How to Stop Wasting Time by Taking a Second to THINK

Last week, we wrote about the importance of having the proper perspective when it comes to valuing time. If you haven’t had a chance, it’s worth reading right now.

For many of us, time-wasting doesn’t look like one would expect. We’re not laying around on the couch all day every day, eating Cheetos and watching reruns. We’re actually really busy—always going, doing, hustling, and racing from one thing to the other. That’s how we feel, anyway, and the result all too often does look like Cheetos-and-reruns-on-the-couch for a lot longer than we think is healthy, because we feel too worn out to do anything else with our pockets of free time.

It’s the typical song and dance of our busy culture.

But what if a large amount of our busy-ness itself is the drain on our time? What if we’re needing to say “no” more often, so that our “yes”-es have the space to breathe and really flourish? How do we gauge the quality of our busy?

Each of us will have to answer this question individually, and each of our templates for evaluating will look a little differently. That’s because we each have different giftings to edify the Body, and different areas of the garden that we’re called to cultivate.

We need to take a second to ask these questions:

What are the most overwhelming areas of my life? If I were proactive in these areas (instead of operating in a default, reactionary state), how could I clear the excess and focus on what matters most?
What are my top priorities—the “non-negotiables” on my plate? Who and what must I show up for with commitment and thoughtfulness, even if it means other things have to go unmanaged
What work has God given me to do in His world? He’s ‘got the whole world in His hands, and He doesn’t need me to have every last detail figured out. So what is the unique role He created me to fill—the space where I’d be the hardest to replace?

Your life is too precious to let it drain away in the exhausting hamster wheel of reactionary living. Use the flex space of your planner to get still and think deeply. There’s a lot of joy to be found in your corner of the garden.

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Are you ready to launch into an entirely new way of planning? We created the Evergreen Planner System because we needed a tool that would help us use the time we’ve been given intentionally, and it has become something we can’t live without. The Getting Started Kit is the perfect way to try two of our core products – the Annual and the Monthly. Don’t wait until we launch our next subscription box – get the tools you need today!

March 31, 2021

How to Stop Wasting Time: Perspective

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Mindset

Stop for just a second and ask yourself: what is a week of your life actually worth?

We only have 4,452 weeks from the moment we’re born until our 85th birthday (if we’re given that many years).

Just…let that sink in. We have fewer than 5k weeks in an entire (generous) lifespan, and yet, sometimes we just let a “bad” or “off” week (or several) slip away without seriously evaluating underlying causes and lessons we could be learning.

Now, don’t misunderstand: sometimes a week that’s way more heavy on rest, fun, or flexibility is needed. Sometimes, crises (internal and external) endow a week with a heavenly purpose that we cannot immediately grasp from our point of view in the moment.

But are we really grasping that there are only 936 weeks from the moment our child takes her first breath to the day she’s graduating highschool? That we have only 156 weeks we get to invest into the hungry mind of our toddler before his little brain networks solidify? That in just 520 weeks an entire decade of marriage is in the books?

Are we really grasping the fact that this upcoming week is either laying another brick in the foundations of the future we’re called to help build—or that it’s stuffing the foundations with wood, hay, and stubble, and all manner of things that (thankfully) will not last in the refining fires of God’s redemption?

How quickly the weeks just tick away on our calendars.

This post is in no way designed to inspire fear: we cannot attack time with a death grip and try to slow it down or expect it to develop our personal histories exactly as we wish. However, we are called to accept the reality that time is the most precious resource we are called to steward. Unlike money or energy (two things we tend to be wayyyy more careful about spending), time is not renewable. A week that passes can never be brought back again. This week, once lived, becomes part of our personal (and family) history.

While we have eternity in Christ to explore His creation, expressing ourselves creatively as an amen to His Image in us, and basking in the goodness of communion with and in Him—our time on this side of glory is much more limited (and yet endowed with eternal purpose).

