iPhone apps for personal study time

When I study in the morning I do it all using my iPhone. Here's my list and what I use in it:

The first app is "Gospel Library." Its produced by the church, so the quality is good and you can trust that the content is accurate. I start with the scriptures, typically the Book of Mormon. After 30 min or so of reading that, I click the "pages" tab on the bottom of the screen and open a new page. I then read a conference talk or two, sometimes three. I've started with the oldest ones in the library, which are from 1990, and plan to work my way forward.

I sometimes also use an app call "Citation Library" which holds every talk or discourse, organized by their scripture references. For example, if you wanted to read something about "Faith" you could a search for that keyword and pull up dozens, probably even hundreds, of talks about faith. The other way to search is by scripture. If I look up 1st Nephi 3:7, I see that there are dozens of talks, from Henry B Eyring's "Trust in God, and then Go Do" to the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. The app automatically sorts the results by publication date, and when you select o it brings you right to the part of the talk where they cited that scripture. Its amazing in sunday school. If the teacher has someone read a scripture out loud you can look super smart. I love being able to say "In the April Conference in 2007 President Monson talked about this. He said..." and read the passage. It adds a lot to the lesson, and makes you look like a scripture genius.

More just lookin like a smarty-pants, than I've found that reading some of these talks in their entirely helps create a theme to your study time.

Most of all, I try and pray for help to read something that will affect me for the positive, something I can apply in my life today. When I read with that intent, I never fail!

Early Mornings

My daughter, Ellie, wakes up early. No matter what time I put her to bed, she'll get up between 5 and 6am. It wouldn't be so bad if she wanted to snuggle or sleep in my bed, or even play toys in her room quietly, but she immediately wants Dad to "be with her" and interact with her. Whether its watching a movie or just sitting in a chair, Dad has to be there. At first I found myself getting frustrated with how I wasn't getting enough sleep, but I realized that one day I'll regret not spending these moments with her.

I resolved to be proactive about the entire problem, and began waking even earlier. I set my alarm clock for 5am, and when it rang, I immediately leapt from bed and started the day on my knees. I prayed for what I wanted the day to be, what I wanted from my children and my work, and poured out my heart in gratitude for the blessings I'd received. Next, I opened my scriptures. 30 minutes of scripture study followed by listening or reading conference talks.

A funny thing happened. Not only did my daughter start sleeping in a little later (she now consistently wakes between 6 and 7am) but I found myself in a GREAT mood when she finally did get up.

I began really looking forward to my early mornings. So much that was getting to bed earlier and earlier. Most guys my age were getting to bed around midnight, and understandably so, it maximizes that time together with the spouse after the kids are in bed. But getting 5 hours of sleep every night was tough, and I found that, with the exception of only a few activities, I was ready for bed at 10pm. So I changed my habits again. Here's a look at my daily schedule:

5:00 am- Alarm rings, get up and pray

5:15 am- Read from the Book of Mormon

5:45 am- Put in my headphones and listen to a conference talk while cleaning, making breakfast, exercising, etc.

6:30 am- Put on a movie for Jake and Ellie, get them a snack while they watch

7:00 am- Get ready for the day (shower, dressed)

7:15 am- Make breakfast for the kids

7:30 am- Family breakfast

8:00 am- Leave for work

Now granted, this schedule doesn't work out perfectly every day, sometimes Ellie wakes up earlier, sometimes there's a sick kid, sometimes I have had a rough night and need to sleep in, but for the most part, I've found that when I stick to this routine, my day goes pretty good.

New work and new opportunity

I have recently accepted a new position at Pinnacle Security. Its the job of the "Customer Marketing Manager" and so far its been pretty amazing. I am basically in charge of anything that will touch our customers, from the welcome packet given when someone purchases a new system, to the company's web presence (Company website, social media, etc).

Its been a huge challenge so far, but a lot of fun. I am currently working on a customer DVD that would be included in the aforementioned customer welcome packet. We want to start the DVD with an introduction to the company, throw in a few customer testimonials, and end it with easy to watch tutorials. We filmed our first video yesterday at my house, and my family "starred" in it. It was pretty amazing to see how great Erin and the kids look on camera. The right cameraman and the right lenses make all the difference. I wish I understood more about photography, especially the lenses and what each can do. The way some people can capture a moment through video or images is simply amazing.

I want the videos we make to follow a style used by a company called Stillmotion. They are a Candian film team, got their start dong wedding videos. They are unorthodox and amazing at what they do. Take a look at their website stillmotion.ca and check out some of their work. It will literally amaze you.

I am also working on a new version of the PinnacleSecurity.com site. It can be so much more than it is now. I made a "map" of what I'd like the site to include using a program called "Omnigraffle Pro" If you don't have it its amazing for collecting your thoughts and creating plans. Once I got that plan created, I sent it to the company we use for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and they began making mockups of the site. While they have had some good attempts, nothing has hit the mark. Jared Neilson, Pinnacle's lead graphic designer, started working on one today and it looks pretty amazing. It makes me very hopeful that our site can really be amazing.

There are a bunch of other initiatives I am working on as well, all of them exciting projects with lots of possibility.

Completing these projects should create an amazing opportunity for me and my family. My hope is that my boss, the VP of PR and Communications, Stuart Dean, will see what I have accomplished and want to give me more assignments and trust me to do more in the company. My next goal is to reach the director level, which would mean I have a team of people underneath me, working to make the customer marketing of the company the best it can be. I can already see a need for a web developer, a writer, and an admin and report guru, especially someone who can be effective with surveys. That may be 6 months, a year, or several years in the future, but I think it will happen.

On a personal note, the iPad 2 was announced today. Looks pretty sweet. I would love to have one, especially because of the camera, but I looked and I don't think I could sell my 64GB 3g ipad to get enough to get a 16GB iPad 2, let alone get one with more space. At first I thought I wouldn't need more than 16GB of space, but having 64GB really has been nice. I load that bad boy up with movies and TV shows and don't need to sync it for weeks.

Its amazing to me how well technology melds together today. I can only imagine what my kids will have one day. Makes me excited just thinking about it. My kids respond so well already to the touchscreen technology. My daughter could consistently unlock my phone shortly after turning 1, and Jake had his own iPod touch at 3, which he knew how to use. I guess that speaks to how intuitive the operating system is. I'm not sure if Android or other platforms are just as intuitive, but I'm guessing they are not. Apple just has a way making things work really well.