Ron Aulbach

It’s pretty amazing to think that we hold in our hand more power then the first super computers that landed a man on the moon.  Whether your Apple or Droid, phone or tablet, you hold in that tiny device an amazing amount of power.   With 1.2 million apps available, there is no limit to what you can do.  The hard part is often sorting through the redundancy of apps on the market.  Sure, I check the weather and sports scores.  My kids download silly games.  I get lost like it’s a hobby and need a good map whenever I travel.  But there are three apps that I access every day.  As a pastor, I’m constantly turning to these for personal devotions, project management, and keeping my head above water administratively.  Here are my three favorite apps:

1. YouVersion Bible App – I still read regularly from a print bible, but I find that more and more I reach for the iPad and click on the Holy Bible app offered by YouVersion.  My favorite thing with this app is the built in reading plans.   The discipline of committing to a plan and finishing it feels great.  I highlight verses and share them with easily with others.  You can even have the app read the Bible to you.  This is very handy for family devotions and young readers.  We let them read the verse and then click on the player to hear a pronunciation of a difficult word.  I love the app and consider it like a basic four door sedan, not a lot of bells and whistles but it will comfortable roll down the road for you.  Plus it’s free.  if you want to go deeper with bible study tools and resources, you’ll have to put up some cash and purchase a library based program like Logos.  This is my go to program for commentaries, word studies, and bible dictionaries.  The app is ok, but the program is just so robust that the app doesn’t allow you to maneuver or access the tools effectively.
2. Evernote – This is better then a filing cabinet and has allowed me to go almost completely paperless.  I started using this to organize sermons and various talks.  The unique aspect of this app is the ability to create a notebook for every project and to tag files you add with multiple references.  I’m hardly an expert, but find myself constantly clipping articles, headlines, and facts off of webpages I visit and adding them as searchable files to Evernote.  I use it for vacation planning, prayer requests, to-do lists, and even an upcoming triathlon I’m planning to race in September.  I have a “Ironman Wisconsin” notebook in Evernote and dump everything related to race weekend in it.  My hotel reservation, race maps, gear checklist, training plan, and all the race details are in one easy to find place.  Makes it much easier then having to go to the website, or find the files in an email.  In fact, you can email notes and files directly into Evernote which makes it really simple to input all that you want to store.  I’m still learning the power of this app and have learned a lot from Michael Hyatt.  Everything Hyatt says is pure gold and this article is a sneak peek into how he organizes his Evernote.
3. iAnnotate – If you find yourself reading and marking up a lot of PDF’s, this is the best app I’ve found.  You can highlight, strikethrough, add text, notes, bookmarks in a million colors and styles.  What I really like about this app is the ability to link with Dropbox and Google Drive.  Makes it super easy to pull a document off the cloud, mark it up, then email it to the next person.  I use this app for my sermons too and present directly from it.

What apps do you use for productivity and organization?  Have you found a better way to use these apps?  Share your ideas in the comments below.