Alternating

I am very concerned about efficiency. I do my best to ensure that I can get the greatest amount of work done in the least amount of time possible while still doing it well. This has really come in handy throughout my lengthy (and still ongoing) education. It helps me stay on top of my assignments but still have time to sleep, connect with other people, and enjoy hobbies. Efficiency is what has gotten me this far.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about my method of ensuring efficiency and if it’s really the best thing for me. I’ve come to the conclusion that what I’m doing works well, so I’m not going to change it. But in the process of thinking through my approach, I thought it might be nice to actually write it out and share it with you guys not only for my own benefit but also in hopes that it might be helpful for you. So this week’s blog post will be a little more practical than reflective. I hope that’s alright with you. Here’s my approach to efficiency and getting stuff done.

Basically, the secret to my success is giving myself little rewards throughout the day. If I have a 20-page paper to do, I set small, specific goals, and then I reward myself every time I reach one. If my goal is to write a section, I’ll give myself a snack break when I finish that section. If I need to read a certain source, I’ll let myself watch an episode of TV or read a chapter from a fun book when I’m finished. Giving myself little rewards after completing small goals eventually leads to finishing the big project.

I call my approach alternating. I try to never get bogged down on one thing for too terribly long. I can’t write a long paper in one long sitting. I’ll get burned out. I have to switch to something else every once in a while, and that’s where the short goals and rewards come in. It lets my mind switch out of whatever mode I’m in so that it can rest and be ready when I get back to it.

I often switch back and forth between work and something fun. But sometimes, there’s just too much to do. So I have to switch between two or three different kinds of work. But even then, the same system applies. I choose whatever work I’m most looking forward to (or least dreading) and use that as my reward for finishing the more difficult or less fun work. For example, I will work on an assigned reading until I finish a chapter, and then I’ll let myself do something fun but still productive like working on the podcast I’m making with some friends. It doesn’t have to be switching between productive and unproductive. It just has to be switching between two (or more) things.

The benefit of this approach is that it practically removes the threat of burnout. I can switch back and forth between two productive things all day and be just fine. But if I try to do just one productive thing all day long, it takes longer and ends up worse because I burn myself out. I think alternating is the ideal way of tackling things that require productivity.

Now, I do recognize that there are times when this process doesn’t apply. If you’re in an extreme time crunch and absolutely have to get something done, then this process can be harmful. For example, I once put off editing a 45-minute video until the day before it was due, and so I had no choice but to focus solely on that assignment for a full day. But if you’re planning ahead and making sure you have plenty of time to do something right, I’d say alternating is the way to go.

So there you go. That’s how I get things done. It’s not profound or new or mind-blowing. But it works for me, and who knows, maybe it can work for you. If you’ve read this far, thank you for sticking with me through this sort of different blog post this week. I hope you have a great week, and I’ll see you next time!

Marketable

It seems like my whole life up to this point has been building toward getting a job. When I was a kid, people constantly asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. In high school, I was told to make good grades so that I could get into a good college so that I could get a good job and thus have a good life. Now I’m in seminary receiving theological and practical training for whatever ministry job I feel called into when I graduate. All of this is moving in one direction: my career. And that can be sort of scary.

This mentality of everything in a young person’s life building to getting a job can really get into a person’s head. It can lead one to believe that getting a good job is all that there is, and that if one cannot find a good job immediately after going through school, he or she is a failure. It leads young people to believe that they are products they have to sell to potential employers, and their ability to sell themselves is indicative of their self-worth. Basically, we’re all just trying to make ourselves marketable.

I have a problem with this. First of all, this mentality puts a huge amount of pressure on young people. If one does poorly on an exam and fails a course, his or her career opportunities can suddenly seem unrealistically limited. And that’s not healthy. When I’m learning about something in a class, my mind should be on the subject at hand, not constantly on how my grade in the class could affect my future. I can’t learn properly if I’m constantly distracted by thinking too far ahead.

I also think that there is more to life than one’s career. Yes, that’s an important aspect of a person’s life, but it’s not all that there is. A person should seek a career that is fulfilling, but success isn’t just defined by how good of a job one has. There’s family, friends, faith, creativity, and any number of other things that contribute significantly to a person’s quality of life. Spending the first twenty-two years of your life believing that your career is the only important thing about your future isn’t healthy.

After going through public school, four years of high school, and part of my seminary degree, I’m still not entirely sure what I’m qualified for, if anything. I certainly wouldn’t consider myself an expert at anything. I’m educated in a variety of areas. I can have an intelligent conversation with other people about most topics. But I’m not ridiculously good at any one thing. And that’s OK.

The truth is that I’m still learning. And honestly, we all should be. It takes years to master something, and it certainly takes a lot more than just studying it in school. In order to become “marketable,” a person needs real-world experience. He or she needs to be learn the trade by doing it, not just by studying it. I’m not saying education is bad. I’m obviously a firm believer in it. But I know that I’ve got to do a lot more than just study books in order to become a minister. Each of us should be constantly striving to learn more and to improve ourselves in whatever area we find ourselves working. As long as we’re doing that, we’re going to be just fine.

