A Peek at My iPad: The Apps I Rely On Day By Day

In a previous blog post I highlighted the Mac apps that I rely on day by day. My iPad/iPhone are very much an extension of my Mac. In this post I want to highlight the apps on my iPad that I rely on day by day. I hope you find them helpful, and hopefully I can introduce you to something new that will improve your iPad experience.

(full disclosure: a few of these are affiliate links, and if you purchase through the link, I receive a small commission. If you do, thanks!)

Productivity

• 2Do: 2Do is my task manager of choice for Mac and iOS. Everyone should have a to-do list. If you prefer paper, go for it. For some, Mac's built-in task manager may be enough, but I personally need some more power, which is why I use the great 2Do.
• Focus@Will: My primary "productivity sounds" app is the wonderful Focus@Will. This is a yearly subscription type of app, though you can use it for free for 45 minutes a day.

Word Processing & Document Creation

• Pages: The iOS counterparts to Apple's Office sweet are at the front of the pack for office apps on the iOS. And the seamless synchronization with iCloud is awesome.
• Notability: Notability is a fantastic little app that now has a Mac version too. This is my go-to app when I want to draw on top of a PDF or other document. It is also just an all around great little note-taker. I hope they bring tags and smart folders out soon. If they do, it may just end up replacing Evernote all together for me!
• Numbers: I don't do spreadsheets a lot, but when I do, it is Apple's Numbers app.

Presentation

• Keynote: In addition to being able to run great presentations right from your iPad, Keynote on an iOS device is as much about the fact that it can function as the remote for Keynote on a Mac. And what this does is finally adds annotation and a laser pointer to keynote (hooray!)
• 2 Screens: For presenting any other type of document, 2 Screens is a really good way to go. It allows for all sorts of annotations, and even has a companion iPhone remote app to boot.

 

Research & Reading

• Pocket: This is my ReadLater service of choice. It has a great interface, a stripped down reader look, and can easily send articles via email or to Evernote for storage.
• GoodReader: I foresee a time when I probably won't need Good Reader anymore, but it has been a standard on many iPads for a long time. It is the closest thing to a Finder type of app on iPad, and allows for folder organization, annotations, etc.
• Evernote: Evernote is my digital filing cabinet. It syncs beautifully across all of my devices.
• Flipboard: Flipboard is a great little app for reading RSS feeds. It's like building your own newspaper.
• Sente: This is the free companion app to my Reference Manager of choice, Sente.
• Audible: Since I walk back and forth to work, I've become a big fan of audio books for non-academic reading.
• Kindle: A no-brainer.

Kids

• Bible for Kids: My kids love to grab my iPad for some screen time, and I'm more than happy to let them open this fantastic Bible app for kids. Highly recommended!
• Barefoot Atlas: Another great app for kids! They can explore the world and learn a lot!

 

Bible Study

• Logos: The companion to my Logos library. It is great for reading, highlighting, and taking some notes. But to do any serious research or original language work, you'll be left wanting.
• Accordance: Although I'm primarily a Logos user, I still find Accordance indispensable for primary language work. And if you want to do serious searching and primary language work on an iPad, Accordance is the only serious place to turn.
• FaithLife Study Bible: Whenever someone who has a tablet asks me for a study bible recommendation, I always recommend the FaithLife study bible, which is STILL free. It is in my opinion the premiere Study Bible. While its interface and user base isn't as big as LifeChurch's Bible app, its content is superior.
• I of course must mention my own apps, FlashGreek Pro, ParseGreek, and iGreek, which I do indeed use myself!

Others

• RowMote Pro: This makes your iOS device into a remote for your Mac.
• Tweetbot: This is my Twitter client for my iOS devices, and it is the best of the best.
• Kettlebell Encyclopedia: I tried a few Kettlebell apps for kettle bell workouts, and this is the best.
• 7 Minute workout Challenge: There was an explosion of 7-minute workout apps in the last year, and they were all quite nice. I liked this one the best, and there are some nice additional workouts you can purchase.
• iTeleport: My office Mac and my home Mac are usually running or sleeping, and it happens quite often that I need to access one of them while I'm away. This is the app that lets me control it remotely from my iOS device.
• AirVideo: Sometime my wife and I like to lay in bed and watch something. This little app lets you stream videos that are sitting on your Mac on the same network.
• 1Password: This is the iOS companion app to my Mac password keeper.
• JotNot Pro: This is a wonderful scanner app on my iOS. This puts a scanner in your pocket, and the quality is exceptional!
• YNAB: I've touted YNAB for the desktop - by far the best budgeting app out there. YNAB on iOS gives you full access to your budget sheet. Particularly useful for quickly adding expenses made while on the go.

Did I miss anything cool? Tell me about it in the comments!

photo credit: European Parliament via photopin cc

How to Edit Your Own Writing Better

It seems to be a basic law of human nature that we have difficulty seeing the flaws in our own writing. We put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards) and we think that what comes out is perfectly coherent and anyone with half a brain should be able to understand it.

Then someone else reads it.

All of a sudden, we recognize that we aren't as brilliant, insightful, and clear as we thought we were. In this post, I want to offer some tips on how to be more clear when we are writing, as well as how to be better editors of our own writing. While I am for the most talking about academic writing, I think many of the principles apply to more casual writing as well.

