Personal Vision Archives - What's Best Next

How to Plan Your Decade Webinar: Now Available

March 27, 2020 by Matt Perman

If you weren’t able to join us back in December for our 60-minute webinar on how to plan your decade, the recording is now available for everyone in the store. In addition to the presentation, I also respond to the great questions from those who attended online. It is $12.

Why Do You Need this Webinar?
A long-term perspective has been shown to be one of the most essential ingredients for living a productive life. Thinking deliberately about your vision and goals for the 2020s is a great opportunity to cultivate that habit and set yourself up to make the most of the next ten years. Even more, it is very motivating.

Many of you are familiar with the GTD concept of the weekly review. The weekly review is the linchpin of any productivity approach, and is a very versatile concept. It can be adapted into monthly reviews, quarterly reviews, and yearly reviews. In this workshop, I adapt that to the concept of the decade review.

So take a concept you are already familiar with and amp it up to set yourself up for success for the next ten years.

Of course, there are two objections we might have to this concept.

Hasn’t the Decade Already Started?
The first is: hasn’t the decade already begun–so isn’t it too late? The answer is that while a new decade does create a special type of motivation (it’s called a “temporal landmark”), this motivation is something that endures for a period of time. It doesn’t have to be a single point. Any time in the first six months, or even first year or two even of a new decade, can be an effective time for your decade planning.

And aside from that, the concept of a decade review can be utilized in many different ways other than the turn of a decade on a calendar — for example, when you enter a new personal decade like turning 30, you hit an anniversary in another area of life (in your business, marriage, etc.), and just in general whenever you want to create a long-range vision. So this concept is very useful at all times.

Hasn’t Coronavirus Thrown Off All Our Plans?
Second, we might say: hasn’t the Coronavirus changed everything? The plans a person made in January for the decade are likely all shot now. So why plan at all?

If this is your question, you will enjoy the webinar all the more. I talk about how the fact that circumstances change is not a reason to dismiss planning; rather, it is one of the greatest reasons we need to plan in the first place.

Getting clear on what you want (and what God wants for you) for the next set of years enables you to adapt to new situations more effectively and harness unplanned opportunities. As I discuss in the webinar, we actually need to distinguish a vision from a plan. A vision is much more broad and flexible — there are many ways to get there, and you adapt as circumstances require.

We call this “decade planning,” however, because that is the more common term that more easily connects. But really this webinar is about creating a vision for your life, and then from that vision, yes, creating more detailed plans — but you adjust those plans as needed in your other reviews (yearly, quarterly, weekly, and as otherwise needed).

So this webinar will help you be even more agile and adaptable in these uncertain times — while staying fixed on a foundation of a core purpose and God-centered values that do not change.

You can purchase it now in the online store.

The Decade Review, Part 1: Learn from the Last Ten Years

December 30, 2019 by Matt Perman

From the current series How to Plan Your Decade: Start the 2020s Well.

Last week I talked about why it is a good idea to plan your decade. A new decade is a type of temporal landmark which switches on our motivation. It makes sense to harness this in the cause of creating a great future, both for yourself and the good of others.

You can do this through what I call a decade review—an adaptation of the GTD concept of the yearly review.

I did an online webinar on this last week. For those who attended, it was great to talk with you and thanks for joining! If you didn’t attend, we’ll be making the recording available in our online store soon, along with the supporting documents and templates we provided. For those who don’t want to go to that level, or who want a short intro to accompany that, I’m going to cover a few highlights of how to plan your decade in the rest of this series.

So how do you carry out a decade review?

Interestingly, the first step is not what you would expect. Instead of simply looking forward, you first have to look back. Then the next two steps have you looking forward. Hence, the three steps are:

Look back at the last ten years
Cast vision for the next ten years
Plan the next year

Here is a brief checklist on how to do the first step: learning from the last ten years.

Pray

Create a Document Called “2010s Decade Highlights”
As you go through the next two steps, add the key things to this document.

Review Your Reference Materials (if you have them)

Review your knowledge journals (quick scan of all; if needed, maybe create as task to do over a few weeks)
Review some notes you’ve taken on books, sermons, conferences, and so forth (if needed, also create as task to do over a few weeks)
Review key checklists in your planning system if you have some
Look over your bookshelves for great books you’ve overlooked!

Review Highlights from the Decade

Review your life journals (focused on events and life experiences, as opposed to ideas–the journals in the previous step).
Review your photos.
Review your calendar for highlights. This can be one of the funnest things. You’ll recall great vacations, meaningful events, even memorable business trips and meetings.
Review your completed tasks (goals, projects, next actions), if you keep a record of those.

Learn from the Previous Decade

Journal briefly on the decade. You could do this by year, or considering the decade as a whole. Just write on the main things that stand out to you–describe some key events, challenges, and so forth.
Reflect on what can be learned from the decade and journal on the top three things.

Finalize the “Decade Highlights” Document

Review what you have in it so far and ask: is there anything else I want to add? What else did we finish, handle, and experience that is not on here? Add that, and then this document is done.

