Ben Stewart

Addictions

May 18th, 2009 | Comments Off

This morning I had a great discussion with a couple of friends about time management. One of the things we did together was a figure out whether or not each of us is addicted to urgency. If you’re like me you are asking yourself what “addicted to urgency” means. I mean, I’ve seen my fair share of Intervention episodes but I have never even thought about someone being addicted to urgency. However, after our conversation and a little contemplation I think this might be a real problem in our society–and especially in church leadership.

So what are the qualities of an urgency addict?

Here are a few questions to get you started on figuring out whether you might struggle with this issue of urgency. (Please note: these questions are not intended to deliver any kind of diagnosis but are provided merely for introspection.)

• Do you feel like you do your best work under pressure?
• Do you enjoy–and look forward to–the rush of adrenaline that you get when working with short deadlines or crisis situations?
• Do you keep thinking that someday you will be able to do what you really want?
• Do you find yourself giving up quality time with important people in your life to handle crisis situations at work?
• While working, do you feel the pressure of all the other things you have to do that are hanging over your head?

If some of those resonate with you a little more than they should, you might want to take this Urgency Index quiz and start to analyze your workflow to see if this is a problem in your life. A lot of this discussion was based on thoughts in Stephen Covey’s book First Things First, so you might even consider picking up a copy of that, for further study.

While urgency addiction may truly be an important issue, this conversation doesn’t stop there. It is actually only the beginning of a greater conversation about how we prioritize lives and what we consider “normal.”

Let’s take a step back from this specific issue and look at other things in our society that we let creep into our lives. Anne Jackson just posted some great thoughts about things that we often put in the forefront of our lives without even realizing how much they impact how we live. More importantly she asks how often we fail to take those issues seriously. How is it that we determine which addictions or distractions are serious and which are joke-worthy?

Not to over-spiritualize the situation here, but ultimately any addiction is a form of idolatry, right? An addicted person is misaligning his priorities and focusing too much on something that is ultimately trivial instead of focusing on things that are truly important. I don’t bring this up as a condemnation of addicts or to cause anyone struggling with addiction to feel guilty, but rather to compare the things that our society (and the Church) views as serious problems to the things those same people view as normal behavior.

Take, for example, the “Baptist potluck.” I have traveled to many churches over the past few years and taken part in many potluck meals. Almost every time I left the table more full than I should have been–sometimes even with some joking comment about gluttony. (If we joke about it then it’s not true, right?) Christians even have jokes about eating too much at church like “What’s another name for a Baptist preacher’s belt? A fence around a chicken graveyard.” But I wonder how many people have serious issues with overeating that are swept under the rug with humor instead or being discussed with the same seriousness as alcoholism or pornography.

How many church leaders (both paid and volunteer) are workaholics? Is this behavior any less destructive for them and their families than any other addiction? Is the Church doing a great disservice to its leaders and its members by brushing off certain issues as normal behavior instead of challenging and correcting them? How can we focus on things that are ultimately important instead of being distracted by things that end up being trivial?

Failure is being excellent at something that is ultimately not important.

Tags: christian, church, productivity, spirituality | Posted in Uncategorized

Must-have Mac apps pt. 2

May 6th, 2009 | Comments Off

I hope you are enjoying all of the apps that I listed back in part 1 because surely you’ve already read that post and downloaded those life-changing gems. This set of apps is a mixed bag of goodies that I think you will find useful. The theme today is free–something I don’t think anyone will complain about. So get your download button ready. Here we go…

6. Dropbox (free*)

Dropbox is a web service that integrates with your Mac seamlessly. It walks the line between being (1) file sync, (2) file sharing, and (3) cloud storage/backup. Basically, once you sign up for your free account you have 2 GB of space on Dropbox’s servers. Install the Dropbox app on your Mac and you will see a little icon in your menubar and a new folder called “Dropbox” in the sidebar of your Finder windows. All you have to do is drop a file into that Dropbox folder and it will immediately sync up with your online account. Why? Once that file is online you can access it from anywhere through the Dropbox website. Just login and you will see a copy of every file you put in that folder.

But it doesn’t stop there. Dropbox comes with a folder called Public. Just put a file in this Public folder, right-click on it, then choose “Dropbox -> Copy Public Link.” Now paste that link (URL) into an email or chat window and the person at the other end can download that file. This is the super-easy way to share that large Photoshop file, zipped folder of images, or whatever you need to send to someone else.

It also has a Photos folder allowing you to upload pictures that will automatically become a photo album.

If you have someone you always share files with, or if you have two machines (maybe a desktop and a notebook) you can create a shared folder with any other Dropbox user. Anything you put in the folder will automatically appear in their copy of that folder as well.

Dropbox’s web interface shows you every file you (or anyone you are sharing with) have added, deleted, etc. so you can easily keep up with what’s happening to your files. It also works great in Safari on the iPhone. Dropbox is free with 2 GB of storage (*or you can upgrade your account to 50 GB for just $9.99/month or $99/year). It works on Macs, Windows, and Linux.

