Tools for Workflows & Lifehacks for Inward Transformation

This Sunday (09-05-10) we completed the last part of our latest mini-series. We're poking around our own hearts, asking, "Am I the person I want to be?" The goal, of course, is to allow God to make us the people He wants us to be. Part 3 focused on "what we variously called "spiritual "workflows" and "lifehacks" related to inward transformation. Our goal was to do some intentional thinking about how to see deeper, more dramatic, more consistent change in our lives. God wants to change us, but if we are not actively "work[ing] out" our salvation, we may see little real transformation take place over time.

As with anything else, spiritual development takes time, thought, and hard work. Still, the old axiom "work smarter, not harder" applies (to a certain extent). We can read our Bibles until our eyes bulge out of our heads, but if our hearts are not right, or if our goals are misguided it won't help much. The goal of our "spiritual workflows" message was to find ways to be consistent and stay fresh while seeking God.

Why people get stale. I am convinced that we can be consistent in prayer, study, etc., and still grow stale and cold toward the Lord. It shouldn't happen. It need not happen. Far too often, however, it does happen. Why? Often the answer is that we stop working on our lives because we are too busy working in our lives. That may sound counter-intuitive, but it's correct. If we want to live a good life, we need to invest time working on the way we are going to live as well as just doing the stuff that we have decided to do. An example: I want to be prayerful, so I pray. That is working in your life. That is doing. I want to pray better, so I think about why I have grown bored with prayer and try to fix it. That is working on your life. The conviction behind the message was this: A life well lived, is worked on.

That being clear, the point of this week's message was to say "Do what I did in order to do what I do. Don't do what I do." Ummmmm, here is what that means: If you want to do exactly what I do, then great. Ask the questions I asked, used the tools I use and so on. More important is that you do the kind of thinking that I did which leads to the stuff that I do. That is not optional! It falls under the Biblical mandate to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12) and to "train yourself for godliness" (1 Tim 4:7). I did anticipate, however, that a few people would like to know about some of the tech I use, so I wrote up a list of a few software applications that might help someone get started.

Disclaimer: Yes, most (but NOT ALL!) of what follows is for Mac and iOS devices, but there is a thing or two for everyone, so read on.

Some Apps

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A Calendar

It is pretty insane to try to go through life without a reliable calendar. There was a time when I tried to keep things in my head, and boy did it get me in a lot of trouble! Google Calendar is hard to beat and it's free. If you have Gmail, you already have an account, so go try it. It will sync with just about anything too, so that helps.

One bit of advice on using a calendar. I don't put tasks on calendars. I use a calendar for appointments and events--places I need to be at specific times. If you start listing to-do's on your calendar it gets messy and can mess you up.

Task-managers

There are so many amazing task management applications out there it boggles the mind. Using a bad one is crazy when there are so many good ones.

• Omni Focus Hardcore GTD app for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It follows the Getting Things Done [link to book] methodology religiously, and can be a little hard to learn. It is what I use and it is crazy, amazingly, great. Not for casual users! (I wouldn't even try to teach it to my wife. She doesn't need it and wouldn't use it.) Desktop app $80. iPhone = $20. iPad = $40. Worth every penny if you want a pro-grade task management system.

• Things Beautifully designed application for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Also a GTD app, but much easier to pick up and use than OmniFocus. Each of the applications are about half the price of the OmniFocus counterparts. Things is powerful enough for just about anyone, but simple enough to pick up and use. It is my close second favorite to OmniFocus, and probably better for most people.

• TeuxDeux Extremely simple, clean, beautiful, and easy to use. And free. For any computer, Mac or PC (runs in an internet browser such as Safari, Firefox, or Chrome) and iPhone. This application is about as simple as it gets. You pick a day and add a thing you want to do. If you need to move it, you drag it over to another day. My wife, Erica, uses this and loves it. Very nice iPhone app that syncs with it as well.

• TaskPaper A great, simple and inexpensive list-making application. It runs on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I use it for tons of stuff! Makes my life easier and keeps OmniFocus clean since I keep long project lists out of it and in TaskPaper.

iPhone / iPad only apps

There are some Things-like and OmniFocus-like iPhone/iPad apps out there that are way cheaper than the real things. Not as good, but still great. Here is a list of some to check out:

• Taska. Pretty awesome for an iOS only system.
• Todo by Appigo
• 2Do by Guided Ways Technologies Ltd.
• Toodledo. Toodledo is based on the free we-app at Toodledo.com. All of the above use the web-app to sync between devices.

Each of these go for $5 or under.

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I would love to hear from you Windows, Android, and Blackberry people in comments since my list is almost exclusively Mac/iOS related.

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