1. Get Some Distance. The absolute worst time to edit your own writing is right after you've written it. You will think everything makes perfect sense because you just wrote it! You need to get some distance from your written work. In my book Surviving and Thriving in Seminary I suggest that students complete smaller assignments a day or two before submission, and try and finish major essays a week before submission. This gives you time to get some distance from the work. When you come back to edit it, you want to have had your mind on other things for awhile. This enables you to come with a fresh set of eyes.
2. Change Your Setting. I just finished (and by just I mean just hours ago) submitted my dissertation for defense. Yesterday I spent most of my day doing a proof-read. I initially thought that I wouldn't need to do it, as I've been working for so long on it, and have advisors that have read and commented and suggested corrections already. Boy am I glad I decided to spend one more day on it. In the picture above, you see my red pen, highlighter, and post-its. I went through 1.5 little post-it booklets. What really helped this process was changing my setting. I work almost exclusively on my screen—but for this final edit, I printed all 248 pages out. I do almost all of my work in my office—but for this read-through I took my iPhone for some Focus@Will mood music, and sat in an empty room in the building. This small change of setting abled me to view my writing in a different light, and the result is a much better, cleaner, and easier to read end-product.
3. Be a Jerk to Yourself. Be as hyper-critical as you can muster yourself to be. Read with an eye to details and clarity. Especially in the introductions and conclusions, ask yourself "does this make sense?" Imagine someone you don't know saying "tell me about that section of your essay." Then try and state the explanation as clearly and concisely as possible. Avoid being cute, coy, or round-about. State directly what you are saying as simply as possible.
4. Assume the Reader Knows Nothing. When writing for other academics, or for your professor, we often assume that they know about everything. While it may be true that they know more about your topic than you do, this is bad way to write. As you read through and edit yourself, keep in mind that you should assume no knowledge on the part of the reader. If you are assuming too much, write it better.
5. Find Someone Else. There's no better way to edit an essay than to have someone else read it and point out its flaws. This is how you will become a better writer, by learning from your mistakes. Get a friend, a colleague, a more mature student, or a writing tutor, to edit essays for you.
6. Spell Check. You have zero excuse in misspelling something, especially with modern word processors. If you're a student submitting assignments and don't run spell check, you deserve to lose marks.

Have any more tips for editing yourself? Let me know in the comments!

A peek at my Mac: The apps I rely on day by day

I'm a bit of a tech ninja as many of you know. The truth is that I haven't always been that way, but a number of years ago I recognized that finding and learning to use the right apps was essential to productivity and quality of work. Below is a big list of essential tools in my Mac toolbox. I hope you find them helpful, and hopefully I can introduce you to something new that will improve your Mac experience.

(full disclosure: most of these are affiliate links, and if you purchase through the link, I receive a small commission. If you do, thanks!)

Productivity

• 2Do: 2Do is my task manager of choice for Mac and iOS. Everyone should have a to-do list. If you prefer paper, go for it. For some, Mac's built-in task manager may be enough, but I personally need some more power, which is why I use the great 2Do.
• BreakTime: BreakTime is a simple menu app that turns on a timer and reminds you to take a break. For me that means doing a few things elsewhere in the building, walking the hall for a few minutes, or doing a few minutes of exercising in my office.
• Antisocial: I've blogged about this before. This is a great app for those like me who sometimes need to block the time wasting sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Focus@Will: While I don't love that focus@will is one of those yearly payment type of things, nor does it have a Mac app, I continue to love listening to it as I work. It is music to help you focus. If you like it too, you can do what I did and use the free Fluid app to make the focus@will website into an app.
• PopClip: PopClip is a very simple and handy app that quickly appears when you highlight text with your mouse, allowing you to copy, paste, cut, or if it is a URL, to open it.
• CheatSheet: One of the best things you can do for productivity is rely on your mouse less - this means using shortcut keys more. For those times that you can't remember (or are learning) shortcuts, CheatSheet is there to help. Simply hold down the command key for a few seconds, and a list of all available shortcuts pops up.
• LaunchBar: Launchbar is an absolute essential on my mac, I can't live without it. I simple keystroke brings up launch bar, which then allows you to launch apps or files, open URLs, even do quick calculations or add to your Contacts or Calendar. Another very popular alternative which I may transfer over to at some point is Alfred, as Alfred is in the Mac App Store and does the same things.
• aText: aText is a cheaper alternative to the popular TextExpander, and works just as well. Everyone should have this type of app. What you do is create an abbreviation that will instantly turn into the full thing. So, for instance "@gm" for me changes to my full gmail address. I have created tons of these abbreviations - it is a real time saver.
• Air Display: Although this is an iPad app, it really is about helping your desktop experience. This app, along with a connector app for your Mac or PC, makes your iPad a second screen.

Word Processing & Document Creation

• Mellel: Mellel is my word processor of choice for Academic writing. It is fast and powerful, with a great auto-titling feature, cross referencing, seamless integration with my reference manager, and great control over paragraph and character styles.
• Pages: I love Pages interface and sync with my iPad. It can't do the heavy academic lifting I need, but for everything else, I love it.
• Swift Publisher: Swift Publisher is for flyers, posters, etc. It comes with great templates and is very easy to customize. For those pastors out there who find themselves making way more posters than they ever thought they would, check Swift Publisher out.
• Keynote: I can't praise Keynote enough, nor can I overemphasize how much I use it. Keynote is what I use for teaching; it is one of the main tools for video creation and screencasts; it is a beautiful layout editor; and it is often my main picture creation software as well. If you ask why I don't use Powerpoint the answer is simple, I hate Powerpoint :-)

Research

• Sente: This is my Reference Manager of choice, and I continue to really love it on both my Mac and iPad. (for more on reference managers see my post 1 and post 2 on this)
• Devonthink: While I am using this less and less, Devonthink is still my digital filing cabinet, and has excellent searching ability within the database.
• Evernote: The main thing Evernote continues to have going for it is its ubiquity - it syncs great and is everywhere. I am right now thinking about moving over entirely to Notability (Mac and iOS) or CP Notebook (Mac and iPad), as both are now available on Mac and iOS. This wasn't the case even a year ago.

Bible Study

• Logos: I don't need to say too much about this - most know about Logos Bible Software, the biggest name bible software on the market. It is a powerful app with a huge digital library and it is open constantly on my Mac.
• Accordance: While Logos is now my primary Bible Software, Accordance still does a number of things much better. Its search capability, especially in the primary languages, is way superior, and the resulting data from searches is much easier to work with. In fact, I simply could not have created my mobile apps FlashGreek and ParseGreek without the help of Accordance. Especially if you are an academic, having both apps is great.
• Olive Tree and Glo Bible: You may be someone who wants a Bible app but doesn't need the power of Logos or Accordance, and aren't interested in a large library. If you are one of those, Olive Tree Bible app is probably the nicest interface on the market, and still offers enough good resources for a lay user. If you want something more media rich, check out the Glo Bible. 

