Book Review: Do More Better by Tim Challies

“Productivity is effectively stewarding your gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm for the good of others and the glory of God.”

Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity

I’ve known that we must be good stewards of our money but I didn’t always apply it to time. The way we spend our time is something we ought to think about more often. Do I do this always? Absolutely not. If you ever see the amount of playtime time I’ve put into Animal Crossing, you’d see I wasn’t kidding.

I don’t always look at how I spend my time on a grander scale but this book goes through practical ways in which we can do this. This is a book that would indeed help you “do more better”, and with that I end my review…Just kidding. 

In this book Challies explains why we must seek to be productive. Everything we do should be done for the glory of God and we must organize ourselves to do this as best we can. 

Godly productivity is a mindset. Challies makes sure to emphasize this. He actually tells the reader that if they are solely looking for ways to be productive to skip to the last chapters. What he does in this book, is break down what we need to be productive with and how it’s involved with our spiritual lives by breaking down tasks into categories and subcategories. I actually found this to be very helpful. It helped me organize myself better. 

For example, I am in a ladies discipleship group, this would be a subcategory under “Church” for me. Also in my church category is “Translation” a ministry I am a part of in my church. Here I would designate tasks revolving around the Spanish translation of the sermon. Usually, I need to gather all the Bible verses and have them ready in Spanish for when the preacher reads it, that way I don’t have to paraphrase. I’m not a fan of paraphrasing God’s word during sermons. So I set the task that needs to be done on my app, set a due date and a reminder because let’s face it, we don’t all remember everything always. 

Challies breaks down why it is important to be mindful of our time and how we manage it. He gives his own examples of how he does things and give life examples that are informative. 

This book will help guide you on how to practically set up a task management app, calendar and an information management tool such as Evernote so that you can do more better. It’s not a long book, you can definitely read it in a week or less and even setting up all the tools isn’t too complicated. I got a lot from this book. It’s worth the read. If you are looking to get your spiritual life together and want to be more productive definitely check it out. 

Here are a few quotes from the book I thought were notable: 

“You need to structure and organize your life so that you can do the maximum good for others and thus bring the maximum glory to God.”

Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity

“Your good works are like a light, and when that light shines, it illuminates God. When people see that light, they aren’t meant to look at you and say, “He’s incredible” or “She’s amazing.” They are meant to look at God and say, “He is awesome.”

Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity

“You haven’t begun to live a focused and productive life until you have said no to great opportunities that just do not fit your mission. There are many good things in this world that will go undone or that will have to be done by someone else.”

Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity

“If you are a student and apply yourself to your studies, you are doing a good work that brings glory to God, because what you learn can and will be used someday to benefit other people. If you work in an office environment and do your job with consideration to your clients and coworkers, you are doing good works that bring glory to God, because you are living outside yourself, doing what benefits the people in your life.”

Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity

“Busyness may make you feel good about yourself and give the illusion of getting things done, but it probably just means that you are directing too little attention in too many directions, that you are prioritizing all the wrong things, and that your productivity is suffering.”

Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity

“There is no task in life that cannot be done for God’s glory.”

Tim Challies, Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity