If I have my timing right, the last conference I spoke at was the 2020 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. It was early February and we were just beginning to hear unfamiliar words like “COVID” and “coronavirus.” (A search through my inbox shows that the first mention of it was from an old Adam Ford newsletter in which he speculated that the outbreak in China was far worse than anyone was letting on.) I didn’t think much about the virus as I traveled to Minneapolis and at that time never would have imagined the way it would slam borders shut, disrupt travel, and close down the conference industry. I never would have imagined I wouldn’t attend another event for more than two years.

My topic at that conference was “Pastors and Productivity” and I enjoyed leading a seminar that took pastors through the opening steps of constructing a system meant to help them become more productive. It was based, of course, on the system I outline in Do More Better. I led the seminar, spent some time in meetings and fellowship, and then flew home. Just a few weeks later Ontario was locked down, the borders were closed, the airliners were in long-term storage in Arizona, and my entire calendar was blank.
A couple of weeks ago my church hosted a Weekender event for pastors and I was asked to dust off that very same seminar and to present it again. So I printed the same worksheet, opened the same slideshow, and presented pretty well the same content. I was gratified to see that it stood up pretty well, but did have to acknowledge how different my life has become in the two years between. The pandemic massively simplified my life and did so primarily by taking away almost all travel. I could still write the blog and work on books, but all speaking and all travel was gone. I could see how what I presented there had been flexible enough to easily bend with the changing circumstances.
As I led the pastors through the seminar, I saw that one core idea is still the most helpful of all: A good system of productivity allows us to experience the joy of forgetting what we need to remember. One of the great difficulties many of us wish to overcome in life is the fear that we will miss something, neglect something, forget something. We fear that we will miss an appointment, neglect a responsibility, forget a deadline. And as long as such fears remain present, we have trouble relaxing, we have trouble setting our minds at ease. One productivity writer wants his readers to have a “mind like water” but I’m content to help people achieve a mind that is at rest.
It’s for this reason that the main idea I present in the book and seminars is the value of creating and then perfecting a system that you trust to such a degree that you become confident it will remember what you need to remember, prompt you to do what needs to be done, and remind you to complete what is due. The practice I want people to aspire to and them embrace is getting things out of your head and into your system. This may have the side benefit of allowing you to attempt more and accomplish more. It may have the side benefit of convincing you to attempt less and accomplish less—less overall, but more of what really matters. The main value, though, is not accomplishments, but peace.
Ultimately, a strong system of productivity isn’t necessarily meant to help you do more, but to ease your mind, to calm your heart, to allow you to have confidence that your system is good enough, perfected enough, robust enough to grant you the joy of forgetting what you need to remember. Whether you learn that system through Do More Better or through one of a hundred other worthy books, I highly recommend creating some kind of a system—a system that fits your personality, a system that suits your life, a system that puts your mind at rest. You will know that system is where you need it to be when you trust it enough that you can forget what you need to remember, confident that the system will remember it for you.

I am in Grand Rapids today on day two of recording the audiobook for Seasons of Sorrow. So far it is going quite well, I think, and I hope to be finished by this evening.

(Yesterday on the blog: The Harder Our Earth, the Sweeter Our Heaven)
Pastoral Q & A: Are More Prayers More Effective?
This is a good question: Are prayers more effective when there are more of them?
In Praise of Single Women
“In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul makes a case for Christians remaining single and not marrying. This runs against the grain of not just our wider society but also of much evangelicalism, where finding a life partner is seen as the highest calling in life. However, after years in mission leadership, I can see exactly what Paul is getting at.”
Our Mission: Make More Disciples and Fewer Performers
Randy Alcorn is concerned that the church is better at making performers than making true disciples.
Faithful in Exile
This is an interesting one. “The stories of Daniel and Esther are helpful to us in working out how we should navigate the demands of authority. Daniel and Esther were both in exile (canonically these are two books separated by hundreds of pages in our bibles but chronologically they happen in the same period of history, during the exile), and we Christians are also living in a kind of exile…”
Prayer: Generation to Generation
Donna celebrates a generation to generation kind of prayer.
Do Baptists Come from the Anabaptist Movement? (Video)
So this is a good question: Do Baptists comes from the Anabaptist movement? Robert Godfrey answers briefly here.
Flashback: This Broken, Beautiful World
For us to appreciate the extent of God’s mercy, we must first acknowledge the depths of our own depravity. For us to follow Jesus, we must first bear a heavy cross.

God kills thy comforts from no other design but to kill thy corruptions; wants are ordained to kill wantonness, poverty is appointed to kill pride, reproaches are permitted to destroy ambition. —John Flavel

May the Lord bless and keep you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include quite a number of solid books.
Do Pronouns Matter?
“Do pronouns matter? Yes. It’s not merely a battle over ‘preferred’ pronouns; it’s a battle over reality. What is a pronoun? It’s a word we use to describe the objective nature of reality.” Brett Kunkle explains.
Note Taking in Worship
This article explores the joys and challenges of taking notes in church.
The Secrets of the World’s Most Famous Symphony (Video)
This is a fantastic little video that will help you better appreciate Beethoven’s Symphony  Number Five.
What Colors Do You See?
“What colors do you see? Look around while you walk to the mailbox, or as you drive to the grocery store. What hues do you see sidled next to each other? What tones shape the landscape that you live in?” Brianna Lambert celebrates the depth of the Lord by way of the depth of the colors he created.
Bring Back Foxe’s
Darryl Dash recommends reading Foxe for young and old like. “There’s nothing like reading Foxe’s Book of Martyrs as a teenager. Want an easy life? Foxe’s will cure you of that expectation. Beginning with Stephen, and continuing for some 2,500 pages, you will learn that following Jesus will may include suffering or worse.”
How Continual Creation Changes What We Do, and Why We Do It
“We may not feel like we can justify the significance of our daily work, but there’s something called ‘the doctrine of continual creation’ that provides meaning for what we do—not just in our jobs, but in each of our everyday tasks.”
Reckoning with Tech
This is an interesting little look at the possible connection between the last things and technological things.
Flashback: Young Man, Young Woman: Set An Example
If you are sixteen or eighteen or in your twenties, if you are in high school or college or just moving into marriage and career, I want to speak to you. I want to speak with you.

God does as He wills, and we can do nothing except what He wills. —Jerry Bridges