Media Creation (photo and video)

• Pixelmator: I don't do a ton of photo editing, and certainly don't need the power of Photoship. But when I do need to get into more complicated photo editing, Pixelmator is a beautiful app that works great and can deal with pretty much every file type.
• Picturesque: Do you want to add just a little magic to images? Picturesque is the app to use. Crop, add shadow, do some perspective shift, round the corners.
• Art Text 2: Art Text 2 is all about creating lettering. It comes with tons of templates and really easy to manipulate.
• OmniGraffle: Every once in awhile I need to create a mind-map type of image and I need a little more flexibility than Keynote can offer. In this situation, OmniGraffle is the place I go.
• Toolbox for Keynote and Pages: If you are a heavy Keynote or Pages user, You need to get Toolbox for Keynote and Toolbox for Pages. I can't say enough good about this, particularly Keynote for me. It includes a lot more themes, beautiful layouts, and tons of graphics and clipart to make use of.
• Screenflow: You'll see on my YouTube channel some screencasts (here is my latest example). For these videos, Screenflow is the app I use and is really the standard screen capture software. It can record your screen, webcam, mic, and computer audio. You can crop, and annotations, effects, etc. Highly recommended.
• HiddenMe: This is a really simple app that is great for screencasts. With a click in your menu, it hides your messy desktop.
• Video Converter Ultimate: There are so many video and audio files types out there, and for the most part you can get them to play with an app like VLC or Quicktime. But for those times when you want to convert, this is the app I use. This is the fastest converter I have, and can also combine videos, and crop, etc. This is an awesome app.
• GarageBand: Most Mac users have GarageBand right on your Mac already. This is the app I use when doing podcasts. When I want some better sounding mic recording, as well as other audio clips, etc., this is what I use. 

Backup

• 1 Password: This app is part productivity, part safety, and part backup. Available on my Mac and iOS, 1 Password creates a encrypted and secure database for your passwords, credit cards, bank accounts, and any other notes you want. All of it is secured behind the 1 master password you create. What is so great is that it works right in your browser, and with the 1 master password, fills in the details you need on the page. When you create a new login, it will automatically store those as well. This is an essential app for me.
• Dropbox: Everyone knows about DropBox, but just in case you don't, DropBox is free for 2GB and sticks a folder on your computer that is securely backed up. Also very handy for sending large files to others.
• BitCasa: I started using BitCasa for work because I needed a place for large online storage at a good price. I think once the new iCloud drive comes, I may switch over as that is even cheaper, but time will tell.

Others

• YNAB (You Need a Budget): Back when people were paid in cash, it was a little easier to use envelopes to manage your money. Now that debit and credit cards have removed the visual of how much money you have, a good app for budgeting is a great thing. A number of my friends who are number and data geeks, they have complicated spreadsheets for budgeting. For the rest of us, there are apps like YNAB for your Mac and iOS device. I've tried 6 different apps over the last few years, and YNAB is the absolute best - a simple interface and a great mobile app for quickly adding transactions. If you aren't budgeting, you really should be, and YNAB will be a great help.
• Pocket: Pocket is a great free app on all platforms. It is a "Read It Later" service, where you click a quick button on your browser to save it for later. Pocket also allows you to then permanently save the page in Evernote, or share it on social media.
• BetterZip: Mac is great for having the right-click compress option built right in. But sometimes you may get a zip file, and you only need 1 or 2 items from the zipped file. Windows users are used to this ability to look inside the zip file, not so much with Mac users. BetterZip gives you this ability. It also allows you to add to already zipped folders, remove files from zip folders and save that way, and lots of other things too.
• iTelePort: Available for Mac or iOS, iTeleport is the VNC app I use. If you don't know what VNC means, it is a way to quickly connect to another computer over the next. While my job doesn't necessitate me using this all of the time, once in awhile it comes in extremely handy. An alternative that I've read great things about is Screens for Mac and iOS. If you need an app like this, I'd probably go with Screens.

Did I miss any that you use that you want to tell me about? Let me know in the comments.

photo credit: geerlingguy via photopin cc

Not Just For Kids: Why You Should Nap

You might consider adults napping to be a sign of laziness – you're wrong! Increasingly, it is being seen as a sign of enhanced productivity. Numerous benefits to napping have been recognized, and has long been a practice of humanity in general (check out the infographic below). I highly recommend this practice for anyone who is able to do so. While I still struggle to remind myself to take a nap, on my good days, I turn off my office lights, silence my iPhone, turn off my desk phone, lean back in my chair, and set an alarm for 25 minutes. This quick siesta reinvigorates your body and mind, and will help you to work strong for the remainder of the day.

If you're thinking to yourself that you just can't do this in the job that you are in – take the time to really think about whether or not this is indeed the case. Perhaps you can lay back in your car seat. Perhaps there is a quiet room somewhere in your building. If you're a stay at home mom, you can nap when the baby is, rather than doing the dishes. Perhaps you need to sell your boss on the idea - I think the infographic below will help on that front, so share it with them. Perhaps you can have a shorter lunch break so that your afternoon break can be a longer siesta-time. You may even be able to change your company culture such that your boss starts to encourage others to do the same thing!

Do you take a nap? Tell me about your siesta time in the comments.

source: http://visual.ly/napping

photo credit: danielfoster437 via photopin cc

Pt 2- Why Academics & Students Should be Using a Reference Manager: app roundup

In my previous post I highlighted the six reasons every academic and university student should be using a Reference Manager. In this post I will highlight some of the top apps out there in this category. I have had hands-on experience with most of these apps at one time or another.

