March 10, 2021

Do You Know Your Productivity Personality?

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Posted in Mindset

Despite ourselves, we are pretty big fans of personality research. I think both of us have tried to quit the whole personality-test scene about a dozen times, but we keep coming back to it.​

Truth is, we know that God loves diversity, and has built it into His Creation in some pretty astonishing ways. One of the most interesting, delightful, and sometimes confounding ways is the diversity of human personalities.

Within the boundaries of healthy ethics is a vast array of valid differences in which individuals perceive, engage, and respond to the world around them. Observing these differences, naming and cataloguing them, and then discussing them in light of God’s Word is work that seems to fall along the same lines as what Adam started doing with the animals in the garden. Only, unlike animals, God has put eternity in our hearts, and so our psyche is impossible for humans to fully comprehend and define. But to us, that truth only serves to magnify the intrigue of personality science. So we keep on discussing all of these significant differences in order to cultivate understanding, cooperation, and fruitfulness across the board.

We also research these things in order to better understand our own tendencies, identify any needs we’ve been ignoring, address personal weaknesses, tap into our core motivations, and better leverage our strengths.

Just like learning your top Love Languages can help you build into your marriage, or pegging Enneagram numbers can help you better respect your friends, learning your Productivity Personality can really help you begin to develop the most effective conditions in your home, office, and team systems for getting things done.

Working Personality

In his immensely practical book, The Synergist, Les McKeown outlines three types of people on your average working team:

  • the Visionary: this is the person who is constantly imagining ways to get to the next level
  • the Operator: this is the person who is consistently getting things done
  • the Processor: this is the person who obsesses over the systems that make everything work sustainably

Most of us have a dominant trait, and then a secondary one. And, like anything else, every type has strengths and weaknesses.

For instance, Shelby is a Visionary-Processor. She is always seeing the bigger picture, and then feeling the urge to create some kind of list or calendar or habit to get the team from A-Z. The problem is, all the ideas and systems she produces aren’t always super realistic without a lot of healthy feedback to tame them into something doable. It’s also easy for her to feel irritated that the letters B-Y are full of a lot of minutiae that distract from the initial burst of inspiration or the ending triumph of accomplishment.

McCauley is an Operator-Visionary. Getting stuff done and then dreaming about the next big goal are both her native language, but she can often feel overwhelmed by not being able to see how everything is working together to a single strong end. She never questions the amazing possibilities, but she does tend to tame Shelby’s chomping-at-the-bit to up-level with the same serious question: “But have you finished this other vital task?”

McKeown’s book urges the reader to identify their own working personality and the personalities of the other influential people on their team, and to understand the various strengths and weaknesses, and the ways that each personality can clash. The goal of all of this inner-work is to become what he calls a Synergist: someone who is realistic about the team’s dynamics, can patch personality holes when hiring, can work to resolve conflict, and can weave the team’s various strengths into a singularly powerful force.

After Shelby read this book in 2019 and we examined the Evergreen team dynamics, we began praying that we could find a Processor-Operator to join the team. We knew that pulling another Visionary on the team could serve to drown out McCauley’s common-sense approach that wanted to see the results that come from consistency before jumping into a new strategy. We also knew that my hankering for organization and sustainability would solve the overwhelm problem—so long as the systems we created were actually practical. We also knew that a mere Processor (without an Operator wing) would bog us down a bit too much with systems, without having that can-do, problem-solving spirit that our tiny startup needed from every single member on our founding team.

Not too long after, Shelby was having a conversation with Clari at a family reunion (fun fact: she’s my husband’s cousin by marriage), and she mentioned that she was a Virtual Assistant. Something was seriously clicking. After an interview and trial run, we quickly realized that she was the Processor-Operator we’d been praying for.

Knowing your working personality is useful for so much beyond just hiring. It can be useful in any working relationship. Knowing that McCauley is an Operator has helped Shelby make sure that she included progress updates in team meetings. Knowing that Shelby is a Visionary has helped McCauley understand that Shelby’s not flaking out on the here and now—but that she’s hardwired to be envisioning what’s next. She also has learned that I’m a well of ideas that can be tapped at any time with a single question—and McCauley is always there to help Shelby prioritize the next best idea.

Knowing your working personality can also help you identify your personal weaknesses so that you can stop spinning your wheels.

Shelby was able to identify that she didn’t have many Operator tendencies. This meant that while she was a natural at reverse-engineering huge goals, it was really tempting for her to try to skip the consistent effort necessary to turn those goals into a reality. So she started to create planning habits that helped her focus on action over more strategizing. She started to use her planner to record “tada lists” (things that I got done) instead of just todo lists, as a way to spur herself into doing what she knew was needed. She also started to be honest about her tendencies to procrastinate follow-up and project completion, to eliminate distractions that limited significant progress, and to reach out to others for accountability.

But even while building these essential habits, Shelby also fed her inner Visionary-Processor by listening to podcasts that stretched her imagination, externally-processing dreams with certain designated people, and giving herself permission to flesh out new ideas for the future when the time was right.

So how about you? Take this incredibly simple quiz to gain more insight on your productivity personality.

