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Oct 31

Daily Dose 12: Asking the Right Questions

Asking the right questions to get the right answer is a valuable skill needed for more than the scientific and legal professions. Asking the right questions can open new vistas in closed discussions or close discussion on a broad opportunity. Right questions are surgical tools for delicate mind and heart surgery. Right questions make it possible to interrogate yourself and find yourself guilty, when everyone thinks you innocent, and vice versa. Asking the right questions is especially helpful for unearthing values and priorities. Read more

Oct 30

Daily Dose 11: The Value of Values and Priorities

After two days of possible problems, any of which threaten to stymie anyone’s noble attempts to draft a personal priority list, it may seem you’ve been asked to undertake an activity destined to fail. Far from being a wasted venture fraught with disappointment and shattered dreams (well, at least a waste of  some time, and maybe a sheet or two of paper), a life priority list is a positive step toward wise day to day use of your time. Read more

Oct 29

Daily Dose 10: Pinpointing Priority Problems, 2

Here is where to begin reading the Daily Doses 1-10 in order.

It’s not too late to start that list. Or add to that list. Or let it simmer. Or look it over and think about it. In the meantime, here are a few more tendencies for you to consider. Read more

Oct 28

Daily Dose 9: Problems Pinpointing Priorities


So, how’s the list coming? If your thought was just to keep reading until you found some practical hint to try, why not just give the list a whirl? If, on the other hand, you jotted down pages of things that need doing, but not so much the why it is important you be doing those specific things, today and tomorrow are just for you. Priorities are something of a middle ground, the space between tangible to-dos and grand values. While you continue working with your own list on your own time, we are going to read about some of the underlying reasons why pinpointing priorities is difficult for most people. Read more

Oct 27

Daily Dose 8: Priority Primer

  • How long would it take to compile a list of everything you must do and want to do for your whole life?
  • How would you know if you forgot to list an important item?
  • Do you think it would be time well spent if you prepared such a list?
  • How do you think you would feel once you had the list in hand: energized or overwhelmed?
  • How long would the list be helpful: a day, a week, a month, or a year, before it would be hopelessly out-of-date?

Quite a few organizational systems start with compiling such a list–and yes, if someone has hired a time consultant it might take several days of consulting fees to pull it together. These systems are following excellent ancient advice from the Lord when they ask their clients to undertake such a project. The Lord’s advice comes to us in the form of a prayer from Moses back to the Lord in Psalm 90: teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom (Psalms 90:12). Read more

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