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.

Kevin Leman's Birth Order Book - For Pastors

The Birth Order Book - Kevin Leman, PhD

I have had a lot of respect for Kevin Leman, from the beginning of his career. His common sense approach is looking at the birth order of children in relationship to their parents' birth order.

This cannot be summarized in a few sentences, but only indicated. These are tendencies, not rigid rules.

1. Most architects, pilots, and pastors are first born or only children.
2. Many entertainers are the babies of the family.
3. Middle children are a puzzle to the rest, because they tend to be independent people, often diplomatic, sometimes a rebel, who value long-term relationships. 

I asked a group of pastors:

• Who is a first-born or only child? Most of the hands went up.
• Who is a second-born child? A scattering of hands went up.
• Who is the third-born child? One hand went up, mine.

This really comes down to the way parents treat their children, not some magical formula. First-born children get a lot of attention and a lot of new clothing. They often end up caring for the younger ones. They tend to be dominant and successful, perfectionists.

 Becky was an only child, "an adult before she was eight."

 One of the great books of English literature - does anyone read it?

Only-children are even more so. They have two parents who treat them as another adult. Only-children have said to me, "Yes, I was the crown jewel of the family, and very self-centered. I was an adult before I was eight years old." That is also noted in Thackeray's Vanity Fair. They are very successful in what they do.

Of the first 25 or so Apollo astronauts, all of them were first-born or only-children.

Everybody Loves the Baby of the Family

Many times the parents decide they really do not know that much about children, so they decide to enjoy the baby of the family. Everything the baby does is cute, funny, and non-destructive. Older children observe and glare at the total absolution given in advance for the very acts that were once their felonies.

I guessed a social worker was the baby of the family. "We bought you a copy of The Birth Order Book." She did not say, "No, you should not do that - don't spend money on me." She gave herself a hug and grinned, she was so pleased. Super sociable babies of the family are not driven straight A students, but they are so likeable that they do well in relationship type jobs, sales, and entertainment.

Marriage Birth Order - Plus Children

We marry a different birth-order, and we tend to support the child who belongs to our birth order.

Most pastors are first-born, so they see the world as a set of rules, as Adler wrote. Most pastors are pragmatists, a quality making them putty in the hands of sharpies like the Fuller Seminary snake-oil salesmen.

"Oh, you are from a conservative Bible denomination. The studies show that you will grow." [GJ - They collapsed after embracing Fuller nonsense, chiefly because they bedded with these little Antichrists of Calvinism.]

"Do not worry. All our methods are doctrinally neutral." [GJ - I thought they "worked best" with conservative groups!]

"This is how you overcome resistance. It is like slowly boiling a frog in a kettle." [GJ - Neither side was ever near a kettle, a stove, or a frog, but they sold books on this theme.]

"You must rekindle the cell groups from your Pietistic past." [GJ - I thought the methods were [doctrinally neutral."]

"You must get rid of your denomination's name, the liturgy, those old hymns, the pipe organ, the creeds, and those sermons." [GJ - I thought the methods were [doctrinally neutral."]

 "Professor Brug and faculty, we love your work in promoting women's ordination, gender vague language, and our beloved NIV paraphrase of what the Holy Spirit would have said with a degree from Fuller."