Then, take time to journal through the following prompts:

  • How can you mitigate weaknesses through intentional planning habits?
  • How can you feed your strengths?
  • What strengths does your team have? Who do you need to hire?

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Today is the last day to purchase our Q2 subscription box! We ship our sub boxes four times a year and they contain 3 Monthly booklets along with curated planning accessories. The Monthly is the muscle of our planning system. It’s a five-week undated day planner featuring week spreads, habit trackers, timeblocked day pages, and plenty of bullet grid flex space to make the planner completely yours. We can’t wait to see what you do with the right tools in hand!

March 3, 2021

Where do you even start when you’ve found yourself in a ‘survival mode’ season?

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Posted in Mindset

You start right where you are.​

  • You embrace the realities of your context.
  • You set (and KEEP!) a daily strategy and reflection meeting with yourself.
  • You purge unrealistic expectations.
  • You get serious about facing the deeper problems.
  • You carve out time for adequate sleep and rest (you can’t solve problems or show up well for your relationships if you don’t get enough sleep!)
  • You develop rhythms for your basic responsibilities.
  • You clear focus time for the important things that keep being pushed to the back burner.
  • You adopt a growth mindset.

This is the exact path Shelby has taken over and over again to get herself out of survival mode and into a thriving, sustainable lifestyle. ​

If you’ve found yourself in survival mode (again!), don’t lose heart. Big transitions, recalled grief, health challenges, or even just riding the roller coaster of a global pandemic can knock even the most proactive of us into survival mode.

The good news is that you don’t have to stay there any longer than you want to.

You can start making space to thrive, today. It starts by getting still, getting real, getting focused, and getting the essentials organized.

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Our subscription box is currently open to new subscribers! We ship our sub boxes four times a year and they contain 3 Monthly booklets along with curated planning accessories. The Monthly is the muscle of our planning system. It’s a five-week undated day planner featuring week spreads, habit trackers, timeblocked day pages, and plenty of bullet grid flex space to make the planner completely yours.

In seasons of thriving, reviving and surviving, this is the tool that has helped us live each day for the things that matter most to us. We can’t wait to see what you do with the right tools in hand!

February 24, 2021

You’ve Got Wildly Important Things to Do

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Pretend we’re at a coffee shop together. 

I’m your best friend, and you’re pouring out your heart.

You’re telling me you don’t have enough time to do the things that are really important. 

You feel stuck.

So I do what any good best friend would do. I lean in real close and I say, “You know what? You’re in control of how you spend your time because you’re an adult.”

(Just a little tough love—and then I buy you another coffee with extra whipped cream on top because I’m a 2 and you’re my person.)

But here’s the thing. The passions that burn inside of you—the things God put at the core of who you are—they matter. You should be investing your time into those wildly important things.

And I can’t just sit here without putting a hard stop to all those excuses.

I want to see you living out your truest priorities as the strong woman God has created you to be. The tyranny of the urgent, vague feelings of inadequacy, and lack of boundaries should not have a monopoly on your bandwidth.

Yes. You do have a boatload of roles to manage. Yes, there’s a pandemic, and, yes, the world is crazy, and, yes, there’s a lot going on. We all have a lot to manage right now.

But you also have so much more agency than you often like to admit. (That’ll preach—we’re also stepping on our own toes here…) You have time. You have choice. You can set healthy boundaries. You can ask for help. You can seize our moments as opportunities to lean into the future with intention, and set your future self up for success. 

You just have to choose to become an owner in how you spend your time. 

Manage Your Time, Manage Your Life

There’s so much that can be done to make your life a lot more manageable. With the right tools and mindset, you can introduce more peace and stability into your days than you previously imagined possible. You can make new space to breathe, think, and solve problems in a way that infuses confidence and growth into your lifestyle. ⠀⠀⠀⠀

You can open up time and mental energy you forgot you ever had. You can become the rested and creative version of yourself you know is trapped inside. You can dream and set goals—and achieve them. Starting now.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

And we want to help you.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Imagine sitting down every morning with a hot cup of coffee to an ever-relevant, powerfully clarifying, and deliciously addictive strategy session with yourself. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Imagine a planner that intuitively guides you through a series of highly effective time management techniques and reflection habits. Imagine a subscription box that delivers motivation right to your door, making sure you never run out of the gorgeous little booklets that empower you to bring order to your chaos.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Imagine a planner system that feels like a second brain, a cozy home for all of your creative brainstorming, and an aesthetic addition to your lifestyle collection, all rolled into one delightfully portable unit. A system that makes your craaaazy life simpler, saner, and more beautiful—almost effortlessly. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

You could be unboxing a system just like that in a matter of days. 

Dear one, it’s no secret—as co-founder of the Evergreen Planner—that I have a vested interest in you diving into this planner system. But what you might not know is that getting this product to market was one of the hardest roads to having a successful business that my sister and I could take. In a world where downloadables are created once and then sold countless times with relatively low overhead, this planner wasn’t born out of asking ourselves how we could start a business that would be profitable and fun.