We have a finite number of weeks to walk the earth and advance the oasis of Christ’s joy into the desert, to invest rare love into hungry hearts, and to respond to temporal needs with creativity. We have a finite number of weeks to advance the cause of Christ to a world in such desperate need of His mercies.

In our modern world, being “short on time” seems to be an unquestioned constant. But we are not any shorter on time than in any other era of history. Instead, our life expectancy is better than it’s been for millennia. Our homes and garages are stocked with machines that save so much time that it would absolutely boggle the minds of our ancestors. Speed of transportation is unprecedented, and speed of communication is immediate.

Our problem is not a shortness of time, but a confusion of our priorities.

Evaluating Your Time Exercise & Worksheet

Take some time to journal through the following questions & complete this worksheet.

How exactly are you investing our weeks?
If we were to map out an average week, what areas of life get most of our attention?
Is our schedule packed to the gills with extra drive time?
Are we devoting the majority of our time dropping everything and responding to the boundary-less “emergencies” of others?
Does mindless scrolling get the best hours of our week?
Are our current priorities, events, projects, screentime activities and conversations worth the precious time out of our week that they’re claiming?
Are more important things consistently being de-prioritized in response to the tyranny of the urgent, digital distractions, or a reactive lifestyle that’s been slapped together haphazardly?

It can be difficult to honestly evaluate how we have spent our time, but it can also be the exact catalyst needed to make us make the necessary changes. How you spend your moments is how you spend your life. Make sure you’re truly making space to thrive.

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March 24, 2021

How to Get Back Up Again

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Mindset

“Uh oh, Elizabeth, be careful. You’re sloshing it out.”

My four year old stops her stirring for a second, processing my words. She sees where a small puddle of batter is now splatted on the counter top. She adjusts her grip, and then begins to mix again, slower this time.

“It’s okay, Mom.” She says in a confident tone. Then under her breath, more to herself than to me, “It’s all a part of learning.“

I’m pretty sure she got that phrase from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and I’m completely in love with it.

God seems to endow little kids with a strong growth mindset to sustain them through all the little challenges of growing up. They fall a hundred times learning to walk, but giggle right through it, jump back up, and try again. All the while, their little muscles are getting stronger, their coordination is improving, and they’re getting the hang of how to balance themselves to keep moving towards their target despite environmental variables.

Having a growth mindset is vital to sustaining an intentional lifestyle, because making mistakes is a vital part of the process.

And yet, as adults, we so often get annoyed at the process.

We expect to go from inexperienced and naive to total masters of a new skill in one day.
We expect ourselves to navigate unknown terrain with perfect foresight and preparedness.
We expect ourselves to never, ever, trip or fall while we learn to balance determination with flexibility.

Have you ever watched a baby try to walk a few times, and then, before he masters it, he suddenly falls to his knees and crawls over to his snacks and sippy cup to take a breather? He seems perfectly satisfied in having done his “learning to walk exercises,” spending the rest of the day playing toys, napping, and crawling around to get from one destination to the other. He’s letting those around him who do know how to walk inspire him to believe that walking is possible (and even ideal!), but he’s also usually pretty content with the process. He doesn’t ignore his hunger and sleeping cues to hustle to master the new skill because he thinks it’ll make everything better. He doesn’t neglect his relationships, or forget to nourish himself in other ways (through playing toys or getting snuggles). In fact, he thrives on the celebration of every step that he does take, takes satisfaction in the positive effort, and goes on about his day until it’s time to go at it again.

And once he does figure out how to walk, he’s not immediately depressed that he doesn’t know how to run. He just practices walking faster and faster until he gains that skill, too. Walking, running, climbing, eating, going potty, building, opening, learning boundaries, socializing, talking, counting, and reading are just a few of the things a child has to master in the first few years of their lives. Their natural growth mindset turns all of these complex tasks into the grand adventures of childhood. They have fun, take satisfaction in the process, stay fully present with others, and prioritize self-care (such as eating and sleeping). And when they do get frustrated, and the part of their human nature that loathes mistakes begins to kick in, healthy adults come alongside the children to assure them that the errors are all a part of learning.