7. Skype (free*)

We all know iChat has video capabilities. However, iChat is not always smart enough to get through pesky firewalls in places like hotels, schools, or conference centers. So how is a person expected to keep in touch with loved ones at home while out on the road? Why, Skype of course.

Skype is an online communication tool. It allows a user to easily video chat, audio chat, text chat, and even send files to any other Skype user for free. Any user can also purchase Skype Out credits allowing that user to place calls to regular land-line phones. You can even buy a Skype In number allowing other people to call your Skype account using a standard 10-digit phone number (and local phone rates no matter where you are in the world).

While no tool like this is perfect, Skype generally performs well and is most definitely worth setting up on your Mac. You can even communicate with your non-Mac friends via Skype and use it on your iPhone (via WiFi). Make sure to check out the security preferences after you install. Skype gives you control over how public or private your information is, it’s up to you to actually use that power.

Skype is free for computer to computer calls (*Skype Out and Skype In are resonably priced if you need them) and is availabel for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, and a handful of other devices.

8.Handbrake (free)

Ever want to rip a copy of that non-commercial DVD you just picked up onto your Mac so you can watch it without having to keep up with the bulky DVD case or risk scratching the disk? That’s exactly what Handbrake was designed to do. Handbrake allows a user to insert a DVD and rip it to the hard disk in a variety of formats and quality levels. It even includes several presets that keep you from having to know the right settings to get that perfect rip for your iPhone, AppleTV, or HDTV.

In the most recent version Handbrake has been expanded to allow conversion of video files. So, if your cousin sends you a video file in some crazy Windows video format you can just load it into Handbrake and make iTunes happy by converting it to the right Quicktime format. (For another video conversion option–it never hurts to have options–try Video Monkey for free.)

Handbrake is free but remember you should only use it for legal purposes. With great power comes great responsibility.

9. The Unarchiver (free)

The Unarchiver is one of those utilities that everyone should have in their arsenal but most people will never even know it’s there. It makes unarchiving any compressed file you find yourself downloading from the internet an automatic process. I like utilities that keep me from having to think and that’s exactly what this is. Trust me, you should download it and forget it. But trust that it’s there making your life a little less stressful.

10. iStat Menus and iStat Nano (both free)

If you like to keep an eye on how your Mac is performing you need an iStat product (or two). I always keep my memory and CPU usage in my menubar with iStat Menus. If I feel my Mac getting a little sluggish I can just glance up at my menubar and see exactly what’s going on. It even provides easy access to Activity Monitor so I can keep an eye on any applications that are hogging more memory or CPU cycles than they should.

But iStat Menus doesn’t stop there. If you want more Date & Time information than Apple allows in the Date & Time Preferences you can have iStat Menus show you that as well. You can set your own date/time format and even show multiple time zones. You can actually see just about any information possible about the state of your Mac such as temperature, fan speed, drives, network traffic, etc.

If you’re not sure you want all of that information taking up precious space in your menubar, then maybe the iStat Nano dashboard widget is for you. In a small footprint on your dashboard, this widget be default shows a brief overview of your system with things like CPU usage, memory usage, hard drive space, temperature, fan speed(s), network traffic, and uptime (time since last restart). However, just hover over the widget and a smorgasboard of information is immediately at your fingertip. You can get detailed information about anything listed above as well as things like battery life and current running processes.

Even if these aren’t things that you want to see now, consider that one day your machine might be running a little slow and you may want to try to figure out why. At any rate, both iStat Menus and iStat Nano are free, functional, and pretty.

Conclusion

Well, that’s it for another round of great, must-have Mac applications. I hope you enjoy each of these as much as I do. If you’ve got other apps that you just can’t live without I would love to hear about them in the comments.

Tags: apps, links, Mac, productivity | Posted in Uncategorized

My task management system with Things, iCal, Mail, and a little magic

September 19th, 2008 | 11 Comments

I have been using Cultured Code’s Things application for a while now. It is still in beta, but it is shaping up to be a wonderful task management app. What is “task management” you might ask? Think “to do lists.” But Things is more than just some lists with check boxes. Things has a wonderful tagging system, projects, “areas,” a Today list, a Next list, repeat tasks, and a bunch of other features that I’m just going to tease you with here. If you want to learn more about Things you should watch this video because this post isn’t about how great Things is, it’s about how I incorporate Things into my workflow.

As I said above, I use Things to handle my task management. I use Apple’s Mail application to handle my e-mail and I use iCal to keep up with my appointments. One of the big features in Apple’s Leopard operating system is “system-wide calendar.” This means that anything in iCal is available for other applications to read and manipulate. This also means that other applications can create things “in iCal” like events or tasks. I know, at first that doesn’t sound very interesting, but let me explain why that is a good thing. Things allows me to sync some of its “lists” with iCal calendars. This means that I can now create a new task in one application that syncs with iCal, and it will automagically appear in my Things list. If that doesn’t sound exciting let me demonstrate with a real world example… after the break.

