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10 Apps, Tools and Resources for Your Professional Development and Inspiration

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Who has time for personal or professional development?

Dedicated professionals know that it is important to invest in ourselves. Our physical, mental and emotional health play a role into how we can carry out our professional goals. But it can be difficult to make time for feeding ourselves healthy information and inspiration. Here are a list of ten tools that can make it easier, some of which that I am currently using. 


  1. YouVersion Bible App: This is a great way to carry a Bible with you all the time. It has a wide variety of short and long term reading plans, image making tools, and even opportunity to connect with friends if that interests you.
  1. Abide App: Abide provides audio prayers, music, and scenic backgrounds (among other services, depending on what version you pick).
  1. Calm App:* With lovely graphics and though provoking meditations, this app can help you take a few minutes to focus. As this is not a faith-based app, I challenge myself to connect the word of the day to Scripture.
  1. Feedly: Feedly collects posts from sites/blogs that I want to follow. I scan the feed in the morning, marking articles I want to read in more depth later. Then during short breaks or on weekends, I pull up an article or two (or more) read it, and either save it to a topic board or discard it.
  1. The Skimm*: this weekday email provides a conversational summary, generally fairly balanced, of current national and international event, so you can be prepared for daily “water cooler talk.” Immersing myself in news does not work for me, but I do see value in knowing the basics, and this morning email gives me a quick overview. (Warning…the language used in some of the writing may not appeal to some.)
  1. Greenville Today: In the spirit of Skimm, my local county offers a weekday e-newsletter that summarizes interesting information and happenings in Greenville county.
  1. The Daily Shine* this is a weekday text that can be a source of bright encouragement for your day that I have used in the past.   I also have a group of friends in a text group and we randomly send Scripture to one another from time to time. We call this “Scripture Sisters” – it’s our own form of regular text encouragement.
  1. Newspapers: I don’t typically read newspapers instead staying informed by the summaries above. But I do enjoy reading our local business journal (Upstate Business Journal) usually during a lunch break.
  1. Platform University: I highly recommend that you find a membership site that corresponds to your profession or industry. In my case, Platform has had a major impact on my journey as an entrepreneur and the building of HOPE Unlimited. I make time to watch the training videos and/or read resources, usually over a 15-30 minute period once a week.
  1. Books: since 2012, I’ve successfully had a goal of finishing one book per month. (Note I said finish, not start and finish.) Sometimes its a business book, sometimes a faith based book, and sometimes fiction or a classic. This simple goal (which I track on Goodreads) keeps me reading consistently, although I do feel I don’t read books enough.

[callout]BONUS: HOPE Academy This is a branch of HOPE Unlimited where we will be offering strategic courses to help overwhelmed professionals. Have you tried the free course yet?[/callout]

How about you? Do you have a plan for your professional and personal development?

*Caveat: Many of you know that as a follower of Christ, my faith saturates all aspects of my life. I provide this list with the advice to be discerning. Not every tool completely aligns with my worldview, and I have indicated those with an *.  However, I feel the tools can have valuable elements and are worth listing.

 

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