Get Focused

Get Focused

I know, I know. Another productivity software post! But this one is really about a method of getting things done that is designed for paper.

It’s true that I change approaches to task management like I change outfits. But after two and a half weeks I am enamored with this approach. In 2.5 weeks I have added more than 600 tasks to my list and have just over 230 to do. I did something last night I have been putting off for two years. I feel that this method of getting things done is probably the best way to beat procrastination!

So what is it? I can’t tell you. LOL. But go to www.markforster.net and sign up for the Autofocus beta testing link for free and Mark will tell you! It is definitely easy to understand and can really be life changing.

I am using Appigo’s ToDo to access Toodledo for my Autofocus lists and I love it. Toodledo may be the most flexible task management software I have used. It isn’t perfect but it’s getting close! However, paper works just peachy.

I am off to mark “do a blog post on productivity” off my list!Get Focused

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Word for the Year

Word for the Year

Skyladder

I was reading Aby Garvey's blog the other day and she mentioned having a word for the year–an idea she borrowed from Ali, a well-known scrapbooker, whose blog you will find referenced by Aby.

The concept is simple, yet powerful. Choose just one word to be your focus for 2009. This word can drive your goals, your priorities, and your tasks from day to day. Most importantly, this word can change how you think about each day of this year.

I have chosen the word CHALLENGE, not just because I am coordinating The New Life Challenge, but also because this is how I want to start to view my difficulties. Things I have formerly thought of as "pains, evil, unfair, boring, difficult, scary" and so on, I now choose to view as challenges. I LOVE challenges; I don't love things that are painful, evil, unfair, boring, difficult, or scary. Although I am simply relabeling these things, there is much truth in the change. I will grow and learn and by God's grace become better as I confront and overcome each challenge.

So now I challenge you: what is your one word for the year?

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Productivity with Life Balance by Llamagraphics

Productivity with Life Balance by Llamagraphics

LifeBalance

I'm a technology junkie and I'm always looking for ways to improve my productivity. I recently started using LifeBalance by Llamagraphics. It isn't new software as it's been around for PC, Mac, and handhelds for a while, but it IS new for the IPhone.

I was drawn to the goal-directed format of the software. I do like to think of everything I do as being driven by my life's goals. You can see from the above IPhone screen shot what I think those goals/life areas are for me at this time. "Inbox" is just where I collect tasks that have to be ordered into goals later. Although it takes more time to select a goal to add tasks to, the process forces me to determine how everything I do fits with the bigger picture.

The second aspect of LifeBalance that I was drawn to was the outline format. I think in terms of outlines as a writer and speaker so organizing tasks into projects and then goals makes perfect sense to me. I can easily find tasks using this format without having to use the search function (which the desktop version of LB has).

The third aspect of LB that I love is its To Do list which takes all of your task deadlines, importance, and contexts into account to tell you what you should be doing right now. Say you have a context (place) called computer. You're at your computer and want to know everything you have to do on your computer. The first thing on the list is something that is due in an hour, the second thing is something important but doesn't have a deadline, etc. With so many tasks in my head that either have a deadline or don't, I love that my computer can think for me!

The fourth aspect of LB that I enjoy is it's pie chart. The pie chart is made up of your top level goals. You can quickly adjust their importance and also see how your actual activity matches your goals. For example, my family and I went to Disney World before Christmas. The week before Disney World, I didn't want to do any scrapbooking and I wasn't as concerned about taking care of myself. The organizing and family/friends areas needed to be priority. When I cam home, I adjusted them again. At the same time that I started using LB, I downloaded WhereIsMyTime on the IPhone and found it very enlightening. You have to face the cold, hard truth of what you're actually doing for how long. If you have an IPhone, check it out!

There are a few drawbacks to LifeBalance. First, it's spendy–$79 for the desktop version, but it does offer a month-long free trial. Second, unlike Mark Forster's Do It Tomorrow approach, you don't have the feeling of finishing your tasks. Third, you do have to spend more time entering tasks than with software like Things.

I have high hopes for LifeBalance, but I do plan to beta test Mark Forster's AutoFocus system of time management beginning January 4th. I will certainly keep you posted! Until then, why not sign up for the New Life Challenge and make your goal to get more organized ? Happy 2009!

