Productivity hacks are often used to cram more activity into tight-packed time. The myth of multitasking continues its cultural march, pulling unsuspecting ambitions into an ever-increasing swirl of bigger, faster, more.

But productivity at its heart is not about filling time, it is about freeing time.

Freeing time for those activities that are most meaningful and impactful…

https://davidleemartin.com/filling-time-vs-freeing-time/

---

00:00:04.020]
Yeah, I am. I want to talk this month about productivity and purpose, that’s really what’s in my heart, to give some consideration to and to dig into both for me personally, but also for like anyone, he really wants to take what they have and make more of it. But I think one of the problems and generally when you come to any subject, there’s problems that can come really just from the general kind of culture that surrounds a particular thing, a particular arena and certainly the arena of productivity.

00:00:51.720]
I think one of the dangers that certainly I see anyways is that we can look at productivity just simply as a thinking about how can we do more with a little bit of time that we actually have got. You know, we’ve already crammed. It’s like like when you cram a suitcase to go on holiday and you think, oh, well, what if I need X, Y, Z, and you try and cram more in and you sit on the suitcase and jump on the suitcase, put the straps around it, pull them tight to try and keep all of that, all of that, to try and pack more into the space.

00:01:36.810]
And sometimes I think productivity can be looked at in that same way, just trying to pack as much into this small space cold time that we that we have. But there’s more to productivity than kind of packing your holiday bags with more stuff than you could ever need. Productivity really is to me anyways, is not so much about filling time. It’s about freeing time, not just not so much filling time, but freeing time, looking for ways to.

00:02:14.970]
Free time to engage in activities that are the most meaningful and impactful and those activities and not necessarily ones that would be kind of low lauded as accolades or that we would get kind of some trophy to put it on our wall or our mantelpiece. It could be just simply having time to play Legos with your kids. It could be having more time to walk in the woods with your loved one. It could be more time for thinking, reading, learning, growing time to work on your business, not just in your business that like instead of instead of being, like, wearing the entrepreneurial cap and realising that all you did was create a job for yourself, you actually become a business owner and learn the ways of entrepreneurship and some of the freedoms that can come with that, one of which is time, freedom.

00:03:19.890]
If you if you do it well and I’m not standing here saying that I’ve got this one sussed or sorted. I’m standing here saying I’m discussing this and talking about this and thinking about this and praying about this, because I see so much more scope for me to enter into a greater arena of freedom. And I both financial freedom and time freedom, because ultimately, you know, we can we can spend, we can make and we can spend money.

00:03:54.540]
The problem with time is we can only spend it. We start our life with that full OK. And with every second that passes, it drips away. And you know what? We really need to ask ourselves, what do I want to infuse that dripping time with? What’s it going to be and what is it going to be infused with? What’s it going to be filled with? What is what is it going to carry when it is expended in my life?

00:04:27.960]
And productivity in that respect is an important subject for us to give consideration to, because obviously all of us have a finite time on this planet and in a time in its and its very nature. Yeah, the nature of time being spent not earned. I think the nature of time simply depleting, not increasing. You know, you’re not going to spend your time and then decide, oh, you know, I blew it down. I don’t really want to spend it on that.

00:05:04.230]
What’s the refund policy? OK, what’s the returns policy then? There’s no returns. OK, once you’ve spent it, whatever you spent it for, that’s what you’ve got. And that’s what you’re going to live with the consequences of that, you know, so. So we did we need to be careful what we spend our time on, but I think time comes with its own teaching and and when we embrace what it teaches, when we understand the lesson that it teaches is and I think that the teaching of time is legacy, what legacy do we want to leave when we empty the bank, when we leave this planet, when we when we have no longer got one more drop or drip to spend, what legacy will be left as a result of our life?

00:06:02.220]
And that can be a creative legacy in products and publications and whatever else that that can bring value to the world beyond our exit. And it can also be a legacy in the lives that we’ve sewn into the lives that we’ve brought up and built up and and and expended our time and our energy into those people to lift them so they can become more and they can they can then continue that legacy and say such an important subject, such an important subject.

00:06:42.400]
But, you know, the Bible teaches us that we are not just one dimensional beings. And sometimes, again, I think there’s a danger that we measure productivity by output. We measure productivity by how much? You know, the real kind of mantra of productivity is more, more, more, but more is not necessarily better. It’s not that we want to do more things. What we want to do the right things, what we want to do with the things that make the most impact, what we want to do, other things that we deem to be most meaningful.

00:07:29.620]
But but what’s meaningful to me may be different for someone else, and this is the thing, you know, sometimes we can come and we can we can get caught up in this whirlwind of thinking that we need to be more, do more, go more, make more, whatever else it may be. And we can bring that under the umbrella of productivity. But a productive day for one person. It may look very different then for someone else.

