Evan Lenz

I bought my first Moleskine journals tonight (a small squared notebook and a large ruled notebook).

I intend to use some combination of these and 3×5 cards to implement the “Getting Things Done” system.

One idea I had was to use one 3×5 card for each Next Action and then store them in the accordion folder at the back of my Moleskine (probably the large one). A good preliminary exercise would be to destroy some cards just to start getting the feel for it and to break past any conservatism that would keep me from freely dispensing with the cards. Actually, I can leverage my own desire to preserve my nice things by keeping the card count small so as not to put too much wear and tear on my expensive Moleskine. That could be a good motivating factor for knocking things off my Next Actions pile.

Anyway, here are some of the blog entries that inspired me this evening:

Moleskine GTD tabs hack
Introducing the Hipster PDA

I read a passage from Thomas Merton at Barnes & Noble this evening that hit me right between the eyes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the quote online, except for this small excerpt. Maybe I’ll post it after I eventually buy the book.

Fickleness and indecision are signs of self-love. If you can never make up your mind what God wills for you, but are always veering from one opinion to another … from one method to another, it may be an indication that you are trying to get around God’s will and do your own with a quiet conscience. So keep still, and let God do some work.

The rest of the section included a couple examples that hit home–like starting another book before finishing the one you’re on, and starting new life pursuits every other day on every random whim. “Bilateral incongruence” is a related term I’ve come across (in the context of NLP). Also, this passage touched on what it means to fully give one’s life to God.

There. I placed a hold on it through Seattle Public Library.

This quote (by Scottish mountaineer W. H. Murray) was one of a million things that I reflected on the night that I decided to turn down an awesome job offer to pursue a new (yet old) dream:

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.

The next step is trusting in God and waiting with expectancy and planning the details and trusting in God.

Written in 1961 but useful for today:

The world is full of enemies, and as long as we are subject to the possibility of harm from these enemies, fear is inevitable. The effort to conquer fear without removing the causes is altogether futile. The heart is wiser than the apostles of tranquility. As long as we are in the hands of chance, as long as we must look for hope to the law of averages, as long as we must trust for survival to our ability to outthink or outmaneuver the enemy, we have every good reason to be afraid. And fear hath torment.

To know that love is of God and to enter into the secret place leaning upon the arm of the Beloved–this and only this can cast out fear. Let a man become convinced that nothing can harm him and instantly for him all fear goes out of the universe. The nervous reflex, the natural revulsion to physical pain may be felt sometimes, but the deep torment of fear is gone forever. God is love and God is sovereign. His love disposes Him to desire our everlasting welfare and His sovereignty enables Him to secure it. Nothing can hurt a good man.