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Three Apps that Make iPad Shine

24 May

With so much buzz about the iPad in the past six months, very little has been made of which types of apps are more effective on the iPad than on the iPhone.  You sort of have to use the iPad for a few days to get a feel for what you like to do on it.

For example, I haven’t had the urge to use iBooks as opposed to a softcover book.  It could also be the fact that the iBookstore still has a long way to go before it catches up with the deep resources that the Kindle has.  For every two books I look for, one is missing.  That gets old after a while.

On the flip side, there are three kinds of apps that I really love when compared with their iPhone counterparts:

  • Twitter: Tweetie, now called Twitter for iPhone, is one of my favorite apps for iPhone but TweetDeck for iPad really shines.  I’ve used Twitterific but find it somewhat limited.  With TweetDeck, you get a visual sense of what people are talking about based on how you want to categorize them.
  • Calendar: With a larger screen, the standard Calendar app is awesome on the iPad.  You can definitely get a “helicopter view” of the day, week, or month.
  • Mind Mapping: This is another area where iPad has some advantages over what can feel like a puny iPhone screen.  My six year old even said the other day, “Dad, the iPad makes your iPhone looks so tiny!”  I really like Popplet Lite for a mind mapping app.

Which apps are you using that make more sense on the iPad verses the iPhone?

 
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Posted in Productivity, Simplicity, Web/Tech

 

Here’s to a Great List

19 May

When was the last time that you put all of your projects on one piece of paper?  It could be in a fancy notebook or the back of a knapkin.  The key is, as is often the case, to just do it.

These lists need not be sophisticated or long.  After all, a project could be as shallow as getting the oil changed in your Chevy or as deep as a strategic plan for your business.

Once you start keeping lists, then you have to revisit them.  Then you have to edit them.  It sort of keeps on going and going but that’s how productivity is like spiritual growth.

Someone once told me that “holiness is a process, not a point”.  The next time someone tells you that they need to ‘get organized’, remind them that organization is similar to getting holy- it takes time and repetition and practice.

So what’s on your list that you can act on today?

*photo by sunshinecity

 
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Posted in Productivity

 

Why Work?

18 May

I work within a school system.  My wife works at home.  My neighbor provides beautiful landscapes for private homes.  My friend works out her retirement.

It’s all work and if you have the right attitude, it’s all good. The thing is that work can be so hard and physically draining.  It is stressful and does not always come easily.

One key is to localize work in a set of principles such as those found here in Scripture:

Lesson 1: Accept work as part of God’s divine design for you (cf. Genesis 2:15; 2 Thess. 3:10).

Lesson 2: Be careful for the “grass is greener on the other side of the fence” syndrome.

Lesson 3: Do first things first, according to a plan.

Lesson 4: If you’re going to work, you might as well work hard. . .there are many benefits.

Lesson 5: It’s ok to enjoy your work!

Lesson 6: If you are good at what you do, do not be surprised when others want to see you in action.

These six principles are adapted from this article.

If you were to make a list of “reasons for working”, what would it look like?

*photo by gerriet

 
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Posted in At Work

 

Hybridize Your Message

17 May

We live in an age of integration.  We drive cars that run on both electricity and fuel.  We like MP3 players that both play music and look nice. It’s a new way of doing business and living.  Dan Pink calls this the revenge of the right brain whereby simple things are now expected to have style.  Even trash cans from Target are cool.

I never understood this until I bought an Apple Macbook a few years ago.  Now, I can’t imagine using anything but a Mac.

A recent example of hybridizing art with message is found in the 37Signals book, Rework.  Rather than writing a 200+ page book that you would only read half of anyway, they trimmed it down to just over a 100 pages and injected some art before each chapter.  At first glance, you feel as if there is too much art and not enough written content.  Yet, after a few chapters, you find yourself anticipating the next bit of art.  It is deeply effective.

So how can you hybridize your message and brand? Here are some suggestions:

  • When using PowerPoint, use less text and more photography
  • When creating promotional material, use less data and more symbols
  • When doing a podcast, use intro music to set the mood
  • When plowing through email, use courtesy alongside brevity
  • When giving a talk, use levity along with theology

Hybrids are here to stay.  The Benedictines knew this 1500 years ago and still promote the spirit of “prayer and work” and you can too.

This week, look for ways to link two things for a better end product.

*photo by gimli longbow

 
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Posted in At Work, Faith, Simplicity

 

What Most Parish Websites Don’t Offer

10 May

As I’m preparing an article for Today’s Parish magazine about church websites, it’s good to reflect on some sites I’ve visited in the past few weeks.  Each has something of value to offer but also lots of room for improvement:

St. Margaret of Scotland: a nice site with both English and Spanish, St. Margaret’s site is much more high-end than its curb appeal would have you believe.  I was very impressed. Room for improvement: the parish has not had a school for sometime so it might be time to edit that not-so-small detail.

