outside is better

It's not always this fast.

For the next few days I am in a whirlwind of activity trying to get everything done before I go on vacation.  I have several half-finished projects that I want to get to a good place before I leave.  This is the time when Chad the artist is turned off and Chad the administrator comes alive.  I would much rather be the first, but if I have learned one thing in these last few years it is that I am more complete when I can work in both worlds.  I really couldn't have done this without spending some time organizing myself better at the beginning of the summer.  I love looking at a list of crossed off actions.

It is hard to do this though-

More and more I think about having some sort of permanent outlet for when I am feeling overwhelmed.  I always can think of a creative project or two, but what I am talking about is some long-form, extended act of creation.  It could be making things in my garage, or getting my recording equipment back together and start writing and recording again.  I have plenty of choices, but I need to decided something because I can already tell that this next year is going to be stressful.

On a different note, I really enjoyed last nights sermon.  It was the last in my series on the worship passages in Revelation.  I think it was the best because it really pulled everything together.  I will try to get the audio posted and maybe even my notes. 

It was when I realized that worship was not a singular direction, but this ever revolving communication we have with God.  It is inside of worship that we can truly find ourselves, because it is the way that we truly find God.  I think my mind is going to be turning around the idea of a singular/communal lifestyle in regard to worship for the next few weeks.

The second shift

I should be reading a few things and taking some notes, or writing a book review or two...but instead I have spent the night cleaning around my desk, and drifting around the internet.

I had a conversation with good friend Jeremiah today about our most productive times also being the best time to procrastinate.  I told mere about it too.  I proved the theory right again tonight.

So in honor of my not getting anything done is a mix that goes great with those late nights.

Monday morning mantra

If you truly want to be a productivity geek, you have to have a scheduled "sit-down" time.  Mine is Monday morning.  I try to get to campus early and have breakfast by myself at one of my favorite joints, Solomons Porch.

What I do when I get here is try to tie up in major loose ends that I didn't do over the weekend (this rarely happens).  After that I get my schedule together for the week.  I use google calender to throw stuff on, and by Monday I have my schedule made for the next week on paper.  I carry a notebook that pretty much is my life.  I find it easier to keep everything in one book, and I use a Moleskine.  For a to-do list, I usually have a notecard clipped into my current page for that day, or if I am going to be sitting in the same place all day, I just write it into my notebook.

I try to print things out (I know,its bad for the environment) so I keep a folder in my bag.  This is where a detailed schedule of upcoming chapels lives, readings for class that have to get done, any type of form that I need to sign, papers that have been returned...etc...etc.

Some people look at my system and say that I have to much stuff in to many places, but this works for me.  That is the most important part of any system.  It has to work well for the user.  I juggle 3 jobs and a full time load at seminary so I have to keep my stuff together.  It works well for me to not have to "take hats off" and just be able to work in any mode at all times.  It is much more of an efficient use of time.

I always get asked why I haven't gone digital (I own a Treo 750).  But it just doesn't work as well for me.  The treo won't talk to my mac, I WILL NOT buy an iphone (I don't care if it makes hot dogs for me), and I just find the whole digital thing to be just a tad bit cold.  But it is great for some.

So this is my Monday mornings.  Anyone else have any rituals like this?

Getting things done in Seminary

I do have the odd fascination with organization and try to implement part of David Allen's Getting Things Done (or GTD as us geeks call it).  One way that I keep myself on track is by doing a "Murder Week" every now and then.  What this means is that I will find a way to organize my time in a way that I can find the weak spots and the holes in everything.  I am jumping back on the bandwagon this Monday.

How it will differ is this.  Over the last month or so I have been close to burnout.  I figure if I can work 4 hours a day and study for 4 hours a day I can get everything in.  So I will stick to that schedule.  I also have a good friend coming in town next week to hang out.  By putting this schedule out, I can manage to not neglect anything and still spend a lot of quality time with my bud.

I also have a Greek Mid-Term coming up in a couple of days.  I think it is 11 to be exact.  This is where the GTD can come in really handy.  I am going to try to make a chart up that will let me track with everything I need to so I can come out on top.

More thoughts about GTD and Sabbath later this weekend.  Tomorrow I am off to the Abbey of Gethsemani (where Thomas Merton lived) for a day retreat and then I am going to see Doomsday with Meredith, Charis and Justin.  Long live armored school buses, face tattoo's and tie-on mohawks.

Taking Care of Business....and why paper is important

My last post had my woes about the lack of organization that I felt I had.  What I learned this week was I needed a really busy schedule to kick me back in gear.  My little pocket moleskine has turned into my office, and I like the fact that it lives in my back pocket.

I really like paper.  I wish that I had spent more of my life taking good notes and taking them in something that lasts.  I use Moleskine Cahiers for most of my school and research notes, either the large or the extra large size.  Here is a shot of some work in action.  I like these Moleskine notebooks because THEY LAST.  Some people assume since I am a techie that I like to use my lap-top. I only do this when the teacher is going really fast, and is pretty linear.  If not, I prefer to write things down

I tried using the cheap 10 cent notebooks that go on sale at everyones local Buy-Mart, and they lasted about 2 months.  I want to keep some notes longer than that.

There is a great post about the benefits of paper here at  Goingtoseminary.com.

If you do anything that you consider to be important, try to keep up with it and come up with some sort of system.   Find out what works for you and do it.  It will  make life easier in the long run.

