PastorHacks

Sacred Rhythms...2

"It's not that I am averse to technology; I too have a cell phone, an office phone, a home phone and an email address, and they are much needed. However, I am aware of longings that run much deeper than what technology can address. I am noticing that the more I fill my life with the convenience of technology, the emptier I become in the places of my deepest longing. I long for the beauty and substance of being in the presence of those I love, even though it is less convenient. I long for spacious, thoughtful conversation even though it is less efficient. I long to be connected with my authentic self, even though it means being inaccessible to others at time. I long to be one who waits and listens deeply for the still, small voice of God, even if it means I must unplug from technology in order to become quiet enough to hear. 

Constant noise, interruption and drivenness to be more productive cut us off from or at least interrupt the direct experience of God and other human beings, and this is more isolating than we realize. Because we are experiencing less meaningful and divine connection, we are emptier relationally, and we try harder and harder to fill that loneliness with even more noise and stimulation. In so doing we lose touch with the quieter and more subtler experiences of God within.

This is a vicious cycle indeed."

- Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms

Value...

Some wisdom from Tim Ferris, author of the 4-Hour Work Week:

Once you realize that you can turn off the noise without the world ending, you’re liberated in a way that few people ever know.

Just remember: if you don’t have attention, you don’t have time. Did I have time to check e-mail and voicemail? Sure. It might take 10 minutes. Did I have the attention to risk fishing for crises in those 10 minutes? Not at all.

As tempting as it is to “just check e-mail for one minute,” I didn’t do it. I know from experience that any problem found in the inbox will linger on the brain for hours or days after you shut-down the computer, rendering “free time” useless with preoccupation. It’s the worst of states, where you experience neither relaxation nor productivity. Be focused on work or focused on something else, never in-between.

Time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time.

Read the rest here

Boundaries

One of the hardest parts about the pastoral gig is that we now find ourselves living at an almost unlivable tension point: We do work that has eternal significance, and via the magic of technology, we can now do that work (study, sermon prep, people contacting, etc) any time, any place.

That my friends, is a recipe for burnout.

So- how do we avoid that?

Here, from Tim Ferris' blog is a guest-post from Anne Zelenka...

If you are so passionate about your work that you border on obsessed, you might find it near impossible to turn work off.

This is especially so in the web age, when you can stay connected no matter where you are, who you’re with, or what you’re doing. What do you do when suggestions like “work only during certain hours” and “don’t check email on evenings and weekends” just don’t seem to be enough?

Here are five more powerful tricks for keeping work in its place:

1. Choose flow-inducing hobbies that really engage you and pull your mind away from work.

Flow is a sense of effortless engagement in what you’re doing. You’ll find it in activities that have clear objectives and challenge you just a bit beyond your current level of skill. What kind of hobbies can produce flow? Sports like skiing or martial arts, art like painting or pottery, games like poker or bridge, and puzzles like crosswords or sudoku are a few examples. Such activities will lure you away from work because, unlike passive activities like watching TV, they can provide the same sense of engagement and challenge that your work life offers.

2. Set goals in your personal life just like you do in your professional life.

Working towards goals is a sure way of getting yourself excited enough about non-work activities that you can pull yourself away work. This tip works in tandem with the first, because goal-oriented activities are more likely to provide a sense of flow than activities taken on for simple recreation and relaxation. Tim Ferriss describes a process he calls “dreamlining” [sample worksheets and excel tools here] for applying timelines to your life goals and dreams — that’s a great way to make your personal goals just as actionable as your work projects.

3. Schedule dates with other people for non-work activities.

For example, schedule a workout session with a personal trainer, arrange to meet a friend for happy hour after work, or make weekend plans with your friends or family to go hiking. Solo plans are easier to break in favor of work; if you have a commitment to another person you’ll be more likely to shut the laptop and mobile phone off.

4. Use tech boundaries to separate your work and your life.

Read the rest here

Cell Sin...

Driscoll on Cell Sin:

"This past summer I enjoyed some great vacation time with my wife of fifteen years, Grace, and our five children. We went to the high desert and spent most of our time enjoying the sunshine by playing catch, swimming in pools, inner tubing down rivers, going for walks and the like. For the first time in my life, I actually did not turn on my cell phone and did not take any calls or emails while on vacation. I made it a full three weeks of fasting from digital demons such as my BlackBerry, iPod, and second cell phone. Within a few days I also stopped wearing a watch and stopped really caring about time and instead enjoyed my wife, kids, and vacation. In short, it was wonderful. Unplugging my technology and simply having nothing on my body that required a battery seemed like a new kind of spiritual discipline for our age that refreshed and renewed me more than I could have imagined."
and
"I know in years past I too have been guilty of these same digital sins against God, my family, and my own well-being. Now that I see it as a sin that destroys silence, solitude, fellowship, prayerful listening, and meaningfully and attentive friendship, I am deeply convicted that there is a new spiritual discipline of fasting from technology to be mastered. In this way, we can enjoy the life and people that God puts in front of us rather than ignoring them while we peck away with our thumbs and chat about nothing, which in the end is rarely as important as the people we are ignoring all around us."

Read the rest here

Day Off Hack report and follow-up...

I've been doing PastorHacks.net for nigh on a year now... and in all that time, no article has even come close to engendering the discussion that the post on Days Off did. No why in the world is that?

Just an update- I did indeed switch my days off to the consecutive Friday/Saturday and have indeed found it to be a worthwhile change.

Yeah- I'm tired on Monday, but, it's a great day to take care of catching up on a hundred little detail things...
And I found that by making the mental shift of thinking of Sunday as the beginning of my five-day week, and Monday as my Tuesday, etc it all works just right.

One interesting note- for some reason, I'm constitutionally incapable of finishing a sermon by Thursday afternoon... Why is this? Why, when I used to be able to get sermons written in the time between Tuesday and Friday am I unable to get the same sermons written in teh time between Monday and Thursday?

So, all of this leads to a new hack... in my next entry.

Days Off...

I've always taken Mondays/Saturdays off. That just seemed to be the Way of the Pastor.

Recently, I'm rethinking...

I think Friday?Saturday is going to be my new day off combo. Here's why...

Usually, I'm not wiped out on Mondays. If anything, I have WAY more energy on Mondays than Fridays. There's something about coming off the weekend... if it went well, I'm jazzed. Lots of energy. If it went, uh... not-so-well, while I'm not jazzed, I still have a lot of energy- usually a long list of emails I want to write, things I want to capture on paper, stuff I want to get cracking on...

It seems like Monday ends up being not so much of a Sabbath, but an enforced waiting period.

So, there's that...

Also, something about having Sunday fall in between my days off feels really out of place... Sunday is not the end/all, be all for me in terms of pastoring. But preaching is a big part of it and Sundays represent a pretty significant emotional outlay. Putting it smack in the middle of two days off seems strange, when you stop and think about it.

So, all that to say, I'm ready to go when Monday hits, I'm really tired by the time Friday rolls around... seems like a no-brainer- put the days off together on Friday and Saturday, have a real weekend like a lot of people, and maybe a chance at some real Sabbath...

Whaddaya think? How do you all handle this? Any of you do Friday/Saturday? Or anyone take other days off instead? Why?
Talk to me!