Chris Bowler over at The Sweet Setup is blowing my everloving mind. What he's done is exactly what I'd like to do - have my own notes and my own database all in one place, locally accessed by my app of choice, in this case - Ulysses.
It would be a lot of work to get all the Biblical text into one app (it's over 800,000 words, but it is just plain text, after all), but I think to have everything in one place would be amazing.
How to use Ulysses for long-term research - The Sweet Setup >
Let's be honest. The Android tablet market is, shall we say, lacking. The only major company putting out anything close to the iPad is Samsung, and even then it's not comparable to the app quality and productivity ecosystem on the iPad.
But what if you're an Android guy and don't have $650 to spend on an iPad? That's what the 10.5-inch iPad Pro costs, and sure, you can downgrade to the watered-down education version of the iPad for $329, but that's still up there. What if there was a sub-$100 tablet that could accomplish most of what you'd like to do?
That's where the Huawei (pronounced WAH-WAY) MediaPad T3-7 comes in. At just 7 inches, it's small by tablet standards, but it's a great little budget tablet if you're looking for something to browse the web, watch YouTube videos, or even display your lessons and preach from.
The MediaPad has a solid contruction of alumnium and a clear plastic front screen that's a magnet for fingerprints (but really, what device isn't these days?). The screen resolution isn't retina-quality, but it is an IPS display at HD resolution. It also doesn't get the brightest, so using this tablet outside in the sun is probably not reccommended.
A huge plus is the micro SD card slot that get you up to 128GB of extra space. So you can load up movies and TV shows on your card and fire up VLC and watch away. Very helpful for long flights or hotel stays without good wifi.
Because of these shortcomings and the lack of an Apple logo, the Huawei MediaPad is only going to set you back about $79. The best place to get it? Walmart. You can also get the companion case that I have here.
This is a great little budget tablet, and normally I would have no reservations reccomending it, but there is one caveat: the US Government has reccomemended not to use Huawei phones, citing that the Chinese government might conduct espionage on the devices. As long as that doesn't bother you (I still intend to use mine for light use and playing emulators), then go ahead. Just be advised.
All in all, if you'd like to get a cheap tablet that can run a good full version of Android without a lot of cruft, this may be a solution for you. It's not the most powerful, but the Huawei MediaPad T3-7 is a great little device with good build quality.
Notebooks I've filled up just this calendar year.
I used to write everything down. In college 13 years ago, there was no iPhone for me. No App Store with great organization apps, no awesome Getting Things Done pieces of software for my Mac. It was just my 12-inch PowerBook, Microsoft Word 2003 (yuck!), and the web. That was about it.
Alongside that, though, I had a steady stream of notebooks. Mostly Moleskines, and I would write nearly everything down. Even if it didn't matter, I would write it down. I wasn't too particular about pens or pencils or even the notebooks I chose to write in. And it worked.
Somewhere along the way, I abandoned pen and paper. In an effort to become more streamlined and paperless, I put my notebooks in storage and started to use apps like Things and Simplenote to keep track of all my tasks, and later Elements and Editorial to organize all my text files. It was good (and still is), but keeping track of everything was difficult. Long-form writing and classes and sermons was ideal; small notes and bits of text was not. And as a minister, I live in small notes and bits of text.
This past year I've fallen back in love with Field Notes. In case you're not familiar with them, Field Notes are little notebooks, just a little bit bigger than a standard index card, with durable covers and high-quality paper. They're perfect for your pocket and durable enough to carry around with you anywhere.
Current Field Notes collection. Yes I have a problem.
Just in the last 6 months alone, I've filled up 10 notebooks. With what, you ask? Everything. It has greatly helped me be a more productive father and minster when I just write everything down. It may seem silly to you, but writing everything down in an analog way has helped me in a way digital never did. It just seems easier to forget anything that was typed out on a tiny keyboard. The more I find myself using my iPhone and its apps as a communication and organization tool and not the by-all end-all, I find I'm more productive in my day-to-day work and relationships.
Sample of my Daily Log.
For example, I've started keeping a daily log. It has been extremely valauable for me to look back at my workdays and see exactly what I did at any given time. It's not as cumbersome as I would have thought, it helps me with accountability and gives me a reference and record on the many different things I do throughout the day. Plus if anyone ever says, "What do you do all day?" I can just say, "Here."
