Michael Hyatt

Three Simultaneous New York Times Bestsellers

Last week, we had three books on the New York Times Advice list:

• #8 One Minute Wellness by Ben Lerner
• #13 The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
• #15 Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge

All of these books were published by the Nelson Books division. This is a first for our company and definitely worth celebrating. Congratulations to Jonathan Merkh, the Nelson Books Publisher, and his entire team!

Technorati Tags: bestsellers, new york times

A Better To-Do List

I don’t often devote an entire blog post to someone else’s blog, but this is an exception. One of my favorite bloggers is Merlin Mann at 43Folders. He’s the one that got me into using a Moleskine notebook. He’s also a Mac user and an expert at applying the workflow management principles articulated by David Allen in Getting Things Done.

Today, he wrote the first article in a two-part series, entitled Building a Smarter To-Do List. This should be required reading for everyone in the workplace. I continue to be amazed at the number of people who don’t know how to intelligently manage their workflow. But, then again, where is this kind of thing taught?

The article is very, very basic, but invaluable. I strongly urge you to stop what you are doing now (you’re just surfing, right?) and go read the article. Even as a seasoned GTD practitioner, I learned a number of things. I am eagerly awaiting the second installment tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: davidallen, gtd, planning, productivity, todo, todolists, workflow

Food Drive and Katrina Update

In case you missed it, Jim Thomason sent out the following email message regarding our disaster relief efforts.

After pledging 100,000 Bibles and $50,000 in employee matching funds (hopefully $100,000 eventually), the Company has been looking for a third channel for those who want to give material aid to Katrina victims. To date, the company has sent $55,762 (half employee money and half company match) to Samaritan’s Purse, who is using that money to purchase and distribute personal hygiene items to flood victims. A truck will leave here this weekend with our first shipment of 23,040 bibles bound for three distribution points in Texas.

After careful consideration of our options, the Disaster Response Committee has recommended, and Senior Leadership has approved, that we support the Second Harvest Food Bank here in Nashville as it struggles to provide food for Katrina victims sheltered in Middle Tennessee.

Several thousand refugees are here, or on their way here, and this overwhelms the capacity of local charities. Our money and bibles are going to the gulf region, so we believe our remaining charity should be directed locally to Katrina victims in our own backyard. Second Harvest reports that many of those whom they are currently helping are large families with small children who arrived here with nothing. They have an immediate need for:

• Diapers
• Wipes
• Formula
• Small boxes of cereal
• Canned fruit with pop-top lids (so a can opener is not required)
• Peanut butter
• Crackers
• Individually wrapped snack items such as granola bars, cereal bars, etc.

Please bring your items to the Human Resources department. We have a set of cubicles reserved to keep those items until we can transport them to Second Harvest, who is unable to come get them due to the demands on their time for distributing food. We plan to take these over about twice a week, but if anyone has a truck or large trunk and can take those more often we’re glad to have the help.

Donation Update

You may have already read this. Jim Thomason gave an update before we all left for the weekend. On Friday, our employees gave $13,652 toward disaster relief in the Gulf region. The Company matched it with a check for an equal amount. Consequently, we overnighted a check to Samaritan’s Purse for $27,304. They received the check on Saturday. I know this is just a start.

If you haven’t given already, please do so now. With each passing day, we learn that the need is greater than we thought. It’s going to take all of us working together to make an impact.

Thomas Nelson’s Disaster Relief Efforts

As I am writing this, I am watching Fox News. The images of refugees trying to flee New Orleans are gut-wrenching. I can’t remember witnessing anything in our country as disastrous as what I have seen in the last three days.

This morning, I started getting e-mails from our employees with ideas for how our Company could help. Everyone feels the need to do something. I know I do. You can only watch the images for so long before you feel compelled to take action.

Realizing we need to act quickly, I asked Jim Thomason, our HR Director, to form a “Disaster Relief Committee” and make a recommendation to me by the end of the day. He and his team met and then made two proposals. (For Jim’s account, please click here.) I immediately approved both.

First, we will donate 100,000 Bibles to the relief efforts. Why Bibles? This afternoon, an official in Baton Rouge said on Fox News, “We need water, food, ... and Bibles.” This is something I knew we could help with. Samaritan's Purse, an organization headed by Franklin Graham, one of our authors, has agreed to distribute these for us. We will begin shipping them to Louisiana as soon as we get instructions from Samaritan’s Purse.