Here's the Deal

By goals, I also mean deadlines.

How often do you set goals?  Do you set goals for everything or only a few things?  I have found that it is great to set goals even for the smallest of things.

I have a huge goal/deadline I have set for the end of August.  Right now only a few people know about it, but basically it is to be fully self employed by September 1st.  I have realized how great it is to tell others your golas.  It actually makes you get them done.  Accountability is so great when it comes to meeting your goals.  I’m glad I have people to keep me in check.

Do you tell people your goals/deadlines?  How have you noticed by telling people that it has helped you reach these goals/deadlines?

What do you waste time doing online that in the end is really pointless?

For me it’s looking at facebook.  The last few weeks I have only been going to facebook when I get an email telling me I have something in my inbox, a friend request or a comment on a status or my wall.  Good times.  I’m finding the only good thing about Facebook, for me, are pages.  Just my opinion and where I am right now.  This could all change of course in the future.

Blogs – I only read a few blogs any more.  Only people who write what I care about.  If you blog about 8 steps to tweeting or 4 ways to get RTs or 176 steps to a better marriage I don’t care.

Although Twitter and Facebook pages can be huge wastes I set up private follow lists to make it easy on me.  I can’t read every tweet everyday. Especially when it’s as pointless as the stuff I write.  Yes, I know I’m guilty of wasting people’s time.

That last sentence has now led to another post that could be very thought provoking.

I’ve been thinking about this lately.  There are several people who speak into my life in different areas.

For my personal/spiritual life there are 3 main influences.  There is more I can write about these three and I am sure I will be in the near future.

• My wife, Mariah, my dad and my mom.  Without these 3 people there is no telling who or where I would be.
• My wife is there every day giving me advice and pushing me in ways I can’t push myself.  She’s the one who tells me things and knows things that no one else does.  She is truly my best friend.  I could go and on about here, but you people who are married know what I’m talking about.
• Next are are my parents.  It seems every time I talk to my dad on the phone he drops wisdom and knowledge on me like no other.  He has taught me lessons my whole life that I hold onto today.
• My mom is my prayer warrior.  I know she prays for me everyday and odds are it’s more than once a day.  She has more discernement than anybody I know.  When I tell her some things going on in my life she usually says, “weird, I’ve been praying about that for you.”

For my work/professional I am just now thinking about this really for the first time.

• One person I can think of is Tony Steward.  I met Tony about 4 years ago or so when his family made the trip to Southern California.  Tony and his family felt God calling them to Saddleback Church.  As long as I have known Tony he has been a hard worker, really smart and open to sharing what he learns with anyone who asks.  I am so fortunate to have this friendship with Tony.  We have a lot of the same interests.
• Two other people as of recently are Caleb Luke and Bob Erdman.  Caleb was my boss at Capo Valley Church. Yes, he is theologically wise, but he is also great in giving advice.  Just the other day he told me to, “do only what you can and get better at that.” For me this is video and film production, social media, new media, and technology.  I am not good at graphic design or website design.  It’s actually really difficult for me.  But I’m decent and getting better at video production.  Not only am I decent at it, but it is something I could do for the rest of my life.
• Bob Erdman is also a guy I worked with at the Church, but this working relationship will be continuing.  I’ve posted this before, but we are starting a business together.  His talents are graphic and website design.  So, as you can see we balance each other out pretty well with the talents God has given to us.  Bob always keeps pushing me.  He knows his stuff.  He doesn’t know this, but the other day I told my wife how much fun it is to work with people smarter than me.  He is definitely one of those people in my life.

So to all of you I just blogged about and those I didn’t thanks for pushing me and pouring into me.  There are also lots of others as well.  Thanks to the internet mentoring from a distance without the mentor knowing is possible.   As for all the guys that were in our wedding, the bosses I have had, those who I went to school with, all my college roommates and my relatives you have know idea the influence you have in my life.  It would take a book to write about each of you.

So, who speaks into your life?

We found an unbelievable spot to watch the fireworks last night in Dana Point.  I decided to get out the camera and try out my first attempt at a timelapse piece. Halfway thorough you can see the camera move.  My sister-in-law accidentally bumped into the tripod.  Oh well, I still think it came out pretty good for my first time.

Thanks to Philip Bloom timelapse is pretty easy to accomplish.  Now I just need to figure out the best settings on the camera.

I saw this tweet by Tony Steward tonight  ”My productivity system is organized into 4 areas: Personal, Work, Seminary & Professional. Cleaned up professional tonight – exciting stuff!”

It got me thinking about my systems and what needs to change.  I am trying to figure all this out as fast I can now that I’m self-employed.  He separates work and professional by who’s paying for results. Totally makes sense.

I really only need 2 separate systems: personal and work.  I feel like I have my personal system down, but I need to spend less time on it and more time on work only stuff.  I am currently setting up parameters on email, twitter and facebook.

Are your systems under or outa control?  I hope to have my new work system figured out by the end of next week.  Trying to figure out what works best for me.

What are your favorite productivity tools?