The importance of a good Feed Reader

Trying to keep up with a bunch of blogs and website can be a real hassle. Especially if there are important ones you really want to read (like family blogs) and can’t always remember the website. That’s where a Feed Reader comes in handy.

I use Google Reader because it’s just that good. It’s free and has a great web interface. I’ve also got an iPhone app that syncs with it (for free) so I can get my latest news on the go.

Here are a few tips for how to use a Feed Reader effectively:

• Only subscribe to blogs and feeds you really want to read often. News feeds tend to send LOTS of articles every day and become quickly overwhelming.
• Organize your feeds based on blogs, family, corporations and other news. This makes it easier to remember who you’re reading so you know when to skip through headlines (corporations) and when to slow down (family).
• Check your feed reader, not their website. Checking the website gives them handy stats and lets them see who is coming. However, this can be overwhelming for the number of websites you have to check.
• Get to know Keyboard Shortcuts. These really help with flying through the feeds.
• Don’t keep everything just because it’s unread. If it was from a month ago, you probably don’t care that much. Keeping up with your reader could be a lot of work. Make it easier by only paying attention to what you REALLY want to know, such as the latest news. If it’s someone personal blog you really want to read up on, go through just that feed.
• Don’t be afraid to unsubscribe. I made this mistake early on. I was subscribing to BBC, CNN and the New York Times news feeds. I had hundreds of unread articles. I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t want to remove them from my list because every 1 in 1,000 posts were interesting to me. The time it took to scan the 1,000 posts was not worth the benefit of finding the one good feed.

If you want more tips on how to use social media and free computer tricks like a Feed Reader, check out my friend Aaron Marshall’s blog. He’s created two companies (TechSMO and ChurchSMO) that exist to teach people how to use technology effectively. He’s REALLY good.

Home screen

Sometimes, with new technology comes the ability to get more things done, more quickly. The only danger is that you become so obsessed with the speed of things that you don’t ever stop and unplug. It’s traffic to see a couple at a nice restaurant sitting silently as one or both of them use their smartphone to connect with people who are not there.

The flip side of the argument is that some new technologies allow us to communicate more quickly or work remotely so we can spend more time with others.

For me, The iPhone is one of those technologies that allows me to be more connected so I can spend more time talking with Steph and engaging with those around me. It also helps me organize and communicate with others so we can continue good conversations and meet face to face.

I use the email function of my iPhone at least twice a week to confirm meetings with friends to get a cup of coffee and talk about life. Without instant access to email, it would not be as beneficial.

Instead of blaming thetechnology, let’s focus on the user. It’s the user tar decides to ignore those around them and pay attention to the toy.

So, for productivity’s sake, here’s what is on my homescreen. What’s on yours?

Standard Apps:

• SMS – for all my texting needs.
• Calendar – I use this most frequently. EVERYTHING I do is in here. That way, I can usually schedule and reschedule on the fly. Quicktip: If you use iCal & the Calendar App together, you can add meeting agendas or talking points to the notes field of an event and it works well to keep your meeting on track. I only suggest this for more casual meetings. You can also use it to give yourself a list if you’re going out to do many errands…
• Contacts – self explanatory. I currently have 627 entries. 
• Notes – This is WAY helpful. I am really looking forward to the iPhone 3.0 software release, which will let you sync notes with Apple Mail. Even more useful!
• Camera – of course. 
• Weather – faster than any other weather app. I keep tabs on Louisville (where I am), Hollywood (my family), Philadelphia (in-laws), and Orlando (brother-in-law). It comes in handy to remember how nice the weather is down there and how cold it is up here.
• Maps – every week I am amazed at how this has changed the way I meet with people, pick places to go, find closer routes, and find my way anywhere.
• Clock – alarms, stopwatch, timer. Always helpful.

Additional Apps:

• WordPress – to do this jazz on the go. Also, I can use it to approve/check comments. I have both my personal and work websites on here. Helps when there is a typo and I need to fix it quickly.
• Facebook – why not?
• TwitterFon – my favorite Twitter app. Keeps me in touch.
• RTM – Remember The Milk. The best to-do application (both computer and iPhone) out there. And it’s web-based, so I’m always up to date.
• Instapaper – lets me save websites that I want to read later. Currently, I have three books on there, two by A. W. Tozer. A bookmarklet in my browser lets archive a page for reading later. This app makes it text-only and lets me read in my spare time, and keeps my place. 
• NetNewsWire – best RSS reader I could find for the iPhone. It syncs with a web-based reader and downloads the articles to my phone for off-line enjoyment.
• Car Care – My favorite way to keep tabs on my car and Stephanie’s car. It alerts me when tires need to be rotated, oil changed, and lets me keep an eye on gas mileage. It also keeps a service record, get for cars that are business expenses!
• TWC – The Weather Channel. I love the speed of the native weather app, but when I need an hourly forecast to decide if I should put the top down on the jeep or not, this one comes in real handy.

