Free PDF: C. J. Mahaney on ‘Biblical Productivity’

Download from the Sovereign Grace website

‘How much is watching TV costing you?’

37Signals (HT: Tim Challies)

De-cluttering your house and your mind

Dementia for 2

‘Tasks Written in Easy to Read Fonts Are More Likely to be Completed’

Amit Agarwal, Digital Inspiration

Complacency: the mark of a tragically wasted life

The Rebelution

Helpful Crude Words

By Kent Shaffer

Sometimes blunt, crude words are the only things that can shock a person out of a rut and motivate him to improve to the next level. This four-part blog series is for the church worker who needs such forthright words.

When achieving a goal seems impossible and you are not making any progress, imagine that:

You will die unless you achieve it.

In other words, ask yourself,

If my life depended on it, what would I do?

Read the rest

Review: Talent is Overrated, by Geoff Colvin

Reviewed by Bob Kauflin (Worship Matters):

“Colvin begins the book by examining the lives of several famous “greats,” including Tiger Woods, Mozart, Jack Welch, and Jerry Rice. He says that most people think their greatness arose either from a) hard work; or b) talent. Colvin says neither, and uses scientific and anecdotal evidence to support his claim. Instead, he points us to “deliberate practice.” Not simply working hard, but working the right way.”

Kauflin’s response is mixed. Read the whole thing.

Review: The E-Myth, Revisited: Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It

Rhett Smith posts at Leadership Network:

“In this book Michael Gerber basically makes the case that every business owner needs to balance three roles within their business if they are going to succeed.

1. Entrepreneur
2. Manager
3. Technician

This may not seem very innovative to many of you, especially those of you already running your business.  But I have tried to apply it more to the church setting, especially in the specific role of a pastor …”

Leadership resources

D. J. Chuang suggests five ways that leaders can be developed, and invites others to view and edit a page on the subject.

David Bourgeois offers advice on ‘best practices’ for any organization considering Internet ministry, and breaks these down into three categories (technology, people, and process):

“The ‘best practices’ for Internet ministry were developed by looking at what the successful online ministries had in common based on their responses to the survey. This data was combined with follow-up case studies to reinforce these findings.”

And Chris Guillebeau discusses “Lifestyle Design and Your Ideal World” at his blog, The Art of Nonconformity:

“In the manifesto that has now been downloaded more than 100,000 times, I wrote about how many people have no idea what they want to get out of life. The answer to the question, ‘What do you really want?’ tends to trip a lot of us up. In this post I’ll help you get closer to your own answer to that question, using three different perspectives.”