Technistry

By Scott SchulmanTechnology

Technistry episodes

December 20, 2019 Technistry Finale
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
2 min
October 22, 20192.17: The All Shortcuts Show!
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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10 min
October 08, 20192.16: More About That in a Couple of Weeks
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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14 min
September 24, 20192.15: I'm Lonely, But I'm Okay
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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14 min
September 10, 20192.14: I Just Don't Really Have Any Friends
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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10 min
August 27, 20192.13: Then I Find a Happy Medium
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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16 min
August 13, 20192.12: We're a Real Podcast Now!
Chris: Settings to adjust for iOS
Significant locations:
Keeps track of specific locations you frequent that may help maps, calendar, photos, and more (and Apple can’t read it)

Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations

At the bottom you can clear your significant locations

At the top you can turn off significant locations
Speech Enhancement
Lets your phone read text on your screen.

General > Accessibility > Speech

Select any text and press the “Speak Text” button OR…

Turn on “Speak screen” if you want to swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen to hear the content of the screen

Click “Voices” to download a better quality voice (Alex is the best)
Pronouncitations
You can tell Siri how to pronounce words (Say, “Hey Siri, Learn to pronounce ‘Sample Name’”)

Or you can go into the speech settings above (General > Accessibility > Speech), scroll down to Pronunciations, and add phrases individually
Scott: Screen time
You have several options:
Downtime

App Limits

Communication Limits

Always Allowed

Content and Priavcy Restrictions
It may be helpful to…
Give your password to someone else

Set time limits for apps or groups of apps

Block or allow some app/sites all the time

Use downtime (which sets a time you can’t use your device)
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14 min
July 30, 20192.11: Podcasts Are Like Kids
Scott: Podcasts Recommendations
Grace Fellowship Church: Pastor Brad Bigney, author of Gospel Treason

Palmetto Baptist Church: Pastors Jason Ormiston and Bill Eismann

Sermons from Faithpoint Longmont: Pastors Torrey Jaspers, Kip Dolan, and Jared Gunderson (find the URL link on their website for their podcast feed)

Creating Disney Magic: Podcast on leadership from a guy who worked at Disney
Chris: Google Search Advanced Search
Examples:
Exclude items with a minus sign (e.g., - car)

Exact words in an exact order (e.g., “fourscore and seven years”)

Numbers in a range (e.g., $50…100)

Use AND or OR to determine which sections of your search must be part of the resulting search

Search a site with Google (e.g., site:espn.com Lebron James)
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14 min
July 16, 20192.10: That May Not Be Your Gift
Chris — Markdown
Markdown is a plain-text writing language.

History: John Gruber of Daring Fireball created it in 2004

Markdown to Presentation: Deckset

Syntax for Markdown

Example shortcut for markdown to rich text (image here, Note: I’m running the iOS beta so it may look a bit different to you).

Consider also making a shortcut to take rich text to markdown for archiving purposes.
Scott — Using Facebook Pages
Facebook pages are free, easy to set up, and ubiquitous.
Things to keep in mind:
Make it look clean.

Check grammar and spelling.

Use apps to make announcement photos (rather than just text).

Respond immediately if someone messages your Facebook pages.
Examples:
Pioneer Baptist Church

Camp Grace
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13 min
July 02, 20192:9: Oh, it's a dictionary!
Chris: ESV Shortcut (iOS)
You need the free Shortcuts App.

You need an API key from ESV.org (which you can get for free here.

Save your ESV API in a file called ESVapi.txt inside /Shortcuts/Logins/ in your iCloud Drive (you’ll need to create the “Logins” folder manually).

ESV Advanced Shortcut: select between a variety of reading and formatting options and get the text copied to your system clipboard.

ESV Simple Shortcut: add your passage and get a non-versed, blocked text copied to your system clipboard.
You can access either of these shorcuts from the iOS sharesheet or you can create a Drafts action/keyboard shortcut that runs the shortcut and auto-pastes it back into Drafts

Scott: Webster1828 (iOS)
Download app here

A dictionary to help you understand KJV English or older hymns
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13 min

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