Evergreen Planner was born out of our own desperate needs to get our lives sorted.

The earliest prototypes of this planner system quickly became a vital part of our own personal strategies for balancing home, hustle, and heart. We would use up our prototypes and then go a few weeks without our planner, and slowly watch our productivity systems begin to shudder and grind to a halt. We began to understand, on a deep level, how much we needed this planner to be a hub for our brains—a place to store and organize all of our details, rhythms, tasks, and calendars so that we could continue to uplevel in the things that mattered most. 

What started out as a fun planner project quickly grew into a core conviction—especially for McCauley. Though she was a mentally organized person by nature, she found the planner to be key for massive personal and lifestyle growth. She pressed forward—against all odds, despite me moving hours away, through five pregnancies and a handful of serious health events, overcoming one manufacturing tangle after another—and she would not stop pressing forward until she knew that this planner system was made available for you to purchase.

Why the passion?

Because you’ve got wildly important things to do.

What if this planner can help you reach PAST the mountain of wet laundry reeking of ongoing potty training sessions and draw from the abundant giftings God has given you? 

What if this planner can empower you craft your own unique and dynamic lifestyle that fuels the goals that Providence has implanted into your core?

What if this one simple (but powerful) approach to productivity can help unleash your family’s distinct potential—and your distinct potential as an individual—to help change the world?

Dear friend, hear us.

We really do believe you have a place to serve that only you can fill. God has given you a combination of life experiences, particular skills, relationships, interests, and personality traist that make you uniquely able to serve in God’s kingdom in ways that neither of us ever will. 

We want you to figure out the most essential work for your life, and get busy serving in those deeply powerful ways that no one but you can.

We believe in what God is planning to do through you, and we are humbled to offer the Evergreen Planner system as a powerful tool to help you get organized around your vitally important work.

xx,

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It’s time to finally make space to thrive. Do your future self a favor and SUBSCRIBE before the doors close for this quarter’s shipment! (Our sub box won’t open again until June!)

We invested countless hours of research into uncovering the best time management practices in the world. We wove them into one intuitive, minimalistic system that can be used daily.

✨⏳ TIME IS RUNNING out. This is your opportunity to get set up with EVERYTHING you need to take control of your time.

This one habit can CHANGE your life.

February 17, 2021

Intentional Pivoting: the Superpower of the Growth Mindset

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Posted in Goal Setting, Mindset

Last week, we talked about how to set solid quarterly goals, and then use them to get back on track.

But, if you’re like most people, the one question that tends to trip you up in your intentional living aspirations is this:

What if I set epic goals, but then things change?

We can totally relate to this.

In fact, just yesterday, Shelby realized that TWO of the THREE goals she set for the quarter no longer fully made sense to pursue.

It’s really easy to look at a situation like that and throw in the towel, claiming that there’s no value in long-term planning whatsoever. But that’s simply not true. Because Shelby set those three goals at the beginning of the quarter, she was able to make significant progress on both of the goals before they needed to be de-prioritized. Even though she didn’t reach the point in either one where her motivating vision was 100% fulfilled, the progress she did make gave her a lot of hope that the vision could truly be realized in the future. The work that she did in skill-building and mentally organizing around those two goals would not be wasted—in the future when she turned her attention back to those goals, she’ll have a framework of positive experience in place and ready to build upon.

This kind of a perspective is vital to the development of a healthy growth mindset.​

Taking into account the realities of changing circumstances—and then responding by intentionally pivoting on your goals in order to increase fruitfulness—is not the same as just neglecting or giving up on your goals. With the superpower of intentional pivoting, you’re able to stay in the driver’s seat (where you belong), even if Providence changes the terrain, the layout of the roads, or the direction you’re driving altogether.

How to Intentionally Pivot

These prompts will help you pivot intentionally in the wake of any major life transition. Transition periods can be as purposeful and fruitful as non-transition periods, even if in a totally different way. Think through these prompts as you go about your day, and then journal through them in your planner!

  1. Describe the change and its implications for your 3 main goals for this quarter.
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  2. Which of my quarterly goals need to be de-prioritized so that I can show up focused, strong, and enthusiastic for this transition?
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  3. What was my motivating “why” behind the goals I realize need to be de-prioritized? Can I fulfill the essence of my “why” in other ways? Will I naturally get back to these goals, or should I time-anchor my intentions by tacking a note to myself on a future month in my Annual so I’ll remember to consider reprioritizing that goal in an upcoming quarter?
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  4. What goal(s) do I need to keep pursuing, even in the midst of this transition? What are the most essential (20%) tasks / attitudes I should focus on until things start to settle down after the transition?
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  5. What is my vision for graciously going through this transition? What goal(s) do I need to set in order to facilitate that vision?

A strong and intentional pivot will enable you to approach the rest of the quarter with hope, energy and motivation – even if in an entirely different way than how you imagined you would at the start of January.

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Our quarterly subscription box of Monthly booklets will open to new subscribers in just a few days! Join the waitlist to be among the first to know. Don’t miss the chance to build a strong planning (& pivoting) habit that will carry you through 2021 with intention towards the things that matter most to you.