Thrive and Survive: Multi-Tasking

Have you read the recent research that multi-tasking is bad for you*? Apparently, people who grow accustomed to moving quickly from one task to another are easily distracted by irrelevant information, less productive, and less successful on tests. Really! I’m offended. Who are the multi-taskers in disguise who are skewing these results? I work from home, and not only do I work a 40+ week, I fit in family, volunteer work, regular exercise, housecleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, cooking…must I continue?

Okay, let’s be fair. We all handle multi-tasking a little different. It’s overwhelming to some while others feed off the thrill. Sorry if I sound a bit harsh. Perhaps it’s more helpful to assume a middle-of-the-road approach. I’ll admit multi-tasking can not only slow you down in some situations; it can be downright dangerous, like texting while driving, or at least cause major energy depletions. So here are Thrive and Survive tips for multi-tasking:

Thrive – The “DO’s” of multi-tasking.
1. Set priorities.
Lists are great, but they can also be overwhelming. Be realistic when you create your “to-do” lists. If you make a weekly list but notice a pattern of needing to carry over more than a couple items into the following week, or you feel overwhelming pressure at the end of the week to complete your list, set smaller goals. Continue to create a weekly list but also break it down into daily lists, or early week, late week, and weekend lists.

If you’re not used to lists, allow yourself some wiggle room in the beginning. It will take awhile to get familiar with how many things you can realistically accomplish. Be realistic with time frames. Slightly pad your times, so if something takes longer than expected, you have a forgiving schedule. Watch for patterns. If you notice you consistently feel too much pressure, don’t get your list done, or ignore your list altogether, you need to re-assess.

And remember, you’re lists are supposed to help you, not control your life. It’s okay to put things on your lists such as “do something special with my daughter” or “call and listen to my best friend.” Yes, you might feel guilty putting people on the same list as grocery shopping and cleaning, but the note on your list might be just the motivation you need to set aside your daily tasks and share your life with the people who mean the most to you.

It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. – 1 Corinthians 3:7 (NLT)

2. Schedule rest.
Multi-tasking isn’t just about accomplishing tangible tasks. It’s about balance. Rest is part of the balance. Without sufficient rest, you will be less healthy and less effective. Your relationships and work will suffer. You need to be recharged. Schedule time to crawl up in God’s lap and take a nap. Take time to be rejuvenated by studying his Word. Listen to his guidance and comfort when you pray.

But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. – Luke 5:16

3. Be flexible and realistic.
You won’t finish what you don’t start, so get started. You won’t finish anything if you start too many things, so finish something. Know you’ll speed through some tasks, and others will take time. Some can be done on the go, where it’s noisy, and some require silence and isolation. Procrastinating has consequences. So does having some things done well ahead of schedule. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Challenge yourself, and forgive yourself. Expect growth, and allow for setbacks.

If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding. – Proverbs 15:32

Survive – The “DON’Ts” of multi-tasking.
1. Don’t exceed your limits.
We all have limits. Multi-tasking can be addictive. It’s the thrill of completing one more project, answering one more email, tweeting one more time. You’re only given so much time in each day, month, and lifetime. Spend it wisely. If you’re (1) obedient to what God wants you to do, and (2) using time wisely, God will provide every second you need. He’s not bound by the confines of time. He’s the ultimate time-management expert, and he’ll manage the time he gives you if you’ll let him.

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. – Ecclesiastes 3:11

2. Don’t say “yes” to everything.
Efficient people tend to get asked to do a lot, because they appear to be able to handle a lot. Say “yes” to the things God prompts you to do. Say “no” when you have no prompt (or God is saying “no”!). “Who else will do it if I don’t?” and “Surely it won’t take much time.” are not adequate reasons for taking on another responsibility. “God wants me to do it” is your prompt for a “yes.” And it’s not just about your personal obedience to God. If you say “yes” when you’re supposed to say “no,” you’re taking the place of someone who is supposed to serve in that role! Only you can be you, and you can’t be anyone else.

But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. – 1 John 2:5

3. Don’t try to duplicate someone else’s system.
It’s great to learn from other people. There’s not need to recreate the wheel. Yet at the same time, you’re unique. Your gifts, responsibilities, skills, and relationships require customized organization. Try something you read or see is working for someone else, but if it doesn’t work for you, move on to another approach.

So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. – 1 Corinthians 9:26

Choose your tasks well. God has a pure purpose for you. Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. – 1 Timothy 4:15

(If you run into the multi-taskers in disguise who are giving the rest of us a bad name, please share this article with them!)

Originally published in A Woman Inspired November 2009

*http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/25/multitasking.harmful/index.html

It's Not True

I sat in a church and listened to a sermon that made my soul cringe. By stretching my imagination, I vaguely understood the basis on which the speaker built his message...but it wasn't biblical. There were pieces of Scripture scattered through the message, but the message wasn't built on Scripture. There's a huge difference. We can teach and live by our own standards and find isolated verses to support us. Or we can teach and live on a firm foundation of God's standards.

I looked around the room. In addition to my own family visiting for the day, there were hundreds of people, some who might be cringing along with me but some who were soaking all words spoken as absolute truth. After all, this is a man of God. He leads the church. His teaching is pure, right?

The only pure teaching is God's Word. That's not to say we shouldn't listen to other teachers. God gifts people to teach us, helping clarify and emphasize God's Word, creating connections among verses and into our daily lives. But we must acknowledge teachers are human. When I facilitate small groups, I prepare with dependence on God. I attempt to set myself aside and let God guide my preparations and then speak through me in words and actions. Yet I still get in the way. I bring my experiences, relationships, and baggage with me. God often uses all of that to help me live out His Word and reflect him, but I often allow all of it to get in the way.

