Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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I am, for the most part, an organized person. I actually wrote a whole book on productivity in which I laid out the system I used (and still use) to remain organized and, hopefully, effective in what I do. I have begun my days in roughly the same way for many years now, and have found that quick, daily “coram deo” a valuable way of ensuring I’m using my life in the most effective way. In many ways, this entire …
We’re nearing the end of the year, which means we’re already beginning to turn our attention to the next year, aren’t we? Now for most of us, that means we’re evaluating the year that was, and starting to determine, how can we do better in the year ahead? In this edition of 3 Minute Thursdays, I want to give you three quick productivity tips that I think will actually make a difference. You can watch it in Facebook or YouTube …
I tend to think the best comedy is the kind that is universal. It picks up on themes we can all readily identify with, no matter who we are. Brian Regan does a great little bit on getting a new pair of contacts, and it always makes me chuckle. He talks about the long procrastination so many of us endure before we finally do something as simple and rewarding as getting new lenses. When we finally get around to visiting …
Is there anything more tragic than time? Is there anything that brings about deeper grief than seeing time pass us by, than acknowledging how much has already elapsed and how little remains? We who were made to live forever are now given a mere “threescore years and ten” (Psalm 90:10) before we are gone. “If a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all,” says wise old Solomon, “but let him remember that the days of darkness will …
Our digital world is both a blessing and a curse for our growth in godliness. Today’s Christians have more sound, biblical resources at the tips of their fingers than all of our forefathers could have imagined. Through our phones, we can keep in constant touch with distant fellow Christians and benefit from the spiritual gifts of believers all across the globe. But our digital world can also hinder our growth, for godliness requires diligence and focus—qualities that are rare today. …
“Productivity? But I’m a stay-at-home mom!” That’s roughly how Aileen replied when we sat down to talk about the fact that our lives were veering out of control. We were emerging from an especially busy season but coming up to what promised to be an even busier one. Our son was ready to begin high school and was looking for his first job. One of his younger sisters had ballet lessons twice a week while the other had her soccer games …
There’s no doubt that life is difficult. We are finite creatures who encounter an infinite number of opportunities. This forces us to make constant decisions between better and best, between the millions of things we could do and the few we actually should do. We are also weak creatures who have limited strength, foolish creatures who have limited wisdom, and idolatrous creatures who cannot even trust our own hearts and minds. It’s no wonder, then, that we often find ourselves …
The digital age has brought with it a proliferation, a full-out explosion, of communication tools. In fact, it’s not difficult to argue that the digital revolution has primarily been a communications revolution. Just consider how many of today’s innovations in both hardware and software are designed to help us communicate better and faster, to take our words or images and broadcast them to others. This is why we carry iPhones and tablets, laptops and smart watches; it is why we …
Over the years I’ve found that one of the trickier parts of blogging, or any regular writing for that matter, is maintaining an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is a means of organizing current and future writing projects to take them from conception to publication. It organizes the process of progressing from vague ideas to completed, edited, final products. After spinning my wheels for years, I eventually found an excellent solution in a software package called Trello. In what follows …
With a new year approaching, many of us are considering how we can make the most of the opportunities it will bring. Many of us are considering how we can actually generate opportunities that will help us make the most of 2017. I have invested a lot of effort into defining and pursuing productivity through a Christian lens and want to offer a couple of options that may help you. I believe you will find them helpful whether you are …