As I have taken some time to research these apps for this post, I have come to realize how level the playing field has become. At one time, Endnote stood out as being the best integrated with MS Word. At one time, Zotero was popular because it was free and could flawlessly pull in citation information from pretty much any website. At one time, Papers stood out as the interface to beat on Mac. At one time, Bookends stood out as having the most robust formatting (which is important for those of us enslaved to the Turabian method). At one time, only 2 or 3 of the apps had built-in annotation abilities for PDFs.

This isn't the case anymore:

• most are now fairly flawless when it comes to formatting.

  • This was not the case only a few years ago. A number of these apps arose out of the hard sciences scene that uses APA, which is a much simpler formatting style. This meant that a number of them weren't equipped for Chicago/Turabian/SBL formatting. This isn't the case anymore.

• most have built-in annotation abilities

• most can now effortlessly pull citation information in from the web, usually from within the app itself

• All of them now integrate with MS Word, and a few add other word processors into the mix as well

• Many of them now have collaboration abilities

In addition to what are now the staples for this category, we can add the cloud-syncing that is now the norm for most of them. The cloud-syncing has opened up both web access and mobile apps as well – I now carry my entire library around on my iOS app, and can read and annotate any PDF article I have on the go as well!  Academics have some truly helpful and powerful technology at our fingertips.

Below I spotlight 10 Reference Manager apps in no particular order. After a brief summary, I evaluate a few of them based on particular items (cost, platforms, etc). There are many more than 10 out there, but these seem to me to be the most popular and most-used. Hopefully you will find one of these useful. If you do decide to adopt one of these, I highly recommend taking the time to study the manual and watch video tutorials – become a master of that app, as it will pay rewards in your life later.

*full disclosure: I receive a small affiliate commission for some of the links below. If you do purchase through these links, thanks!

BOOKENDS

www.sonnysoftware.com    (AppStore link)

This is my current reference manager of choice after the demise of Sente. My very first Reference Manager was the now defunct RefCite on a PC. But just after starting to use that, I switched to a Mac and never looked back. Once on a Mac, I stumbled upon Bookends. Bookends was also the focus of my first academic-ish type article on the SBL Forum. Bookends is one of the fastest in terms of searching your own database, and its built-in web search is great. Bookends is also, still, one of the few Reference Managers that can do global changes like find & replace. Bookends has enhanced functionality with Mellel, which is my Word Processor of choice (why not MS Word? In addition to being clunky and slow as molasses with large documents, MS Word on Mac STILL doesn't properly handle unicode right-to-left Hebrew!) and handles SBL format well. I also appreciate the very responsive support by its developer. Bookends has continued to evolve, with built-in PDF annotation, syncing via iCloud, a mobile app, and great note-taking abilities.

• Cost: $59.99

• Platform(s):

  • Mac

  • iOS app

• Sync: via iCloud (and settings via Dropbox)

• Word Processor Compatibility: MS Word, Mellel, Pages, Nisus Writer, Open Office, RTF documents

• Formatting: Uses its own formatting interface. Comes with hundreds of format files.

• Document Annotation: Built-in annotation, saved directly to PDF. PDF notes are saved in the Bookends note-card system.

• Strength(s): very responsive developer. Excellent integration with Mellel. Very fast database searching.

• Weakness(es): No collaborative abilities. No collaborative features.

ENDNOTE

www.endnote.com

Endnote has been around the longest. I wasn't around when Reference Managers first made their debut, but I think I'm correct that Endnote invented the app genre. It has continued to evolve and is still the dominant player on the market – it continues to be the only app that is natively supported by MS Word and Apple Pages (fyi, I wish Apple would make this more open for other developers). Endnote works great with MS Word, and it has widened its reach to include Mac, iOS, and the web. Endnote also has collaboration abilities. While many decry Endnote's cost, student cost isn't that bad, and the apps that charge year to year actually cost much more in the long run.

• Cost: $249.95, $113.95 for students

• Platform(s):

  • PC

  • Mac

  • iPad app

  • Web

• Sync: Built-in cloud sync. Collaboration and sharing with colleagues enabled.

• Word Processor Compatibility: MS Word

• Formatting: Uses its own formatting interface, many pre-built formats available for users.

• Document Annotation: Built-in annotation and note-taking that is written to the PDF.

• Strength(s): MS Word integration. Multi-platform. Huge community.

• Weakness(es): Works with MS Word only.

PAPERS

www.papersapp.com

Papers popped up in the void of a good Mac PDF manager. Initially Papers was more about finding good references right within the app (mostly for the hard sciences) and enabling annotation and note-taking with the PDFs. Papers continues to have a great user interface and has evolved to be a full-fledged Reference Manager that handles citation and bibliography generation. It has also expanded its reach on to PC and the web, which enables collaboration abilities. Papers continues to have one of the best interfaces, and continues its aggressive development. I am unclear on how Papers handles journal abbreviations (us Biblical Studies guys need to use abbreviations in footnotes, not in bibliographies. Sente, Bookends, and Endnote do this well).

• Cost: $79

• Platform(s):

  • Mac

  • PC

  • iOS app

  • Web

• Sync: via Dropbox

• Word Processor Compatibility: MS Word, RTF documents

• Formatting: Uses the CSL repository - http://citationstyles.org

• Document Annotation: Built-in

• Strength(s): Ubiquitous. Aggressive development. Great interface and built-in searching. Particularly large hard sciences user base.

• Weakness(es): Limited word processor integration

MENDELEY

www.mendeley.com

Mendeley has made quite a splash in the Reference Manager area and has really raised the bar in terms of cloud-syncing and collaboration. It continues to stand out, in my opinion, as being the most collaborative and social of all of the Reference Managers. Its 2GB free policy really encouraged (forced) many of the other apps to add collaboration, cloud-syncing, web interface, and even a free option. For students who aren't necessarily going the academic route and don't want to spend anything, I tend to recommend Mendeley. Its interface is fairly simplistic and easy to understand for beginners, and what it does it does very well. As far as advanced features for research, I find it a little lacking – but I'm a bit of a tech junkie.