00:08:00.580]
And and sometimes we can look and we can read the various blogs and books and listen to the audio or watch the the courses or the YouTube or whatever else it may be and find out all of these productivity hacks. But of course, people are speaking. From their own perspective as to what they believe fruitfulness is, because really that’s how I look at productivity and ultimately I look and I think how can I be more fruitful? Not how can I make more, be more, do more about how can I bear more fruit?

00:08:43.600]
How can I have a greater impact? How can I. Expend my energy and expend my moments, my days, my minutes in with wisdom. To reach into impact and to bless and to build the most people that I possibly can, and and of course, again, the remit of that is going to be different for different people that the Holy Ghost speaks of how he gave one one taloned another to another five, each of them according to their variability.

00:09:25.280]
And I look at some people and I see, like, wow, man, they are like like a mega like Mr. Mrs. Productive Impact Person. And then you can look at some other people and they can seemingly be having a minor impact. I don’t believe in in that measure. I don’t believe that we can necessarily compare our impact or our productivity in one sense with someone else, because what God is requiring of them may be very different than what he’s requiring of us.

00:10:04.400]
And really that I think the productivity. Question should begin with a question not so much of production, but of purpose, that we have to dig deep and take time to kind of go below the surface and decide how I decide what we want to live for. What do we consider to be impact? What would we consider and what would we deem fruitfulness and effectiveness? And and in that, it may be very different than how it would look to someone else and as you as as you know, we progress through these sorts about living a fruitful life.

00:10:56.800]
It’s about if we can get the why we do things in place, it makes the how we do things come into their proper perspective. And so we we will look for ways to serve this bigger purpose that we’ve embraced and we will look for ways to minimise the things that take away from that, diminish that. Take Rob from that. Kinde, that. And and so the productive life. Is not one that just is kind of paint by numbers, the productive life for one is going to be different than it is for someone else.

00:11:49.420]
But you know in your heart what you believe you’ve been called to accomplish. No one else can measure your success because the outcome that they are seeking may not be the same as yours. Productivity is not one size fits all because productivity ultimately, at least when we’re talking in in creative, entrepreneurial terms, like a living, a living, a life that impacts the world that we live in, living a life that leaves a legacy is not just about how many boxes can we ship this month?

00:12:33.250]
It’s about something far deeper and far more significant than that in some ways, although if shipping boxes and adding additional boxes is going to have a greater impact for whatever reason, then they could dovetail. But yes, it’s not so much about production. It’s about purpose. What’s your purpose? Why are you here? What do you want to produce more of? And and as as we said right at the outset, this is not so much about filling time, it’s about freeing time to do so.

00:13:16.720]
We have more energy, time, thought and attention to give to the things that we deem to be the most significant. And so for me, just as a as a very practical example and as a and as I began to say earlier, we are a three part being body, soul and spirit. All of those are important. It’s not just about one dimension. It’s not just about money and how much money we make. It’s about every aspect of our life, our marriage, children, our spirituality, our finances.

00:13:57.310]
I was praying this afternoon about Lord financial peace coming into a place of financial abundant supply. But Shalom not ever chasing more. Nor I mean, that is not that’s not the life that God has called us to, is like chasing the wind, running after the next thing and the next thing. And the next thing. And the next thing. There’s a place of contentment. There’s a place of rest. There’s a place where we stand and we put roots in and we we feel the strength of God’s purpose at work in our life.

00:14:39.910]
And as we put our branches out, then we reap the rewards of that. I believe that I believe that God’s purpose will lead us to a place of prosperity. And however that may look for us. For you. And so for me, I have created a business that serves my purpose and one of those purposes is I love to write and I love to kind of build and coach other people in the way that I’m doing right now. And because of the business that I’ve built and because of some of the kind of productivity processes and structures that I’ve placed put in place there and believe me, they could be better.

00:15:30.540]
They could be they could be a great deal better. But because of that, it frees me to do this. And then, of course, productivity and fruitfulness. A big part of that for me is prayer. I’m looking to develop a lifestyle, a lifestyle that is furnished in a way practically, financially in my body and soul to allow me the liberty to invest a lot of time in spiritual things, because I think that that ultimately is the most important and fruitful and beneficial way we can spend time of any.

00:16:16.800]
I don’t think there’s any more important activity than prayer and especially secret prayer, private prayer, relationship with God, prayer, where we partner with him in the secret place that he might reward us openly. And that doesn’t mean just us being rewarded on a very limited personal level. But the rewards are so multi multiplicities, if that’s a word, you know, because they actually extend and bring grace and blessing and strength to the people and the circumstances that we’ve been praying for as well.

00:17:03.370]
Says we approach productivity this month, I’m going to be coming from very much from that perspective that the foundation of a productive life is purpose and that that purpose should encompass the whole man, not just part of who you are, not just part, not the whole woman, not just one slice of life, but the whole that we might be we might be complete and whole in Christ Jesus, and that our creative output, that the creative outflow of our life would be an overflow of our inner life.

00:17:49.290]
And so, yeah, I look forward to sharing over this next week or two just about some of my thoughts around productivity and fruitfulness. Hey, God bless you and have a great day. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.