I am not a product. I am a person in the process of growing, learning, and changing. Maybe I’m not the most marketable commodity on the market right now. But that’s OK. I’ll get there. My career path will take some twists and turns, and I have no idea where it will actually end up. But I know that as I long as I find the right thing, work hard at it, and continually strive to improve in it, I won’t have to worry about marketing myself because I’ll be right where I belong. And I wish the same for each of you.

The Value of Experiences

Life has a way of really shoving something in our faces when it wants us to learn it, and that’s exactly what life has been doing to me lately with this topic. Three different times from three different people over the last few weeks, I’ve had discussions about the fact that we should value experiences more than possessions. None of these conversations were related. They were all organic and started by the other person. But if something comes up in my life that many times, it’s probably something I should pay attention to. So here I am thinking it through in the form of a blog post.

Money is something we all have a limited amount of. And what we do with that money says a lot about us. It tells us what we value the most. It’s different for everyone. Some people pour tons of money into a hobby or a collection. Others take expensive vacations. Others buy fancy cars. But whatever we choose to spend our money on is indicative of what we value the most. And lately I’ve been wondering if my spending habits have been lining up with my values.

Like many others, I spend a significant amount of money on stuff. I like stuff. I like adding things to my DVD collection. I like having nice, new clothes. I like books and junk food. But are all these things really the most important? Are they what I truly value the most? If so, what does that say about me? And if not, then why am I investing so much of my limited money into them?

I’d like to believe that people and relationships are the most important things in my life. As someone who is called into ministry, it’s especially important that I don’t get sucked into the trap of materialism. My calling is to love people, so they should probably be my priority. Which means they should also be the main things I’m spending my time, money, and effort on.

The truth is that even though things are great, they could never measure up to meaningful experiences. No DVD box set could compare to a weekend with my family. No article of clothing could bring me as much joy as a night out with my friends. I’m not saying that spending money on things is bad. I’m saying that it shouldn’t be the main thing we’re investing in. Because things don’t have as much value as experiences do.

Think about it this way. If I buy a huge, new TV, I’m really going to enjoy it for a bit. But my enjoyment with the TV will decrease with time. I’m going to get used to having such a big TV and wish I had an even bigger one. Plus, the TV will become outdated after a few years and need to be replaced. So my enjoyment of this TV will decrease with time. But if I took the same amount of money that I would spend on the TV and spent it on a fun experience with people I care about, my enjoyment of that experience would not only exceed my enjoyment of the TV; it would also increase with time. I would be able to reflect on that experience for years to come and enjoy it over and over again. It would never become outdate or need replacing. It would always be there to enjoy. That’s so much better than a TV, or any other thing that I could buy.

So I’m trying to value experiences over things. Because experiences are ultimately worth more, even when I’m distracted by the allure of some shiny new object. Nothing beats a trip with my family or a meal out with someone special. Those experiences are just valuable; they’re priceless. And the sooner I see that and start choosing to invest in them, the better. May you invest in experiences that will bring you fulfillment now and for years to come. Have a great week, friends!

Unresponded Texts

We all do it. If you say you don’t do it, you’re lying. We may as well just admit it now: Everyone leaves some text messages unresponded every once in a while. I don’t do it a lot. But it does happen from time to time, and I’m using this as an opportunity to admit it. Maybe my public confession will give you an opportunity to confess it as well.

It’s not like I mean to. I don’t (usually) look at a text and think, “I’m not going to respond to this.” It’s just that things come up. Maybe I don’t know how to respond at the moment, so I set it aside and end up forgetting. Maybe I’m in the middle of something that I can’t really get away from, and I just never get around to responding later. Maybe the text just doesn’t seem meaningful—or sensical—enough to merit a response. I don’t know. What I do know is that I often check my phone and find that I neglected to respond to a text that I received several hours before.

It doesn’t bother me so much when I’m the one who isn’t responding. But when it’s my text message that isn’t receiving the response, things feel a little different. When I’m the one waiting for the other person to text me back and wondering why they aren’t, it sometimes upsets me a little bit (or more). Even though I know in my head that I forget to respond to texts all the time, it bothers me when other people neglect to respond to my messages. It’s illogical, I know. But it’s the way it is.

I know it’s a silly example, but the truth is that we all have double standards. We excuse ourselves for the same things that we hold others accountable for. When we’re the ones doing the bothersome thing, we always have an excuse. But when someone else does something that bothers us, we won’t accept anything short of an apology (and sometimes even that won’t work). We constantly give ourselves the benefit of the doubt but rarely extend that same grace to others. This should not be so.