Without a growth mindset, it’s all too easy to become way too hard on yourself (and others), hustling non-stop to try to “make up for” hundreds of non-essential things that “need” to be perfected before you can be satisfied in your work. But if you never can come to an emotional stopping point, then you can never truly rest. If you can never rest, then you can never celebrate your own milestones or enjoy the fruit of your labor. Your life becomes a nonstop grind with the goal of trying to outrun your inadequacies.

This puts you on the fast track to burnout. Burnout is a headspace where meaningful productivity is virtually impossible. It’s also a very low state, physically. Getting out of bed itself becomes a challenge (let alone producing excellence in your work).

A growth mindset creates space for progress, while a “fixed” mindset expects spotless perfection right out of the gate.

When you have a fixed mindset and run into a mess, you tend to be completely closed off emotionally to the process of bringing order out of chaos, skill out of naïveté, and maturity out of inexperience. You either get overwhelmed and quit at the gate, or you try to sprint your way through the marathon and end up too tired (burned out) to finish.

You neglect good nutrition and exercise, sleep, and relationships in the name of crushing your goals. Your time fills up with busywork, fiddling with perfectionism. You aren’t respecting creaturely limits, so you aren’t disciplining yourself to find creative ways to be more effective. You see the process as the enemy, so every failure and setback takes a toll on you emotionally.

The adventurous air of new goals and projects wear off extremely fast, leaving you to feel overwhelmed and caught between the decision to sprint or quit. So how do you return the spirit of adventure to your goals and embrace the process?

By adopting the 4yo’s phrase, in the face of mistakes, errors, and uncertainty: It’s all a part of learning.

So what does this mean practically for your life?

Are you still struggling to adjust to the ways Covid has forced lifestyle changes? Is uncertainty getting at you? Take a deep breath. Get still, get real, get organized, and recognize that the uncertainty is all a part of learning.
Are you making one mistake after another in your attempts to refine your home rhythms? Does it feel like every day exposes a weak part of your routine? Getting into good rhythms is a process. Take a deep breath. Get still, consider the pain points, brainstorm solutions, and recognize that missteps are all a part of learning.
Is perfectionism keeping you from really finishing that really important domino project (like decluttering your home, or getting your papers organized)? Take a deep breath. Get still, get reconnected with your why, and recognize that putting progress over perfection is all a part of learning.
Is your exercise program causing more stress than it’s worth, or never getting done because it’s so unappealing? Take a deep breath, and research a more fun way to get your movement in. Recognize that pivoting from the original plan when something better becomes clear is all a part of learning.

It’s all a part of learning. So pause, evaluate, pivot, and move on. You can choose to do so with a cheerful attitude.

Take your own mistakes in joyful stride because errors are simply an opportunity to grow.

When you’re in this headspace regarding the process that it takes to accomplish your goals, you model a growth mindset for others (especially your children and those closest to you). You tend to be more gracious with others as well. And you have the sustained energy to get your goals through milestone after milestone. Radical, positive change happens. Possibilities unfold everywhere. And that is the addictive part of the process.

Keep going, friend.

It’s all a part of learning.

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Are you interested in trying a piece of the Evergreen Planner system for free? Check out this free printable day planner sheet! You can use this printable to effectively plan your days until you’re ready to jump into the entire Evergreen Planner system.

March 17, 2021

Understanding Social Energy & Communication Styles

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Mindset

Last week, we wrote about productivity personalities, how to feed strengths and compensate for weaknesses, and how these ideas have played out in our Evergreen Team dynamics. In this post, we’re going to look at social energy and communication styles, and the ways doing all this work around who you are and who you’re working with can help you work more compassionately and productively as an individual and on a team.

Social Energy

Way more popular than productivity personalities, is diving into the concept of being “introverted” vs “extroverted.”

Once Shelby realized that she is an extraverted worker, everything changed. At first, she was thrilled at the prospect of working completely alone. The work she was doing at the time was extremely intellectually stimulating, and was exactly the kind of material she’d hide in the closet for hours on end to enjoy in silence.

