How You Can Help The Daily Saint Blog Today

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending one of Michael Hyatt's public seminars at Merrimack College.  Being back in Red Sox country was good enough but to then see one of today's best thought leaders speak took the cake.  

The topic was platform building and the role of social media.  The CEO of Hubspot was also present and got us laughing after Michael set the table for the day.

Some of the day's best quotes from Michael included:

"Build your platform before you need it"

"Everyone has a megaphone in today's world"

"Are you committed to wow?"

"There are only a few things you do really well- the rest are candidates for delegation"

"If I could afford it, what would I offload to someone else?"

"Big goals are compelling to other people"

"Perfectionism is the mother of procrastination"

As I take some time today to process my notes, instead of a regular post I thought I would ask you one question. You can answer in the comments box below.  By answering the question, you'll help me focus my energies on what readers want and need. I appreciate your help.

If you could recommend one area of focus for The Daily Saint blog, what would it be?  (i.e. leadership, education, productivity, spiritual life, etc.)

Photo courtesy of MC

5 Blogs I Turn to for Inspiration

People read differently these days.  Google is shutting down Google Reader for RSS subscriptions and Amazon now sells more ebooks than print versions for several years.  I stopped using RSS readers a few years ago when Twitter came on the scene.  There's something about the brevity of Twitter that's good for people on the go.

Now I use Twitter almost exlusively for reading but there are a few excemptions.  I still enjoy going to someone's blog to see what they are up to and to "crack open" their daily posts.  

Who do I turn to for insight?  Read on...

• Shrinking the Camel- by J.B. Wood, Shrinking the Camel is quite honestly one of the best written blogs there is when it comes to putting faith into work.  J.B. is a master narrator of the events of his life and how God's providence integrates with the most mundane of activities.  A classic post: Thanks for the Lovely Gift Basket.
• Michael Hyatt- the gold standard for productivity bloggers.  Michael is also a devout Christian- combining both geekness with God.  A classic post: 5 Characteristics of Weak Leaders (and how not to be one)
• Ron Edmundson- Ron is a pastor of a traditional church and is an incredibly adept blogger.  He finds a way to talk about his church without outing difficult folks.  Always a good read.  A classic post: 10 Things I'm Learning Leading Church Change.
• Time Management Ninja- written by Craig Jarrow, TMN is all about practical tips and tricks.  With a nod to Apple geeks (just sayin'), TMN is always, and I mean always, useful for decreasing drag on your work systems.  A classic post: 10 Ways to Save Time With Evernote.
• Michael Nozbe- written by Michael Sliwinski of Nozbe fame, this blog provides a behind-the-scenes look at one of today's best techpreneurs. Michael does business the right way and has created an avid following in the process.  A classic post: Combating Resistance: the 10 Step Productivity Course Recorded.

These sites work for me when I need encouragement along the way.  Where do you turn for inspiration?

Photo courtesy of RE

Why You Might Enjoy Using a Text Editor

ByWord.  

Text Wrangler.

Scrivener.

For years I woud hear these words and not only be obvivious to what they meant but also naive as to how they were used.  They are after all, text editors.

Turns out, most serious writers use text editors to crank out volumes of text.  Having been a Microsoft Office user for years and more recently using Apple's Pages program, I really didn't get why someone would turn to a text editor for word processing.

That is of course, until I used one myself.  

"Byword nails that fine line between useful and fiddly with features and options."  David Sparks

Lately I've been using ByWord for Mac and iOS.  It's simple, clean interface makes journaling and blog posts a snap.  From a devotional perspective, my journaling has taken on an almost poetic style and I owe it to ByWord.  No joke, it makes a difference.  My shelves of journals (maybe 10-12 books?) are now in digital version and I can write anytime and basically anywhere.  

What are you using to journal or for daily devotions?

Photo courtesy of:

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1556

Why I Switched from Wordpress to Squarespace

About a month ago I switched from Wordpress to Squarespace.  I couldn't be happier with the move and thought I would share some of the story behind the process.  I had intially heard of Squarespace from David Sparks of MacPower Users podcast.  If it was good enough for David, it might work for me.

Most serious bloggers go to Wordpress rather than away from it so I had to really consider the consequences of such a move.  

• Would I regret the move?
• Is Squarespace reliable?
• Would I be able to import the hundreds of posts from The Daily Saint without losing my material?

So why the switch?

I was using Standard theme for Wordpress and had no real complaints except for the fact that it was limiting if you didn't know code- which I don't.  I like to write and keep things simple.  

Some guys want to tinker and customize.  Tinkering is cool but customizing code is not something that warms my heart.  To my geek friends, I mean no disrespect.  

My RSS and iTunes components of the old site were messed up and it felt like duct tape and gum were holding it together.  

So I tried the free version of Squarespace and liked the many, many different themes that you could use to publish a professionally looking blog.  

Here's what I like:

• Aesthetics.  It's important that I love the tools that I use and if you haven't seen Wordpress behind the scenes, it's pretty basic.  Squarespace was built with an eye to making a nice looking website.  The fonts are precise and the color palates make sense.  
• Metrics.  Built into Squarespace is a quick view of your metrics.  Before I had to use a third party site to track my site's progress.  
• Security.  No longer do I worry about the site host (some outfit in New York) getting hacked or going down.  Squarespace has real staff that respond quickly to your questions.  
• Ease of use.  I go to the Squarespace website, log in and get to work.  It's that easy.
• Import-ability from WP.  I had something like 800 posts from The Daily Saint to import over the Squarespace. They make it very easy and no joke, 100% of my posts were imported in less than 3 minutes.  That's amazing.

So far I couldn't be happier.  The real question is, do you like the new site?

Photo courtesy of

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1708

How You Can Turn an Idea into a Blog Post

You have great ideas and so do I.

The problem is, we often think that ordinary people are excluded from making those great ideas into something more concrete. For me, writing has been one of the best ways to take a rough concept and turn it into something that people can use in their daily lives.

So here's how it goes for me:

1. I capture all of my ideas into a list called "Blog Post Ideas".  Using Nozbe as my task manager of choice, this list is where I dump all of my ideas for the blog.  
2. When offline, I capture ideas according to the following, "BPI: How to Get More Sleep at Night".  When I do my weekly review, just seeing "BPI" before a phrase or title reminds me to include the idea the next time I can access Nozbe.
3. At night when I write, I just go to my list and write.
4. Using Squarespace, I draft the post and then publish it. 
5. The post then triggers Twitter to send out a tweet to my followers with a link to the post.
6. Finally, I use Buffer to remind people to read the post the next time that Buffer schedules a tweet.  

That's how it works for me.  I love taking an idea and then seeing how far it can go, all with the help of the blog.

How are you bringing ideas to the marketplace or to the internet?