How Satan Entices People to Sin

Os Hillman, President, Marketplace Leaders

Have you ever thought about how Satan entices human beings into sin?

When we are tempted by a particular thing it seems natural to engage. We believe by engaging with that temptation, it will give us something. It might make us feel good or meet a perceived need. Eve thought God was holding out on her when she wanted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. She didn't believe God's warning when He set a boundary and placed the Tree as off-limits.

The word Satan means "deceiver." Other attributes given to Satan is that he kills, steals, and destroys human beings. He wants you to impugn the nature of God. He wants to cause war in heaven and bring all humans to revolt against God the Father.

 We are All Sinners

The Bible tells us there is only one human who did not sin. That was Jesus. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:23-26).

 We Don't Believe There Will Be Consequences

One of Satan’s ploys is to convince us that there will be no consequence of our sin. However, clearly there are lasting consequences that include the following:

• Separation from God
• Shame
• Guilt
• Compromise, which leads to deceit
• Loss of confidence in the spiritual dimension of our lives

When the nation of Israel sinned against God in the wilderness of Egypt, the Bible says it resulted in leanness in their soul. "They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul" (Psalm 106:13-15).

God calls us to endure temptation and pass the tests that life brings each of us in regard to sin.

"Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:12-15).

Satan’s 3 Baits for Sin

There are three areas where Satan uses bait to destroy a person’s life found in 1 John 2:15-17. They are

1. Lust of the flesh
2.  Lust of the eyes
3. Pride of life.

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, (sexual sin, gluttony) the lust of the eyes, (materialism, greed,, a consumptive lifestyle) and the pride of life—(I-am-better-than-others attitude, arrogance, unteachable spirit, independence, no need of others) is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).

Satan does not need any new strategies. These have worked well for thousands of years.

Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy our lives.
He wants to make your past your future.

"If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).

Another way of summarizing this is that Satan wants to:

1. Steal your money
2.  Kill your life and destiny
3. Destroy your family

He is doing a very effective job at all three among many in the world today.

How Sin Affects our Attitudes Toward God

Once we start a pattern of sin we become hesitant to come boldly to God because Satan has convinced us that God could not love us now because of our sin. Satan convinces you that your sin proves what you already believed about yourself--that you are unworthy of God's love. Ultimately Satan wants you to believe 3 lies:

1.  You are POWERLESS over your circumstances.
2. You are a VICTIM to an unjust, unloving God, and you have no value.
3. God has abandoned you.  

Our Response to Sin Must Be Repentance.

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:8-10).

Whenever you sin, come in humility and repent of your sin. That is all the Father asks of you. Turn away and walk toward righteousness. When the Father looks at us He no longer looks at our sin or failure; He sees the blood of Jesus covering our sin. That is why we can come boldly to Him if we have repented.

Remember, God loves you no matter what condition you are in. However, Jesus calls us to be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, and to turn from the sin in our lives. When you fail, simply acknowledge and ask for His grace to walk free so that you can enjoy unbroken fellowship with Jesus.

Os Hillman is president of Marketplace Leaders and author of Change Agent and TGIF Today God Is First  a free email daily devotional.  To learn more about breaking free from Satan’s strategies to defeat you, please go to www.3greatestlies.com and watch Os Hillman’s three free videos. 

- See more at: http://www.wordfm.com/spirituallife/11698772/#sthash.MRde3X8b.dpuf

 

kskskjjsdjdsjjsHow Satan Entices People to Sin

 0  0  0  0

Os Hillman, President, Marketplace Leaders

Have you ever thought about how Satan entices human beings into sin?
When we are tempted by a particular thing it seems natural to engage. We believe by engaging with that temptation, it will give us something. It might make us feel good or meet a perceived need. Eve thought God was holding out on her when she wanted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. She didn't believe God's warning when He set a boundary and placed the Tree as off-limits.
The word Satan means "deceiver." Other attributes given to Satan is that he kills, steals, and destroys human beings. He wants you to impugn the nature of God. He wants to cause war in heaven and bring all humans to revolt against God the Father.
We are All Sinners
The Bible tells us there is only one human who did not sin. That was Jesus. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:23-26).
We Don't Believe There Will Be Consequences
One of Satan’s ploys is to convince us that there will be no consequence of our sin. However, clearly there are lasting consequences that include the following:

