Leading ourselves well begins with stewarding our greatest resource, time. Managing our time well requires diligence and it requires a plan. Last year I posted a Small Group Network article, 7 Absurdly Awesome Apps for Groups Leadership. Many of those apps I use every day, along with a few others, to help me lead leaders better. The most value resource we can give, as we lead is our authentic, present self. That comes having margin to giver from which requires a purposeful plan. By nature, I am not a disciplined or administrative person. But too often I use that as a cop-out to avoid the reality, if I want to be an effective leader I have to get past my excuses. I must stop trying harder and put a process in place that works consistently for me. This article is a look at some resources that I use daily that have morphed in to a process to manage myself so that I lead more effectively.
Here are some apps that help with my daily process:
- Google Calendar. My calendar, along with Todoist, is command central for managing my day. I don’t have a planned meeting, event, etc. that isn’t on my Google calendar. It keeps a busy schedule straight and keeps me on task. Many of my other systems are cross-referenced connected with my calendar.
- Calendly. Calendly is an awesome online scheduling tool. Before I would have to reach out to a leader for a meeting and suggest a few dates. They’d check their calendar and either pick one or they would suggest their own alternatives. It was back and forth until we finally narrowed down a time that worked. Calendly eliminates that. It allows me to set up all kinds of meeting types each with unique schedules and questions for each. It integrates with my Google Calendar so I don’t over book. SO Helpful!
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- Evernote. Evernote remains my personal digital information bank. Anything I want to document or access for future reference goes in to Evernote. It’s integrated with my other apps. For one on ones I usually fill out my notes from that immediately following the event. Also before meetings I check old meeting notes before the meeting to prep ahead of time. Another great feature, I have all completed Todoist tasks go into a single Evernote note, which is great for my records.
- Google Sheets. Our team keeps up with group leader one on one dates on Google Sheets. I have a sheet with all my groups including when they began. It also has the date of the last leader one on one and when the next is due. I link my Evernote note for the latest one on one for each leader with the date of the one on one. This is very helpful for future reference.
Other great apps I use nearly daily.
- Pocket to keep articles I don’t have time to read
- The Great Suspender, because I perpetually have too many apps open
- Mail Chimp for mass communications
- IFTTT and Zapier to help with automation (I even have the local weather go to my calendar every morning)
- Tab Snooze, temporarily closes tabs and automatically opens certain sites. I use it daily.
There are tons of awesome apps, I’ve used many of them, but what’s even better than a great app is a process for using them to manage your day to help you lead well.
