I downloaded and installed this FREE tool and instantly blocked www.Gmail.com for 15 minutes. You can actually block any websites that you want for up to a day at a time, but the short test worked great.

This has huge potential to help keep me on track when I need to focus. Even though I try to keep my email at inbox zero, I am still in the habit of checking email way too much. Something like this will definitely help me block Gmail and any other distraction for focused blocks of time.

I first heard about this from churchm.ag. Thanks for the information on the great app. The link is below.

>> Self-Control Mac App Link

This is somewhat obvious. You should think before you do something. And yes, it will be obvious from this post that I have read and try to apply David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. But, reading and actually living it are two very different things.

One of the problems I constantly battle is the fight between thinking and doing. They should work together, but I am realizing that I think and do back and forth a lot. Even worse, I start to work on parts of the task that are easy, then have to stop part of the way to think through the rest delaying the entire project. Instead of that chaotic approach, I should think first then do.

Whether that is for monthly planning, weekly or daily… when I think thoroughly first, then focus all my attention on doing second, I actually get much more done.

So, my simple attempt is to get ALL or as much of the thinking each week done either before the week starts or as early in the week as possible, then work to make the thoughts a reality.

Thinking is work, but it does not get much done.

Hour to hour work is not that simple of course. There will be situations that arise each week that I have not planned for or completely thought through. I will have to stop and think. Conversations will happen and meetings will happen that add more work that needs to be thought about and and converted to actions. But, I want to get the thinking down to acting as early as possible.

Thinking is definitely hard work, but in reality it does not get much done.

It makes what you need to do much more clear and focused. But thinking by itself is not the goal. Action is the goal. I want to get to action as soon as possible because that is the only way work can get done. [Unless you work in a Think Tank - then congratulations. Thinking is your work.]

Here are some things I try to do to become clear on what I am actually supposed to do.

• Go through my email to make sure I am not missing tasks. Clear my email to zero if possible.
• Send emails and communicate for clarification from coworkers to get all of my questions answered as much as possible ahead of time.
• Write every action that I need to take down in my system.
• Do not write down anything that does not matter or that will only add to confusion about what the real action should be. If something is not relevant to the task or my life, delete and get rid of it from paper and my mind.
• Think through all of the details until actions are the only steps left. An action may be further thinking on a specific part down the path of the project, but at least that is now an action on my list itself. I can do that thinking later. If I cannot think through everything right then, then I need to make it an action to think about later.

After thinking, stop thinking and act.

A lot of stress comes into my life when I work up until the last minute. My realization recently has been that I create that scenario by not thinking and planning as much as possible first, and then doing the plan. I get distracted by constant thinking about something and do little. I am changing that.

Of course this is just what I am going through and it may not apply to what you do and the work you need to accomplish.

Have you dealt with this issue? What strategies are you using to get things done in your life and work?

Contributing writers include…

• Stephen Brewster
• Jason Castellente
• Colin Harman
• Blaine Hogan
• Jonathan Malm
• Stephen Proctor
• Tim Schraeder
• Camron Ware
• Denny Weinman
• Justin Wise

Check it out here at SUNDAY Magazine – www.sundaymag.tv.

Am I really making a difference?

When working behind the scenes in tech, media or web ministry it is easy to feel like you are not making a difference. While you can look at analytics and stats to see if you are being found, you do not really know the impact you are making until a real person is in front of you. The impact we can make hit me very strong a couple of weeks ago.

We were having a couple’s dinner at our church and the tables were set so that you were only eating with one other couple. This couple had been attending our church for a few months, but that was the first night we had met them. I asked how they found out about our church to see if someone had invited them.

They did not know anyone at our church before attending. They found us on the Internet.

That amazed me for some reason. I was realizing that a few months ago I invited this family to church and did not even know it. I know this happens extremely regularly. People find our church on the Internet. But it is amazing to me to realize that without the effort I put in, these people may not have found us.

Just wanted to encourage you with this. Whether you are a Pastor and are wondering if your online efforts make a difference, or a behind the scenes volunteer or staff member putting in hours without immediate feedback on results – what you are doing make a difference!

