Matt Perman Quotes

#1. If Jesus simply came to tell us what to do and provide moral instruction so we could try harder to please God, then his life would have been an utter failure.

Matt Perman

#2. True productivity is not first about efficiency - doing things right and doing them quickly - but effectiveness - doing the right things.

Matt Perman

#3. We aren't called to do all conceivable good, which would be impossible for us, but rather to maximize the opportunities that we have.

Matt Perman

#4. God never intended true humility to be a fabric softener for our aspirations. We aren't to be ambitious for our own honor or glory. But we are to be ambitious for God's honor and glory, radically so.

Matt Perman

#5. All of this is because our conscious mind is intended as a focusing tool, not a storage place. When we seek to keep all the things we have to do in our head, they constantly pull at our attention and become a large source of our stress.

Matt Perman

#6. One way to know if you are working in your strengths is to ask yourself, "Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?" That's what you want for your role: You want to be doing what you do best every day.

Matt Perman

#7. Putting the other person first equals maximum productivity.

Matt Perman

#8. God hasn't given us all the time we need because he wants us to rely on other people as well as our own resources and gifts. God has given us all we need, to be sure, but the mistake is thinking that all we need is time. What

Matt Perman

#9. So we need to not simply aim to do good in all areas of life, but be diligent in seeking to learn what actually will do good. We need to be smart about doing good. Good intentions are not enough. We need to do good that actually helps.

Matt Perman

#10. The knowledge worker cannot be supervised closely or in detail. He must direct himself toward performance and contribution

Matt Perman

#11. Shoddy work is not just shoddy work. It's a failure of love.

Matt Perman

#12. With gospel-centered productivity, peace comes first, not second. the mistake we often make is to make peace of mind the result of things we do rather than the source.

Matt Perman

#13. don't ask yourself, "What tasks need to be done?" Ask yourself, "What outcomes need to be accomplished?" Then determine the activities that will get you there.

Matt Perman

#14. Productivity comes from engagement, not tight control; when we are motivated, we don't need to tightly control ourselves (or others).

Matt Perman

#15. One of the best places for efficiency is being efficient with things so that you can be effective with people. If

Matt Perman

#16. at your job, if you haven't mastered the skills of your job or aren't seeking to do so, you aren't serving your employer and coworkers as well as you should. You might even be making the work of others harder. Mediocre work is not Christian! We are to love our neighbor as ourselves

Matt Perman

#17. Love is the guiding principle of the Christian life, and generosity is the chief way love manifests itself in the world of work, our communities, and society.

Matt Perman

#18. When we practice good delegation - stewardship delegation - we are not simply enabling ourselves to get more done. We are serving others and building them up according to God's own purposes for his people.

Matt Perman

#19. The only way to be productive is to realize we don't HAVE TO be productive. Our goal is to PLEASE God, not APPEASE God.

Matt Perman

#20. Slack work is like vandalism because it makes life harder for people - just like vandalism.

Matt Perman

#21. More important than efficiency is effectiveness - getting the right things done. In other words, productivity is not first about getting more things done faster. It's about getting the right things done.

Matt Perman

#22. We need to learn and remind ourselves every day that God's favor - His blessings and answers to prayer - comes to us not on the basis of our works, but on the basis of the infinite merit of Jesus Christ. - Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Everyday Life

Matt Perman

#23. It is not loving to impose our own grid onto others. We need to understand their situation and their needs accurately, and this comes from listening to them, not coming in with our own assumptions.

Matt Perman

#24. Without a gospel-centered approach to productivity, we can easily fall into a law-based approach to the Christian life that kills our joy and freedom

Matt Perman

#25. You are satisfied with your day when there is a match between what you value and how you spent your time. On the other hand, when what you actually work on and accomplish during the day is mostly different from what really matters to you, you feel unfulfilled.

Matt Perman

#26. A rightly oriented Christianity causes us to care not only about ourselves and our families but also about our communities, cities, and society generally.

Matt Perman

#27. Intrinsic motivation trumps extrinsic motivation every time.

Matt Perman

#28. Superficial efficiency seems cheaper at first, but it costs more the long run, with the cost being pushed off onto someone other than the one who saves a few bucks.

Matt Perman

#29. While the point of Christianity is not first to make society a better place, the call to do that is an implication of the gospel simply because the gospel sends us into the world to serve in love.

Matt Perman

#30. Excellence in our work is actually a form of generosity and love, and poor quality is a form of stinginess and selfishness.

Matt Perman

#31. embracing the truth that God accepts us apart from good works is the precise thing that causes us to excel in good works.

Matt Perman

#32. Am I desiring and seeking the temporal and eternal good of my neighbor with the same zeal, ingenuity and perseverance that I seek my own? - John Piper

Matt Perman

#33. There is a second reason for not scheduling yourself at full capacity: you operate better when you have space to think.

Matt Perman

#34. The chief arena in which we serve God is the vocation of our everyday lives. At the same time, as we see here, God also calls us to go beyond and meet needs wherever they are as we have opportunity to do so. The

Matt Perman

#35. This is the fundamental principle when it comes to day-to-day execution: Do what's important first, not last.

Matt Perman

#36. These two principles correspond to the two areas of effectiveness that we've encountered: personal leadership and personal management. "Know what's most important" is the arena of personal leadership; "put it first and actually do it" is the arena of personal management.

Matt Perman

#37. Our aim in delegating is not simply to make our own lives better and free up our time. It is also to build up the other person.

Matt Perman

#38. When you don't have your work clearly defined, there can never be any finish point.

Matt Perman