Posts in this series:

From How-To to When-To: Why to Plan Your Next Ten Years
The Decade Review, Part 1: Learn from the Last Ten Years
The Decade Review, Part 2: Set a Direction for Your Next Ten Years (forthcoming)
The Great Opportunities Before Us: What’s Ahead for the 2020s? (forthcoming)

From How-To to When-To: Why to Plan Your Next Ten Years

December 17, 2019 by Matt Perman

New Year’s resolutions. Are they useless? Is it a myth that the new year is a good time to start fresh?

Based on the lack of success most people have with their resolutions, it might seem so. And, after all, doesn’t the idea that a new year represents a new start seem kind of arbitrary? Why would January 1 be a more powerful day than any other?

But it turns out that our intuitive sense that there is something to a new year is actually correct. As shown in Dan Pink’s book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, a new year is what researchers call a temporal landmark. These temporal landmarks help us navigate our way through time, just as physical landmarks help us navigate our way through space.

A temporal landmark switches on our motivation, and makes it possible for us to start (or re-start) in a stronger way. And this matters very much. “In most endeavors, we should be awake to the power of beginnings and aim to make a strong start…Beginnings have a far greater impact than most of us understand. Beginnings, in fact, can matter to the end.”

Researchers have found that a temporal landmarks help us in two chief ways. First, they allow us to:

open “new mental accounts” in the same way that a business closes the books at the end of one fiscal year and opens a fresh ledger for the new year. This new period offers a chance to start again by relegating our old selves to the past. It disconnects us from that past self’s mistakes and imperfections, and leaves us confident about our new, superior selves. Fortified by that confidence, we “behave better than we have in the past and strive with enhanced fervor to achieve our aspirations.”

Second, “these time markers is to shake us out of the tree so we can glimpse the forest.” They take our focus off of our day-to-day minutiae and lift it up to the big picture. This wide-angle view of our lives allows us to see more clearly and focus on our goals. It slows down our thinking so that we can deliberate at a higher level.

It turns out that you can do this with lots of days, not just the new year. Birthdays, anniversaries of any major event, the start of a new school year, the beginning of a month, and so forth. “Imbuing an otherwise ordinary day with personal meaning generates the power to activate new beginnings.”

So if you don’t plan your decade, all is not lost. Nonetheless, here we are presented with an incredible opportunity to create a fresh start and take in the big picture. For we don’t just have he power of a new year starting; we have the power of a new set of ten years starting.

This is a unique temporal landmark that we can harness to clarify our vision and amp our motivation in a greater way than the start of a standard year. You can use the beginning of this new decade to harness the fresh start effect and create a strategic turning point in your personal history. And it just so happens that thinking ahead ten years is about the perfect amount of time to clarify a good vision for your life that is long enough to give you good direction but not so long that it seems unattainable.

So where do you want to be in ten years? What are the milestones along the way? And what are the key lessons from the last ten years? These are important questions to ask, and science now confirms it.

What we need now is a process to do this. A process for planning our decade. I call it a “decade review.” Most of us now are familiar with David Allen’s concept of the weekly review from Getting Things Done. I have long adapted the concept of the weekly review to other important time markers as well: the monthly review, quarterly review, and yearly review. Now it’s time for the decade review.

I’ll give some tips on how to do it in the next two posts. But if you want to go deeper and learn about how to do a decade review live and more directly, I am doing a webinar this Thursday, December 19, at 11:00 am Central Time. You can sign up here. It will be new stuff that goes beyond what I will be posting next on how to do it, so I encourage you to join us! UPDATE: Registration for this event is now closed. Thank you.

“Shifting our focus—and giving when the same weight as what—won’t cure all our ills. But it’s a good beginning.”

— Dan Pink

How to Plan Your Decade—Next Week’s Online Workshop

December 10, 2019 by whatsbestnext

Where do you want to be in 10 years?

2019 is ending, and a new decade is beginning. Don’t miss this opportunity to discover or recalibrate the long-term vision for your life!

We don’t achieve our goals on accident. Those who look to the future with purpose and make long-term plans are more likely to succeed and make good decisions than those who don’t.

In this upcoming online workshop—December 19th at 11:00 AM CST—Matt Perman will show you how to move from the GTD concept of a “weekly review” to a “decade review.” You will learn how to start your decade off right and make the most of your next ten years.

Spots are limited so be sure to reserve your virtual seat before registration closes on December 17th.

UPDATE: Registration for this event is now closed. Thank you.

What Does it Mean to Glorify God?

March 14, 2018 by Matt Perman

Most Christians agree that our purpose in life is to glorify God.

However, we can also struggle with having a clear idea of what that means. Which makes it hard to apply and give direction.

Hence, it is helpful to understand more precisely what it means to glorify God. There are lots of ways to do this. One that I’ve found helpful recently is this: To glorify God means to give him weight. To give him ultimate significance and centrality in your life and actions.

