This Is So Good That You’ll Want to Sign Up for Dr. Greene’s Newsletter

I am happy to announce that Dr. Steve Greene has joined our team as Executive Vice President of the Media Group.

Dr. Greene has enjoyed a great deal of success in both the business world and in the media world, and he did a wonderful job as the dean of the College of Business at Oral Roberts University.

He officially joined us on Monday. The column he wrote for ministrytodaymag.com Thursday was so good I knew my readers would enjoy it! You can read it below.

Here’s a link to where you can sign up for Dr. Greene’s e-newsletter.

Reply Anxiety: Find the Ignore Button

By Dr. Steve Greene

Along the way of progress, we’ve developed the delusion that reading and responding to email is productive work. We spin through our day in a doom loop of checking.

Checking email
Checking Facebook
Checking Twitter
Checking text messages
Checking that other email
Checking voice mail

By the time the loop has closed, a new loop begs to be opened.

During breakfast this morning, in a hotel-lobby-imitation-breakfast-with-something-that-looked-like-eggs, I watched as the doom settled in on loopers. I noted one hotel guest stirred her coffee, checked something on her phone, typed some response on her iPad and flipped open her laptop. She appeared to eat oatmeal, but she won’t remember a single bite.

Before she could sip a second drink of additive-enhanced-coffee, she had begun her second loop. There were 20 other loopers in the lobby, yet nary a one spoke, engaged or even acknowledged the presence of others.

The defense to this circa 2015 lifestyle is the claim that “I’m a good multitasker.” Unfortunately, many recent research studies report, multitasking is a pipedream. Tasks aren’t being juggled; work is crashing to the floor. We are busy majoring on minors. Don’t bother me with that deadline … email threads await my needle.

Workers are too busy checking stuff to work. Work is checking. We are compelled to respond. “Absolutely, positively overnight” is an old-school expectation. The current reality is that some toe-tapper is waiting for a response across the digital divide. Exhaustion comes with the steady bombardment of responding to what comes at us.

In ministry, we must unplug to open the opportunity to receive divine appointments. When I close my door to check things, perhaps I’ve closed the door to minister in the moment. The Holy Spirit rarely says, “Come when you a got a minute.”

I offer three quick tips to add margin to your calendar:

1. Don’t check anything first thing in the morning. The first voice I hear should be the Lord’s. The first email may be the end of peace for the day.

2. Be aware of the loops. Do one cycle per half day. Avoid the deep thread. Find the ignore button.

3. Condition others to your best response times. Fast response conditions fast response and builds expectations for a quick loop.

It’s amazing how much time we have to do kingdom work … if we set kingdom priorities.

Please don’t feel burdened to reply.

Steve Strang is the founding editor and publisher of Charisma. Follow him on Twitter @sstrang or Facebook (stephenestrang).