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The Gift of Unapologetic Faith

The Gift of Unapologetic Faith

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It seems Christmas has become more and more controversial. It’s as if Christians have to apologize for their beliefs. Have you noticed that? Christ did come to bring peace on earth, but not quite yet. For now, the controversy will remain and will heat up. These events are clearly foretold in the Bible.

In So You’re Not Wonder Woman?, I share about my experience with an Answers in Genesis video that changed the way I saw the Bible. I attended public schools throughout my education with the exception of three years at a private Christian college. During the course of my school years (even in the Christian college), the idea that evolution (and not God’s Word) was fact was reinforced or at least never refuted.

As someone who believed that God created us, I had a dilemma. Was God really the creator? Or did we change from single-celled organisms over the course of millions of years? I decided that somehow BOTH were true and I just couldn’t explain it. That was when I discovered Answers in Genesis and the wonderful truth that I could actually believe God’s account of our beginnings in Genesis. I learned that it is logically impossible to believe in both God and evolution. To believe in evolution AND God is to believe that death happened before Adam and Eve sinned. To believe in evolution is to believe that God’s creation from the very beginning wasn’t good. Instead, it was kill or be killed. Of course, one could argue that they believe in God, but not a literal Genesis; that they believe in a creator God who used evolution to create. At what point in the Bible then does God start telling the truth? Why believe any of it? I could discuss this at length, but suffice to say that when I learned God’s Word could be trusted, I was very relieved. (At this point, please allow me to point out that I am discussing evolution between species, not within. Species adapt and change over time. You won’t get any argument from any thinking person on that).

Despite being a Ph.D., however, there were many, many questions I didn’t have answers to. I didn’t have the questions; others did. What about the fossil record that “proves” evolution, for example? Since meeting Dr. Carl Werner, however, I am thrilled that I now have more answers! Carl is a prodigy who graduated from medical school at the age of 23. Wow! He is an ER physician who has devoted the last 11 years of his life with his photographer/videographer wife traversing the planet investigating evolution. Like me, Carl believed that evolution was fact. He set about to find the evidence to prove it. He has interviewed leading scientists, has studied thousands of museum fossils and has visited dinosaur dig sites. The amount of data he has accumulated is mind boggling.

Over the course of his long search for proof of evolution, Carl discovered there isn’t any. What a bold statement that is, I know! But so profound was the lack of evidence that Carl came to believe that God’s Word was truth. This book is a summary of some of his findings. A second volume in the series is coming out this spring. Carl is praying that a documentary series he has planned using his many hours of video & photographic evidence will be aired. My family and I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Carl and were honestly blown away. I really didn’t think he could tell me anything I didn’t already know. I was so wrong! My 12yo seemed most affected by what he heard. He had often asked questions about evolution with what appeared to be some skepticism about a creationist view. After our meeting with Carl, I think I saw his faith grow before my eyes.

I believe everyone ought to read this book. It is designed for a 6th grade reading level and above. It is chock full of beautiful photographs and doesn’t take long to read. You’ll discover that fossils of animals that were supposed to have evolved much later than dinosaurs (like mammals!) have actually been found with dinosaur fossils over and over again. If you haven’t heard that, it’s because it doesn’t support the theory of evolution so isn’t discussed. The other main reason you don’t hear about these finds is because animals that are 99% if not 100% identical to modern species are renamed as though they are a new prehistoric species, sometimes being put into a completely different genus (classification group). On what basis you ask? Simply at the whim of the one who discovers the fossil. He or she chooses the name and decides where it fits in the classification system. Colleagues in the field see that Dr. Joe named a fossil that looks JUST like our modern possum a neverseenbeforewhatchamacallit and the colleagues don’t point out that it’s a POSSUM because it doesn’t fit the theory and because they don’t want Dr. Joe interfering with their right to attention and money for renaming a dog fossil a nothersupernewcreaturite.