God gifts people to teach us, but he also gives us discernment. Discernment is not only intended to use when we're living everyday life, choosing between right and wrong. We need to take discernment into the church walls and choose what's biblical and unbiblical about what's being taught, verbally and nonverbally, within the church. When we read a book, even with the word "Christian" in the description, we need to discern. Don't accept something because it "sounds" Christian. Accept it because it's consistent with God's Word.

Consider your weekly routine of teachings, entertainment, reading, or anything that you absorb. How active are you in the learning process? Where do you need to actively discern?

What is the ratio of time you spend directly in God's Word in comparison to other teachings?

O Lord, listen to my cry; give me the discerning mind you promised. - Psalm 119:169 (NLT)

You're Such a Child!

Did you celebrate "Eat Crackers and Try to Whistle Day"? (Who comes up with these celebrations?!) How long has it been since you ate crackers and tried to whistle, sat on a balloon until it popped, or buried yourself in a pile of leaves? What other silly things did you do as a child?

Did you lie in the grass and imagine a story among the clouds?

Spin around until you stumbled to the ground in dizziness?

Stand in front of the mirror and make funny faces?

What goofy thing did you thoroughly enjoy as a child but are much too mature to try now? Or perhaps you've been a grownup for so long that you can hardly remember any moments of silliness.

As children, we throw ourselves into things wholeheartedly. Growing up on a farm in Illinois, I was mesmerized watching corn be devoured by the combine and poured into wagons. I loved to roll in the snow. When we lost electricity in an ice storm, I played jacks by flashlight. I usually surrendered to whatever I was doing with complete commitment.

There's something about the complete commitment of children. A child will throw her arms around your neck and "squeeze the stuffing out." She laughs from her core. Her face intensely reflects her emotion...sad, mad, or happy.

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” (Matthew 19:14, NLT) And yet Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:11, "When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things."

When we become adults, we put away our childish ways. But we need to remain childlike in our faith. We set aside temper tantrums, pouting and self-centeredness (or at least try to set them aside), but we keep our complete surrounder to the enjoyment of simply pleasures.

God wants you to take your faith seriously, but he also wants you to enjoy his creation and your relationship with him. Being grown up doesn't mean knowing everything. It means knowing you don't know everything and knowing God does. Being childlike doesn't mean excusing immaturity. It means having enough faith to completely abandon your self to God.

So...Lie in the grass and imagine a story among the clouds.

God created the clouds and your creativity.

Spin around until you stumble to the ground in dizziness.

God knows just where you are when the world seems to be spinning.

Stand in front of the mirror and make funny faces.

God made your face and gave you expressions.

O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way. - Luke 10:21

Are You Listening?

Imagine a world without headphones. Everyone's vast variety of music colliding into chaos. In some places, music would be banned. After all, we can't have everyone blaring music in libraries, coffee shops, bookstores. Headphones allow us to listen to our favorite speakers, musicians, and movies. We enjoy our favorites without imposing on other people. We shield ourselves from being invaded by other people.

What do we miss in the process?

I was recently talking to a friend without realizing she was wearing headphones. She heard nothing that I said. I wondered...how often is God talking to me when I'm wearing headphones? What am I missing? It's not that he's not talking. I'm not listening. I'm clueless he's talking, because I'm absorbed by something else.

I'm consumed with my to-do list. My problems. My needs. My wants.

What are you absorbed by today?

Is there an area of your life God seems to be silent? How do you know when God, in his silence, is urging you to wait and trust...and when he seems silent but is actually speaking?

Ask yourself: Am I wearing headphones? Am I consumed with my own wants, needs, problems, to-do list that I can't hear God speaking to me?

God is only silent in purpose. And his silence is limited. God speaks to us in a myriad of ways, but we have to be listening. We must hone a keen awareness. Watch. Search. Listen. Study. Speak.

Unplug. Take away the distractions. Headphones may help us be sensitive to those around us, but they hinder our relationship with God. You'll have to choose. Your preferences and your world or God's. Which will you choose today?

To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. - Matthew 13:12 (NLT)

Best Year Yet

This is the best year yet! was a popular post on Facebook and Twitter for the first ten minutes of 2010. Why? Because nothing bad had happened yet. Can we only have a "good year" (or month or week or day) if it's trouble-free? Is our vision so handicapped that we correlate "the best" with a lack of problems or struggles? How spoiled are we?!

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. – Romans 5:1-5

The Holy Spirit gives us everything we need. You have access to God’s love, courage, strength, joy, discernment (and the list goes on…) inside you, accessible at all times. So why do you think we still want to sit beside the road, bury our head in our hands and quit when we encounter struggles? Perhaps...

...Even when we know God provides all we need through him, we try to rely on our own strength and courage instead of tapping into his.
...We wait to tap into his strength and courage only when we’re completely exhausted. We try to hand him the baton, expecting him to run the rest of the way for us, not with us.
...We rely on the Holy Spirit to guide, equip, and encourage us so infrequently that we’re not sure how to listen and rely on him.

...We’re human. I don’t want this to become a crutch we rely on, but we have to admit, we’re going to struggle with our past baggage, current struggles, and future apprehensions. The key is whether we try to manage it all or rely on God to equip us to persevere and endure.

When we have problems and trials, we can develop endurance. (We can also sit and mope and whine and become self-focused.) Endurance develops character. Character develops our hope in salvation. And yet it's our hope in salvation, our relationship with Jesus, our acceptance and understanding of God’s character, that helps us deal with our problems and trials in the first place.

You'll have problems and trials this year, my friend. I guarantee it. Be determined in how you'll respond. It could be the best year yet!