In other words, to glorify God means to act in ways that show he matters most in each decision you make. It is to have ultimate regard for him in all that you do, coming from love for him.

I’d like to give some examples here, but what might be most helpful to illustrate this is for each of us to ask ourselves: what is something we did recently that gave God weight? And then ask: how can we do more things like that?

Maximizing Productivity and Meaning

November 20, 2017 by Matt Perman

Last November I spoke at an event for Cornerstone Wealth Partners on how to maximize productivity and meaning in our work and lives in this knowledge work era.

I really enjoyed it, and I think this is one of my best summaries of Gospel-Driven Productivity in a single message so far.

How to Get Things Done in Seminary

June 5, 2015 by Matt Perman

My article for the latest edition of Towers, a monthly publication from Southern Seminary.

Here’s an excerpt:

While I don’t begrudge the fact that time management was not taught in my seminary studies (though I think it should have been), the fact remains: every seminary student needs to learn time management. There is no other way to prepare adequately for all the demands that will come after seminary. Further, learning time management now will pay big dividends by enabling you to be more effective in your current studies, with less stress and more peace of mind.
In fact, time management is especially helpful during the days of your theological studies. Archibald Alexander, one of the founding faculty of Princeton Seminary, writes:
Diligence without method will enable us to make but little progress; adopt, therefore, and preserve a regular method in the disposal of your time and distribution of your studies. When you have your time judiciously apportioned you proceed with ease and alacrity like the traveler on a road where the distances are marked and the stages conveniently arranged for his accommodation.
This is even more important now than in Alexander’s day or when I was in seminary, as the pace of life has only picked up due to technology. With the intelligent application of a few solid time management principles, it is possible to make the most of your time in seminary without letting your studies become a grind or unjustly interfere with your family, ministry, and other priorities.
So, how do you do that? Here are five principles that can serve as a starting point.

Read the whole thing. (You can also see the entire issue with all the other articles as well, in a way that is very nicely laid out online just like the print version.)

Why What's Best Next is Relevant to Scholars and Students

May 1, 2014 by Matt Perman

Here is an absolutely fantastic and helpful review of What’s Best Next by David Leonard, assistant professor of philosophy and apologetics at Luther Rice University.

David first nails the essence of the book in the opening paragraph: how productivity is about putting the needs of others first. This is not something we often think of when we think of productivity, but it is both biblical and the way to become most productive and make the highest impact.

Then he gets into the specific angle of the review: how What’s Best Next is applicable to scholars and students. He relates it to Andreas Köstenberger’s incredible book Excellence: The Character of God and the Pursuit of Scholarly Virtue, writing:

Whereas Andreas Köstenberger, for example, has challenged scholars to pursue their work with excellence, in terms of demonstrating boldness amidst the pressures of “academic respectability” and displaying integrity in their scholarly activities, Perman highlights for readers the practical steps that might be taken to clear the way for such excellence to be achieved.
To put it differently, if an excellence is roughly identical to a virtue, then it seems the aim of What’s Best Next is to enable Christians to be virtuous stewards of their time and resources, a theme which overlaps nicely with Köstenberger’s emphasis. Christian scholars, no doubt, would do well to reflect on these connections.

This connection to Kostenberger’s book is right on. Kostenberger shows the importance of excellence; What’s Best Next gives some practical steps for making excellence happen in every area of life. And, as Leonard shows, this has great application for scholars and students, as well as those in the marketplace, leading churches, leading non-profits, and leading in their communities.

Leonard’s review also interacts with some of the most unique parts of the book as well, such as how allowing people to surf the internet for fun at work makes people more productive, not less.

Read the whole thing.

What's the Difference Between Mission and Vision?

November 4, 2013 by Matt Perman

When reading on leadership, you very quickly come across references to “mission” and “vision.” Unfortunately, the meaning of those terms, and the difference between them, is not often made clear.

So, here’s the difference.

Mission: The ultimate purpose of the organization; it’s reason for existence. It’s why you do what you do. A mission is never “finished,” so a good mission is one that you would still be able to affirm 100 years from now.

Vision: Used in multiple ways. It is sometimes used just to mean a vivid description of what it will look like when you are fulfilling your mission in all the ways you want. More precisely, though, it is typically a large goal, usually 5-10 years out, that represents the chief focus and state of affairs you are seeking to bring about during that time period. Hence, it has a finish point and can be completed — but it is a stretch. A good vision derives from and is aligned with the mission.

Here’s an example for a church:

Mission: To glorify God as a loving community of Christ-centered people.
Vision: To have a vibrant worshipping community of 1,000 people, from all age groups, who are active in the city for justice and mercy and loving one another, being built up by solid preaching, and meeting in regular fellowship groups.

Note, of course, that if you are a church you don’t need to make numbers central to your vision. I just did that here to help keep the example clear. A good vision is quantifiable in some way; but numerical growth doesn’t need to be central to how you define success for your church. (On the other hand, I don’t think it’s bad to care about numerical growth, either; in fact, I would argue we have a mandate to care about it in some sense, because every person matters.)

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