I've also found my retention better when taking analog notes, especially during sermons or classes. There's science behind this. I sometimes try to sketchnote, which is just a fancy way of saying that I draw out pictures and doodles as I take notes. For example, when Andrew is preaching he might mention a verse that has the word "gift"in it, and I'd draw a small package with a bow. Sketchnoting helps break up the layout of just text in your notes and it's also good fun.
I highly recommend Field Notes, but there's some bigger formats that might interest you like the Panobook from Studio Neat or even the Dime Novel Field Notes special edition.
As everything moves more and more digital, I find myself going back to analog to keep track of things. If you're not locked into a system where you work and are able to go back to analog note taking, I'd say give it a try for 30 days and see how much more productive you are. You might be surprised, like I was, on how much better you remember things by writing them down with good 'ol pen and paper.
I was extremely happy and honored to be asked to be on Preachers in Training for their Holiday Gift Guide for 2017. Robert Hatfield is a dear friend and I was so happy to be on the show.
The PiT Gift Guide has become somewhat of a tradition in the last few years for me, and again, I'm thankful Robert had me on. We had a lot of fun and talked about some great (mostly inexpensive) gifts for the minister in your life.
Check out the show here and the links below.
Video courtesy of Cultured Code
For a while now, you may have noticed that I’ve been radio silent on Omnifocus. I love Omnifocus and all that the Omnigroup do for apps and productivity, but about 6 months ago I decided to try something simpler. I thought a power user like myself needed something like Omnifocus - that the myriad of great features and settings was a nerd’s playground for me. But I got to where I was more frustrated by Omnifocus rather than happy with it, which, turns out, was more of a reflection upon myself rather than the app. I was getting bogged down in the structure and features rather than actually getting anything done.
Things by Cultured Code has a long iOS history - they were one of the first Task Manager apps I remember on the iPhone. They were an app on the App Store before iOS was called iOS, circa 2008, in the first round of application on the release of the App Store. And while years passed and I had forgotten about it, Things version 3 had me taking another look. I had given popular apps like Todoist a try and get didn’t feel them. Things 3 clicked almost immediately for me and my needs.
Every To Do List app has a philosophy, and Things 3 uses a concept called Areas to manage your different lists. You can, of course, choose not to break your tasks down into Areas, but I find it extremely helpful to do so, since I’m involved with so many different organizations and projects. But if you’re not always everywhere like me (most times I wish I wasn’t), you can break down your Areas into different areas of responsibility, such as Preaching, Teaching, Housekeeping, etc.
Areas help you organize your different Project lists, and you can be as specific or as broad as you like. For example, in my Graymere Area, I have a number of different Project lists - one for this week and next week, one for different initiatives I’m working on, and so on. If I need to move one of these, it’s a simple as dragging and dropping on macOS, or simply tapping and hitting Move on iOS.
Some of my favorites are in the details. For example, every task has a couple of options: Set a Due Date, set a Deadline, Tag a task, or make a Sub-List. I love the Sub-List feature because if I have a relatively low-priority set of tasks like say, a shopping list, I can make those checklists under one task and not clog up the works.
Another dead simple feature is the Notes section - not just under Project headings but also each individual task as well. This is helpful for say a speaking engagement where I want to put the topic and scripture, but also for simple things like links to check out.
There’s also a number of categorization features that help you in organization as well. The Inbox is simply any task you thrown into Things 3 without being assigned to a specific project. You can use this how you wish, but I use it as a holding area to move those tasks to the appropriate Projects. Today is, well, self-explanatory. This is anything in any list that you specify needs to be done today. Upcoming is a helpful list view with a calendar that shows you tasks that you have put Due Dates on and when they are due.
The best part is that Things 3 looks seamless and fluid with the same user interface across all three platforms: iOS, iPad, and macOS. Unfortunately for Windows and Android users, Cultured Code has no plans to come to those platforms.
If you're looking for a clean, simple task manager with a few features but not a hundreds options, Things 3 may be for you. It doesn't break the mold and offer tons of new stuff, but it gets the job done cleanly and easily. Check out all the features at the Cultured Code website.