Ten Principles for Personal Productivity

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - We recently talked about the book you just wrote,

00:00:07.560 | Pastor John, back on Thursday of last week.

00:00:10.120 | You gave us a personal update.

00:00:11.840 | In light of that, Brandon in Charlotte, North Carolina

00:00:14.960 | writes in to ask this.

00:00:15.800 | Pastor John, thank you for your Christ-centered precision

00:00:18.880 | and for the tremendous volume of your ministry output.

00:00:22.560 | I'm curious how you produce so much content.

00:00:26.140 | What time do you wake up?

00:00:27.200 | How do you find time to read and write?

00:00:29.240 | When do you eat your cereal?

00:00:30.920 | I mean, you mentioned your aversion to TV

00:00:33.480 | and don't waste your life,

00:00:35.180 | but what advice do you have for the daily schedule making

00:00:38.080 | to make the most of your life for Christ?

00:00:41.480 | - I think the first thing that I should say

00:00:43.420 | is beware of wanting to be like me.

00:00:47.660 | You don't know the sins of my life.

00:00:50.800 | You don't know how much I have neglected.

00:00:55.480 | You don't know what the costs have been.

00:00:59.220 | The real question is how to be the fullest,

00:01:05.040 | most God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated,

00:01:09.080 | loving, humble, mission-advancing,

00:01:13.000 | justice-seeking, others-serving person you, you can be.

00:01:18.000 | Don't measure yourself by others.

00:01:23.100 | Measure yourself by your potential in Christ.

00:01:28.100 | That's the first thing that I felt I had to say

00:01:33.300 | because of the way the question seemed to be posed.

00:01:38.120 | Now, there are a lot of other things to say.

00:01:40.000 | Let me tick 'em off.

00:01:41.720 | The second thing I would say is give 10% of your focus

00:01:46.720 | in life to avoiding obstacles to productivity,

00:01:52.120 | and 90% of your focus to fastening onto great goals

00:01:56.960 | and pursuing them with all your might.

00:01:59.320 | Very few people become productive

00:02:03.080 | by avoiding obstacles to productivity.

00:02:06.480 | It's not a good focus.

00:02:08.480 | That's not where energy comes from.

00:02:11.040 | It's not where vision comes from.

00:02:12.540 | People write books about that and make a lot of money,

00:02:14.600 | but that's not where anybody gets anything worthwhile done.

00:02:18.540 | Getting things done that count come from great, glorious,

00:02:23.420 | wonderful future possibilities that take you captive

00:02:28.260 | and draw your pursuit with all your might,

00:02:31.100 | and then all that other stuff

00:02:32.320 | about getting obstacles out of your way.

00:02:34.300 | That's the 10% of broomwork that you have to do.

00:02:38.700 | Third thing I wanna say.

00:02:40.120 | Life comes to us in chapters

00:02:45.700 | that are very different from each other.

00:02:48.220 | If you are married and have little children,

00:02:50.740 | that's a chapter that needs a great deal

00:02:52.660 | of focus on the children.

00:02:54.080 | If God wills, there may be another chapter for you

00:02:58.300 | with different possibilities,

00:02:59.620 | different potentials, and different priorities.

00:03:03.220 | The Lord will be pleased if you focus

00:03:05.980 | on the chapter you're in and live according

00:03:09.300 | to the demands of that chapter with all your might.

00:03:12.780 | Fourth thing to say.

00:03:14.660 | Give serious thought and prayer

00:03:17.380 | to what your big, all-consuming life goal is.

00:03:20.640 | The biblical expression of mine is found in Philippians 1:20.

00:03:26.420 | "It is my eager expectation."

00:03:28.340 | This is John Piper, not just Paul talking.

00:03:30.440 | "It is my eager expectation and hope

00:03:36.180 | "that I will not at all be ashamed,

00:03:38.420 | "but that with full courage."

00:03:40.060 | Now, as always, "Christ will be magnified in my body,

00:03:45.060 | "whether by life or by death,

00:03:48.460 | "for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

00:03:51.260 | So Christ magnified in living and dying,

00:03:55.940 | spreading a passion for that Christ

00:03:58.860 | into the lives of others.

00:04:01.100 | That's the goal.

00:04:02.140 | That's the big, overarching goal.

00:04:03.860 | So find yours and make it work in everything you do.

00:04:09.420 | Fifth, get a sense of gospel-rooted accountability

00:04:14.420 | before the living God.

00:04:17.320 | That is, understand the gospel

00:04:20.520 | and the spiritual dynamics of how it works.

00:04:24.040 | You don't labor to get into a right relationship with God.

00:04:29.040 | The gospel dynamics don't work that way.

00:04:33.500 | You labor morning till night with all your might

00:04:38.500 | because you are in a right relationship with God.

00:04:42.700 | Philippians 2, "Work out your salvation

00:04:44.940 | "with fear and trembling,

00:04:45.860 | "for ground, basis, foundation, God is at work in you."

00:04:50.860 | That's the gospel dynamic.

00:04:53.600 | "By the grace of God, I am what I am,

00:04:55.620 | "and His grace towards me was not in vain.

00:04:57.340 | "But on the contrary, I worked harder than any of them,

00:04:59.860 | "but it was not I.

00:05:01.580 | "The grace of God had already taken up residence in me

00:05:04.220 | "and was at work in me."

00:05:05.500 | And if you get that order out of whack,

00:05:08.200 | you may accomplish a lot in life

00:05:10.020 | and go straight to hell with all your books

00:05:12.740 | and all your buildings.

00:05:14.360 | Let the Lord Jesus intensify this sense of accountability

00:05:19.340 | on the last day with the parable of the talents, right?

00:05:22.860 | Gave to one person five, gave to another person two,

00:05:25.660 | gave to another person one, came to call a count,

00:05:28.620 | and the person with one heard those awful words.

00:05:32.460 | You wicked and lazy servant.

00:05:37.300 | I don't wanna hear that word.

00:05:38.920 | I do not want to hear that word.

00:05:41.220 | I want to experience the opposite,

00:05:43.760 | the counterpart to those words from Luke 12.

00:05:47.420 | "Who then is the faithful and wise manager

00:05:51.220 | "whom his master will set over his household?"

00:05:54.280 | I often thought those words when I was a pastor.

00:05:56.680 | I was over a household.

00:05:57.880 | "To give them their portion of food at the proper time.

00:06:02.880 | "Blessed is that servant whom his master

00:06:06.960 | "will find so doing when he comes."

00:06:11.960 | I would be sitting preparing my messages

00:06:14.360 | or writing something or leading the family

00:06:16.880 | in devotions or something, and I would say,

00:06:19.200 | "Come now, Lord Jesus, and you'll find me doing it."

00:06:24.120 | That's the opposite of wicked, lazy servant,

00:06:28.720 | buried your talent and didn't do anything with it.

00:06:31.400 | So that's number five.

00:06:32.760 | Number six, add to your sense of accountability

00:06:37.360 | before God a sense of urgency.

00:06:40.320 | "We must do the works of him who sent us while it is day.

00:06:46.260 | "Night is coming when no one will work," John 9, 4.

00:06:51.260 | Or Ephesians 5, "Look carefully how you walk,

00:06:55.120 | "not as unwise, make redeeming," literally redeeming,

00:06:59.840 | the time because the days are evil, or Colossians 4,

00:07:04.360 | "Walk in wisdom towards those outside,

00:07:06.940 | "make the best use of the time."

00:07:10.240 | There's urgency in this.

00:07:11.960 | The days are evil and night is coming.

00:07:15.160 | Seventh, do what you do with all your heart.

00:07:19.920 | Be done with half-heartedness.

00:07:22.160 | Oh, so many people limp through life

00:07:25.880 | doing what they do with half of a heart,

00:07:28.600 | half of their energy.

00:07:30.240 | If it's worth doing, it's worth doing with your whole soul.

00:07:35.240 | Ecclesiastes 9, 10, "Whatever your hand finds to do,

00:07:39.760 | "do it with your might."

00:07:42.080 | Jonathan Edwards' resolution,

00:07:44.680 | oh, probably had more impact on me

00:07:47.320 | in the last 30 years than anything else he said

00:07:49.880 | in his resolutions, at least, when he said,

00:07:52.400 | "Resolved to live with all my might while I live."

