Dear steward,

I was in Los Angeles last week talking about time management to the new students at The Master’s Seminary. We Had lived in California for seven years before moving back to Michigan, and this was Kim’s first time back since 2020 (and baby Henry’s first time on a plane). So we made a little vacation of it.

It was a great time connecting with old friends and meeting some new ones.

As part of the workshop I did for the seminary, I created a whole bunch of resources for seminary students including a Notion template, a weekly planning tools, and a bunch of other stuff. You can grab all of that here, if you’re interested.

I also taught on a time management technique I call “spikey schedule, smooth schedule” which is the topic of this week’s essay.

More on that below…

In Today’s Issue:

• Spikey Schedule, Smooth Schedule
• What Is Sloth?
• App for Blocking Distractions
• God’s Plan for Unproductive Days
• New Password Manager from Proton Mail

Spikey Schedule, Smooth Schedule: A Time Management Strategy for Students

Balancing studies with other responsibilities is challenging, but many students make it even harder by not approaching their studies strategically.

In this article, I will share a strategy that helped me balance my workload as a student, and I hope it can help you too. I call it a “spikey schedule” versus a “smooth schedule.” This guide is particularly geared toward college and grad students, where the expectations to manage your own time are higher.

Reagan’s Roundup

​What is Sloth? (4 mins)

Joe Holland / Ligonier Ministries

If you were looking to describe the polar opposite of Christian productivity, you couldn't do much better than the sin of sloth. But what is sloth?

I found this explainer really helpful.

"Sloth isn’t just laziness. There is a deeper inner motivation to sin that, at its core, is a defective love. Biblically speaking, sloth is laziness that comes from carelessness about the commands and priorities of God, a lack of love for God and His ways that undermines a biblical doctrine of vocation"

​Freedom: An App for Blocking Distractions​

I've been raving about the app Freedom for years. It's a simple service that runs in the background of all of your devices and can be used to block specific apps or websites for a set amount of time, or according to a schedule.

For example, I have all social media blocked on all of my devices on the weekdays until lunchtime. It's been so helpful in my quest to focus on deep work during the mornings!

I recently spoke to the people at Freedom and they gave me a discount code to share with you. It's already one of the most affordable services I use, but if you use the code BELIEVE30 at checkout you can get an additional 30% off any of their plans.

​Try Freedom.​

(Here's a more in-depth article I wrote about how to use Freedom to fight distractions)

​God's Sovereign Plans Behind Your Most Unproductive Days (10 mins)

John Piper / Desiring God

”How is God at work in our most unproductive days, when it feels as though we’ve accomplished nothing and fallen far short of our own plans and expectations? Those days are frustrating to us, but they are not outside of God’s sovereign power.”

​Proton Launched an Open-Source Password Manager​

We've talked about Proton Mail in previous issues of this newsletter. It's a great privacy-centric email service for those of us who don't like being spied on by Google.

Well, they recently launched a password manager, similar to something like 1Password of LastPass. Like Proton's other services, Proton Pass is open-source, encrypted, and has a free option.

Plus, as part of the launch promotion, they are currently offering the full-featured version for $1/month forever(!)

Check it out if you're in the market for a password manager.

Quote of the Week

Final Word

Thanks for reading!

Praying you have a productive and God-honoring rest of your week.

– Reagan Rose

P.S. Sunday before last, I preached a sermon on what we can learn about faith and obedience from the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. You can listen here if you’re interested.

Take your productivity to the next level

Get the Book → Grab a copy of ​Redeeming Productivity: Getting More Done for the Glory of God​

Join the Academy → Get access to all of our courses, workshops, private community, book club, and more ​

Get 1-on-1 Coaching → Work with a Redeeming Productivity coach ​