How I… work (1)
I’ve had four emails this month from younger leaders asking me how I work. An interesting question, and one that I think it’s worth actually answering in a blog post. Often what trips up leaders is not a lack of vision or focus or gifting or opportunities. It’s not having the right systems and habits in place.
Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about these sorts of things. Many people think I am very organised and administrative. I’m actually not. Trust me. Ask my wife or my p.a.! My wife has the gift of patience, and my p.a. has the spiritual gift of administration. Both make me look hopelessly disorganised in comparison. But I’ve put some systems and habits in place to ensure that I work as smart and effectively as possible. Some are things I need to have in place to compensate for my weaknesses, other things are there because they are simply good ideas or things to do that will work for all, and others still are just plain common sense.
So… as a starter in this series, let me outline how I work with technology on a general day-to-day basis and why.
I only use one computer. It’s a nice 2.4Ghz MacBook running OSX Leopard, iLife, iWork and Microsoft Office for Mac. It syncs to our church server and I backup to our personal external hard drive. I also use MobileMe for certain backups (more on that another time). In my experience, having two computers – e.g. a personal one and a work one – gets too confusing. I want everything in one place.
My phone is just a phone. I have a simple Nokia phone which I use for making calls and texting. I don’t have one that I can do anything else with – no web, no emails, no diary, no music. My phone is just that… a phone. I spend the minimum possible on it – on average $25 pay-as-you-go credit/month, and use it as little as possible. I encourage people to call me at home or work, or to email/Tweet me/text me. I happily give people my direct dial at work so they can call me directly. When I get home after work I switch it to “Home” profile – filtering out most work calls (not my “boss” or p.a.). I turn it off during all meetings and all meals. People know where I am and so if there is an emergency they can always get hold of me another way.
People often ask why I don’t have an iPhone. Part of me would love one, but I consciously don’t for the following reasons. I’m not important enough to need a Blackberry or iPhone. I think that from a productivity point of view there would be limited gain (if any) from me having a phone that is part computer. From a more holistic self-care/boundaries perspective, I have decided that I simply don’t want to be online all the time.
Facebook is great for some things and terrible for others. I use it as purely to keep in touch with my friends and family, primarily those in other countries to us. I do not follow any work-related people on Facebook, nor have friends on there who are not genuinely friends. I do not use the Facebook inbox and my friends know that. I have disabled all notifications and set it to say no to all those pesky “application invitations”! I have very few applications installed other than the standard ones and I have turned off the chat function too. I do not update my Facebook status. All of this means that I use it in a controlled way, that does not invade my time or my family time, and in a way that works for me.
Twitter is a different beast to Facebook and I love it. Again, I have a clear rationale for how I use it. It is to network, communicate and keep up to date with trends/blogs/resources/ideas. I do not use it to keep up with my friends or family (that’s what Facebook is for!). I use it connect with my colleagues, peers, the people I lead and mentors. I follow certain people whose work/blogs/ideas feed and resource me. I don’t follow celebrities or randoms. Anyone can follow me, but I don’t automatically follow someone just because they decided to follow me. I will say more about how I use Twitter in a separate post.
Email. I have a love-hate relationship with email! I love it because it can be efficient and effective. I hate it because I have so much of it. I have three accounts I use: work, home, professional. I do not use Facebook or Twitter as a surrogate email client. My work account is for all St Paul’s related work, but nothing else. My home account is for all personal/family stuff but not work or my wider professional work. My professional account is used for networking beyond work and my involvement in trusts and boards.
I only check my work email three times a day: when I first sit down to work, after lunch, before leaving for the day. I do not have my work email set to notify me beyond these times. I do not check it at home (unless working from home) or during my days/time off. I direct as much work related email to my p.a. as possible, who filters out a lot, responds to a lot and then passes on what I should/must respond to.
GMail chat and Skype are vital tools for us as we seek to maintain long distance relationships, but also connect with others in ministry around the world. I have set GMail chat up on both my home and professional email accounts to only allow certain people to see my online status. Those are people I don’t mind being interrupted by, but don’t expect to be constantly nudged by. Skype is great for connecting with parent, close friends, God-children etc. I only place one limit on Skype – I only Skype if both parties have video, otherwise we just call on the phone – the line quality is not good enough to justify a free, faceless call when we have GoTalk phone cards that give us 1000 minutes for $20!
There are some other more assorted things I do which I find helpful. I always carry around with my a 2GB USB stick for file transfers, quick backups and when I don’t want to lug my laptop with me. I carry a digital dictaphone with me at all times, to capture inspiration for teaching/preaching. I often get an idea that is best captured by me speaking it there and then.
Interesting? Helpful? Want more? Let me know.
The boldness of Bono
Everywhere U2 have gone to promote their latest album “No Line On The Horizon”, Bono has sung “Magnificent”, which is one of the highlight songs on the album.
Check out the BBC rooftop gig version here.
Here are the lyrics:
Magnificent
MagnificentI was born
I was born to be with you
In this space and time
After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue
Only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blueOnly love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scarI was born
I was born to sing for you
I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise…Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scarJustified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
MagnificentOnly love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love unites our heartsJustified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent
Magnificent
If that is not bold, from the rooftops worship and proclamation, by a man who walks with Jesus, then I do not know what is.
Here’s where we gotta be (1)
Here’s where we gotta be
Love and community
Laughter is eternity
If joy is real
- Bono (”Get On Your Boots” from No Line on the Horizon)
Joke du jour
A man is stumbling through the woods totally drunk, when he comes upon a preacher baptizing people in the river. The drunk walks into the water and subsequently bumps into the preacher.
The preacher turns around and is almost overcome by the smell of booze. Whereupon he asks the drunk, ‘Are you ready to find Jesus?’
‘Yes I am’ replies the drunk, so the preacher grabs him and dunks him in the river. He pulls him up and asks the drunk, ‘Brother have you found Jesus?’
The drunk replies, ‘No, I haven’t.’ The preacher, shocked at the answer, dunks him into the water again, but for a bit longer this time. He pulls him out of the water and asks again, ‘Have you found Jesus, my brother?’
The drunk again answers, ‘No, I have not found Jesus.’ By this time the preacher is at his wits end, so he dunks the drunk in the water again, but this time he holds him down for about 30 seconds.
When the drunk begins kicking his arms and legs, the preacher pulls him up. The preacher asks the drunk again, ‘For the love of God, have you found Jesus?’
The drunk wipes his eyes, catches his breath and says to the preacher, ‘Are you sure this is where he fell in?’
