Lifehacker is a great site to find simple and easy ideas to make life a little easier. I thought this one was a great idea

I can never remember which number (1-9) I’ve assigned for my friends on my cell phone. So I went into Photoshop, made a simple but stylish background

and put 9 pictures of each of my friends (from their MySpaces – I shamefully admit) in a 3×3 grid corresponding to their assigned speed dial number!

I can never remember which number (1-9) I’ve assigned for my friends on my cell phone. So I went into Photoshop, made a simple but stylish background and put 9 pictures of each of my friends (from their MySpaces – I shamefully

admit) in a 3×3 grid corresponding to their assigned speed dial number!

Set that puppy as your phone’s wallpaper and you’ve got a grid of friends just ready to speed dial up. Thanks, Will! — Gina Trapani

Cell phone speed dial wallpaper – Lifehacker

Blogged with Flock

I have been playing around with various ways of storing my documents online. This week I came across a free service called Box.net. Box.net is an online storage site that will give you up to 1 GB of storage for free. I have found it very helpful. They say about themselves:

Box.net is a virtual storage space for your computer files. With packages starting at just $4.99 per month for 5GB, you will have enough space to hold thousands of Documents, Photos, Music Files, and Video Clips. Try us out for as long as you’d like by signing up for our 1GB free account. Whether you want to move files among multiple computers, backup important data in the event of a computer crash, or share documents and photos with friends and colleagues, Box.net is for you. Here are just some of the recommended uses:
Box.net’s browse screen
Save backup copies of important files
Always have a backup plan to prevent data loss in case of computer failure
Move documents between your computers
Use your Box to transfer files so that you can work on them in any location
Setup sub-accounts for multiple user access
A perfect solution for small businesses and workgroups requiring collaboration
Store photos and other important memories
Relax! Your priceless files and photos are always safe
Share files or create online photo galleries
Hassle-free sharing; show off your vacation photos or send a file to a friend!

Box.net – Free Online File Storage, Internet File Sharing, RSS Sharing, Access Documents & Files Anywhere, Backup Data, Share Files

If you have been looking for a great way to either share your stuff or just be able to access it from anywhere, give this a shot. It looks like they are going to be adding some really cool features like syncing.

Blogged with Flock

Time management is a subject that peaks our interest. I think it is a line that grabs us because we find time so scarce. Most of us long for more hours in the day. The concept of getting better use of our time appeals to us. However, a book that I recently read challenged my thinking on time management. The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr, Tony Schwartz is a book that emphasizes energy management. They suggest building routines and habits throughout your day that will increase your energy at key points.

As ministers, our days are often gobbled up by the demands of our tasks, conversations, and people. We often fail to prepare ourselves for the most crucial tasks and come to these tasks with insufficient energy. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to maximize their performance.

Using their impressive work with athletes and corporate executives, Loehr and Schwartz lay out the new rules for getting exceptional results in any performance context. Instead of managing time, manage energy between performance sessions to maximize emotional recovery for the next time you push your personal limits. Don’t rely on discipline alone; it takes too much effort to micromanage at every moment. What’s needed are routines–effective and even rigid practices that optimize recovery between performance sessions. – Audiofile

For me, this book transformed my weekly schedule. It helped me see that more hours do not mean more productivity. In fact, the opposite may be true.

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One of the books that revolutionized my personal organization is a book by David Allen called Getting Things Done. Allen provides a method to organizing commitments and to dos that is innovative, practical, and easy. He begins with the premise that we all have a limited amount of what he calls “psychic ram.” When our ram gets full, we get stressed out. With the multi-dimensional life we lead as ministers, we tend to keep our ram full.
I will offer various tips on this site that are spawned from Allen’s book. There are websites, seminars, and communities of learning focused on the principles in his book.

I would highly recommend his book for anyone in ministry. Allen writes from an Eastern religious perspective having studied Zen. However, the concepts in this book are not contradictory to Christianity. This book inspires you to get your life in order. I know that when I finished the book, I was cleaning out file cabinets, setting up systems, and calendaring more intentionally.

Implementing the principles in this book will lead you to be a more reliable minister. If you have ever been criticized for lack of organization, give this book a shot.

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Browsing the internet is a part of everyday ministry. We browse to find phone numbers, address information, research studies, purchase supplies or simply read online journals. Many times we find a site that is helpful, however when we want to return, we can’t seem to dig it up. The solution is very simple, bookmarks! (You save a copy of the link of the web address in a place where you can later return)

However, sometimes we are on different computers and want to have that bookmark we found at work today. We google to find it, but no luck. A great solution is a website called del.icio.us.

It is place to hold all your bookmarks online. You can access them from any computer. Even better, you can tag each bookmark with keywords so that you can find them later.
del.icio.us advertises itself with these three key words:

» keep
your favorite websites, music, books, and more in a place where you can always find them.
You will have access to all of your bookmarks all the time, no matter what computer you are on.

» share
your favorites with family, friends, and colleagues.
del.icio.us will give you a website address that will allow your friends, coworkers, family, etc to access your bookmarks at any time.

» discover
new and interesting things by browsing popular & related items.
You can search for bookmarks that others have stored on a particular subject.
I have found this to be a very helpful tool and would suggest you giving it a shot. Here’s how to get started.

Go to http://del.icio.us/ and register for a FREE account.

I would also suggest getting the Mozilla Firefox plug-in if you use Mozilla. If you don’t, you might want to give it a try at http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/