Skip this part if you find it boring! We have upgraded ChurchInsight to the latest version of .NET. Our developers say it's like building your own house – until now it’s been building it out of trees using only a saw and a hammer, with the upgrade it will be like owning your own branch of Homebase. Or something like that.

Although this more modern framework won’t make anything appear different, it gives us a platform to introduce more releases with performance enhancements. The main work has been migrating our code to ASP.NET 4.0, then undertaking major testing to ensure that everything still works.

The update happened on 3 May 2012. Your site should be unaffected – but if it is behaving unusually, let us know.

Reskinning the web office

While we were updating the framework, we took the opportunity to improve the look of the web office. The new design will be released over the next few weeks but the mockup above gives you a sneak peek at what we were aiming for. It won’t look exactly like that as some things will change in implementation, but picture gives you a good idea about what to expect.

From a functionality point of view, everything will still be in the same place. You won’t have to learn anything new – just work with a slight design change.

Over time we are planning to implement more small alterations that make the system easier to use. We want to do this in short bursts, rather than one big overhaul, to make sure that we don't scare anyone.

We’ll let you know through this blog about the design change closer to the release time. Personally I can't wait – so don't worry, I'll hurry it along.

You can keep up with ChurchInsight blog posts by getting the RSS feed, or by requesting email updates in the right hand column. Let us know what you think of the redesign on Facebook or on Twitter.

Some of the most useful services that have been made possible through the Internet are completely free. Take email, for example. Gmail offers such a powerful, ubiquitous, safe and easy to use system – we recommend to churches that they set up their own organisation’s email account with Google.

That’s not to say that it can’t be made better. Google themselves are experimenting with all kinds of ways to improve their email service. I wrote about the ones I find most useful in 8 Google Labs tricks to make you more productive with Gmail.

And then there are the free, third party apps that do clever things like show you rich contact details, remove the annoying ads or give your greater control over the flow of emails in your inbox. For details, see 3 free apps to conquer your Gmail inbox.

The best part for budget-watching churches is that all of this does not cost a bean. But every now and then a commercial email app comes along that is so useful, the benefits easily outweigh the small cost.

SaneBox has a part to play in increasing productivity and getting to the holy grail of inbox zero. But before we get to the app, we need to take the email bull by the horns.

The problem with email, especially when you are in a role with responsibility in a church, is that there is too much of it. But not every email is urgent – and not every email is important.

I tackle the problem in three steps.

I only check my email two or three time a day. It is very rare that anything comes up that really requires an immediate answer. To avoid any confusion, I let people know in my email footer that I read my emails at set times of the day.

The next step is to do one of three things with every single email that you receive:

This is where SaneBox comes in. Instead of you having to go through every single email and decide whether to bin it, act on it or save it, SaneBox automatically sorts your email for you. It puts all unimportant mail into one place for you to review when you have the time.

SaneBox keeps your important emails in your inbox while sending unimportant ones to a folder called ‘SaneLater’. It is easy to use – and works with any email client or service.

You can tell SaneBox to always place emails from certain people in your inbox rather than in the dumping ground. It has advanced features too if you need them, but the main application is sorting out your email so that you don’t get distracted by the ones that are not important.

I hope these tips help you to get on top of your email too. I'd love to hear on Facebook or Twitter how you manage the daily deluge of mail.

In churches the amount of email flying around can be scary. Last week we checked out 8 Google Labs customisations that can make you more productive with Gmail.

It’s not just Google who want to make their mail program more efficient. There are many other apps that can help you to triumph over your Gmail inbox and get down into the valley where you are needed the most.

And the good news for your church budget is that the following trio of helpful apps are all completely free.

Churches are all about relationships. Rapportive is a clever widget that shows you information about your contacts. When you're reading mail, you can see what the senders look like, where they are, and what their interests are.

What’s clever is that it sits right in your inbox. I have it where the Google ads normally sit. Rapportive suggest that you can "establish rapport by mentioning shared interests" and increase your network by connecting on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. You can also leave notes about a person for future reference.

Once you have tried it, it seems a natural thing to do. Rapportive provides context for who I’m communicating with. And whether this is a good thing or not I’m not sure, but it means I will never miss a tweet from my pastor again…

Boomerang for Gmail is a neat little app that helps you to stay on top of your email and even to achieve inbox zero.