Read more »

Tags: Mac, productivity | Posted in Uncategorized

Using Scrivener for simple project management

March 30th, 2008 | 1 Comment

I am a bit of a “productivity application” junkie. I haven’t read David Allen’s book but I have read enough about GTD other places to know that I need to be better organized. My addiction is especially bad because I end up wasting more time searching for and trying new apps than I would ever save by actually picking one and using it.

One specific area that I have spent quite a bit of time trying to streamline is project management. My needs in this area are pretty simple since I work by myself and my projects aren’t generally complex. However, I still want to use a robust, flexible application that retains a simple, streamlined interface. While the perfect solution for me may not exist, I have finally found a great solution for now.

My project management needs

I need to be able to organize information (mostly text and lists) about web design and other miscellaneous projects. I would like each project to be able to have multiple “pages” or “files” if needed. I also want to be able to classify projects as “open” or “closed” (and possibly even “on hold” or “needs attention” as well). I really like being able to visualize my current projects so I can quickly see where I need to focus my attention (I mean simple lists are nice but they don’t quite communicate the way I want).

Super notepads

I have a friend who organizes his projects into separate TextEdit files in folders on his Mac. It works for him. Since my needs are pretty simple I thought something similar might work for me, but I knew that I could find an application that would allow me to keep these “separate” files inside the application itself so I really only had one file with all of my projects inside. I was right.

I started off with Mark/Space Notebook application which comes along with The Missing Sync (which I had purchased to sync my phone with my Mac). This app looks a lot like TextEdit with the addition of a sidebar that organizes your separate “files” into folders. Its interface was definitely clean, but it’s lack of features left me wanting more. (There is a very similar free app called xPad for those wanting multiple “notepad-like” documents in a single app.)

Information organizers

From there I moved on to Together and Yojimbo which are both excellent applications for organizing files, information, serial numbers, and everything else in one’s life. For me, however, these apps were both a little more involved than I wanted. Their rich feature sets left me with too many unused buttons and features that just seemed to clutter my screen. Plus, neither of these amazing apps had the ability to visualize my projects in a way that quickly shows me what projects need attention.

Online project managers

From here I looked at the online options that everyone raves about: Basecamp, Backpack, activeCollab and GoPlan. These online applications are all amazing. I love them and I hope to use one of them sometime in the future… when I make a big-boy salary. They are all expensive. I am sure they are all very worthwhile if I needed to collaborate with others (where these apps really shine), but right now I don’t. Plus, I really want to have my information on my Mac instead of out in the ether since I travel and am not constantly connected to the web.

Next I looked into setting up my own wiki locally on my Mac. Seems to make sense, each project gets a page. It’s easy to edit. I can use Fluid to make it feel like a real application. This solution actually came pretty close, but the feel of a website still isn’t quite as nice as a real standalone app. Plus, my limited experience with wikis means that there was a learning curve just to create pages, links, formatting, etc.

Journals and writing

Next I tried Journler and Circus Ponies’ Notebook. They both had a lot of the functionality that I wanted but didn’t look and feel like I wanted them to. They were too cluttered and text-list-based when it came to easily viewing my projects.

Finally a solution

Finally, after reading a post by D. Keith Robinson I downloaded Scrivener. It is an application built for writers/screenwriters. It allows a person to write in small sections called “texts” and then arrange those texts later. While this is not my purpose at all, the flexibility of the application allowed it to fit my needs perfectly.

Basically I started one main Scrivener “project” (I’ll call this a Scrivener “file” from here out to avoid confusion with my projects). Any Scrivener “file” can contain both “folders” and “texts.” Remember, texts are just like separate documents which can be organized into folders.

I setup one folder called Open Projects and one called Closed Projects. Each one of my projects gets its own text within the Open Projects folder. Generally one text per project is enough, but if I need more hierarchy for a particular project Scrivener lets me do that because each text can contain other texts (like sub-pages within a project’s main page).

The best part about Scrivener for me is the “Corkboard” view. I can click on any folder (or text that contains other texts) and I get a visual representation of its contents. So, by clicking on my Open Projects folder I can see all of my open projects quickly and easily. Each project has its own “index card” that is color-coded by “label” and marked by “status.” Each card shows the project’s title and has a place for a description (where I put due dates). I can also write notes for each document but I haven’t found a use for this in my current workflow.

I have created labels for these cards for “needs attention” and “waiting on response.” Applying a label colors the entire card, so any of my projects that need attention are bright yellow. I have also created custom statuses to mark projects as either open, closed, holding, to do, etc. Right now this is a little redundant based on my label/folder system, but it’s there and it makes me happy.

Conclusion

Scrivener is by no means an all-in-one project management solution. For example, it does not give me any kind of task-management (to do’s). For that I go between Anxiety and Things. (I’m really just waiting for Things to integrate into iCal’s to do system.) Scrivener does not allow for collaboration with others. I don’t mind that right now because I generally work on projects alone. I’m sure there are other things that I will want later that Scrivener will not do as well, but for now it does exactly what I need.

What do you use for project management?

Tags: apps, Mac, productivity, project management | Posted in Uncategorized