Email Hacks: Eye on the Prize of Inbox Zero

At the beginning of this month I wrote about flushing the email inbox, pointing out Merlin Mann's Inbox Zero Series.

I thought I'd share with you some of the crazy Zen goodness that comes from looking at an empty Inbox.



Happy deleting, delegating, and doing. :-)

20% Odds that You and I are Simply Sims in a Virtual World

It's not exactly a new idea, but I'd never before seen anyone guess the odds that we actually live in a virtual world -- our reality is not real - just a simulation in some advanced computer creates a virtual universe.

Check out this New York times article exploring the theory.

Excerpt:
Dr. Bostrom doesn’t pretend to know which of these hypotheses is more likely, but he thinks none of them can be ruled out. “My gut feeling, and it’s nothing more than that,” he says, “is that there’s a 20 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation.

History of Religion in 90 Seconds

HT: Justin Taylor

Fitness Challenge: Run 15

Yes, I have been a loser and haven't been running. Van and I hit the pavement again tonight, logging another 1.1 mi. We ran about six tenths of a mile.

I have had meetings on Monday mornings, from which I have to leave early to make it to class on time. So I have missed my weekly weigh-ins for several weeks.

Forefront Church -- More from the Bar

A week ago I posted about Forefront church, that gathers in a bar (among other places). Their pastor, Vince Antonucci, has posted another update, including this great story from after the service:

So check this out: Last night (week two) immediately after the service I went up to that guy and said, "Thanks for coming back." He said, "No, thank you. I would never go to church on a Sunday morning. This is perfect for me. Thanks for doing this for me." I answered, "No problem, man, I'm glad to be here." So he says, "Can I ask you a question. How much would it cost me for a service?" I was like, "Sorry, what do you mean?" He said, "How much would it cost me to have a service?" Me: "Sorry, I don't get what you mean." Him: "How much would it cost to get the guys to come out?" Me: "Do you mean our band?" Him: "Yeah." Me: "Ohhh, yeah, they play at stuff. I don't know how much it would cost. You'd have to ask Joe." Him: "Okay. See, I have a huge back yard, and I throw huge parties. Huge! So I'll buy all the food and all the drinks, and I'd like to have a service." Me: "A service?" Him: "Yeah, I'm going to invite all my friends, and then surprise them with a service. Just like what you guys did tonight. I want the sermon, the videos, the music." Me: "Wait a second. You mean that you want to have a church service in your back yard for your friends?" Him: Yeah. Just like you did tonight. How much would I have to pay?" Me: "Dude. If you invite all your friends over and let us have a church service in your back yard, you definitely don't have to pay!" Him: "Really?!?" Me: "Really!" Him: "Well, then I'll have you picked up in a limosine." Me: "Uhh, no, that's okay, I have a car." Him: "So you'd come out and do church for my friends for free." Me: "Yes!" Him: "Okay, then you can count on it, we'll do it on a Friday night."

Check out the entire post here.

What happens when a NY journalist tried to follow the rules of the Bible for a year?

Check out The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. I have not read it, but it sounds fascinating. Tim Ferris (of 4-Hour Work Week fame) has written this post describing an interview with AJ Jacobs, the author of The Year of Living Biblically.

Excerpts from the interview:
Two types of rules were hardest for me. First, there was avoiding the sins we commit every day – no lying, no gossiping, no coveting. I’m a journalist in New York. That’s like 70 percent of my day.

The second type of difficult rules were those that will get you into trouble if you follow them in modern-day America. For instance, the Old Testament rule that you should stone adulterers. Luckily, I was able to stone one adulterer. I was in the park dressed in my biblical garb (white clothes, a beard, sandals, walking stick) and a man came up to me and asked why I was dressed so strangely. He seemed hostile right from the start. I explained to him my project. And he said “I’m an adulterer. Are you going to stone me?” I said, “That would be great.”

I took out a handful of pebbles – because the Bible never specifies the size of the stones. This man actually grabbed the stones from my hand and chucked them at my face. I felt I had the right to retaliate, so I tossed a pebble at him. And in that way I stoned.
...
What was the hardest for your wife to put up with?

