Getting Things Done - Time Management Plus Knowing Birth Order Qualities.De-Trashing the House and Office Also Helps

  A truck, stealing the sun, is like trivia stealing time.

The seven-day chart is a way of seeing our stewardship of time, 168 hours per week. We are all equal in that respect.

If we start each time segment with a major project (or part of one), we end the week with 21 successful jobs or steps in major projects. The segments include time with family, worship, and recreation.

If we start each segment with trivia, then the trivia will be done but often little else. Experts in trivia can spend entire weeks doing nothing. Not all of them are in plush synod offices, but many of them are - like sands on the shore, like fleas on a dog.

It is the persistent management of time that makes us stewards of the life God has given us.

Days	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wed	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Morning
Afternoon
Evening

Tips - Birth Order, based on Kevin Leman’s Birth Order Book

 

The baby of the family is lovable.

	Positive Qualities	Careers	Drawbacks	Don’t Be Surprised
Firstborn or Only Child	Successful, driven, perfectionist, organized.	Most CPAs, pilots, and architects are F or O.	Can be seen as too critical, too domineering.	Sales manager. Can’t understand people who don’t do paperwork.
Only Child	Jewel of the family, an adult by the age of 8.	Above.	Seen as self-centered by others.	Good at working with opposites (like parents);
Middle Child	Diplomatic, balanced, seldom sees shrink.	May be opposite of what firstborn is, especially same sex siblings.	Feels overlooked, for good reason; seen by others as a bundle of contradictions.	Enjoys attention. Can be the rebel while the first-born is the conformist, the Jr.
Baby	Lovable, charming.	Born salesman or entertainer.	Not organized, not good at budgets or paperwork	Messy, particular about food, less motivated student or late bloomer.
The First Male Child or a Very Late Surprise Child (much younger)	Is a Firstborn in many qualities.	See Firstborn.	See Firstborn.	Four girls, baby boy, he’s a CPA or pilot or engineer.

1. We usually marry the opposite birth-order person. Firstborns marry babies or middle children.
2. Parents tend to favor the children who are their birth-order, so the last-born parent will defend the baby of the family to older children, etc.
3. If children are far apart in years, they can be more like only children or first-born children.
4. This should be seen only as an indication, not fate. Other factors are important, too.
5. Kevin Leman’s Birth Order Book can be found in most bookstores. He was a late-blooming student, a born entertainer (still is), messy, and very particular about his food. He was the baby of his family.

I recently guessed that someone's wife was a first-born and that the husband had a mixed combination. Some qualifiers are the loss of a sibling, step-brothers and sisters, and extreme age differences. An eight-year gap is like another generation.

The first boy born is treated as the first-born and plays the part.

Much of this depends on how parents treat that child. For many, the first-born has to sit, stand, learn to speak, dress neatly, be clean, and earn great grades. The same parents loosen up with the baby, especially the surprise baby after the Polish wedding where everyone danced until 2 am. That baby is adored and held by everyone, and the older siblings play mom and pop, telling funny stories about the baby.

The value of this practical knowledge is learning how to maximize one's natural qualities and to value the opposite qualities in the spouse. We almost always marry our opposites in personality.

I often predict one spouse as likely being the opposite of the one I know. One wife was the most social, friendly, engaging person in the congregation. Later, I met the silent, stern, introverted husband.

Getting Things Done is a website, a book, a company, etc. The old website was good in going over basics, like de-trashing the home and office. The Wikipedia link is a good summary.

Having a purpose is especially motivating. I wanted to revive Luther's work, the work of similar leaders, and encourage independent publishing. Because I enjoy that so much, nothing involved is really work, although it involves plenty of labor.