticket this past week. Oh, joy! I was traveling to St. Charles, Missouri from Fayetteville, Arkansas. It’s about a six hour drive. I wasn’t really in a hurry, but frankly I just got lazy about paying attention to my odometer. I got caught up in my thoughts and the flow of traffic out of boredom with the long drive. The really stupid thing is that I have cruise control. The experience seems profoundly metaphorical (and a bit ironic) as I work on a mini-course about getting life back in balance. In fact, I have had several ironic events in which God seems to be tapping me on the shoulder saying, “Slow down mister.” Here are a few lessons learned from my most recent tap:
 

Conditioned to Hurry

I needlessly hurried. I did not have an arrival time to meet. Yet, I was rushing. I was reminded of an uncle who use to quickly get ready in the morning after he retired even though he had no place to go. He was conditioned to move that fast. Do you ever find yourself rushing needlessly? Have you conditioned yourself to feel urgency when it is unnecessary?
 

Not paying attention to the odometer

I was lulled into not being as attentive to my speed as I should have been. Do you have any indicators that alert you that you are moving too fast? I know I am out of balance if fast food bags start appearing in my car. It means I am moving to quickly to observe good eating habits or to properly care for my vehicle. That’s just one indicator. What are your indicators? Sleeplessness? Channel surfing late at night after everyone is in bed? Roaming online? Oversleeping? Eating lots of comfort food?
 

Caught in the flow of traffic

if everyone else had been driving the speed limit, I would have readily noticed I was speeding, but they weren’t. It was easy to speed and not notice. In fact, I often times felt slow by comparison. I encounter a limited number of people who are living their lives in a balanced manner. If everyone around you is living in hyper-overdrive, you can be deceived into think that it is normal and healthy. Do you ever find yourself caught up in over-activity simply because it is available?
 

Use your cruise control

If I had set my cruise control I would have never sped. Furthermore, I would have saved fuel and been safer.. God has a cruise control for time. It’s called a Sabbath. Observing a Sabbath sets limits on over activity. Sabbath rest also makes you more efficient. When I consistently observe a Sabbath, I have clearer perspective on being a better steward of time. It’s just plain healthier. Do you have af Sabbath day? Do you rest and is it holy?
 
These lessons condense down into essentially two things: paying attention and leaning on the gift of Sabbath given to us by God. In the “Time for Change” mini-course that I am writing I am compiling time management solutions to help people get a grip on a more balanced life. They are all strategies that have worked for me. Pause to consider that if you live too fast you can also get speeding tickets. The problem is they usually come in the form of a health crisis, missed opportunity, unnecessary stress, poor decisions, strained relationships, poor sleep or a neglected relationship with God, just to mention a few possibilities. God doesn’t intend for us to never rest and to live in a constant made dash. Take time to observe the speed limits of life. My mini-course can help.
 
If you haven’t signed up for the course, do so today, by filling in the box below. “Time to Change” is schedule to release on September 15th.
 

 

If you don’t have time to do it right now, when will you have time to fix it later?

This quote, remembered from long ago, surfaced in my mind as I walked away from my car Friday morning. The car, parked in front of a stranger’s house, sat waiting with an empty tank for me while I trudged back home on foot. I wasn’t far, may be a mile and a half, but more than I had planned on walking. This is what happens when you get so over extended that you keep putting off getting gas because you “haven’t got the time now.” How ironic that it happened the morning I had set aside for working on drafts of my “time to change” mini-course on time management to help people get their lives back in balance. Knowing better and doing better aren’t always one and the same thing.
 
I was determined not to be undone by my stupidity though. When I got home I found an empty house. Our other car and my wife were gone and not responding to phone calls. So, I strapped a gas can to the handle bars of my bike and headed back to the car. The whole way, I praised God. Isn’t that what we are suppose to do? Praise him in all things? Well, I decided running out of gas qualified as one of those “things”. I praised God for the beauty of the weather. I praised God for the health of my body and the opportunity to walk and ride on a beautiful day. I praised God that it wasn’t far, that I had a bike and that I had a gas can with enough gas in it to get me to service station. It didn’t take long for me to find myself once again behind the wheel of my car, the tank full, air conditioner blowing and the bike tied in the trunk. Praise God.
 
So, how does a guy researching and writing about time management manage to run out of gas? It’s easy. He failed to practice what he preached when a surge of unexpected activity came his way. This past week became a crunch week despite my very best efforts at planning. Sometimes a crunch is unavoidable. I only get concerned if I start living from one crunch into the next, so that it becomes a life cycle. God never intended for us to just go non-stop. Having a Sabbath is a commandment and for good reason, without it you will find yourself out of gas, not unlike my car. You will implode mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually if you don’t give yourself pause from time to time. You will also fail to honor God. I didn’t necessarily implode. In fact, I think I handled the whole self-imposed mess fairly well. Nevertheless, the whole inconvenience could have been avoid if I had been living just a wee bit slower.
 
I had the presence of mind to take some corrective measures. I ditched some productivity goals I had for the day and instead took my son out of school and out to lunch. This morning (Saturday), I snuck in a half hour of yoga and later in the afternoon snuck in a short jaunt into the woods. I found a nice tree and sat beneath it just breathing for about a half an hour. I almost fell asleep. The soothing sound of wind in the trees along with the joy of solitude was incredibly restorative. In order to make time for this respite I had to scrap a few goals for the weekend or at least push them back. I don’t regret it at all. I needed the time with God. The Lord is so good and kind when we will just give Him a little time. My moments in the woods were precious and put everything else into perspective. When I first sat down I actually had a hard time resting. My internal momentum was still rather cranked up. By the time I left I was un-cranked. I was carrying a new found peace. Actually, I was allowing an old and familiar peace to breath inside of me once again.
 
