PastorHacks

Highrise

For the last year, I've been using 37 Signals' Highrise. It's an online contact management system that allows me to keep information about contacts and my (and others') interactions with them all in one place.

Basically, I felt the need for this after realizing that 
1. I was forgetting too many vital details in the lives of people in my church community and
2. I was spending too much time spinning my wheels trying to remember "Now, what did we talk about last time???" before meeting with someone.

With Highrise, and simply taking a few minutes to record pertinent info after a significant conversation or meeting, the details are captured and can be reviewed when needed.

Now, clearly, all of this can happen in Address Book/Outlook/whatever. The beauty of Highrise is that it lives online and can be shared among elders and leaders. Now, I don't have to ask my associate pastor to recap every coffee/meeting with people I want to keep current on. I can just check out Highrise and read the notes.

And I don't write EVERYTHING in there. Just stuff that is appropriate/needful for other pastors/elders to see.

Check it out- there's a free plan that allows up to two separate users. You can upgrade as well, though you probably can work around the two-user limit. 

Here's a write-up of how one pastor uses Highrise...

Pastor uses Highrise to keep track of interactions with his congregation

Rev. Andrew Conard, Pastor of Congregational Care at The United Methodist Church, writes in: "I have found Highrise to be an excellent way to keep track of interactions that I have with members and visitors to the congregation both in the hospital, in appointments, at worship and around town. Highrise has become an integral part of my task of providing the best possible care for each person."

Read the rest

Some of my Current Tools

Some of my current (non-digital!) tools...

1. Small Moleskine- this is my prayer journal. I write out sentences or items as I pray. Really helps me focus when my mind wants to wander as well as helping me remember what it was I was praying for a couple of weeks ago. I use a two-page spread per week. As I become more of a prayer warrior, I hope to graduate up a size :)

2. Large Moleskine- this is my note-taking book. Sermons, seminars, books I'm reading- everything goes in here. I used to take notes on my laptop, but man- too many distractions that way. Can't answer an email on your Moleskine and besides- there's something about writing things down physically that helps cement them into your memory. Take notes on everything! Preferably in a place where you'll be able to find them again...

3. The large brown leather-looking notebook- Awesome deal- by the same company that made my hipster. Soft and flexible, refillable, magnetic clasp. I use it for diagramming, mind-mapping kinds of things. Stuff I want to draw/write out but that is so in process, it doesn't need to go into something quite as expensive as a Moleskine. 

4. G-2 Gel pen. The best. Just the best, Jerry. 

Basecamp

If you haven't checked out Basecamp, by the 37 Signals, you should...

Basecamp offers easy-to-use project management for organization like churches. Have a project involving many departments at your church, like a big summer event involving worship teams, kids ministries, hospitality, adult ministries, etc? 

Basecamp offers a place to consolidate, track and discuss everything you need to do to make that "big rock" happen. 

You should check it out: 

evernote now open to all...

They've thrown the doors open wide- everybody in!

Evernote

Evernote

Last week I turned you folks on to Evernote- just checking in- how's that going? Has it been helpful?

My wife and I are considering (with the advent of child #3) moving to a slightly larger house. Of course, looking through Craigslist and other postings can be like torture, especially when trying to find one that you really liked from two says ago...

Enter Evernote. A new notebook to clip interesting listings to, tags to narrow things down... much, much easier.

What else- Have you all found any interesting uses?

(btw- I have 5 invites for Evernote left)

Evernote...

I dig Evernote- a bit more than other apps I've tried, like Google Notebook...

It's better looking and (I think) better designed/more usable.

I have a button on my browser that clips any page or portion of a page to Evernote, I can drop it into a folder instantly, access it from my iPhone...

Here are some thoughts on using it for ministry...

Two main areas to clip notes to- people and ministry areas/ideas.

As I run across ideas to discuss with or pages to put in front of my elders, I can clip to that folder. One for each main staff member as well.

Also, I have various ministry areas under my direct influence. I'll have a folder for each of those.

Of course, the main thing is to use it- to clip things to it for future reference AND look at it later. One of my daily or weekly review items can be to work through clipped items and process them to their respective destinations- either filed for reference (kept in Evernote) or forwarded on...

Evernote becomes both my inbox for the internet and a reference repository for saved items.

Other ideas: A folder for sermon illustrations, ideas, stuff to buy, quotes, etc..

Basically, Evernote is great. It's also in closed beta right now... however- I have 20 invites for anyone who wants them. Leave a comment and I'll send it along when I can.

Just do SOMETHING...