• Cost: 2GB free (annotations not synced), 5GB at $55/yr, 10GB at $110/yr, unlimited storage at $165/yr

• Platform(s):

  • Mac

  • PC

  • Linux

  • iOS

  • Web

  • 3rd party Android apps

• Sync: cloud-based

• Word Processor Compatibility: MS Word

• Formatting: Uses the CSL repository - http://citationstyles.org

• Document Annotation: Built-in

• Strength(s): Collaboration abilities and paper-sharing community. Good document annotation. Free.

• Weakness(es): Recurring cost. Not as full-featured as others.

QIQQA

www.qiqqa.com

Qiqqa is not super well-known but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be. Qiqqa first stood out to me as I was looking for a PC alternative to DEVONthink (a great Mac research database). Qiqqa started out as simply a PDF manager, enabling great annotation, note-taking, and searching of the PDFs. Qiqqa continues to do this better than any program, in my opinion. Since I last looked at it, it has, like Papers, now become a full-fledged Reference Manager that can manage your in-text citations and bibliographies. If you are on a PC, I'd highly recommend checking out Qiqqa. If I were a PC user, I'm fairly certain this would be my Reference Manager.

• Cost: 200mb free (ad-supported). 8GB at $72/yr, 50GB at $240/yr

• Platform(s):

  • PC

  • Android

  • Web

• Sync: built-in cloud syncing

• Word Processor Compatibility: MS Word

• Formatting: Uses the CSL repository - http://citationstyles.org

• Document Annotation: Built-in

• Strength(s): PDF handling and note-taking. Collaboration abilities.

• Weakness(es): Recurring cost. Platform limited. Works with MS Word only.

ZOTERO

www.zotero.org

Zotero is a favorite for many, and for good reason. Zotero started out as a Firefox plugin, and this origin highlights one of its main strengths - it seamlessly integrates with your web browser and flawlessly pulls in information. It was Zotero that really pushed the others to start pulling in information from the web too. Like Mendeley, it is free for a certain amount of space. I never really warmed up to Zotero's interface and don't like that it doesn't have PDF annotation built-in – but given the playing field, this may change soon.

• Cost: 300mb free. 2GB at $20/yr, 6GB at $60/yr, unlimited storage at $120/yr

• Platform(s):

  • Mac

  • PC

  • Linux

  • Web

  • 3rd party iOS apps

  • 3rd party Android apps

• Sync: cloud-based

• Word Processor Compatibility: MS Word and LibreOffice/OpenOffice/NeoOffice,

• Formatting: Uses the CSL repository - http://citationstyles.org

• Document Annotation: none

• Strength(s): Web importing. Collaboration abilities. Huge user base and community.

• Weakness(es): Recurring cost. No mobile app. No document annotation. Works only with MS Word and OpenOffice.

CITAVI

www.citavi.com

Citavi is quite popular in Europe, not as much in North America. Citavi focuses a lot on the knowledge organization side of things, with task management and note-taking. Citavi is unique in that its formatting is all built-in and if you need a new format, the developer makes them. You can collaborate with a special version of Citavi.

• Cost: $156

• Platform(s):

  • PC

• Sync: no

• Word Processor Compatibility: MS Word, OpenOffice, RTF documents

• Formatting: 3,000 Built-in formats. Developer-built only.

• Document Annotation: none

• Strength(s): note-taking and knowledge organization. Task management.

• Weakness(es): No mobile app. No document annotation. No sync.

BIBLIOSCAPE

www.biblioscape.com

Biblioscape is another PC-only option. Like Citavi, it has a strong emphasis on knowledge organization and note-taking. Its interface, like Citavi, is pretty dated with that Windows 98-type feel. You can collaborate with an upgraded version.

• Cost: $149

• Platform(s):

  • PC

• Sync: no. But Biblioscape can run as a server on your network, and allow others to view your database.

• Word Processor Compatibility: MS Word, RTF documents

• Formatting: Uses its own formatting interface, many pre-built formats available for users.

• Document Annotation: Built-in.

• Strength(s): Strong emphasis on note-taking and research. Task lists and chart-making abilities.

• Weakness(es): No mobile app. Poor interface. No syncing.

REFWORKS

www.refworks.com

Refworks continues to be web-only, which is good for some and not-so-good for others. This allows for some collaboration abilities and has a mobile-friendly web interface.

• Cost: $100 / yr

• Platform(s):

  • Web (mobile friendly)

• Sync: no

• Word Processor Compatibility: MS Word, RTF documents

• Formatting: Uses its own formatting interface, many pre-built formats available for users.

• Document Annotation: Built-in.

• Strength(s): Strong emphasis on note-taking and research. Task lists and chart-making abilities.

• Weakness(es): No mobile app. Poor interface. High cost.

I have tried to be as accurate as possible. Please let me know if I have made any errors and I will update the post. As I said in my previous post, a Reference Manager can be one of the most important tools for an academic.

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Pt 1 - Here is Why Academics & Students Should be Using a Reference Manager

Books. Journal articles. Essays. Conference papers. Websites. The job of the student and academic is to swim through and manage a sea of reference material. And the waves of information and material has increased. Lucky for us, technology has indeed kept up with this need. Word processors are better than ever. Computers are faster. More is available online. In this post I want to introduce you to the one type of app that I think every academic and student can utilize to help manage academic literature: the reference manager.

There are quite a number of reference managers out there, all of them quite good. You may have heard of Endnote, or Mendeley, or Zotero. But you're not quite sure what they do. In this post, I will explain exactly what a Reference Manager does. Once I do, you will immediately see the value. In a subsequent post, I will briefly list and describe some of the reference managers out there.

Here is the six main things a reference manager does for you:

1. One place to keep all of your info. Previous to the advent of the reference manager, a well organized academic kept a massive text document of all of their books, essays, journal articles, etc. Within the document they would make sure it was properly formatted for the bibliographic style of their discipline. A reference manager provides a convenient place where all of this citation-type of information (i.e. metadata) can be stored. The prevalence of Reference Managers has made the collection of this information exceedingly easy. You rarely need to type in the information manually anymore.

