{"id":4675,"date":"2015-10-28T08:06:40","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T14:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=4675"},"modified":"2015-10-28T09:10:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T15:10:55","slug":"a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html","title":{"rendered":"A Surprisingly-Sane List of 6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"6habits.001\"<\/a>I have a complicated relationship with productivity. On one hand,\u00a0productivity can be about redeeming the time and making the most of my life. Thinking about productivity can push me toward stewardship, maximizing my ability to spend time on things that matter most. On the other hand, productivity can quickly veer off in the direction of neurotic achievement and chronic stress;\u00a0a sign that I am over-identified with my own accomplishments and attaching too much of my self-worth to my ability to get things done.<\/p>\n

When I think about how I put my hands to my own life in order to\u00a0intentionally shape it, I prefer\u00a0rich words like: stewardship, cultivation, flourishing, faithfulness, peace, order, calm, and limits.<\/em> When I see a\u00a0headline like \u201c6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity,\u201d I expect a different kind of list to emerge: maximization, leveraging, pragmatism, success, winning, bigger, better, higher, and faster<\/em>. Productivity is a word that can go either way for me. I click on most of the links I see to articles with the word \u201cproductivity\u201d in the title. Most of the time I find things off the latter list.<\/p>\n

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I read this article on Fast Company<\/em> by Gwen Moran, \u201c6 Habits of People Who Accomplish Everything on their To-Do Lists<\/a>\u201c. It reads much more like stewardship than pragmatism to me. What I like about her article is that it is more focused on what goes on the list in the first place than on what helps you\u00a0get more done. Here\u2019s a synopsis of what she noticed in people who get through their daily task lists.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0THEY KNOW THEIR WORK STYLES<\/h4>\n

This is one of the most difficult things for me to master, and I\u2019m definitely a work in progress. If we observe our own work patterns, noting when things go well, or not so well, and why (that\u2019s the key\u2026 why), we can change the way we order our day. Are you better at certain kinds of tasks in the morning? Do you need to get out of the office at mid-afternoon? What if you went straight to the gym after lunch, then worked a little later.\u00a0What could you do if you got up an hour earlier? Could you front load your day with things that give you energy, and help you feel calm?<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0THEY KNOW HOW LONG THINGS TAKE<\/h4>\n

This is one of my most consistent issues. I\u00a0drastically underestimate the time\u00a0it will take me to do most tasks. I\u2019m usually off by\u00a0approximately 18.2% (my confession about this is here<\/a>). Lately I\u2019ve been building my daily to-do list on\u00a0a template that only allows for 5 tasks and no more. This seems to help.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0THEY LOOK AT THE CONTEXT OF THE DAY<\/h4>\n

Seeing my day in context is such an important strategy for managing my time. Days filled with meetings should have short to-do lists. I also think naming the day\u2019s priority is helpful: i.e., today I\u2019m about sermon prep, or writing this article, or giving time to my staff. Context is key because\u00a0helps me to not get down on myself if I don\u2019t get to everything on the list. If I know what my main thing is for that day, and I\u2019ve made the main thing the main thing\u00a0then I\u2019m okay with a list that isn\u2019t completed.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0THEY HAVE A \u201cJUST ENOUGH\u201d LIST<\/h4>\n

Knowing the difference between urgent and important is key, but just as\u00a0important is knowing when I\u2019m the bottleneck in a process (I am so often the bottleneck\u2026 yikes). I shudder to think how often other people are waiting on me to weigh in, or produce on a critical task so that they can move something forward. This is a new lens through which I need to view my list. If I\u00a0star the tasks that will help someone else get moving on a key task and start with those things, I\u2019m impacting the productivity of two people.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0THEY BUILD MOMENTUM<\/h4>\n

Front load the task lists with tasks that are easy to complete. This is big for me. I try to set myself up with\u00a0at least one simple item.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0THEY DELEGATE AND DELETE<\/h4>\n

Delegating is the fastest way to get things\u00a0off your to-do list. My ability to delegate comes and goes, and it\u2019s usually connected to how well I\u2019ve done step #3. If I\u2019ve bumped a task to the next day more than once, I start looking for a way to delegate it to someone else, or delete it altogether.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a complicated relationship with productivity. On one hand,\u00a0productivity can be about redeeming the time and making the most of my life. Thinking about productivity can push me toward stewardship, maximizing my ability to spend time on things that matter most. On the other hand, productivity can quickly veer off in the direction of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":4681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Surprisingly-Sane List of 6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have a complicated relationship with productivity. On one hand,\u00a0productivity can be about redeeming the time and making the most of my life. Thinking\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Surprisingly-Sane List of 6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a complicated relationship with productivity. On one hand,\u00a0productivity can be about redeeming the time and making the most of my life. Thinking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paperback Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-28T14:06:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-10-28T15:10:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2015\/10\/6habits.001.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"384\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Tim_Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html\",\"name\":\"A Surprisingly-Sane List of 6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-28T14:06:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-28T15:10:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\"},\"description\":\"I have a complicated relationship with productivity. On one hand,\u00a0productivity can be about redeeming the time and making the most of my life. Thinking\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Surprisingly-Sane List of 6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/\",\"name\":\"Paperback Theology\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\",\"name\":\"Tim Suttle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Suttle\"},\"description\":\"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \\\"Straight Back to Kansas.\\\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Surprisingly-Sane List of 6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity","description":"I have a complicated relationship with productivity. On one hand,\u00a0productivity can be about redeeming the time and making the most of my life. Thinking","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Surprisingly-Sane List of 6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity","og_description":"I have a complicated relationship with productivity. On one hand,\u00a0productivity can be about redeeming the time and making the most of my life. Thinking","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html","og_site_name":"Paperback Theology","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","article_published_time":"2015-10-28T14:06:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-10-28T15:10:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":384,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2015\/10\/6habits.001.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tim Suttle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Tim_Suttle","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Suttle","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html","name":"A Surprisingly-Sane List of 6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-10-28T14:06:40+00:00","dateModified":"2015-10-28T15:10:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6"},"description":"I have a complicated relationship with productivity. On one hand,\u00a0productivity can be about redeeming the time and making the most of my life. Thinking","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2015\/10\/a-surprisingly-sane-list-of-6-habits-that-help-with-your-daily-productivity.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Surprisingly-Sane List of 6 Habits that Help With Your Daily Productivity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/","name":"Paperback Theology","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6","name":"Tim Suttle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Suttle"},"description":"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \"Straight Back to Kansas.\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}