If you read this blog, you know I read A LOT.  I easily forget that other people don’t.  While I was working on content for the ELI’s church planter training programs Ascend and Cultivate last week, I became curious how long it would take the average person to read the required books.  According to Wikipedia (does anyone remember Britannica? or Encarta?) 200 wpm is a pretty typical reading pace.  Thanks to Amazon you can discover how many words are in many books:

E-Myth – a must read for Entrepreuners  is 61,629 words = 5 hours and 8 minutes
Ruthless Trust – a powerful book on faith is 41,309 words = 3 hours and 25 minutes
The NIV Bible – worth reading cover to cover is 732,654 words = 61 hours

Which then got me wondering why War and Peace has the reputation for being such a long book.  That’s easy at 597,773 words it would take you 50 hours.  No wonder I’ve never read it.

In case you’re wondering my average reading speed is about 400 wpm – two books for the time of one.

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The big online news this week will be Facebook’s 500 million users.  To promote the milestone they are apparently planning a “Facebook Stories” campaign featuring stories of how Facebook changed people lives.  Really?

Begs the question, what kind of stories of changed lives are you telling?

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I’m reading The Secret of Guidance by F.B. Meyer, a British pastor from the turn of the last century.  I laughed this morning when I read:

“The life around us, in this age, is preeminently one of rush and effort.  It is the age of the express train and electric telegraph.  Years are crowded into months, and weeks into days.  This feverish haste threatens the religious life.”

I wonder what he would say about cars and planes, cell phones and the internet?  Then I began to wonder, is it the  life around us or the life in us that is preeminently one of rush and effort?

In the words of Pogo – I have seen the enemy, and he is me.

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Twenty three years ago Mandee and I were introduced to Sea Ranch by my brother Ron (who is now building his own place just a few miles up the road).  We spent our first real vacation as a married couple in the Moonraker house.  We’ve been here at least once year and often 2 or more times a year ever since.  Today we drove out from Sac to spend a few days in the Manacco.   As I write I’m enjoying the ocean view out the large picture windows while listening to Mandee and Kayla work on dinner in the kitchen.  All I have to do is pull into the neighborhood, roll down the window and smell the fresh ocean air and all is right in the world.  We have so many memories with family and friend from this place I couldn’t possibly recount them.  I love this place.

My advice, find a place you love and visit often.

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I’ve been reading “Hearing God” by Dallas Willard as part of my devotion time.  This line jumped out at me this morning:

“It is absolutely essential to the nature of our personal development toward maturity that we venture and be placed at risk, for only risk produces character.”

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My wife and daughter went shopping in San Francisco yesterday.  They sent me this – a picture of a Pomodoro cafe.  Can’t tell you anything about the food.  I can tell you that “pomodoro” is just Italian for “tomato” and the Pomodoro Technique is a time boxing strategy for organizing your work and increasing your productivity.  The author, Francesco Cirillo, is Italian and named the process after the kitchen timer he used – in the shape of a tomato.

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Day two of the Pomodoro Technique was a whole different experience.  I didn’t have to worry about stopping at the end of  a 25 minute Pomodoro – I kept getting interrupted.  I’ll spare you the details but it was one of those days that just went sideways from the start.  I was hoping to get some serious time on some projects and instead spent the morning putting out fires.  Though it was frustrating – which it would have been without doing Pomodoro – I learned a couple things.

1. Having a clear focus, even for a 25 minute block of time, helped identify and deal with the interruptions more directly.
2. Constantly starting and restarting the Pomodoro eventually enabled me to get into a focused rhythm in the afternoon.  Something, if I’m honest, I’m not always able to do when a day goes sideways like that.

Day 3 starts now.

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I’m experimenting with the Pomodoro Technique this week.  It is a way to organize time and activity.  It’s simple.  Choose a task.  Set a timer for 25 minutes.  Work on that task only until the timer goes off.  Then, take a break. I tried it yesterday, for the whole day.  I discovered I don’t like taking breaks.  I also realized I need them.  I do mental work all day, so it’s not like I need to sit down for few minutes, get a drink and catch my breath, so  I can go back to swinging a hammer.  I obeyed the Pomodoro yesterday and stopped and took a break (well, sometimes) and discovered I was mentally more alert and productive all day. So I’m starting today with this in mind – take a break!

I’ll let you know how it goes.

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Yes, it’s been two months since I posted.  Yes, like most of the leaders I train and coach, I have too much to do.  The options are simple – do less or do more.  The real goal is to do both – less time spent on less important activities and more time spent on more important activities.  The obvious question, how?

I’m familiar with a wide variety of time-management tools – have tried and trained in several of them.  I came across something new that seems to have great potential, The Pomodoro Technique.  I am going to try it starting tomorrow.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

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