Tag: productivity

To be reasonably effective it is not enough for the individual to be intelligent, to work hard or to be knowledgeable. Effectiveness is something separate, something different.

—Peter Drucker

HT: What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman

Brilliant insight, hard work, and good intentions are not enough. Effectiveness is a distinct skill that must be learned. Some people are more inclined to it than others, and everyone is naturally built to be capable of effectiveness, but effectiveness is something we learn—like reading.

—Matt Perman

HT: What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman

In more than fifty years of consulting, Peter Drucker pointed out that he never found a “natural,” someone who is instinctively effective. Every effective person he encountered—and as perhaps the greatest consultant and business thinker of the twentieth century, that’s a lot—had to work at becoming effective.

—Matt Perman

HT: What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman

Most of us haven’t paid sufficient attention to the skill of defining our work clearly. This is why it so often feels like our workdays never stop. When you don’t have your work clearly defined, there can never be any finish point.

—Matt Perman

HT: What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman

The knowledge worker cannot be supervised closely or in detail. He can only be helped. But he must direct himself, and he must direct himself toward performance and contribution, that is, effectiveness.

—Peter Drucker

HT: What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman

Generosity is at the heart of true productivity in all areas of life. This is what the Scriptures teach and, interestingly, what the best business thinkers are also showing. Further, a life of doing good for others is actually the most exciting life, for God calls us to find ways of doing good with a sense of creativity, competence, and adventure.

—Matt Perman

HT: What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman

The essence of GDP [Gospel-Driven Productivity] is this: We are to use all that we have, in all areas of life, for the good of others, to the glory of God—and that this is the most exciting life. To be a gospel-driven Christian means to be on the lookout to do good for others to the glory of God, in all areas of life, and to do this with creativity and competence. Further, being gospel-driven also means knowing how to get things done so that we can serve others in a way that really helps, in all areas of life, without making ourselves miserable in the process through overload, overwhelm, and hard-to-keep-up systems. In other words, we are to put productivity practices and tools in the service of God’s purpose for us, which is that we do good for others, in all areas of life, to his glory.

—Matt Perman

HT: What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman

We weren’t made to simply respond to stuff all day, but to take action and move things forward. If we don’t give attention to the discipline of personal effectiveness but instead let the flow of events determine what we do, we will likely fritter ourselves away doing all sorts of urgent things that come our way while never getting to the truly important things.

—Matt Perman

HT: What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman