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Congratulations!
That actually wasn't so bad. It won't change much of what I already do, but it will change a few things.
With these urgent items out of the way, you can move on to the second quadrant of the Eisenhower Matrix.
“Self-control is the ability to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.”
Which problem, once solved, is going to make most of my other problems easier to solve or disappear entirely?
Before you schedule time to do these tasks, try your hardest not to do them.
To be unrushed like Jesus, we must develop the habit of ensuring we have plenty of breaks and margin built into our calendars.
Specifically, pack plenty of breaks and margin into your Time Budget, overestimating how long it will take you to do everything, especially new things.*2
To eliminate hurry, we must learn how to protect our Time Budgets with a unique approach to the powerful word no.
How can we discern when we’re called to say no, in an effort to protect our Time Budgets, and when we’re called to say yes?
Let’s face it: it’s flattering to be asked for help.
But oftentimes, yeses are far less generous than they seem, as every yes forces you to say no to many other people you could be serving with that time.
Opportunities that aren’t attached to some meaningful end aren’t opportunities—they are simply possibilities that stir up frantic excitement.
It’s all about doing more good works for others, not a means of making ourselves look good.
Proverbs 20:25 says, “It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows.”
Offering to answer questions via email is my favorite way to accomplish this.
After you deliver a generous no following the “encourage, decline, help” framework, prepare to be misunderstood.
But as with any good thing, we can easily make discipline an ultimate thing and thus turn it into an idol.
We can’t forget that everything we have—including our ability to be disciplined as we redeem our time—has been graciously given to us.
The second sign that we’ve made discipline an idol is that we are unable to extend grace to ourselves.
Here again, the solution is the gospel, which is why I will end this book the same way I began it: by reminding us that the gospel frees us from the need to be productive.
