Technistry Scott Schulman

After nearly two years, we're hanging up the podcast equipment. A huge thanks to everyone for listening! Merry Christmas!



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Contact Chris on Twitter: @cpenned

Contact Scott on Twitter: @scschulman

Chris: Delayed Text Shortcut


Airtable
Stores delayed text messages in an Airtable database and then automatically sends them out each day


Scott: Nighttime Shortcut


Shuffles a nighttime playlist for Scott's kids and opens their nightlight app

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Scott: Jotform
What is it? Online form builder

Helpful features:


Free for basic use
They have a non-profit pricing (50% off)
Pre-built templates and easy-to-make custom templates
Easy to duplicate and repurpose forms
Connects to PayPal for accepting payments

How Scott uses it:


Summer staff applications, references, and contracts
Registrations for camp
Donations (including recurring donations)

Chris: Airtable (referral invite link)
What it is? Database that can look and act like a spreadsheet

You can organize data including:


dropdown menus
files with previews

Iinks to other records
long text, emails, phone numbers



You can view your data in several ways:


Calendar
Kaban board (like Trello)
List
Gallary

Other features:


Or filter and create your own view
Create and share a form to capture new data
Deep integrations with over 1000 websites and apps like: MailChimp, Evernote, Dropbox, Slack, Gmail, social media, Asana, Trello, Google drive, etc.
Great mobile and desktop apps

How Chris uses Airtable:


Great API with documentation
Church database: individual tab linked to families and groups tabs (including ages for kids, contact info for families, etc.)
Delayed texts database
Bible Reading Schedule
Soccer Team Roster

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Scott: Whiteboards

Photo of Scott’s Whiteboard

Chris: Time Tracking
Reasons to track time:


Shows you where you’re spending your time (and proportion of time)
Helps you say “no” to things
Helps you get a better idea of how much time things take you

Tips for time tracking:


Helps you realize why you feel overwhelmed or if you need to give yourself a kick
Start with 3–5 broad tracking areas: sermon prep, people time, prayer, admin work, errands
It’s about the general trends, not the 3-second changes

Why I chose Toggl?


Automate as much as possible
It’s free for everything I need
It’s on every platform (including browser plug-ins for Chrome)
If necessary, you can get the iOS app Timery (easier to use than Toggl’s iOS app)

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Chris: Bluetooth FM Transmitter
Set up


My particular one is cheap, just $18 (link here)
Plug it into your cigarette lighter
It connects to your FM radio (find a blank radio station and sync the transmitter to it)
Any audio that plays over your phone can now play over your car speakers

Advantages


You can listen to music, podcasts, etc. without needing earphones (which may be illegal where you live anyhow)
You can charge your phone while listening
You can answer phone calls and use the buttons to navigate audio

Scott: Group Texts and Facebook Messenger
Tips:


You can mute group conversations (use liberally)
And don’t be afraid to eliminate notifications altogether
Groups are helpful for announcements
For smaller churches, group messaging can be a great way to share prayer requests or encourage other Christians

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Scott: Multiple Calendars

Example Calendars:



Church
Family (anything entire family does together)
Personal
Spouse
Work
Camps
Meetings
Shared Calendars (Technistry, Master Camp Schedule, etc.)

Helpful Tips:
Use color-coding to visually separate events on your calendar
Include margin in your daily schedule
Share everything with your spouse (but still communicate)
View on your phone/watch/computer, etc.


Chris: Fantastical App for Mac and iOS

Advantage of Fantastical:



Keyboard shortcuts for quick entry on Mac (menu bar program)
Good Apple Watch App
Has native access to TextExpander Snippets
Set groups of calendars to view
Natural text entry for events on Mac and iOS (for example: “Meet with Scott at Starbucks thu 1:30 pm 90m alert 30 /per” adds a calendar item on my “Personal” calendar for next Thursday from 1:30–3:00pm with the title “Meet with Scott” and the location as “Starbucks” with an alert 30 minutes before the event.)


Automators Podcast Episode 1 tips:



Mass calendar language parsing with Mac app (Keyboard Maestro) OR…
Shortcuts on iOS 13 (scroll down below the Keyboard Maestro explanation until you see the red calendar icon right above “Adding event with Apple script” and you’ll find a link to a Shortcut called “Clipboard Events to Fantastical”)


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