If you have a good workflow in your life as a minister and at the end of most days you feel like you accomplished pretty much everything you needed to, go ahead and skip ahead. This recommendation isn’t for you.

However, if you’re like some of us and often feel like you didn’t get as much done as you should have, you might be interested in this book. A couple of days ago I finished reading Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity by Tim Challies, and I highly recommend it.

Here’s a note from the author, and after reading the book I agree with everything he says:

“Don’t try to do it all: Do more good. Better.

“I am no productivity guru. I am a writer, a church leader, a husband, and a father with many responsibilities and with new tasks coming at me all the time.

“I wrote this short, fast-paced, practical guide to productivity to share what I have learned about getting things done in today’s digital world. Whether you are a student or a professional, a work-from-home dad or a stay-at-home mom, it will help you learn to structure your life to do the most good to the glory of God.

“In Do More Better, you will learn: Common obstacles to productivity / The great purpose behind productivity / 3 essential tools for getting things done / The power of daily and weekly routines / And much more, including bonus material on taming your email and 20 tips I have learned along the way.

“It really is possible to live a calm and orderly life, sure of your responsibilities and confident in your progress.

“You can do more better. And I would love to help you get there. -Tim Challies”

It’s a quick read and immensely practical. I read it on my Kindle in a couple of hours, but the paperback version is just 120 pages. Challies describes the system he uses to get things done, and he recommends several tools, while also describing the daily and weekly workflow that he follows to be productive. He’s a minister, so I found that his approach to productivity readily applies to my church work.

I’ve already incorporated many of his suggestions, and it’s helping. A bigger thing will be if it’s something I will stick to long-term, so I plan to post something here in a few weeks to let you know how it’s going.

Good stuff I ran across this week:

Keeping with the productivity theme, you might enjoy:

“Do Less Better” by David Murray. Very short review of Challies’ Do More Better that I recommended above.

“Four Productivity Lies” by Tim Challies.

“Two New Christian Books on Productivity (Getting Stuff Done)” by Jason Dollar. This is a review of Do More Better by Tim Challies and What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done by Matt Perman. I just started reading Perman’s book today – it’s very good so far, but I’ll post something more about it soon.

“Adopt the 30/30 Minute Work Cycle to Increase Focus” by Jason Fitzpatrick. I’m not sure if I like the 30 minutes on/30 minutes off rule, but there seems to be pretty good evidence that taking regular breaks throughout your workday increases your productivity. I’ve used the Pomodoro Technique and found it to be helpful.