A Toto Christmas

Thanks to the Real Nick Jones for posting this one. Great find! I need an MP3 of this for my iPod.

Five awesome time management tricks

I’m hesitant to call these tricks as they’re solid methods for effectively managing your time. As you may have guessed, this article is for those who are time deficient, not for those with plenty of time on their hands. Check out the beginning of point one below:

Tame the e-mail beast. For a long time, I managed e-mail haphazardly, with days when I felt on top of it, and days when it became my to do list. But that’s no way to have a relationship with e-mail. You never hear anyone say they spent the whole day taking care of voice mail, and e-mail shouldn’t control you in that way either. So finally, I adopted a system.

You can read Marci’s entire article here. I like where she’s headed with this and can wholeheartedly recommend David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

What tips or tricks do you use to manage your time effectively?

Thanks to Mike9Alive for the image.

The best customer service email. Ever.

Tell me if this wouldn’t just make you total, sold out believer in Amazon. While I didn’t get this email directly (read about it at Consumerist) it’s definitely made me more aware of how lacking most corporate customer service is.

On Black Friday, Amazon.com held a raffle of sorts. Essentially, they had several awesome items at insane prices, and people were randomly selected to get these details. One of these items was a really nice laptop, regularly $1000, discounted to $300 for 250 lucky people. I was not one of those lucky people. That didn’t stop me from winning in my own sort of way.

Read the entire thing here.

Would this kind of response from a company make you a sold-out-believer?

How to Life Journal on your PC

Up until just a few years ago I struggled with the best way to study the Bible. I never knew how much to read, and what was I supposed to do with what I did read?

My family and I started attending eXchange in late 2003 and was introduced to a Bible study method called Life Journaling. It was like a breath of fresh air when it came to studying the Word of God and, once I got the hang of it, I’ve never looked back. Life Journals come with their own one year Bible reading plan and an easy method for converting what you’ve read that day into effective reflection and tangible results.

Initially I journaled using a paper journal but found I could pour out my thoughts more effectively sitting at a keyboard and using a PC (I type much faster than I write). However, it was a little tough reading a bound Bible then moving to the PC platform to pour out my thoughts and prayers.

This article details how to Life Journal using your PC for 100% of the process. No paper journals required.

First, hit up the official Life Journal reading plan for today by clicking here (thanks New Hope). This site is based out of Hawaii so the reading plan doesn’t change each day until 6am Eastern time.

Read through today’s scripture, taking the time for your eyes and mind to catch verses that stand out to you. Copy and paste those verses into Notepad (comes with every version of Windows) as you read so you don’t lose them.

If you’re new to Life Journaling and find the daily reading plan a bit overwhelming, just stick with the New Testament reading for that day. If that’s still too much, just read a paragraph or two (or at least until you find a verse that really sticks out to you).

Once done reading, pick the verse you want to journal on for today.

Next, you’re going to need somewhere to keep your journal entries. There’s all kinds of options, from Notepad and Wordpad (both built into Windows, both free) to Google Docs (available at docs.google.com, also free) to journaling software. I use My Daily Friend (pictured at left) which runs $9.95 and can be purchased here. Use the coupon code eXchange to get $5 off (yes, $5 off) making My Daily Friend only $4.95. That’s cheaper than a single paper journal, and it’s a one time cost, meaning you don’t have to spend $4.95 every time you "run out of paper." My Daily Friend indexes all of your entries so you can easily go back and find any previous journal entry and also password protects your journal so no one but you can read the entries.

Now, taking the verse that stood out to you, use the SOAP method. Below is the official description for Life Journaling in a paper journal using the SOAP method but the directions easily translate to journaling on your PC. You may notice some of the instructions below duplicate some of what I’ve written above but it’s still good to get exposure to the process.

S for Scripture
Open your Bible to the reading found under today’s date of your Bible bookmark. Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. Highlight, underline or place a mark in the margin of your Bible, next to the scriptures that stand out. When you are done, reread the verses you marked, look for one that particularly spoke to you that day, and write it in your journal.
Helpful hint: If you are having difficulty understanding what you’ve read, you may find a study Bible useful.

O for Observation
What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you. Paraphrase and write this scripture down in your own words, in your journal.

A for Application
Personalize what you have read, by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now. Perhaps it is instruction, encouragement, revelation of a new promise, or corrections for a particular area of your life. Write how this scripture can apply to you today.

P for Prayer
This can be as simple as asking God to help you use this scripture, or it may be a greater insight on what He may be revealing to you. Remember, prayer is a two way conversation, so be sure to listen to what God has to say! Now, write it out.

As you become more familiar with the process, don’t be afraid to move away from the SOAP method if you find alternatives work for you. I’m simply presenting a method to use if you don’t already have one.

That’s it! That’s all there is to it. I am not understating how valuable Life Journaling is to me and how much its improved my relationship with God. It’s also made me more aware of what he has in store for me as I’m hearing him speak to me through His Word every day I Life Journal.

Feel free to hit up the comments with questions. I’ll do my best to help!

life journaling, new hope, soap, bible study, shawnw

Save time on your PC with Launchy

We all want to get things done faster, right? I know, faster isn’t always better but there are some tasks that just take awhile and every little time saver can help.

While I appreciate the invention of the mouse (in relation to computers; not that I hate the rodent or anything), in some ways it has complicated menial tasks. Like launching a program on your PC. Let’s step through the process and how it might go down. Let’s say you want to start Microsoft Word:

1. Move your mouse to see where your mouse cursor is. Depending on what you’ve got going on your screen, it might take a second or two for you to locate your mouse pointer.
2. Get your pointer down to the Start button and click.
3. Is the program you use showing up in the initial Start menu? Look for it for a moment. Hmm, no. Guess I need to go back down to All Programs and find it.
4. There’s Microsoft. Oh, that’s for my Microsoft mouse. Let me go back a menu. Ah, Microsoft Office! That’s what I want.
5. Lo and behold, there’s the Word icon. Click. The program starts.

Yes, I realize this is a dramatization that borders on the extreme, but you’ve been there, right? I know I have. I install some application or program, can’t remember the developer, forget what menu option its under and by the time I find it, I could have pressed a couple buttons on my keyboard, started spelling out the name of the application I want and be on my way before I even made it to Step 3 above.

Confused? Don’t be.

Enter Launchy. Launchy lets you do things on your computer just by typing. Let’s revisit the step by step exercise we did above, only this time, we’ll use Launchy.

1. Hit Alt+Spacebar. A black bar appears in the center of your screen, cursor blinking, ready for you to type.
2. Start typing the name of the application you want to start. In all likelihood, Launchy will finish the name of the application you want for you within the first four letters. Hit Enter. The program starts.

That’s it. That’s all there is to launching programs with Launchy.

The image below shows how Launchy works. Just type a few letters of the program you want to start and Launchy takes care of the rest.

Think about it. Your hands are already typing away on the keyboard. It’s absolutely no big deal to just Alt+Spacebar and start typing the name of the program you want. For more advanced users, you can tell Launchy to watch certain folders on your computer so you can type the names of individual documents right into Launchy to open them. All around, it’s a faster method of doing things on your PC.

My challenge to you is this: use Launchy for a week. At first you won’t remember to use it because you’re so used to just pointing and clicking so you might want to put a sticky note near your computer screen that says "remember Launchy!"

So, give Launchy a try for a week, then come back here and post a comment on what you think and if it made working on your PC just a little quicker and easier.

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