As for my goals: I was going to launch my mini-course on Monday, but realized that frantically pulling it off would be antithetical and a bit hypocritical to the whole point of the course. I have opted instead to hold off and launch it on September 15th. This will give me time to both do it right and not forfeit being a human being because I am too busy being a human doing.
 
Lastly, don’t forget to listen in on my conversation with Laurie Beth Jones about growth barriers. That will be Monday, August 30th, 10:30 a.m. C.S.T. Here is the link for it. You can click on it to listen during the show or go there now and set up an automatic reminder.

Click here for the Laurie Beth Jones Show with John Arnold, discussing barriers to growth.
 
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So what do I mean by eliminating déjà vu?

I am horrifically bad about handling things like email, snail mail, and paper over and over again.  I skim mail and say, “I’ll deal with that later.”  I can find myself reading and rereading emails multiple times, just because I fail to act upon them or purge them immediately.  Then one day something snaps.  I realize I have something like 2500 emails just hanging out in my inbox and can’t stand it.  The result… I spend a marathon session of email purging.  It is a rather energy depleting task; particularly, if I find something I really should have acted upon weeks ago.  Nevertheless, it must be done, but couldn’t it be done differently.  The answer is a resounding, “YES.”

Each email quietly makes a slight demand on me.  But let’s face it, there are really only three things you can do with a piece of mail, toss it, refer it, or act on it. I have grown tired of the subtle constant tug of unprocessed mail. I am nowworking very hard at a “handle something only once” policy.  It used to be that physical clutter sucked away my energy and attention from God.  Now, can you believe it?  I have virtual clutter too!  Not only am I trying to handling things only once, but I am opting out of email lists to eliminate mail before it is even sent.

I am beginning to feel some effects of the shift.  I am having far less, “Haven’t I opened this email before?” moments.  Praise God.  I think I will praise God now that I have a little bit more time.  What about you?  Is virtual clutter needlessly draining your time and energy?  Do you cling to old email or snail mail only to find yourself handling it multiple times?  Join me in eliminating déjà vu, by committing to only handling things once.  I am sure you won’t regret it.

TO THOSE WITH SMALL FREEZERS

1)  Bulk shop for non-perishables. The beauty of freezer cooking is batch producing what you need done so you radically reduce shopping, prepping, clean-up and time spent on decisions around all of those things.  You can apply that same spirit to non-perishables and have some of the same benefits.

2) Freezer cook but just on a much smaller scale. Nothing says you have to do a dozen meals at once.  Just think of the time you would save if you even just did a double batch of something from time to time.  Two days ago, I needed to brown a pound of ground beef.  I instead browned two and then packaged and froze one.  I won’t need to do it the next time.

3) Focus on soups, stews, and chili. When you place them in a one gallon bag and freeze them flat they take amazingly little space, reheat well, and are healthy.

4)  Consider buying a small chest freezer. You can get a decent size one brand new for $150 or less.  You can find them for even less in the classified ads.  Put the word out that you are looking for one.  An older person who is downsizing might give you one for free or very reasonable.  If you use it wisely, it will pay for itself easily.

TO SINGLES AND SMALL FAMILIES

1)  Consider making a casserole recipe but dividing it into smaller servings, perhaps, even individual servings.

2)  Partner up with someone. Considering having a cooking day and sharing a meal once a week or once every couple weeks with someone else.  I found in college that sometimes cooking for one is much harder than cooking for four.

I welcome other suggestions.  Blessings to you as you strive for greater stewardship and a more peaceful life.

Happy Laundry Days to you from the Practical Disciple

In response I have made a couple simple steps. First, I went through and eliminated nearly all our incandescent bulbs and replaced them with energy efficient compact flourescent bulbs. More significantly, I installed a solar and wind powered clothes dryer commonly known as a clothes line. I am finding that I absolutely love the clothes line. As I am out hanging clothes, I frequently pray. I find myself slowing down externally and internally. It brings a certain does of peace to me.

My clothes line is also reacclimating my awareness to other rhythms of life. I look, listen, feel and sense what’s happening in nature during the time I am out there. I am monitoring birds, sun, breezes and other natural activity. I find myself more sharply attuned to nuances in the weather, lest my laundry get a second rinse cycle. My little laundry line has become a tiny window back into the world that I tend to rush by. Lastly, there isn’t a fragrance ball or fabric softener that can even come close to the chemical free fresh scent of line dried clothing. I can’t encourage someone enough to install one. All these little blessings and I am saving energy at the same time. Who would of thought?

Lastly, my current recommended resource is Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action by J. Michael Seeth. It is available in the Practical Disciple Resource Center. Or go green and buy the Kindle version from the resource center. Unfamiliar with an Amazon Kindle, check it out as well in the resource center.

Blessings from the Practical Disciple

I learned a host of discipleship lessons during this discipline. One of the most profound was that everything we own, owns a little bit of us. Each item is calling to us in some way–”Keep me, store me, use me, clean me, etc.” Perhaps, that’s why Jesus told the disciples to bring so little with them on missionary journeys. Every item you have can be a demanding distraction. So, one simple way to begin to clear the air to hear God’s voice is to simply purge junk in your life.

I encourage you to reflect on just how often you find yourself pondering what you need to do with stuff in your life. How much time and space in your life is consumed by stuff? How and what could you realistically eliminate? Blessings from The Practical Disciple