Few campus ministers have the luxury of a dedicated office, and even if they do, it’s probably not on campus–hence our stereotypical residence in coffee shops. If you’re looking to find a way around the $200 headphone solution to get work done away from the house, you might want to try Coworking (Co-Working). Coworking spaces… Read more
I purchased a pair of Beats by Dr. Dre Solo headphones two years ago that have significantly increased my productivity. Noise Cancellation Eliminating distracting noises and ambient conversations allows me to complete tasks quicker and efficiently, especially when I’m working at coffee shops and restaurants. Visually Show Your Busy-ness Sometimes my slim pair of iPhone… Read more
These results are from a recent survey Google performed of how people used their tablet computers, the vast majority being iPads–source. I’ve owned an iPad (version 1) for four months and can say that I’m a more efficient consumer of information, but not any more efficient at production or task completion. There are two apps… Read more
I’m flying to Madison next week, which is in the Central time zone–but I live in the Eastern time zone. I’ve spent the last few weeks entering items into my calendar with titles like “Meet with Diana – 4pm Madison time” in hopes that that will make everything less confusing when my calendar switches time… Read more
For years I’ve bounced from one task management application to another. Some are great for entering tasks but terrible for managing them; others are great at pestering me but aren’t flexible enough for my constantly-shifting schedule. I currently use Things, and while I’m satisfied that it provides as much as any piece of software could,… Read more
One of my greatest weekly productivity challenges is minimizing time spent on short-term, low return activities. The Strong Week Plan, developed by Marcus Buckingham (author of Now Discover Your Strengths and many others), significantly helped me in this area. It’s founded on four questions: What percentage of last week did you spend doing things you… Read more
Every conversation about technology and productivity–especially in ministry contexts–needs to consider the effects of technology and productivity mismanagement and addiction. If you’re anything like me, you can waste the best hours of your morning dealing with email and with requests and tasks that arrive via email–despite the fact that there are plenty of probably more… Read more
A “Mind Dump”: setting aside time to type out everything you are thinking about doing, so that you can more freely organize and focus on one task at a time. The perfect time and environment for you to focus and work intentionally rarely presents itself; however, I would suggest that you can create it through… Read more
Do you ever feel like you’re running from crisis to crisis, always reacting, never in control of your time? Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix provides a useful framework to help you take control of your calendar. The Time Management Matrix hinges on this principle: Putting first things first leads to long-term leadership success The Time… Read more
Your email inbox is a great place to capture tasks on the go. Even if you have 9,000 current unread messages. A few reasons to consider emailing yourself your tasks: 99.9% of people that I know in ministry use email. Less than 50% of (more like 20%) use some sort of task management tool consistently… Read more
Matt Stauffer - Editor
Brian Barela, Brian Chang, Gordon Govier, Micheal Hickerson, Adam Jeske, Barney Lin, Berry Long, Dave Paladino, Brian Sun, Steve Tamayo