2. Organize the info with groups, folders, tags, keywords, etc. Building off of one consolidated place to store this citation information, a Reference Manager now allows you to add your own data to this information. Tags/keywords can help you to quickly find information on particular subjects, and groups/folders can help further organize into categories, projects, etc.

3. Keep PDFs with its Info. The majority of journal articles are now online and many of us choose to download a PDF copy of the articles. In addition, it is easier than ever to create a PDF scan of book chapters, or create a PDF copy of a webpage. A Reference Manager allows you to keep a PDF of an article together with its information. No need to have complicated folder structure, or go searching through your documents folder.

4. Take Your Reading Notes in One Spot. Back in the days when all I read were print books, notes on the back pages or sticky notes were the norm. But even then, this style of note-taking was limited and stuck on my shelf. Now, with so much material being consumed on our computer screen, Reference Manager's have made it easy to take notes and highlight information right alongside our PDFs. Your notes are now attached right to your citation information. Many Reference Managers also provide a way directly within the app to take notes and highlight a PDF directly.

5. All of This Stuff Above – Search It! Now we're getting to the "power" of the Reference Manager. Not only has it provided you with a convenient place to store and organize your citation data and documents, but all of this information is now searchable. Your library's usefulness has been super-charged!

6. Automatically Generate Your Footnotes & Bibliography. Read that sentence one more time, and let it sink in – REFERENCE MANAGERS WILL WRITE YOUR FOOTNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR YOU! I remember well the day I was sitting in the study room, frantically trying to properly footnote all of my citations in a major paper, and my OT prof Glenn Wooden walked by. Perhaps seeing my agitation, he asked what I was doing. Once I told him, he said, "you know there is software that can do that for you, right?" This actually marked a huge turning point for me. I wasn't tech savvy before that moment - now I'm a tech ninja! And it was because I realized how using computer apps could actually make my life easier. Every Reference Manager works with word processors (like MS Word) so that with a few clicks of the button, you will be properly citing your sources and creating perfectly formatted footnotes and bibliographies. You manage the data and make sure it is in your Reference Manager correctly, and let it worry about the formatting.

There are your six main reasons you should be using a Reference Manager. Perhaps there are other great reasons I haven't thought of – if so, let me know in the comments. If you aren't using a Reference Manager yet – now is the time!

Part 2- Reference Manager Round Up

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Email Does Not Have Permission to Interrupt You: 9 tips to gain control

Email is part of our world and an awesome communication tool. So much of business is still done via email, and many of us get a lot of education (newsletters, subscriptions, etc) from our inbox. But the convenience, speed, and necessity of email has come at a price – we have given  electronic communication permission to interrupt us all of the time! This is not good for us. We have given any person with our email address (or on our Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, etc) to tap us on the shoulder and interrupt our day. Over the last year I've taken control of my email, rather than it letting it control me.

 Here are some steps you can take to calm the email madness:

1. Quiet your mobile device. If you want to be hardcore, you can disconnect your email entirely from your mobile device, but that isn't realistic for most. But, you can tell your phone to stop notifying you every time you get an email, Facebook message, twitter mention, etc. Turn off the updates! Another thing you can do on your mobile device is choose the option to fetch email rather than have it automatically pushed to your phone. That way, it will only retrieve your email when you open your email app.
2. Quiet your computer. Notifications aren't just on mobile devices anymore, they are on our desktops as well. Adjust your settings so that you don't automatically get notified every time an email comes in.
3. Utilize mail filters. Anyone who works or is a student at a university probably gets a lot of university email like I do. It is a veritable avalanche! While you shouldn't necessarily delete these, they don't need to be in your inbox. I create a filter to move these mass-type of emails to a separate folder, which I quickly review and delete every week or so.
4. Unsubscribe! I have friends who have the best of intentions with keeping up with lots of different organizations, newsletters, etc. But you can't do and read everything. If you are getting emails that you have subscribed to, but over the last few months you haven't actually read them, hit the unsubscribe button! If you are thinking you'd still like to somehow maintain contact with this organization, see if they have a Twitter feed you can follow instead.
5. Check your email only twice a day. This requires discipline, but you can do it! Unless your job requires constant email checking, you don't need to check your email every minute. If you don't have the discipline, you can utilize software like anti-social which I've blogged about before. When you're not checking your email, close the app and keep it out of sight. Batch-tasking email in this way makes processing your inbox go faster, and allows you to concentrate on the task at hand.
6. Don't use your email inbox as a To Do list. If an email results in a task, move it to a task list (there are tons of great todo apps, or you can just use paper). Don't let an email sit in your inbox to remind you to do something. This is frankly, the one thing I struggle with most. The times when I'm most in control of my email, it is because I'm diligently following this rule.
7. Act on it, Archive it, or Forget it! When it comes time to process your email, think A–A–F.
   • Act on it. When you are processing your email that needs action you can choose to (1) do it immediately, or (2) record your action in your todo list and assign a date to do it. I recommend doing it immediately ONLY if it will take you just a few minutes (or if it is an emergency). If it is a larger task, resist the urge to start doing it and plan with your todo list to do it later.
   • Archive it. Is it just information that you need to keep? Drop it in an archive folder (Resist the urge to have a complex folder system, just rely on searching). Act on emails still may require archiving.
   • Forget it. Some email just isn't important to keep. If that's the case, be ruthless and hit that trash button!
8. Choose a Better Communication medium. One of the problems with email today is that it has become a catch-all communication medium. But there are often better options that won't clog up your email. It is often hard to move out of the email communication ring, but if you get an email that requires a conversation, don't have a 20-message back and forth—just pick up the phone! While others should probably be picking up the phone to call you, the reality is that you need to take the initiative and just move to the phone. Another option that is ideal if you are in constant team communication, use an app like Slack or Asana and you'll cut down your email significantly (read one testimony here). Slack is being raved about by several leaders I read, and Asana is quite popular as well, though Asana moves beyond just communication into group projects and tasks.
9. Aim for Inbox Zero! I love the satisfaction of having an empty inbox. I aim for inbox zero every week, and you can do it too! Here is how you can do it. The above six points (#3–8) will help you achieve inbox zero.

