What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done
If you’re looking for help with time management and productivity disciplines, I’d encourage you to look into Matt Perman’s “What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done.” While I have also benefited from some of the market’s best-sellers for this genre like David Allen’s “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productive” and Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Matt’s book offers a solid theological basis for why we should ultimately be fruitful in our work, how we can be rightly motivated to that end, and what exactly fruitfulness looks like in God’s economy.
One of the most life-changing points-of-reminder made in the book for me is that, because of the sin-atoning and merit-achieving work of Jesus Christ on the Cross (i.e. the Gospel), our favor before God is determined not in how productive we are at the end-of-the-day, but in our dependence on the finished work of Jesus before our day was ever started.
“Embracing the truth that God accepts us apart from good works is the precise thing that causes us to excel in good works . . . the only way to be productive is to realize that you don’t have to be.” – Matt Perman
Book Description
Do work that matters. Productivity isn’t just about getting more things done. It’s about getting the right things done–the things that count, make a difference, and move the world forward. In our current era of massive overload, this is harder than ever before. So how do you get more of the right things done without confusing mere activity for actual productivity?
When we take God’s purposes into account, a revolutionary insight emerges. Surprisingly, we see that the way to be productive is to put others first–to make the welfare of other people our motive and criteria in determining what to do (what’s best next). As both the Scriptures and the best business thinkers show, generosity is the key to unlocking our productivity. It is also the key to finding meaning and fulfillment in our work.
What’s Best Next offers a practical approach for improving your productivity in all areas of life. It will help you better understand:
- Why good works are not just rare and special things like going to Africa, but anything you do in faith even tying your shoes.
- How to create a mission statement for your life that actually works.
- How to delegate to people in a way that actually empowers them.
- How to overcome time killers like procrastination, interruptions, and multitasking by turning them around and making them work for you.
- How to process workflow efficiently and get your email inbox to zero every day.
- How your work and life can transform the world socially, economically, and spiritually, and connect to God’s global purposes.
By anchoring your understanding of productivity in God’s purposes and plan, What’s Best Next will give you a practical approach for increasing your effectiveness in everything you do. This expanded edition includes a new chapter on productivity in a fallen world and a new appendix on being more productive with work that requires creative thinking.
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