five things (vol. 3)

1. If you're like me, your desk ends up as a place to keep piles of paper. All through college and seminary, I would take the various pieces of mail, school work, and notes and pile them on the corner of my desk. And they would sit there. Then, when the pile got too big, I would go through it and deal with everything so my desk was clear - until the next pile started.
Lately I've been trying hard to keep my desk clear by taking care of things as they come along. The same goes for my email inbox. It's not just about having a clean space (though that is helpful to me - it helps me think more clearly), it's about beating procrastination.
Zenhabits, an extremely useful site, has some great tips on keeping a clean desk:

1. First, take everything on your desk and in your drawers, and put them in one big pile. Put it in your “in basket” (if it doesn’t fit, pile it next to your desk or something). From now on, everything that comes in must go in your in basket, and you process everything as below.
2. Process this pile from the top down. Never re-sort, never skip a single piece of paper, never put a piece of paper back on the pile. Do what needs to be done with that paper, and then move on to the next in the pile. The options: trash it, delegate it, file it, do it, or put it on a list to do later. In that order of preference. Do it if it takes 2 minutes or less to complete. If it takes more, and you can’t trash, delegate or file it, then put it on a list of to-dos (more on your to-do list in another post).
3. Repeat at least once daily to keep desk clear.

2. Seizing the Moment by Leon Supernant - getting up in the morning for Jesus:  

Instead of having the day’s moral decisions dominated by choices to avoid temptations to sin, as though we’re constantly navigating through a spiritual minefield, why not capitalize on moments of opportunity to grow in the love of God and neighbor? After all, the best defense is a good offense. The first moment of decision in a given day, and one in which quiet heroes are made, occurs the instant we awake. It’s the decision literally to get out of bed. At that moment, we’re comfortable, we might still be tired or not feel so great, and it would be easy to justify hitting the snooze button so we can sleep some more.

Certainly we’re not talking here about a temptation to sin, and sometimes, because of illness or other factors, it’s a very good decision to get a little more sleep.

However, our first waking moment gives us a chance unlike any others to put God first in word and action, to seize a moment of opportunity, to score a touchdown for Our Lord on the opening kickoff. Then we have a certain spiritual momentum, and our day becomes characterized more by the good we are choosing rather than the evil we are avoiding.

3. Denison Witmer is selling personal, online concerts due to his life getting more interesting soon:

In Denison's words, "My wife and I are expecting our first child this December :) We can't wait! Part of getting to know him/her means that I won't be touring anymore this fall or early spring. However, I still want to stay active with my fans and play music, so I came up with this "Holiday / Baby On The Way tour 2011"

4. Watch a road trip across the USA in five minutes:





5. On Manly Piety - a great article on the faith of Louis Martin, father of St. Therese.