Keep it up. Expand. Get better. Do more. And, get found!

ChurchOnline.org is going to be released soon for FREE. You can sign up now to get updated by email about the release. It is a great resource for churches wanting to expand their influence and church findability online.

It would also really help new church plants and church planters when facilities and meeting space is limited. You could have a main service on the weekend and then meet online for midweek meetings and services.

Check out the post and links below to Echo and Church Online.

>> EchoHub ChurchOnline.org Article Link

>> Echo Conference

If are in a church that has classes leading up to the service making it a challenge for people to get in the doors that early this may not be the best approach. It may be better to do announcements in the middle of the service.

This is a simple idea, but would be a challenge to pull off regularly unless you have a lot going on each week at your church. You could do it monthly or every once in awhile in smaller church situations though. Recruit volunteers to continually film and take pictures of events though and it would get a lot easier to produce.

For me the challenge is not as much in creating the design, but seeing a creative church stage design in my mind with what is currently there. I have creativity and ideas in other areas, but this type of design does not come easily to me without something to trigger an idea.

I just stumbled across a website that specializes in helping this creative process get started while on Justin Wise’s blog JustinWise.net.

Jonathan Malm provides church stage design ideas through pictures on his blog. I will definitely be looking through this site more extensively as we plan throughout the year for different seasons and series.

Check it out at the link below.

>> Church Stage Design Ideas Blog Link
>> Jonathan Malm’s Personal Blog – Faking Creativity Link
>> JustinWise.net

But there is an entire other side to that questions. If your church is findable and someone actually finds you what will they find? That is the reason that I post other information and resources related to church websites and even sermon illustration videos, motions loops and backgrounds and more to help once you are found.

Church Website Page Load Speed

One of the challenges of any website is optimizing it for speed. This is especially true if you have a volunteer creating a site with limited time to optimize. But, optimizing a site can be a huge challenge. There are so many details from optimizing images without losing quality to caching your web pages so that it does not have to reload each time that visitor returns to the site.

Not only is it a challenge to know what to do, but you can get into trouble really quickly messing with caching and code to clean up your site. I do not know all of the details about how to get it to where it should be. I can do some, but it is a very detailed process and should be left to someone who really knows what they are doing.

But, you can at least find out how fast your site is loading. You can find out for free and it is extremely simple.

Google Page Speed Online Tool

I was scrolling through my personal Twitter feed and found a tweet by @stumclaren. Stu and his team have developed the Wishlist WordPress Membership Website Plugin [my link] that helps internet marketers easily make money creating membership websites. I have used this plugin and it is the best there is for WordPress.

He shared a tool called Google Page Speed Online. This simple resources allows you to enter the web address of your church and within a few seconds view a report about what is right and what is wrong with the page speed of your website.

The awesome part about this is that you could use this tool to hire someone to fix some of the problems and increase the speed of your website loading time. This would give your website visitors a much better experience. You could find a website designer who works with your type of site or use your current designer to fix the problems shared in the report.

One word of caution though. Just because someone can create a website for you does not mean they know how to optimize it. Choose carefully.

The link to the Google page load tool is below. Check it out and see how fast your church website is viewable to visitors.

>> Google Page Speed Online Link

This landing page can be as simple as your Google Places page, as social as your Facebook page, or as traditional as a basic online brochure type static website.

I think the best solution however is to use WordPress for your Church Website. Click the video tutorial link below for cheap tutorials showing you how to easily setup a WordPress website.

To use WordPress as your landing page you will need to purchase website hosting for your church. This provides a place online for you to upload your website files to.

This is not as complicated as it sounds especially since the website hosting company will install WordPress for you. It is free and simple. Then you can install a WordPress theme and begin entering the content for your new church website using the video training tutorials linked above.

Check out the video below to see how to get started with your new church website or blog, then click the links below to get started with your new hosting, website and video tutorials.

>> WordPress Website Hosting for your Church [my link]

>> WordPress Website Video Tutorials [my link]

Easy WordPress Installation with PowWeb website hosting for Churches