Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity - Student Edition

by Tim Challies

Don’t try to do it all. Do more good. Better…in this brand new edition for students.

This is a short, fast-paced, practical guide to productivity. If you are a student, it will tell you what you need to know about getting things done in today’s digital world. It will help you learn to structure your life to do the most good to the glory of God.

In Do More Better — Student Editon, you will learn:

Common obstacles to productivity
The great purpose behind productivity
3 essential tools for getting things done
The power of daily and weekly routines
How to balance, school, family, church, and the rest of life
And much more, including bonus material on taming your email and embracing the inevitable messiness of productivity
It really is possible to live a calm and orderly life, sure of your responsibilities and confident in your progress.

You can do more better.

And I would love to help you get there.
–Tim Challies

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Tim Challies is a leading evangelical blogger. A self-employed web designer, Tim lives in the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario with his wife and children.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a youth Sunday School teacher, I’ve heard many students say that this has been a challenging season. The Coronavirus and campus closures have made school and studying an impossible task. In Do More Better, Tim Challies provides a practical guide to productivity.

A Call to Action and to Character

In just over 100 pages, Challies shares his work system and shows how you can create your own. First, he lays out a theological foundation for why we need to know our purpose and how we need to answer the two-fold call to action and to character.

The middle of the book is intensely practical as he introduces us to his workflow using Todoist, Google Calendar, and Evernote. He details his steps and gives real-life examples. He allows you to see how you can apply these tools to your own life.

On Mission and Doing Good

The book does a great job of explaining what it means to live and be on mission. It also offers a plan to combat laziness and busyness. We must learn to expect interruptions, and be warned about the dangers of the fear of man, pride, and and idolatry. Expect failure, but remember to pray. 20 tips to increase our productivity are offered as a bonus section at the end of the book.

With the Fall season approaching, I want to make sure that my students are ready for the challenges ahead. More than just school and studying, I hope they can be productive people for the Kingdom of God. This book is a tool they can take with them as they grow and work for His glory and the good of others.

I received a media copy of Do More Better (Student Edition) and this is my honest review.

[Evan Hekman · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of good points but not necessarily a complete guide. I found that some of the tips were incredibly helpful, while others made little or no difference for me. Overall, this book gives a fairly detailed outline of one model for productivity that works very well for some but not all.

I read this book last summer and recently gave it a reread. These were some of the ideas I found helpful:
- What we really need is purpose management. Our to-do list and productivity mirror our sense of purpose, and to have healthy productivity we need healthy purpose.
- I found the idea of breaking life into sections based on how we respond very helpful. The book breaks productivity into Tasks/Calendar/Information. This is a pretty good model but it highlights the importance of having a model of some kind.
- The bonus section on the end about email had a very good analogy about how if we let our physical mailbox become as disorganized as our inbox, it would soon be intolerable. But, for some reason, we tolerate it in our email.
- I think this book might have been the reason I first tried out Evernote, and eventually transitioned to Notion, which has been incredibly helpful. I strongly recommend giving both a solid try, although Notion quickly became my preferred once I gave it a shot.

Overall, a good book as an introduction to productivity. But I wouldn't rely on it as a metric or guide to everything.

[Benjamin Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff- very useful!

[Matt Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very quick and concise book on productivity. While I enjoyed Every Day Matters more, this one was a good follow-up to add to what I learned in that book and analyze what works for me versus others.