Well, my wife’s a saint. At one point, I built a biblical hut in our living room, and she didn’t appreciate the construction project in our apartment. Also, the Bible says not to touch women during that time of the month. Even more strictly, though, it says you shouldn’t sit in a seat where an “impure” woman has sat. My wife didn’t like that, so in retaliation, she sat on every seat in our apartment. I was forced to do a lot of standing that year.

This is not my normal kind of book but I'll be very interested to take a look at this book!

...or did you think I was too stupid to know what a eugoogoly was?

I have penned my first eulogy. For a computer part.

My good friend, Wes, called on me to fix his computer.

Symptoms: the "click of death"
Diagnosis: not good
Treatment: put the hard drive in my freezer
Results: data saved, a still-dead hard drive, and one fine eugoogoly.

Wes' comments are turned off, so you will have to leave your comments on my creative and technical genius HERE! Also, leave a comment for Wes telling him to turn his comments back on so I can spam him.

ForeFront - A Church that Gathers at the White Horse Pub

Check out this news story covering a church that gathers weekly in a bar (the bar is open and this is one of the churches weekly gatherings). They have music, beer, preaching, the whole she-bang. For some time I've been following the blog of Vince Antonnuci, Lead Pastor of Forefront in Virginia Beach. This is one of their "campuses".

Excerpt from Vince's report from their meeting:
People were totally into it. They loved the music. You could have heard a pin drop during the sermon. (Actually right towards the beginning of the message two guys were talking at the bar and one said, pretty loudly, to the other, "Bullsh*t!" - which is something I'm not used to hearing while I'm preaching. The cool thing is that several people around him, including the owner, were like, "Sshhhhh," "Shut up!")

See some updates from Vince here:

• Report from the first "real" service(they had "practice" services too!)
• Pics from the first "real" service
• More pics from the first "real" service

I wonder how many years the sum would be if Forefront asked each person in the bar that night how long it had been since they had listened to a sermon from God's word and added them together. It might be larger than several months for many congregations, even in large churches!

Junk Hours: Developing Ministry Leaders that Matter

Steve Argue posts this article on "junk hours", which he parallels to "junk miles" in running - when people who seek to excel aren't intense in their workout and really aren't getting the return for their time. He is talking about how leaders can be enabling ministry volunteers to be putting in "junk hours" - a small investment in them that doesn't really have so much of a return.

Here's an excerpt:


At least we had a leaders’ meeting (But what did you rally around?)
It’s easy to convince myself that people love just getting together for a meeting and that meetings will run themselves. In a healthy community, volunteers do enjoy being with each other. Reality proves that people’s lives are full and any ministry meeting needs to be more than hanging out. Questions like, “What’s up?” or “Do you have any questions?” won’t inspire confidence in the parents who navigated schedules to make the meeting or the college student who has an exam the next day.

Come into meetings prepared. Make leaders’ meetings a high priority by treating them with high investment.

• Prepare an agenda for the meeting so that you and others are clear on what the plan is for the meeting.
• Send your agenda out prior to the meeting to give your volunteers time to think about the topics you hope to address.
• Ask questions to volunteers ahead of time so they can share out of reflection rather than reacting to a pop-quiz.
• Commit to starting and ending on time. This communicates respect for everyone’s time, honoring those who come on time and being true to your word about the length of the meeting. End meetings meeting on time with energy, rather than in exhaustion and ambiguity.

Check out the entire article here.

How many "junk hours" have I asked volunteers to invest? What about you?

Email Hacks: Flush the Inbox

There have been times when my email inbox has been hopelessly full. It generally say something about the state of my life honestly. There is something very sweet about looking at an empty (or nearly empty) inbox.

Do not use your email inbox as your system for organizing tasks. It's a good way to let important tasks slip through the cracks. Instead, act on your email and archive it OR note the task in another system and archive it.

Merlin Mann of 43 folders has done a series on "Inbox Zero". Check it out, including the talk he did at Google.