• Separation from God
• Shame
• Guilt
• Compromise, which leads to deceit
• Loss of confidence in the spiritual dimension of our lives

When the nation of Israel sinned against God in the wilderness of Egypt, the Bible says it resulted in leanness in their soul. "They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul" (Psalm 106:13-15).
God calls us to endure temptation and pass the tests that life brings each of us in regard to sin.
"Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:12-15).
Satan’s 3 Baits for Sin
There are three areas where Satan uses bait to destroy a person’s life found in 1 John 2:15-17. They are
1. Lust of the flesh
2.  Lust of the eyes
3. Pride of life.
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, (sexual sin, gluttony) the lust of the eyes, (materialism, greed,, a consumptive lifestyle) and the pride of life—(I-am-better-than-others attitude, arrogance, unteachable spirit, independence, no need of others) is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).
Satan does not need any new strategies. These have worked well for thousands of years.
Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy our lives.
He wants to make your past your future.
"If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).
Another way of summarizing this is that Satan wants to:
1. Steal your money
2.  Kill your life and destiny
3. Destroy your family
He is doing a very effective job at all three among many in the world today.
How Sin Affects our Attitudes Toward God
Once we start a pattern of sin we become hesitant to come boldly to God because Satan has convinced us that God could not love us now because of our sin. Satan convinces you that your sin proves what you already believed about yourself--that you are unworthy of God's love. Ultimately Satan wants you to believe 3 lies:
1.  You are POWERLESS over your circumstances.
2. You are a VICTIM to an unjust, unloving God, and you have no value.
3. God has abandoned you.
Our Response to Sin Must Be Repentance.
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:8-10).
Whenever you sin, come in humility and repent of your sin. That is all the Father asks of you. Turn away and walk toward righteousness. When the Father looks at us He no longer looks at our sin or failure; He sees the blood of Jesus covering our sin. That is why we can come boldly to Him if we have repented.
Remember, God loves you no matter what condition you are in. However, Jesus calls us to be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, and to turn from the sin in our lives. When you fail, simply acknowledge and ask for His grace to walk free so that you can enjoy unbroken fellowship with Jesus.
Os Hillman is president of Marketplace Leaders and author of Change Agent and TGIF Today God Is First  a free email daily devotional.  To learn more about breaking free from Satan’s strategies to defeat you, please go to www.3greatestlies.com and watch Os Hillman’s three free videos.
Publication date: September 12, 2013
- See more at: http://www.wordfm.com/spirituallife/11698772/#sthash.MRde3X8b.dpuf

How Satan Entices People to Sin

 0  0  0  0

Os Hillman, President, Marketplace Leaders

Have you ever thought about how Satan entices human beings into sin?
When we are tempted by a particular thing it seems natural to engage. We believe by engaging with that temptation, it will give us something. It might make us feel good or meet a perceived need. Eve thought God was holding out on her when she wanted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. She didn't believe God's warning when He set a boundary and placed the Tree as off-limits.
The word Satan means "deceiver." Other attributes given to Satan is that he kills, steals, and destroys human beings. He wants you to impugn the nature of God. He wants to cause war in heaven and bring all humans to revolt against God the Father.
We are All Sinners
The Bible tells us there is only one human who did not sin. That was Jesus. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:23-26).
We Don't Believe There Will Be Consequences
One of Satan’s ploys is to convince us that there will be no consequence of our sin. However, clearly there are lasting consequences that include the following:

• Separation from God
• Shame
• Guilt
• Compromise, which leads to deceit
• Loss of confidence in the spiritual dimension of our lives