Northpoint Community Church: very slick site with lots of media and web 2.0 integration.  Room for improvement: could have more readily available doctrinal positions for visitors to study or read.

St. Vincent de Paul: an overall good site with updated information and soft theme.  Room for improvement: more integration with the school should be sought as should information about their famous youth program.  (I know the founder- great guy)

Have you visited your parish website lately?  If it’s lacking, what can you do to assist the parish staff in bringing it up to speed?

 
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Posted in Communication, Faith

 

Promoting Work-Life Balance in Your Organization

05 May

Your organization may be a Fortune 500 firm.  Or a family of five.  It doesn’t matter really because when you get right down to it, organizations need the same thing- vision, discipline, love and balance.

In our family organization, my wife and I try to instill in our kids that “one thing at a time” makes a lot of sense.  My daughter plays the recorder.  That’s her one thing until the next season when she might do karate or take swimming lessons.  What we don’t want is for her to do three or four things at a time and then we become a full-time chauffeur service.

In my work organization, I try to take work-life balance seriously enough that it becomes tangible.  We use the phrase in our promotional materials and we’ve found that it helps to recruit top talent.  I also try to model it as the CEO of the school.  As I have 2-3 late night meetings per week, my team knows that the following morning I’ll probably come in an hour later.  That allows me to see my kids, take them to school and have just a little breathing room.  A friend of mine who is the Secretary of Education in a nearby city does the same.  Work/life balance in action.

How about you?  What are you doing to teach your family about boundaries, limits and balance?  How about in your work life- what can you do today to instill in your people a sense of balance?

*photo by gilest

 
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Posted in At Work, Family, Work/Life Balance

 

The Downside of Having an Open Door Policy

02 May

We’ve grown up in a culture of leaders with “open door policies”.  Besides the closely related concept of MBWA (managing by walking around), an open door policy is generally a good idea for the following reasons:

  • It promotes communication- it at least symbolizes that you don’t despise people.  I know, pretty basic but still relevant.
  • It represents interest in the organization- you can leave at a moment’s notice to plug into whatever else is going on in your workplace.
  • It represents accessibility- simply put, someone can speak with you easily.

Open door policies are what good leaders foster among their subordinates as well.  In a cascading effect, leaders model good behavior and then encourage it in their direct reports.

The catch of course, is that open door policies just might inhibit productivity.

Let me explain: in an effort to be open to dialogue and accessible to those around you, an open door policy can also be terribly distracting.  As you work in your office/cubicle/desk space, it’s easy to be distracted by small elements around you.  These can include hall traffic, noise and pedestrian traffic.

But are these enough to ditch an open door policy altogether? Not so fast. If great leaders are those who are also productive, then it’s imperative to know how to manage the small distractions that can eat away at working time.

Some easy things you can do to keep both an open door for parts of the day and manage alone-time include:

  1. Practice closed door working for parts of the day. It’s ok to close up shop and focus for 30–60 minutes at a time.  Doing this several times during the day can boost productivity.
  2. Use noise-limiters to minimize distractions. If you want to work and keep an open door, using a sound limiter can be helpful.  I use Ambience for iPhone for various sounds of waves and bubbling brooks.  I even find that those who come into the office enjoy the sounds.
  3. Make appointments with yourself. Simply schedule time for you to work on something of value and excuse yourself or tell others that you have an appointment.  Simple as that.  Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to work on what you want to work on.
  4. Know your own physical limits. I know that I’m pretty useless from 12-2pm every day.  If I have to get some important work done, I zero in on the early morning.  In the afternoon, I’ll spend time around campus visiting with students and their parents.  It’s a good way to get some fresh air and stay productive in a non-office kind of way.

What strategies do you employ to maintain both an open door policy and sustained productivity?

*photo by sillygwailo

 
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Posted in At Work, GTD, Leadership, Productivity

 

How Much Soul Does Your Blogging Provide?

26 Apr

This is of course the key question to blogging- what difference does it make? Pope Benedict XVI is asking the same question of bloggers.  I’m inspired by such blogs as Shrinking the Camel, Michael Hyatt, Productivity at Home and Scott Cheatham.  These folks make a difference because they inject something human into their blogging.

Something soulful, you could say.

More and more, I see a value to Facebook for adults but very little positive from it for young people.  The amount of vile commentary that spews daily from one person to the next on the walls of Facebook is enough to concern any parent. Where is the soul?

In whatever your doing, inject some soul today!  Talk about prayer.  Mention the existence of God.  Share your faith with someone in need.  Demonstrate compassion.  It’s never too late to be soulful in whatever you’re doing.

*photo courtesy of salt of the earth

 
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Posted in At Work, Blogging, Communication, Education, Faith

 
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