But after weeks of focusing alone on a project, she felt like she was going insane. Even with plenty of socializing outside of work, it wasn’t enough. Working alone was miserable.

Then, during an inner work journaling exercise something she wrote down hit her like a lightning bolt: if working alone was not life-giving, why not set a boundary to no longer accept projects that would have her alone for hours and hours on end? Why not prioritize work that would connect her with an energizing team?

It was a pivotal moment for Shelby and paved the way for a series of decisions that ultimately resulted in the Evergreen Planner finally getting what it needed to flourish.

So ask yourself: Do you get your energy from working primarily alone or in a team? How can you choose a new path that energizes you instead of one that depletes you?

Communication Styles

Whether you are energized by working solo or in a team, you’ll always need to communicate with others.

It really helps to understand that there are two types of communicators:

The external processor needs to talk it out (or write it out) in order to process something. She will work through issues best during a conversation, and often times the position that she seems to be taking dogmatically at the beginning actually evolves during the conversation, and by the end, can be radically different. This can be very confusing to others, but it’s just because very little processing of information (which is where the consideration of different perspectives, the reasoning, the prioritizing, and the negotiating come into play) happened before the conversation was ever had.
The internal processor operates, in many respects, in just the opposite way. She will be very hesitant to make a decision or give feedback on an idea without first being able to take time alone to think and process. Overall, her communication may seem minimal, which can be confusing to others who want immediate feedback on an idea or project. Her silence may be perceived as negative feedback, when really it is just her hesitancy in offering any opinion before she has considered every angle in silence and solitude.

Ask yourself: Which one resonates most with you? Are you an internal or external processor?

Like most things, being an external or internal processor has it’s strengths and weaknesses. However, there are specific practices and habits that can help you both honor who you have been made to be, while also honoring the needs of others who are different from you.

If you’re an external processor (like Shelby), a trick to stop confusing others or making conflicts worse is to journal out your thought processes before engaging in conversation. Writing can be just as effective as talking something out, but it will help you to objectively look at your own reasoning before someone else has to call you on your own inconsistencies. An effective journaling habit will make your communications with others much more efficient, effective, and persuasive. However, because talking it out is often easier and more enjoyable, it also helps to designate certain (willing) people in your life to be the recipients of your brainstorming sessions. Tell them in advance that you’re calling them specifically to bounce ideas off of them, talk through a problem, or just get thoughts out of your brain where they’re clogging everything up.
If you’re an internal processor (like McCauley), a key to avoiding frustration with others is to give them the assurance that you’re thinking over the things they’ve brought up and that you will get back to them with a conclusion. Then give yourself space to think through the issues in silence. You don’t have to answer them in that moment, even if they’re pressuring you to. You don’t have to go against your gut if you really just need the time to process alone before making a decision. However, keep yourself accountable to doing the work needed to be able to give the feedback that others need from you in a timeline that makes sense for the project or decision. Communicate when they can expect an answer from you.

Do the Inner Work

It can take some journaling and discussions with loved ones in order to figure out some of these things for yourself, but it’s worth the effort.

When you bring other personality dynamics to the table, the discussions for how to understand and mutually support one another deepen in complexity. But we’ve found these musings and discussions to be exceedingly fruitful in our homes, our businesses, and in our communities.

Try pulling out your planner and journaling through these questions:

Are you an extravert in your work, or an introvert? Do you need to spend time with a team in order to be energized? Or do you need to make sure you’re getting a lot of time to work alone?
Are you an external or an internal processor? What about your spouse? Your closest coworker? How can you support them better in their communication needs?
Are you okay with leaning into who God uniquely made you to be? Do you think it’s better to have different personality traits? Why or why not? Are you open to the idea that, as long as you’re within God’s ethical guidelines, your unique working personality is actually a specifically designed blessing for His Kingdom?

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Don’t forget that in addition to taking time to work through the above questions, we also offer an incredibly simple quiz to help you determine your productivity personality!