When the nation of Israel sinned against God in the wilderness of Egypt, the Bible says it resulted in leanness in their soul. "They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul" (Psalm 106:13-15).
God calls us to endure temptation and pass the tests that life brings each of us in regard to sin.
"Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:12-15).
Satan’s 3 Baits for Sin
There are three areas where Satan uses bait to destroy a person’s life found in 1 John 2:15-17. They are
1. Lust of the flesh
2.  Lust of the eyes
3. Pride of life.
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, (sexual sin, gluttony) the lust of the eyes, (materialism, greed,, a consumptive lifestyle) and the pride of life—(I-am-better-than-others attitude, arrogance, unteachable spirit, independence, no need of others) is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).
Satan does not need any new strategies. These have worked well for thousands of years.
Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy our lives.
He wants to make your past your future.
"If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).
Another way of summarizing this is that Satan wants to:
1. Steal your money
2.  Kill your life and destiny
3. Destroy your family
He is doing a very effective job at all three among many in the world today.
How Sin Affects our Attitudes Toward God
Once we start a pattern of sin we become hesitant to come boldly to God because Satan has convinced us that God could not love us now because of our sin. Satan convinces you that your sin proves what you already believed about yourself--that you are unworthy of God's love. Ultimately Satan wants you to believe 3 lies:
1.  You are POWERLESS over your circumstances.
2. You are a VICTIM to an unjust, unloving God, and you have no value.
3. God has abandoned you.
Our Response to Sin Must Be Repentance.
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:8-10).
Whenever you sin, come in humility and repent of your sin. That is all the Father asks of you. Turn away and walk toward righteousness. When the Father looks at us He no longer looks at our sin or failure; He sees the blood of Jesus covering our sin. That is why we can come boldly to Him if we have repented.
Remember, God loves you no matter what condition you are in. However, Jesus calls us to be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, and to turn from the sin in our lives. When you fail, simply acknowledge and ask for His grace to walk free so that you can enjoy unbroken fellowship with Jesus.
Os Hillman is president of Marketplace Leaders and author of Change Agent and TGIF Today God Is First  a free email daily devotional.  To learn more about breaking free from Satan’s strategies to defeat you, please go to www.3greatestlies.com and watch Os Hillman’s three free videos.
Publication date: September 12, 2013
- See more at: http://www.wordfm.com/spirituallife/11698772/#sthash.MRde3X8b.dpuf

How Satan Entices People to Sin

 0  0  0  0

Os Hillman, President, Marketplace Leaders

Have you ever thought about how Satan entices human beings into sin?
When we are tempted by a particular thing it seems natural to engage. We believe by engaging with that temptation, it will give us something. It might make us feel good or meet a perceived need. Eve thought God was holding out on her when she wanted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. She didn't believe God's warning when He set a boundary and placed the Tree as off-limits.
The word Satan means "deceiver." Other attributes given to Satan is that he kills, steals, and destroys human beings. He wants you to impugn the nature of God. He wants to cause war in heaven and bring all humans to revolt against God the Father.
We are All Sinners
The Bible tells us there is only one human who did not sin. That was Jesus. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:23-26).
We Don't Believe There Will Be Consequences
One of Satan’s ploys is to convince us that there will be no consequence of our sin. However, clearly there are lasting consequences that include the following:

• Separation from God
• Shame
• Guilt
• Compromise, which leads to deceit
• Loss of confidence in the spiritual dimension of our lives

