What's Best Next

If you have ever wondered what it would look like if John Piper wrote a productivity book, then wonder no more. While this book isn't written by Piper, it is written by the guy who used to administer the Desiring God website and who helped run the bookshop at all their big conferences. So this book fits quite a small niche of Christian living and workplace productivity. A paster who I respect recommended this book to me last year because I was saying in my first year of ministry I was feeling swamped. So going into this book, I thought it was more going to be along the lines of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or What's Best Next than Desiring God or Don't Waste Your Life.

This book initially steps back and reframes work under God and spends four chapters on why God should be at the centre of our productivity. Then there are six chapters on productivity and our attitudes and motivations about it before the main framework of productivity is laid out. These are

Define - know what is most important

Architect - create a flexible structure

Reduce - free up your time with what is most important

Execute - do what is most important

From this, you can see prioritising what is important is most important, which also means you need to know what is most important. The book essentially defines what is most important is that which aligns with the golden rule, love of God and love of others. We are to work by putting others first. But still, in the love of others, you may then feel like you might get tossed around with the immediate need to respond and do everything everyone is telling you to do. But that is why you need a bigger, more specific definition of what is most important, as a lot of time the immediate does drown out the important.

The book encourages you to write and update a file on yourself. This is the define phase. In this file, you will have your own persona mission and vision. It will list all your roles (not just at work by in life) and have some mid to long term goals. The idea is that you will review this document once a week, so make sure your tasks are aligning to your goals, vision and mission.

You then need to work out your timetable/schedule preferable on a weekly basis, with a brief review at the start of the day for what you are planning on doing. You hopefully will find routines or flow in your day/week as to when you have time for solid concentration, or when you can just pump out a few simple repetitive tasks that you do all the time. This is the architect phase.

The reduce phase it tires to help find time to do what matters most. It suggests ways you can delegate, eliminate, automate or defer things so that you are not constantly swamped. Of cause it does all depend on the nature of your work and the specific thing that comes across your desk at any time. But it is useful to think about why you are doing what you are doing and if it has to be done, or could be done by someone else, or in a better way.

After you have a mission, plan and timetable, you then have to actually do your work. This is the execution phase. Ages ago I was influenced by Tim Challies series on How To Get Things Done, who said you need decent tool each for email, calendar, notes and task to get things done. Likewise, this book suggests ways to deal with tasks along with weekly and daily planning, and email management.

In some parts, when building an argument, this book felt a bit slow, in that each chapter really only had one main point. This did mean that the book was focused and easy to read. It was also useful that each chapter had a one-line core point and some recommending reading in productivity books if you wanted to know more. I liked the balance between a Biblical framework for work and productivity practices mentioned, and there was lots of little details in the book that were kinda throw away but helpful. For example, on why things seem sometimes frustratingly hard it was said that this could be a gracious restraint to stop evil. If doing good things are hard in a system, it may also mean that evil changes in the same system are just as hard.

Now, did I write a personal file? No. 

Am I getting more things done than last year? I am not sure, especially with this COVID-19 thing going on. 

How are my emails? As of today, I have 5 in my personal inbox and 12 in my work inbox (when I started this post a few weeks ago it was the best it has been, with close to zero in both). 

But was this helpful to think about the priority and process of things? Yes, I think it was.

For my own benefit to look back on, the authors summary in 500 words of their own book is:

We need to look to God to define for us what productivity is, rather than to simply subscribe to the ambiguous concept of "what matters most." For God is what matters most.

When we do this, we don't enter a realm of spiritual weirdness as we might fear. Good secular thinking remains relevant as a gift of God's common grace. Neither do we enter a realm of overspiritualization where the things we do every day don't matter.

Instead, the things we do every day take on even greater significance because they are avenues through which we serve God and others. In fact, the gospel teaches us that the good of others is to be the main motive in all that we do and the chief criterion by which we determine "what's best next." This is not only right, but also is the best way to be productive, as the best business thinkers are showing. More important, when we do this in God's power and as an offering to him, he is glorified and shown to be great in the world.

In order to be most effective in this way in our current ear of massive overload and yet incredible opportunity, we need to do four things to say on track and lead and manage our lives effectively:

1. Define
2. Architect
3. Reduce
4. Execute

The result of doing these things is not only our own increased peace of mind and ability to get things done, but also other transformation of the world by the gospel because it is in our everyday vocations that we take our faith into the world and the light of the gospel shines - both in what we say and in what we do (Matt 5:16)

...if you take only five productivity practices away from this book, take these:

1. Foundation: Look to God, in Jesus Christ, for your purpose, security, and guidance in all of life
2. Purpose: Give your whole self to God (Rom 12:1-2), and then live for the good of others to his glory to show that he is great in the world
3. Guiding principle: Love your neighbour as yourself. Treat others the way you want them to treat you. Be proactive in this and even make plans to do good
4. Core strategy: Know what's most important and put it first.
5. Core tatic: Plan your week, every week! Then, as things come up throughout the day, ask, "Is this what's best next?" Then, either do them right away or, if you can't, slot them into your calendar or actions list so that you will be sure to do them at the right time.