GTD makeover

One of the things that I wanted to do over the break that is quickly ending (notice I didn't even make a list like last year) is get myself organized again.  Throughout the last year or so I follow a gentle ebb and flow when it comes to personal organization.  I like the GTD method, even got a copy of the book for Christmas, but I have never really implemented it.  But looking at the way things are going to be for the next 4-5 months I really need too. 

I read an article about people that just become fascinated with the "gear" that personal organization takes, and I think I can definitely pop myself into that group. 

Juggling seminary, 2 jobs at school, working at the church, and various personal things can get rough and I really need to get this nailed in before class starts in a week or so. 

Back to the drawing board.

It's all happening

Well here it is Saturday evening and I am at the end of murder week.  I look back on why I did all this, and realized that I never answered the questions that I sought originally.  But, if I look at what has been dropped on me this week it all makes sense.  Wednesday night we decided to do a Youth fund raiser today at Church, and I got a call from my pastor about 30 minutes ago asking me to preach tomorrow night.

Murder Week kept me together for this weekend.  I still have ALOT to do, but I am in better shape than I was last week.  It is good to get things in perspective, and to know what it takes to get things done. 

But I think after these week I am going to go in an/the opposite direction.  A good friend used the phrase "shalom zone" last week and how it relates to how we function. So for at least the next week, and maybe more, I am going to continue to focus on an intense application in my life.  As I jumped into Murder Week over the last 6 days, I am moving into shalom week over these next days.  I am not trying to figure out what a divided life looks like, but what a more holistic life does.  I hope that through these experiments I am about to learn and incorporate elements into my life.

So you won't hear anything out of me for a while.  That means blogging, commenting and facebook.  If you need me, email me...but I will only respond with things that are necessary (i.e. work).

Later

Wednesday Final

  Finished Wednesday 
  Originally uploaded by chadbrooks

Well I am done with Wednesday.  I figured this would be a hard one and it turned out alright.  I got some serious reading done and vocab memorized (even though I just found out that we have ALOT more than I knew of). 

So far "Murder Week" has been successful.  A good buddy of mine (and my first moleskine and GTD convert), Jeremiah, told me today that he needs to do a "murder week".  I had never thought about doing it other than for the sake of the experiment.  He is as swamped as I am, school is really beating us like a bad puppy right now.  So I guess that another reason to do a murder week would be to get things under control.  I know that I can handle this because I promise you, as soon as the sun goes down on Saturday I am DONE.  No, I am not Hasidic, but I really dig the idea of sabbath.

I also decided to only post finished schedules.  Since I do my to-do lists in a different notebook I realized that my schedule is only interesting looking after a full day.  As much as I love the moleskine, I think I am going to ditch the daily planner next year in favor of just keeping one notebook, and do all of my work stuff in it. 

Well I passed through the middle.  I am about to go take some well deserved surplus time in front of the TV.

Wednesday

  Wednesday 
  Originally uploaded by chadbrooks

So I have made it to Wednesday.  This is honestly not as hard as I thought it would be.  I even re-did my calculation yesterday to make sure I didn't screw up the math, and it really did show me that I had that much "surplus" time laying around.  I am not sure when I use it...because so far I am only using around 3 hours a day.

This is the day when I could screw things up.  There is a 6 hour block of free time in the middle of the afternoon, my best time to screw things up.  So what I have decided to do is to try to really write down everything I do and when during these times so I can see how much time I am wasting.

I was in a conversation with a friend yesterday and we were talking about this and I used the term "saturated" time.  It is when you only have a small amount of time in your schedule for something and you really want to concentrate on it.  I imagine that most of us don't really do this.  Office procrastination is something that we all know of, think of the many "man" games that have been invented with a wastebasket and some sort of object.

Well here goes Wednesday.

Tuesday and Monday thoughts

  Tuesday? 
  Originally uploaded by chadbrooks

I was trying to think how to title this post, and how I will handle them for the rest of the week.  I will post the next days schedule and give a link to the end-result for the current day (todays is here).  Tuesday is a little more relaxed than Monday, since there is no work due immediately on Wednesday.  I usually use it has a day to get some serious school work done.  But if you look I do have a small to-do list shaping up on the right.  My GTDing is normally done in another notebook, but if it gets crazy this week I will scan that in as well.

Monday was interesting.

I was able to keep up with everything pretty well except for a few places.  I ended up crashing in the late afternoon for around an hour, taking a nap on the couch with the dog.  A few hours later a friend called and needed to talk for awhile so that took some more time out, but no problem, that is why we keep ourselves organized, isn't it?  When I need to go off schedule I want to know that it is possible, it is in the nature of my work.

I learned something about schoolwork today.  Don't attempt to start learning semi-complicated noun structures of a dead language on the day you have to prove you know them, start the day you find out about them.  I ended up taking a hit on my Greek work so I wouldn't stay up all night with it.  I did have to re-format my New Testament paper, because the margins on Apple Pages were not standard.  I swear, this paper keeps getting shorter and shorter.  I think if I take it out of double spacing and the inch margins all around we could call it a long blog post.  But I just got that wrapped up and this all puts me at going to bed around 2 a.m.

But Mondays are normally like this,  I am curious to see how "Murder Week" changes my Wednesdays, because those usually ended up being BIG blow off days...as well as Friday.

Day 1 wasn't so bad, and I am already learning things.