When the nation of Israel sinned against God in the wilderness of Egypt, the Bible says it resulted in leanness in their soul. "They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul" (Psalm 106:13-15).
God calls us to endure temptation and pass the tests that life brings each of us in regard to sin.
"Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:12-15).
Satan’s 3 Baits for Sin
There are three areas where Satan uses bait to destroy a person’s life found in 1 John 2:15-17. They are
1. Lust of the flesh
2.  Lust of the eyes
3. Pride of life.
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, (sexual sin, gluttony) the lust of the eyes, (materialism, greed,, a consumptive lifestyle) and the pride of life—(I-am-better-than-others attitude, arrogance, unteachable spirit, independence, no need of others) is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).
Satan does not need any new strategies. These have worked well for thousands of years.
Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy our lives.
He wants to make your past your future.
"If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).
Another way of summarizing this is that Satan wants to:
1. Steal your money
2.  Kill your life and destiny
3. Destroy your family
He is doing a very effective job at all three among many in the world today.
How Sin Affects our Attitudes Toward God
Once we start a pattern of sin we become hesitant to come boldly to God because Satan has convinced us that God could not love us now because of our sin. Satan convinces you that your sin proves what you already believed about yourself--that you are unworthy of God's love. Ultimately Satan wants you to believe 3 lies:
1.  You are POWERLESS over your circumstances.
2. You are a VICTIM to an unjust, unloving God, and you have no value.
3. God has abandoned you.
Our Response to Sin Must Be Repentance.
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:8-10).
Whenever you sin, come in humility and repent of your sin. That is all the Father asks of you. Turn away and walk toward righteousness. When the Father looks at us He no longer looks at our sin or failure; He sees the blood of Jesus covering our sin. That is why we can come boldly to Him if we have repented.
Remember, God loves you no matter what condition you are in. However, Jesus calls us to be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, and to turn from the sin in our lives. When you fail, simply acknowledge and ask for His grace to walk free so that you can enjoy unbroken fellowship with Jesus.
Os Hillman is president of Marketplace Leaders and author of Change Agent and TGIF Today God Is First  a free email daily devotional.  To learn more about breaking free from Satan’s strategies to defeat you, please go to www.3greatestlies.com and watch Os Hillman’s three free videos.
Publication date: September 12, 2013
- See more at: http://www.wordfm.com/spirituallife/11698772/#sthash.MRde3X8b.dpuf

What good can become of ugly?

Can anything good come from what everyone regards as ugly? Whether yes or no you must listen to this Price Kwagala song. 'God loves ugly' is the title of the song and I do believe and hope that by the time you are done with It, something about you will have changed.

Journey Into The Land Down Under - What You Must Know!

Do you have questions about hell or stuff like that? If your answer is yes then brace yourself for this Perry Stone sermon. In this video sermon, the international evangelist expounds on 'post-earthly' life topics such as hell and heaven and what the word of God says about the same.  



For more Perry Stone videos, please visit the Voice of Evangelism Official Website.

Do not Waste Time with Time Management!

Moments in time are all we have, so If you want to get more done, then I recommend that you give up time management. Sounds crazy?

When people see what I am up to in the the world, they often ask me how I manage my time, and they are usually taken aback when I tell them that I really don't manage my time anymore.
You see, having tried just about every time-management system out there, I realized about seven years ago that for me, nothing worked. I did do one excellent course called "Mission Control" by the guys at Landmark Education that gave me some great insights, but being a child of the computer age, carrying around pen and paper didn't work for me, either.

So I set out to develop my own system of doing things. I worked for years refining it, and as it got better and better, I got more and more done. Last year I even created an app called iNow, so I had a great excuse to carry around my iPad and use it, but the key insights have nothing to do with time or task management and I'd like to share them.
If you want to get more done, you need to manage your emotions and your head space, and you need to schedule your distractions.
The people with the toughest to-do lists in the world must be air traffic controllers, and if they drop the ball, then someone dies, so it's critical that they stay focused on what is going on right now, and it's also vital that they stay calm.

So if you, like me, figure that these guys are pretty effective, it's probably worth investigating what it is they manage and how. So I did exactly that and came across some real insights. It turns out that beneath all the gadgetry you have a tool called a flight strip, which has the details of the aircraft on it and is attached to a little wooden block that goes in a rack. That simple tool allows millions of flights to be successfully managed across the world, and despite computerization, in many places these little blocks of wood still do.
Fascinating though this is, it was not the little blocks of wood that that held my attention long in my discussions with controllers. What grabbed me was that they all had two things that kept showing up: they all did things to keep calm, and they all wanted to get their planes out of their air space as fast as they could.
This led me to insights about my own life. The first and most important was that I had a strong emotion around all the things that I was procrastinating about. The second insight was subtler: I realized that all the things that were not getting done left me with a crowded head space, and just like and overcrowded air space, my overcrowded head space was significantly slowing me down.
It did not matter how much or little time I had; it was all down to how I felt and how many things I was juggling, and how much I was or was not getting done.