00:07:58.400 | Those words took hold of me a long time ago.

00:08:01.160 | Oh, yes, Lord.

00:08:02.800 | The opposite, the opposite of this,

00:08:05.320 | 14 times in the book of Proverbs,

00:08:08.920 | the word sluggard is used.

00:08:11.480 | Isn't that an ugly word?

00:08:12.600 | Sluggard.

00:08:13.840 | 14 times, and what's a sluggard?

00:08:18.080 | Chapter 20, verse 4,

00:08:19.220 | "The sluggard does not plow in the autumn,

00:08:23.740 | "and he will seek at harvest and have nothing."

00:08:28.740 | You don't wanna be a sluggard.

00:08:31.460 | Number eight, "Many chops fell a huge tree."

00:08:36.460 | Man, this is so crucial because of how quickly

00:08:41.540 | we get discouraged after a thousand chops

00:08:43.780 | and the tree's not down yet.

00:08:46.180 | I just finished listening to Robinson Crusoe.

00:08:48.940 | You may say, "What in the world,

00:08:50.660 | "what job, I've been listening to a teenage novel

00:08:53.540 | "for a, I've never heard some of these classics,

00:08:57.100 | "so I'm listening to 'em."

00:08:58.300 | Robinson Crusoe, marooned on an island,

00:09:02.320 | all by himself, wants to escape, needs a boat.

00:09:06.020 | Mainland is 45 miles away, might be cannibals over there,

00:09:09.540 | and not sure he wants to go, but he needs a boat.

00:09:12.700 | He's got nothing else to do, so he's gonna make a boat.

00:09:14.900 | He finds a tree.

00:09:16.700 | This tree is five feet, 10 inches, I think,

00:09:20.300 | across at the bottom.

00:09:21.980 | He has an ax.

00:09:23.780 | It takes him, it takes him 22 days to chop this tree down,

00:09:29.620 | 14 more days to chop the branches off,

00:09:36.060 | a year and a half to finish the boat with an ax.

00:09:40.460 | I'd chop on a tree for a day or two days

00:09:44.340 | and say, "This tree's not coming down.

00:09:45.500 | "I'm done with this tree.

00:09:46.340 | "I'm gonna go work on some little tree."

00:09:49.220 | So there's the key, many chops fell a big tree.

00:09:52.260 | Well, you wanna do something great?

00:09:53.620 | Don't quit, keep chopping.

00:09:56.260 | Number nine, I got two more.

00:09:58.060 | Number nine, be willing to do many things in life

00:10:03.060 | cheerfully that at first you don't wanna do.

00:10:06.860 | They don't come naturally to you.

00:10:08.580 | There is no worthwhile role in life

00:10:13.100 | that does not require you to do things

00:10:16.180 | you don't at first feel like doing

00:10:18.020 | or that only let you do what comes naturally.

00:10:20.580 | So be cheerful, be cheerful in doing the parts of your life

00:10:25.340 | that you do not at first prefer to do.

00:10:28.340 | And lastly, number 10, I should push it to make it 10

00:10:32.540 | so it'd be a nice round number.

00:10:34.580 | Lastly, find your niche.

00:10:36.860 | That is, find the thing you do love to do

00:10:39.700 | with all your weaknesses and all your strengths.

00:10:43.060 | Put most of your energies and your love there

00:10:47.420 | for Christ and His kingdom.

00:10:49.820 | - Wow, that is very helpful.

00:10:52.300 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for the counsel.

00:10:55.100 | I've jotted down a number of these points

00:10:56.700 | for my own takeaway from my own life.

00:10:58.580 | Thank you, and thank you for listening

00:10:59.620 | to the Ask Pastor John podcast

00:11:01.100 | with author and longtime pastor, John Piper.

00:11:04.460 | For more information about the podcast,

00:11:05.940 | go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:11:10.220 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:11:11.540 | We will return tomorrow and I'll ask John Piper

00:11:13.300 | if joy is something we fight for

00:11:15.380 | or if joy is something we wait for.

00:11:17.580 | We'll see you then.

00:11:18.540 | (upbeat music)

00:11:21.140 | (upbeat music)

00:11:23.740 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Ten Principles for Personal Productivity

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