Until I spoke with Carl, I’ve always felt too stupid to understand how animal and plant species are classified. I understood mammals, reptiles, fish, etc., but that’s about it! Now I know that it’s not stupid to think that the Emperor is wearing no clothes! A possum fossil found with dinosaurs is in fact a possum! Carl’s research and interviews also demonstrate that the fossils that supposedly show us the “missing links” between one kind of animal and another have also been subject to the same kind of subjective speculation. I’ve always assumed that there is a way of determining in a way that can be replicated by others what an animal must have looked like simply from its skeleton/fossil. Of course, there is in large part. But Carl interviewed the man who discovered evolution’s best evidence (a hyena-like creature evolving into a whale). The fossil was supposed to be half-whale, half land mammal, but had no tail bones. The scientist admitted that he just “decided” that it had a tail and drew one in. More recently, however, he’s changed his mind.

Of course, I am just scratching the surface of what you can learn from Carl’s books. I believe there is no one in the world more knowledgeable about evolution and its evidence than Carl Werner. If he can’t prove its validity, who can? If you have ever felt apologetic about your faith’s view on the origins of life or if you can’t imagine that evolution isn’t well established fact, please order a copy of Carl’s book today. Better yet, order one as a gift for those on both sides of the issue. You may be giving someone the gift of unapologetic faith.

 

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Are You Ready for the Challenge?

Are You Ready for the Challenge?

Skyladder

When I was participating in the Body for Life Challenge this September, I started thinking that I had a lot in common with Bill Phillips. Nope, not the big muscles or the big bucks! I could relate to his passion for sharing a new life. Bill wanted to share the new healthy life possible through physical fitness. I want to share the new life possible through spiritual fitness.

I got the idea for a New Life Challenge using prayer as exercise and Bible reading as nutrition this summer. But if not for Deb and Phyllis I wouldn't have run with it. Pardon the exercise pun! I am so thankful for their encouragement and for God's grace allowing me to prepare this challenge for January 5th, 2009.

I'm often asked how I "do it." Now I can tell you: take the New Life Challenge! It's free. Choose one goal, spend ten minutes and fifteen to twenty minutes reading the Bible's New Testament each day, and watch your spiritual muscles develop. Check out the website, download the challenge guide, sign up for the weekly newsletter, participate in the forum, and get ready for a new you in 2009! No matter what your goal, God can get you there. If He can change me, He can change anyone.

Change is always easier when you aren't going it alone. Please share the www.newlifechallenge.net website with friends and family members and encourage them to join you in taking the challenge.

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Disappointed in Someone?

Disappointed in Someone?

As long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with disappointment. When things didn’t happen as planned, when friends let me down, when my boyfriend didn’t show up for a date (yes, that happened on numerous occasions!), I moved beyond disappointment to depression. I had such high hopes! And being a mostly positive, forgiving person, I set myself up for further disappointment.

You know the saying, “Fool me once, shame on me”? My motto was, “Fool me once, fool me twice, fool me three times…gee, this is disappointing.”

Since learning about Fools from Foolproofing Your Life: How to Deal Effectively with the Impossible People in Your Life, I’ve been fooled less often. But I have still battled disappointment. Sure, I know that my hope is in God, not in others, and certainly not in myself! But until God’s answer to my most recent disappointment, I was still very discouraged by what people in my life were doing or not doing.
This morning I read this verse:
Isaiah 40:31: but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
For me, hoping in the Lord was more like hoping that God would change my Fools so they wouldn’t keep disappointing me.

This morning, however, I realized that God is not asking me to hope in what He will do for me, but hope in Who He is.

And He is the One Who never disappoints. He is perfect and holy and just and loving and beautiful. The beginning and the end. He is everything and anything that is good. I can COUNT on Him! If I had nothing and no one else, I would have more than enough.
When I am disappointed and discouraged, I am weak and exhausted. I feel like Elijah in the wilderness. Elijah became so overwhelmed by disappointing Fools, that he just wanted to give up. That’s the result of hoping in yourself and hoping in someone else. But when we hope in the Lord, there isn’t anything too hard for us. We have the energy and the stamina to persevere!
Today I keep singing one of my favorite contemporary songs:
Our hope is in You, Lord…
Our strength is in You, Lord…
In You, it’s in You!
If you are disappointed today, draw near to the God who will never, ever let you down.
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