Stop letting email and other communication interrupt you. Use the 9 tips above to regain some semblance of sanity in your life. You can do it!

Any other tips? Put them in the comments below for others!

I Have a Desk Job but Stand a Lot. Here's How and Why

Two years ago a blog post from Michael Hyatt came through my twitter feed that convinced me to act. The post was about sitting and how it isn't good for you. At the bottom of this post you'll see the infographic that formed the meat of the article from 2 years ago.

Most of us who have desk jobs know that sitting so much isn't good for us, but we also tend to do nothing about it. I certainly didn't do anything. But once I read the aforementioned blog post (and was sufficiently alarmed by the infographic below), I decided to start being proactive. Not only did it make more sense to me that sitting too much wasn't good for me, but I have struggled with a lower back problem since I was 22 and threw it out while working at a warehouse.

The first thing I did, and which I'd recommend to all those who have a desk job, is to put yourself on a timer. In my case, I purchased a nice little Mac app called BreakTime. I set this handy little app to 55 minutes. I then began getting up for 5 minutes every hour. Typically I would just get up and walk around the hall, or more often I would go an do the few little things I needed to do around the building. The 5 minutes soon expanded to 10 minutes every hour, and I began to add a little bit of easy exercise to get my blood flowing – running in place, jumping jacks, etc.

While this improved my day considerably and continue the practice to this day, I wanted to take the next step by trying to stand for most of the day. I had heard about standing desks and decided to request a new desk from my boss – and was very happy he said yes. I purchased my standing desk (the picture is my standing desk 😊) from updesk.com and have been totally satisfied. Buyers can get a manually cranking desk, or an automatic desk. I chose the automatic, and it has three height settings on it. I do have lazy days, but on most days while in the office I stand for 70% of the time.

Another good offshoot of my standing desk is it results in standing meetings. When people come to my office and I'm standing, we just continue to stand. This tends to make meetings briefer and to the point. And if I feel like sitting with my guest, the chairs are right there.

So this is how and why I stand a lot, even though I have a desk job. I'd encourage those of you out who have a desk job to consider a standing desk. Here is a Lifehacker article on some of the top standing desk sellers. If you like the idea but can't swing the cost, you can build one yourself for much cheaper (see this, this, or this). Good luck and keep standing!

How to Set a Productive Mood on Your Computer

I’m not a fan of silence, particularly when I’m in my office working. But I’m also an easily distracted person. For awhile, I tried to multi-task my mind by listening to podcasts while working. While I enjoyed the podcast content, it didn’t take me long to figure out that this was bad for productivity. I then moved to just putting iTunes on random. While this was better, I would start to sing along or focus a little too much on the lyrics. I then tried to make a playlist of more ballad-type songs or hymns. Still not great. But I knew that what you listen to while you work can either help or hinder your productivity.

what you listen to while you work can either help or hinder your productivity —Tweet That!

It was then that I came across a little website which swiftly turned into a little app: Coffitivity. Coffitivity is a website, but is also a Mac app, iOS app, and Android app. Coffitivity creates white noise that replicates a busy coffee shop – which many find to be a great atmosphere for work. This set the right mood for me to be productive. It took away the silence that I dislike but didn’t distract me. This is a jewel of an app!

After using Coffitivity for awhile, I heard about Focus@Will. This web app creates several different tracks to listen to, and were created in partnership with a leading neuroscientist to try and help increase focus (read the sciency stuff here).

Focus@Will is free to use for a 60 minute session per day, or you can pay yearly fee of just of under $50 a year. I used Focus@Will for three weeks and liked it so much that I subscribed to it. I have not regretted it one bit. The only thing I didn’t like was that on my desktop, Focus@Will runs through the browser - it would be nice for them to have a Mac app that could run in the menu bar so that I don’t need to run the browser. But I took matters into my own hands and used Fluid to make the Focus@Will web app into a desktop app.

Once in awhile I go back to Coffitivity, but Focus@Will is now my main mood setter for a productive day. I would encourage you to check both of them out, as they are both great apps that may help you the way they help me.

How do you set a productive mood for yourself? 

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Mentoring Memories: my first big TA assignment for Dr. Craig Evans

A while back I was listening to a podcast about mentors by Michael Hyatt (one of my favorite podcasts) and it had me reflecting on people that have had an influence on me. One of the things Hyatt talked about was finding mentors and learning from people you don’t necessarily even know - learning through podcasts, books, etc. There are a number of people I would point to as being mentors in my life: people I try to continue learning from. From time to time on this blog I want to take time to reflect on some things I’ve learned from my mentors.

I have been privileged to have as one of my main mentors New Testament scholar Dr. Craig Evans. Being mentored by Craig was no accident. Near the end of my undergrad studies, I knew that I wanted to pursue graduate and PhD studies in New Testament. I also knew that I wanted to try and stay in Canada; I wanted to find a top-notch scholar; and I wanted a believer. Dr. Evans fits all of those criteria - and in my opinion he is a cut above top-notch. I originally planned to head to Trinity Western University, but after talking to Dr. Evans via email I learned he was moving to Acadia Divinity College, so I came here instead, and haven’t left!

Once I was here, I was very methodical. Not only did I want to learn from Craig, but I wanted to understand his work ethic and tricks of the trade. If you know NT studies at all, you know the name Craig Evans and you know that he is prolific. I’ll share about some other things I’ve learned from him, but today I want to focus on one thing in particular.

So, as soon as I arrived, I asked if I could be his TA. The spot was taken, so I TA’d for another professor for a year (which was great, as I was TAing for Greek). The following year I jumped into the TA spot for Craig. Two months into this new position, my baptism by fire came.

