Learn

Summer has definitely left us, and the onset of autumn brings with it the sweet smell of falling leaves, the crisp touch of morning frost... and at my house, cleaning the windows.

Most of the windows in our house are double-hung and protected behind a storm window. This means many surfaces to clean, as well as the difficult job of removing, cleaning and replacing the storm windows. I began working on the first, a large picture window overlooking our front porch, equipped with a bucket of warm water and some paper towels. As I began wiping the grime from the glass, it quickly became apparent that I did not have the right tools for the job. As I smeared the dirt around with a ragged paper towel, my best efforts still left our window streaky and practically opaque. I upgraded my paper towel to a rag, and even hosed down the outside window with a blast from the hose, but it still looked as if I had employed a large dog to lick my windows clean.

After about an hour of working on the window, I mentioned the struggle I was having to my wife. She told me that a friend of hers uses a warm washcloth, soapy water... and a squeegee. Of course! My mind immediately went to the gas station windshield cleaning stations, with their slimy, week-old blue-Kool-Aid water and the handheld squeegee/sponges. If that disgusting tool could clean dead bugs off my windshield, surely it could improve my windows.

Now, since I'm not a pastor, professor, or creative director, I'll try to make this applicable without losing my train of thought: it's essential to have the right tools to do the job. In your role as church pastor, communications director, team leader, web designer, or even window-scrubber, the job you do will be easier and more effective if it's done with the right tools.

Here are a few of the tools that I use every day in my role at Fishhook as an e-strategist. I hope these are helpful!

• On The Job - time tracking software, to keep track of what I did and how long it took. (So far I'm at 36 minutes writing this blogpost)
• 1Password - securely store and retrieve your logins and passwords. Now I don't have to use the middle name of my third-grade teacher for every password!
• CSSEdit - ok, you might not need this unless you are a web designer or programmer. But for us nerds, this tool is invaluable! Use this WYSIWG editor for easy style sheet editing.
• FileMerge - I just discovered this program the other day - it comes standard on the Mac! Really helpful if I need to compare changes I've made in a local file to one published to the site I'm working on.

Now if only I could find a way to clean that picture window without raiding my local Speedway station.