Your weekly roundup of insights and resources to help you get more done for the glory of God.
In Today’s Issue:
- How to Use an Apple Watch as a Dumb Phone
- The Baby Steps of Productivity
- No, I Don’t Want AI to Write for Me
- Morgen: An Impressive New Productivity App
- Quote: Too Busy to Be Content
Dear steward,
“What dumb phone are you using?”
I keep getting that question in response to a few mentions I’ve made about not using a smartphone in some of my podcasts and videos on quitting social media. So I thought I’d give you the lowdown on the current state of my digital minimalism.
The short version is that I currently pay $6.50 a month for my phone plan that uses an Apple Watch as a standalone phone. In fact, I sold my iPhone back in October.
It’s been just me and this little watch for about five months now. I’ve flown around the country, taken long solo drives, and navigated big cities all without a phone. So I’ve experiences first-hand both the benefits and drawbacks of using a an Apple Watch as a standalone dumb phone.
This week I wrote about why I chose this setup, and the details of how you can do it too, if you’re so inclined.
Read: How to Use an Apple Watch as a Standalone Phone
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The Roundup
The best links & resources I found this week.
The Baby Steps of Productivity (33 mins)
Phil Cecil / Theologically Driven
Recently, I was on Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary’s podcast discussing a step-by-step process for growing in Christian productivity.
No, I don’t want AI to write for me (4 mins)
Chris Bailey
As a writer, I really resonated with this one.
“But AI writing feels very different from using a calculator to help us multiply things. When a piece of software takes what you have written and completely changes it, you may end up with something that is technically perfect. But you lose yourself—and more importantly your voice—in the process.”
Morgen: A Digital Daily Planner
Now, this seems like a more appropriate application for AI…
At this point I’m pretty dialed in with my productivity app suite. I manage most things in the Christina Productivity Planner for Notion. So I tend not to spend a lot of time trying out every new productivity app that comes out. But this one caught my eye…
I was reading an interview with the creator of Morgen this morning. And thought this was a planning app worth sharing with you all. Morgen has several unique features, I find intriguing.
- Combines a robust to-do list with a dynamic calendar that adapts to your day.
- Differentiation between “due date” and “do date”
- “Frames” basically a feature that lets you overlay an ideal schedule on your week, and automatically schedule certain task types to that time block (writing projects to your writing block, for example).
- Connects with a bunch of other productivity tools. So you can grab your tasks from, say, Notion, and then schedule them with Morgen. Very cool.
This YouTube video shows a bit more about how Morgen works. I haven’t had a chance to take a deep dive with the app myself yet. But from what I’m seeing, I really think their philosophy of time management jives well with what we teach at Redeeming Productivity.
Quote of the Week
“We are too busy to be content. (Which is crazy, since the reason we kill ourselves today is because we think it will make us content tomorrow.)”
Max Lucado
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