Here’s what I think the problem really is: We judge ourselves on our intentions, but we judge others on their actions. We can look into our own minds and see that we don’t mean to hurt other people, but we can’t look into the minds of other people. And so we assume the worst. When they hurt us, we don’t think about their intentions. We focus on what they did and how it affected us. And thus, the double standard is born.

What if we extended the same grace to others that we are always so willing to show ourselves? What if we chose not to assume the worst but instead to give others the benefit of the doubt and believe that, even if their actions were hurtful, their intentions were pure? We’re obviously capable of this; we just choose not to. I’m not saying it’s easy. But I am saying it’s possible, and I think it could make relating with other people a lot easier.

Call me naive, but I tend to think that most people are good people. Yes, there are some people out their with truly evil intentions, but they are few and far between. I believe that most people at their core are good and have good intentions, even if they struggle to live those intentions out. Most people I have met in my life have been kind and helpful, not mean or intentionally hurtful. If we give people the benefit of the doubt and show them grace even when they do things that bother us, we may be able to see past their misguided actions and actually see how good people really are.

So I’m going to try to stop assuming the worst when my texts go unanswered. And I’m going to do my best to extend the grace that I show myself in the face of my mistakes to other people. Because when it comes down to it, who we are is so much more than simply what we do. And if we give other people the chance to show us that, we may be pleasantly surprised.

That’s all I had to say this week. I hope this blog post has been uplifting to you, friends. Have a great week, and I’ll see you soon!

Why I Feel Like I'm Never Getting Anything Done

I’m not going to lie. I’m addicted to busyness. I probably always will be. I absolutely love the feeling of always being on the go, always getting something done, always being productive. And I brag about it. When people ask me how things are going, I often smile and say, “Busy, but good.” For whatever reason, I think of busyness as the way things should be, and it makes me feel accomplished when I can keep up that state.

But I know this isn’t healthy. And it’s something I struggle with constantly. Because even though busyness can be enjoyable, I also know that it can be destructive. If I let my life become one big to-do list and I’m constantly just trying to finish one thing so I can move on to the next, I lose sight of what really matters. I become disconnected from everyone and everything, and I end up feeling isolated and unfulfilled. So I fight my tendency to fall into the safe routine of busyness in the best ways I know how.

One of the greatest ways I’ve found to resist the allure of busyness is keeping a realistic view of the progress I’m making. And this is really hard for a few different reasons. Like the victim running from the villain in a horror movie, I often feel like I’m putting forth so much effort and not making any progress. And I’ve heard many other people express this same feeling. We work and we work, but it never feels like we’re getting anything done. Why is that, and how can we fix it?

First of all, I think we’re overloaded. We live in a culture that tells us busy is the only proper way to be. We have so many responsibilities coming from so many different places, and we just can’t seem to say no. We spread ourselves so thin that we can barely keep it together, and so when we try to get things done, we feel like we’re not making any progress because we still have a million other things we have to do.

The solution to this problem is a simple one, but it’s not easy to carry out. We have to learn to say no. We have to learn to let other people handle things and focus on the responsibilities that are core to us. I recently heard it explained this way in a Bible study: Each of us needs to pick the two or three things that are core to our calling, and we need to focus solely on those things. If an opportunity arises that sounds interesting but isn’t related to those core things, we need to turn it down. We have to trim the fat off our to-do lists so that we can put all our energy and effort into the few things that really matter.

But even when I’m not overloaded, it still sometimes feel like I’m never getting anything done, no matter how hard I work. I think another part of the problem is how segmented my life is. I have my school life, my home life, my church life, my relationships, and so on. And at different times, different areas of my life have to take a leading role. Sometimes I need to be totally focused on school. Other times, I have things around the house that I need to get done. But no matter what I’m doing, I often wonder if I should instead be working on something else. Sure, my apartment is dirty, but is vacuuming really as productive as reading for class? No matter which one I choose, I’m going to feel like I should have been doing the other one.

I think this problem is solved by looking at our lives wholistically. In reality, there’s not a school Devon and a family Devon. There’s just me. It’s all my life. And when I’m working on something in one area of my life, it affects the rest. Cleaning my apartment helps me feel more comfortable in my space, which keeps me mentally healthy and allows me to work well when I do decide to do schoolwork. Doing schoolwork is training me for ministry. And so on. I’m not doing these things just to do them. I’m becoming something, and every bit of progress is a step in the right direction. If I can just remember that, it can help me feel like I’m getting things done.

Finally, I feel like I’m never getting anything done because I’m way too hard on myself. Even when I get something done I say, “Well, it could have been better,” or, “Why did I wait so long to do that?” I never let myself celebrate my progress. And that is draining. We have to celebrate even the small victories. I’ve learned to take a pause after every accomplishment, no matter how tiny, and just enjoy it. And it’s made a huge difference.

So there you have it. That’s why I feel like I’m never getting anything done, and how I deal with it. This has just been on my mind lately for whatever reason, and I hope that this has been helpful to you. Thank you for reading, friends, and I’ll see you guys next week!