So the key to getting more done was managing how I felt about what I was doing and also giving myself permission to let go of things that had some attraction but in reality were just crowding my space.
I started by making a huge list of all the things that I wanted to do or had to do, and then I put next to each item how I felt about it. I then started deleting stuff off the list ruthlessly and quickly realized that this was not helping.

So I put everything back and tried again. This time I put the list into a text editor, and I made two files: "Now" and "Not Now." I went through the big list and divided it between the two files, and this time I made sure that the "Now" list only contained what I could get done in a week. That week I got a lot more done.
I did two things with each item: I made sure that it was in either "Now" or "Not Now," and I made sure that I came to terms with how I felt about each thing. Was I resentful that someone had dumped something on me? Was I worried that I did not know how to complete a task? Was I afraid to ask for a critical piece of the puzzle? Was the thing too big for me to tackle alone? Was I upset because I had failed at something previously?

I soon realized that if I simply took a deep breath in and out when looking at each item and then sorted them into my "Now" or, better yet, my "Not Now" folder, I was able to keep a lot calmer, and my head space became much less cluttered. The less cluttered I felt, the more I got done.
Eventually it dawned on me that a week's worth of stuff was too much, so I switched to daily checks of my two lists. I also came to realize that my electronic calendar was not the place to put my real work. I then had my third major insight: I realized that I was constantly getting interrupted and that to maintain productivity, I had to separate and schedule all interruptions like calls, meetings and a lot of routine stuff. I had to separate all this from my "Now" tasks, and I did so. I actually got pretty good at using electronic diaries and running my schedule to prevent interruptions. Years later I outsourced the whole calendar to my wonderful assistant Sally, who arranges my meetings, presentations and phone calls. Sally does not touch my tasks, though I get those done in the gaps that make up my "Now."

By having distractions like chats, networking, phone calls, meetings and presentations scheduled in my calendar for specific times as events, I then had other chunks of time between these things that I could operate in and do the tasks that I had set for myself in the "Now." I wrote this article on the train between events and had three more hours that were blank, during which I would not be interrupted and for which I had already sorted in iNow the things I would be working on.

The wonderful John Lloyd (producer of the BBC historical sitcom "Blackadder," among other things) also gave me a great, effective tip: he told me that in preparing for a speech, I should leave it to the last minute, because I would likely do my best work in the shortest time. So now my schedule has blocks of free time (gaps) to do "Now" things like preparation for speeches, and all that "Now" time is kept sacrosanct. (Thanks to John, my speech preparation is jammed right before the day of the speech, and since taking his advice, I have spent much less preparation time on speaking, yet I have consistently delivered better results. Again, it was a matter of emotion in that getting permission from a seasoned professional to cram freed up my mind and emotions, so I did a better job.)

This brings me to the last point: e-mail. I find e-mail to be the most difficult thing because it can be an interruption, and because it is such low bandwidth that it is very easy to misinterpret. Also, it is very easy for someone to write very long e-mails that make no sense to the recipient because they lack context. So I treat e-mail as a task to be done in the "Now"; I do not use a push e-mail service like a Blackberry, and if there is something at stake, I schedule a call or a meeting rather than send an e-mail. Urgent e-mails are, in my view, a bit of an oxymoron, because if it's really important, then you need to have a discussion with the sender.
So to sum up, if you want to get more done and thereby be more effective:

• Deal with how you feel about each task you set yourself.
• Ruthlessly put anything you can into a "Not Now" place and rarely take it out again.
• Put all your interruptions (especially calls) into your schedule and train people to not interrupt.
• Defend your "Now" time with vigor.
• Treat e-mail as a task and not as a master.
• Mange your "Now" so that you are always doing things that are really important to you and the missions you are passionate about.

 Bill Liao who is also the author of the article is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and diplomat, is a co-founder of the social network service XING and CEO of Finaxis AG, a privately held company in the financial services industry.