-Before I Ever Get To The Office

Some one recently told me they want to put a video camera in my office for a week to see what tools I use for ministry. Since they were not from my congregation I figured I was safe, and they were not asking the questions “What do you do all week?”

While I did not go for the camera idea I thought I would try and run through a couple of “typical days” as I do ministry and a few of the tools that I use. As for the basics that I use on a daily basis the “Big tools” are my iPad (1st generation 16G wi-fi) my iPhone (iPhone 4 – 8G Sprint network) my desktop computer (A Dell 19″ laptop running Windows 7)

My morning begins at home checking my overnight personal email on my iPhone. I use the standard mail app that comes with the iPhone, I use a gmail account but prefer the apple app over the gmail app at the time being. This often leads me to my next most tech tool which is Evernote. I became hooked onEvernote about 1 year ago, and I don’t know what I have done without it. It is genuinly helping me to move toward a more paperless office. Lets face it paper is here to stay, but I can reduce it with this amazing tool. If I come across an email I want to save either short term or long term, I forward it to my evernote account via a single email address. Now I can delete it and rest easy that its contents are safe. (Available on all most any platform know to man)

Ocassionaly from my email a task for my day or week will surface. No problem here, I just open my Wunderlist and add it to whatever task list it fits. If it demands attention today I “star it” and move on. Wunderlist is loaded on my office pc, my iPhone and my iPad. They also are available for Android, and Blackberry.

With my quick mail check over I moved on the my health and I enter my current weight and exercise for the day, along with my food log in the iPhone app LoseIt. This app helps me track my weight loss goals, as well as my food intake and exercise on a day to day basis. This program sends me text reminders 3 times a day to record my food, and a morning reminder of the day before. Yea, well we Lutheran’s love our guilt.

While enjoying breakfast I often catch up with my RSS and Twitter feeds through Flipboard on my iPad. This app alone sold me on the ipad. I can breeze through a great deal of information in a quick magazine like feel. My twitter feed on flipboard is my twitter account with just select follows, so the information I am working through is good stuff!

Now I am heading to the office. I have a 25-45 minute drive to the office depending on weather and traffic. Time to move plug my iPhone into the car and flip to my Downcast app. Through Downcast I get several podcast feeds pulled into my phone, for me to listen to as I spend time in my car. I enjoy “Walk in The Word” with James McDonnald, as well as “iPad Today” from Twit TV, “Car Talk” from NPR, and “Wait Wait don’t tell me” also from NPR. New episodes are marked for me and waiting me to either download them for later use or stream them as I drive. (They will only download over wifi)

Well it is about time to arrive at the office,  come back for part two as we look at a morning in the office.

<>< Craig