I remember it very clearly because it was so comical. I was sitting in one of our small classrooms with a few students, having just finished Greek class with Craig. Craig left the class and then swiftly came back. He had in his hand a 576 page manuscript for a book he had edited with Bruce Chilton called The Missions of James, Peter, and Paul (great collection of essays by the way). This behemoth paper stack was tied together with some string. He dropped it in front of me (almost cracking the table), and said: “Danny, here’s the manuscript we talked about. Brill really wants to have it ready for SBL. They would like the index to be done quickly. You have 72 hours."

After a bit of a chuckle, the reality sunk in that the next 72 hours of my life would be just this manuscript. I was shocked at the timetable (that was news to me), but fortunately I had mentally prepared – in particular I had figured out a way to do the indexing a little more quickly using a spreadsheet (I’ve since worked out an even quicker way - check out my guide, Scripture Indexing on a Mac).

I set to work immediately. Fortunately this didn’t set me back homework wise, as I generally worked ahead (check out my homework tips in Surviving and Thriving in Seminary). I worked on this non-stop. The first night, I went to bed pretty late. The next day I felt I was really behind and not going to make it - but I kept pushing. At home I sat at my desk and got to it. While I sat at my desk working on this, Craig was in his home office working as well. We were emailing back and forth every half hour or so. He encouraged me along. By 4am he decided to get a few hours of sleep. At 7:30am, I finished the index. I felt pasted to my desk chair. I got up, took a shower, and headed to class. As I sent it to Craig, I got an email back from Craig. He said that I was a mensch, in German a “real man."

I learned something about myself and Craig that day. First, I learned that sometimes you just have to burn the midnight oil. There are times when you just need to keep working. Craig knows how to work hard and long hours - that’s part of the reason why he is so prolific. And I also learned that when I’m focused and under the gun, I can work very fast. I know I have the fortitude to get stuff done when I need to. Craig really taught me the value of hard work.

From that assignment, I also learned the value of utilizing technology. I had talked to some previous students who had done similar work. They talked about days and weeks of doing these indexes. I got it done by myself in 72 hours. It wasn’t because I necessarily worked harder, but because, as soon as I learned I had to do this, I thought to myself “there’s got to be a better way beyond copying and pasting into a Word document.” A little bit of planning went a LONG way.

One other thing I learned is that it is good to “pay your dues.” No one likes to do indexing, but it is part of the publishing business. It builds character to “start at the bottom” so to speak. I did more indexes after that - I taught others how, and now I edit books and write them. Scripture indexing a book is a huge labor with little reward - but somebody’s got to do it. It makes the book much more usable for users.

So there you have it. My first assignment taught me 1) the value of hard work, 2) the value of utilizing technology, and 3) that it builds character when you “start at the bottom." 

Getting Anti-Social to Ramp Up Productivity

One of the biggest impediments to my own productivity are the time wasting sites -– in particular Facebook and YouTube. I enjoy both sites, so I do not want to totally ditch them. Not only does Facebook keep me connected, but as I mentioned before, it is how I keep up on reading interesting articles.

However, during times of stress I tend waste even more time by checking Facebook way too often or getting lost down the black hole of amusing YouTube videos. This is why I now use an awesome app called anti-social (Mac or PC). Antisocial tells you to choose an amount of time, then choose URL domains to block during this time. It can also block you from email during that time. For me, it is Facebook.com and YouTube.com. I started with antisocial's suggested 45 minutes, but am increasing the blocks of time to one hour or more. This is about being intentional in using your time to be productive.

If you need even more restriction, you can purchase Freedom, which blocks all internet access. This doesn't work for me, as I am often doing academic research online. But this may work for you.

If you’re like me, sometimes you lose a little self-control during high stress periods. Using these types of apps can help you stay on target, keep focused, and be productive. 

Why and How I ditched my RSS Reader

For a long time I read blogs using Google Reader. Even before its unfortunate demise I found myself frequenting Google Reader less and less. And when I did go to it the feed list was so long I didn't end up reading much of it at all.

Once google Reader closed down I moved over with the rest of the world to Feedly. Then I had a thought - what if I just didn't bother? So I tried it out for awhile.

This choice coincided with my late adoption of Twitter. I decided to use others as funnels for interesting articles, rather than sifting it all through for myself. On Twitter I follow:

   * For leadership stuff I follow Michael Hyatt on Twitter
   * For productivity I follow Time Management Ninja on Twitter
   * For parenting and leadership I follow Tim Elmore on Twitter
   * For finance and debt stuff I follow Dave Ramsey and CanadianFinance
   * I follow others too, but these are some of the main funnel-type tweeters

In addition, lots of my Facebook friends are, naturally, interested in a lot of the same things I am. Plenty of my friends post good stuff on parenting. Lots of my students and colleagues share good posts on the Bible, Christianity, Biblical Studies, and Theology. And even my atheist brother posts good science and atheism stuff too :-) Because I am friends with numerous bloggers and scholars, my Facebook newsfeed keeps me well informed.

Moving to this type of method over an RSS reader also means that the better stuff is what I end up reading – the cream rises to the top, since at least one person has recommended it over the other stuff out there.

The last step in my system is using a Read Later service called Pocket. It saves articles for me to read later. It can waste a lot of time to read everything as soon as you come across it. Instead I batch it together at convenient times. Pocket is free and it is very simple to save articles (or anything else) directly from my browser or my twitter client of choice (Tweetbot for Mac and iOS).

This approach may not work well for you, but it has been great for me. About the only place I need to be careful is in the number of tweeters I follow. I try and be diligent to prune the people I follow if I'm not getting much good stuff from them but they post a lot.

I'm also careful to batch my Twitter scanning time. I've never had the temptation to check twitter more than once every day or so (not so with Facebook - I'll be posting about this in the future). Twitter, for me, is mainly about scanning through to find interesting stuff to throw into Pocket or to answer the occasional question that comes my way.

So there it is. Have you ditched your RSS Reader? If so, leave me a comment - and any suggestions for improving my system are welcome too.

andyi via photopin cc