Across the Bottom:

• Phone – of course.
• Mail – keeps me connected to my work, personal and school email.
• Safari – because it’s just so cool to read the NYT on an iPhone.
• iPod – you can’t forget your roots. 8 Gigs isn’t a lot for a music collection, but you need your tunes!

 

TIP: to take a picture of your homescreen, press the power and home buttons at the same time, then release. The screenshot will be saved in your photo roll. 

ESV Online

ESV Bible Reading Plans.

If you haven’t heard, Crossway, the publisher of the English Standard Version of the Bible, has published the entire thing online. It’s free to use and they offer many great tools, like this link to many different reading plans. They not only offer a link to todays passages to read but they also include RSS feeds, iCal downloads, print versions, and updates via email.

It’s an awesome resource. I highly recommend it.

Remember The Milk

I have decided to start writing about the tools I use everyday that help make me productive. The best part about most of these tools is, they’re free! 

What Gmail did to email, Remember the Milk has done for Tasks.

I’m a church administrator, which means I support everything the church does. I focus on equipping those who are leading every ministry with the tools, organization, and infrastructure that will help them succeed. This means lots of communication, setup, organization, and follow through. One really important thing I rely on to get all of this done is task management. 

To do this, I rely heavily on Remember the Milk (RTM).

It’s an on-line task manager that uses all of the same brilliant tweeks that help with every-day task management that Google has made popular in Gmail and Google Calendar. You can enter in tasks, due dates, repeat functions, and just about everything else with every day language instead of codes. 

You can add tags to tasks to be able to group them by attributes. For example, two tags I use often are “communication” and “wemail” . Every Wednesday I pull up all of the tasks that are tagged with “wemail” to find all of the things that need to go out in the weekly email. When I open up my email and want to write the emails I’ve been thinking about, I pull up the “communication” tag to make sure I don’t forget anything. 

I think my favorite feature is the ability to input tasks in MANY different ways. The best is obviously to do it from their website. You can also send tasks to RTM via email, SMS, twitter and ESP (currently in Beta). 

I have found that there is no “magic bullet” for task management. Tools like RTM are only as good as your commitment to use them. I have grown proficient in my use of it and rely on it every day. I don’t have to stop and wonder what to do next. I just have to open up my RTM account and scan for the next task that sounds like it needs to be done. I would go into more detail about how I use RTM, but you need to use it for yourself and find your own pattern/rythm that works for you. I would just recommend reading through the “Getting Started” tutorial in the help menu so you know how to use RTM as a tool. 

There are two things I’ll tell you about because I find them so useful. The first is RTM’s iPhone app.

The iPhone app requires a Pro account ($25/year) which i splurged and bought it after using RTM for about a month. There is a free trial (15 days) with the app, which I would highly recommend trying before buying.

I use the app to add tasks and see what I need to do when I am either too lazy to open a browser window or I am not at my computer.

The second thing I use is the ability to email in tasks. On Sunday, it is controlled chaos. We’re setting up a full sound system and room for a church service in just a few hours, putting on a service, and then packing it up until the next week. I use the notes app on my iPhone to write down things we need to get or do before the next week or to followup with something/someone from Sunday. Then, I can email that note to my RTM account after it’s all over and I’ve instantly turned all of those notes into separate tasks. That is extraordinarily helpful for me.

 

So there’s my recommendation: Remember the Milk. Try it out. See if it helps you out.

Social Media

My friend, Aaron Marshall, just did a presentation at Southern Seminary about the use of social media. Of course, it was tailored to ministry because it was at Seminary, but the idea definitely spans across all walks of life. 

The biggest thing I took from what he said is it is not about self-promoting, but it gives people a closer look into the every-day life of their friends. 

Not only do I agree with this, but my friendship with Aaron is proof. We met in the winter of 05/06 when he visited Crossing Church. We had similar passions, to bring the church up to date with the messages it sends. Aaron was more involved in technology and I was filled with all sorts of ideas about Public Relations and evaluating the messages that are being sent. 

Aaron and his then girlfriend, Nicole, didn’t end up staying at Crossing. We ran into each other once or twice in town the following year. Almost two years later, through mutual friends, I was reconnected to Aaron via Facebook and Twitter. We ran into each other at a bakery and it was like seeing an old friend. The vast majority of our conversations/communication had come from online media. Then, we attended the same Acts 29 training event and spend some time together that evening over dinner. 

I’ve grown because of my relationship with Aaron. He has put into practice what he talks about. He uses social media as a platform to teach and share what he is teaching. When God is doing things in his life, he shares it through Twitter and his blog. His companies, TechSMO and ChurchSMO, have influenced my job at my church. 

I highly recommend checking out Aaron’s video. It’s an hour long, but it’s worth it!

Social Media 101 2.0 from Aaron Marshall on Vimeo.