"Completion of open loops, whether they be major projects or boxes of old stuff we've yet to purge and organize, prepares the ground for cleaner, clearer, and more complete energy for whatever shows up. We're often not sure what's next or what to tackle. At that point, just clean or complete something- something obvious and right in front of you, right away. Soon you'll have the energy and clarity to know what's next, and you'll have cleared the decks for more effective responsiveness on every front. Process your in-basket, purge your emails, or clean your center desk drawer. You've got to do it sometime anyway." -David Allen, Ready for Anything

From (about) a year ago... Memo to Me

So, not all of us have stellar admin. assistants! For those of us who don't, Backpack has a great reminder feature, where you can set an email to be sent to you as a reminder at a specific time...

However, if you're not down with Backpack (and you really should be), Scott Cheatham points us towards a great alternative...

"Here's something I've discovered that works nicely for me.

It's called "memo to me".  You can find it at "www.memotome.com". This handy little FREE app is designed to send you reminders of stuff like birthdays, anniversaries, etc...I use it as my digital "tickler" file. If you've read GTD by Dave Allen, you know he likes this idea. I still maintain my 43 folders paper tickler at my office but for little things like birthdays, or special sign ups for community events the church is going to be involved in, a due date for a library book, etc...this little app is all I need. I simply enter the date with a side note, set the note as a one time event (or yearly for birthdays), and then set up the reminder parameters..(i.e. do I want a reminder a week ahead of time, a day, or both!) and then, it's set. When I check my Gmail account that I use my GTD in, the messages pop in there, I assign them by GTD label and I'm ready to go with my actions list. It's just another way to keep things out of mind and onto a system I can trust."

Check it out

Ubernote...

Ever had a hard drive crash? Lost everything since your last back-up, did you?

As wi-fi becomes more and more ubiquitous, and as more and more of our apps migrate onto the web, the good news is this:
We'll lose less of the things that matter to us because we'll be keeping them "out there."

Maybe you're ready now to give this a go?

If so, check out Ubernote.

From their webpage:

            What is UberNote?

  UberNote is an all purpose notes and personal information manager accessible                         through your Internet web browser.   

 

       

What should I store in UberNote?

       

            Anything you want!  Here are some examples of what UberNote users are storing:

       

• Task lists
• Contacts
• Bookmarks
• Web clips
• Passwords
• Documents and text files in your "My Documents".
• Notes to self
• Meeting notes
• Recipes
• Research
• Any random thoughts or ideas

How is UberNote different than what I use to store my stuff today?        

       

                             Single Location - If you use UberNote, all of your stuff             is in one location.         

       

            Any Computer - Since UberNote is an Internet application,             you can access UberNote from almost any computer.

       

                    UberNote is one system at your fingertips.             You never know when you will have your next great idea or where you are when you need something from your notes. 

            I've seen other web apps just like UberNote, why is UberNote better?

       

UberNote is not just a Web 2.0 hyped application based around a sticky note. Once you use UberNote, you will realize how UberNote is like a real application.

       

            UberNote is easy to use -  UberNote's simple navigation,             ablility             to see many notes on one page, context sensitive menus, and dragging and dropping             all make UberNote extremely easy to             use.         

       

            Your notes are easy to find - Your notes are automatically             organized in a natural order both by when you created them and when you made changes.             If you still can't find something, you can also search for text anywhere in your notes.

       

            UberNote is smart - UberNote also has built in intelligence             to organize all your open task items and  internet bookmarks.  This is just the beginning, so look             for more built in searches in the future.

       

            UberNote is lightning fast - UberNote is built for speed             and performance.             No waiting on whole pages to load, just click and go!

Check it out

Prayer list anytime via Jott/Sandy

David Rudd sent me this...

"I've used Jott (everyone should use Jott)and Sandy (my church can't afford a secretary for me, so i have a virtual one) to create a highly functional prayer list which can be updated from anywhere and quickly accessed via email.

Anytime I have a prayer request to add, I use my phone to Jott Sandy (use Jott links to set this up) and simply say "remind me to pray for _________"  then I add the tag "@prayer".
I can also email sandy with the information, the key is always to add the tag "@prayer."

Whenever I sit down to pray, or if I want to review my prayer list, I send Sandy an email saying, "lookup @prayer"

BAM!

She emails me my entire prayer list!

(if I wanted to, I could set up a dummy Gmail address which would forward all emails to Sandy with the tag "@prayer."  then I could tell people to email their requests to me whenever they want.  I haven't done this yet, though...)