7 Mac Apps You Might Not Be Using
Macs seem to be getting more and more popular. In fact, it’s not rare when I go into a coffee shop now to see more people working on Macs than on PC’s.
Without turning this into a Mac vs PC thing (since we all already know Macs are far superior…), I thought I’d help out those of you who are newer to the Mac world with a few programs that I’ve grown to love and need that aren’t necessarily secret, but you may not know about them. In fact, one of the great things about the Mac community are the fantastic developers, and the number of really great applications that are out there.
Here’s a few that I can’t do without right now:
I can’t believe how dependent I’ve become on this program. In fact, when I use someone else’s computer, I find myself a bit crippled without TextExpander. Here’s what it basically does – you create abbreviations that when you type those, a whole string of preassigned text pops up. I use it for all kinds of little things – like never typing my email address into a form again, but just simply using my abbreviation. I also have a few standard responses to some emails that I get frequently that I can just type an abbreviation into and it writes out the whole thing. So awesome. Plus it keeps a running tally of how much time you’ve saved by using it rather than typing everything out.
A simple and safe way to remember all of your passwords, and even have it generate new ones that are much more secure than what you’d develop on your own. You can use it to securely enter credit card info, billing address info, etc as well. Another great tool that saves you time.
A quick and easy way to take screen shots and to write/draw on them, and then share them. Before using this, I didn’t even begin to realize how much I would want to use something like this. Sometimes it’s just easier to take a screen shot of something you need to show someone to ask them about.
I’ve mentioned this before, and it’s obviously not Mac only, but this is the place where I dump everything that I think I may need later – especially for studying and message prep. My favorite feature – I can take a picture of a whiteboard and dump it into Evernote, and then it can recognize the words that I wrote, and when I do a search, if that word was written on the whiteboard, that picture shows up in the search.
Again, another program that’s not Mac only, but is still awesome. Its basically a program that stores your files online for free (up to 2GB) that can be shared and accessible at anytime. I keep copies of files that I want to have access to wherever I am on it. I also put copies of files that I need to share with others on it. It works as a folder on my desktop that I just drop things into and then they’re magically everywhere I need them to be.
For longer writing projects, Scrivener is awesome. I don’t use it for weekly things (although I know plenty of people who do), but it’s great for anything that takes a bit more time. I’m currently writing our new Knowing Parkcrest Class on it. I wish I would have had this during school.
I prefer to write all of my blog posts on a separate program on my laptop. While I will admit that after using Windows Live Writer on my netbook, that it’s a better program, Blogo has become my favorite on the Mac. It’s got a clean, easy interface
———
If you’re on a Mac, what are some of the programs that we might not know about that you can’t do without right now?
Provide the But
I think this is going to become one of our new phrases in leadership discussions.
“Provide the but”
We were in a leadership discussion this week talking about how typically no given person will like 100% of everything we do, and there will be things that are inconvenient, but what we have to learn to do is to provide the but. This really is what Parkcrest has done throughout the years.
The parking is terrible, but…
The buildings are old, but…
I don’t like Mike’s haircut, but…
Providing the but is about giving people reason enough to be a part of what we’re doing even when there’s something that we might not totally agree on or something a bit inconvenient. As long as we provide the but, that thing becomes inconsequential.
And really, this is what good companies do, isn’t it? Think about some of the conversations you’ve had at times…
Apple computers are more expensive, but…
It’ll take longer to get it from Amazon than from the store down the street, but…
That restaurant is always so crowded, but…
A part of leading an organization well is learning to provide the but. And plus, how much fun is it going to be to use that phrase in more and more leadership conversations.
7 Ways to Beat The Resistance
In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield identifies the Resistance as that thing which keeps us from accomplishing what we’ve set out to accomplish. It’s what pushes against the creative process and gives us the excuse to procrastinate and put things off.
The Resistance keeps us from simply getting things done. It regularly creeps up in my life, and I let it win far too often. I have far more ideas than what I actually get done because I succumb to The Resistance.
When I do well, here’s 7 ways that help me to beat The Resistance.
- Turn off the Internet. A lot of what I do often involves writing on the computer, which means that Email, Twitter, looking up random definitions of words and seeing what else pops up when I google my name become far too easy and distracting. If I’m going to get something done, I have to intentionally turn those things off for a set period of time. Every time you glance at your email or briefly check your Twitter when you need to get something done, The Resistance wins.
- Do Things On Your Schedule. Just because the phone rings, you don’t have to pick it up. Just because a TV Show is on at a certain time, you don’t have to watch it then. Just because Steve Jobs is giving a keynote address, you don’t have to pay attention to the live-blog of it…maybe that’s just me. Do those things on your schedule – return the call later, utilize a DVR, and read about the keynote on the million blogs reporting on it later. Whenever we let the immediate thing drag our attention away from what we had planned on doing, The Resistance wins.
- Launch Unfinished Ideas. The Resistance says that everything has to be a certain way in order to launch it. You hold back from making things public because it’s not quite there yet. If it has to be perfect, it never will be, and The Resistance wins.
- Set a Schedule and Put it in Your Calendar. How many people have started a blog, but never done much with it, or began a project only to put it aside later without much being done on it. Force yourself to write or to take that next step with your project by scheduling it out and putting it on your calendar. The Resistance wins when we keep putting it off and find other things to do
- Have Bad Ideas. Every time we won’t write something down, try something new, or say something out loud because we’re afraid it might be a bad idea, The Resistance wins.
- Don’t Wait for Inspiration. I used to think that I could only work on my sermons when I was inspired. The problem was that I wouldn’t always get inspired and Sunday came up again pretty quickly. The reality is that we’re not often just inspired. Creativity is just hard work. The Resistance wins every time we put something off because we’re waiting for inspiration.
- Just Do Something. Every one of us has an idea to implement, a story to write, a craft to create, a project to build. Don’t let others be the creatives, and others be the ones who do inspiring things. Just do the thing you’ve been thinking about doing. Don’t talk about it. Just do it. When all you do is think about it or talk about it, The Resistance wins.
What has helped you to beat The Resistance?
What’s Ahead for Us…
What a great weekend at Parkcrest this past weekend. We celebrated some of what God did in 2009 and talked about what he’s calling us to over this next year.
A few of the highlights…
- In 2009, we saw 299 people get baptized, an average attendance of 2,529 people, sponsored an additional 113 kids with Tumaini, saw High School Students live our projects bigger than themselves, and gave away around $315,000 outside our church walls
- This year we will fully implement a simple, overarching discipleship process for the entire church
- We will be launching a “Parkcrest School of Theology” in the Fall
- We’re planting a church in Machakos, Kenya in October and moving forward with one for So-Cal as well
- We’re increasing our efforts in Tijuana
- And we’re going to be even more committed evangelistically locally with a simple evangelism strategy – Invest and Invite
So much good stuff has happened. This is going to be a crazy and exciting year…love being on this ride with you Parkcrest!
Insatiable Curiosity
I was listening recently to Malcolm Gladwell on the Catalyst Podcast. The guy is brilliant. If you’ve read any of his books before, or happened upon his articles in the New Yorker Magazine, you’ve seen his uncanny ability to see things in ways we hadn’t noticed before, and to make connections that make sense later but you needed someone like him to first notice. Plus his hair is awesome.
He was asked something along the lines of what will make someone succeed today, and he responded by saying, “you have to live with an insatiable curiosity”. That you’re willing to learn new stuff, you try new things, you’re reading new stuff. You live with a curiosity that never allows you to sit complacently, but instead has to always be learning something more or something new.
I love that idea. That’s one of the things I want to be known for – living with an insatiable curiosity. And really, couldn’t you in a way say that’s what those of us following Jesus should be striving for. A part of following Jesus is to be a seeker of truth – so it seems that we should be a people who are known for living with an insatiable curiosity.
Most of the time Christians are known for the opposite. We’re rigid and fixed and often act as if we’ve got it all figured out. What if instead, we were the ones known for living with an insatiable curiosity…
He Affects Real People’s Real Lives
This weekend we were talking about the significance of each of us encountering the resurrected Jesus. Where we don’t just allow the resurrection to be a historical fact that we point to, or a something that only sets us up for a future reality, but instead something that affects real people in real ways now.
Regardless of whether you’ve been in church your entire life or if you just recently encountered Jesus, he can still have a significant affect in your life.
Here’s a video that we showed this weekend of a few people’s different stories from Parkcrest.
(great job Kozmo on shooting and editing this)
Launch Unfinished Ideas
Sometimes you have to just simply start things unfinished.
My problem is that I tend to have a picture in my head of how I want something to turn out, and if I’m not starting it in that place then I’m bummed.
I was telling someone this morning that if I didn’t have to preach every week, I’d probably never finish a sermon. I’ve never quite got it finished. I always want to figure out a better way to say it, or have a stronger illustration or understand a passage of Scripture better. But because it comes every week at some point I have to have something to give, and so in a way I’m forced to put something out. If I wasn’t forced to put it out, it would probably just sit there unfinished.
That’s what a lot of us do. We’ve got a great idea or a project we want to begin. I’ve got about a dozen unfinished blog posts sitting right here. And we let it sit unfinished.
Sometimes you have to start things unfinished. Just get it going and get it out there. That’s the only way you’ll get it finished.
This weekend, I’m going to be sharing several things that we’re going to engage in during 2010 with Parkcrest. I’m really excited about what’s going to be happening over these next 12 months. But the thing is that I’ve been tempted not to share most of these things because they’re not finished yet. But what I’m learning is that if I wait for them to be finished or at a point of being what I think is ready, we’ll probably never do them.
So, we’ll start them unfinished. Because sometimes that’s what you need to do in order to make things happen.