The main thing I use it for is to schedule emails to be sent later. It puts a ‘send later’ button next to the usual ‘send’ one. Simply click it when you’ve written your email to be shown options for timing. You can pick a date from the calendar or type in an instruction like “next Monday”.

This is handy for scheduling emails late at night to give the impression I work late! More seriously, I schedule emails before taking leave to make sure something gets done in the office while I’m away.

Another nifty feature of Boomerang is it removes messages from your inbox until you need them again. You can bounce emails back at a later time and date so you can forget about them and just act on them when they pop up again. The app archives the message until the time you chose. You can select if you want it to reappear marked unread, starred, or at the top of your email list.

Boomerang is also useful if you need to follow up an email that you have sent within a specific time frame. You can choose to only be reminded if nobody replies, or just be reminded anyway. It stops messages from slipping through the crack and prevents you from forgetting important issues if you have not had a reply.

Finally, you need an ad blocker to remove the annoying adverts on the right hand side of the screen. This makes more room for your messages, or for other useful apps like Rapport.

If you are using the Chrome browser, Webmail Ad Blocker will remove both the ads and the people info on the right.

If you are using Firefox, you can download Gmelius to get rid of all the ads in Gmail and improve the interface.

Gmail is a fantastic mail program for churches not least because it is free. Taking a bit of time to find and install apps that improve the interface and features is worth it because they can help you to make your workflow more efficient. They allow you to quickly conquer your email, freeing up more time for other important church activities. And as we've found out, they don’t have to cost a penny either.

What else do you use to stay on top of your email? Tell us about it on Facebook or Twitter.

Ah, productivity. How to do more, in less time. One area many of us could be more efficient in is email. We heartily recommend Google Apps for your church or ministry email system. It’s free, easy to set up, and generous in what it offers.

What you might not know is that Google offers helpful little add-ons to Gmail to make the service even better. They are found in Google ‘Labs’. And they are all free.

To turn these features on, log in to your Gmail account. Click on the settings cog, and then select 'Settings' from the list. Select the 'Labs' tab and you will see a list of lots of new widgets, buttons and features that you can enable one by one.

While they might not be for everyone, the following add-ons have made me far more efficient in my use of email. In fact, set up right, they stop me from sitting in front of my inbox all day, allowing me to spend time on other projects that make a real difference.

Here are the features from Google Labs that have increased my productivity:

Small delays can get very frustrating if you experience them many times a day. If you don’t want to wait while Gmail thinks about sending your mail, then Background Send makes your life easier. Gmail can send your mail while you move on to more important things. Simply click ‘send’ and move on to the next message or task.

Just make sure that you stay logged in to your Google account until all the mail has been sent.

This is email for the truly lazy – or for those who frequently send out the same sort of messages. If your job involves standard or similar responses, save and then send your commonly used messages using a button next to the compose form.

I set up templates with this feature to save the time and effort in writing the same thing over and over again. Canned responses also automatically send emails using filters.

You can set up your own keyboard shortcuts to perform common actions in Gmail with just a few memorable keystrokes. This feature adds a new ‘Settings’ tab from which you can remap keys to various actions. I use this a lot – and cunningly, the shortcuts apply to the keyboard of any device that you use to access Gmail.

Another annoyance in Gmail is having to open a new page to check your Google Calendar quickly while you are using Gmail. The Calendar Gadget adds a box in the left column that shows your Calendar. You can see upcoming events, locations and details at a glance, without having to wait for a new page to load. You can pop it up with a click or leave it open the whole time.

Sometimes we get messages that we want to mark as read without having to read them. It’s only a small thing, but one which takes valuable time: normally in Gmail you have to click on the More Actions menu every time you want to do this.

With a Mark as Read button you can do it in one click. You just need to enable the label.

You will have picked up by now that I love anything that saves me time. Send & Archive puts a button on the compose form that lets you send a reply message and archive the email conversation in a single action.

Signature convention varies and people have strong preferences about these things. I like every email that I send to have my contact information clearly visible. Signature tweaks places your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the "--" line that appears before signatures

Oops, ever hit "Send" too soon? What price being able to stop messages from being sent a few seconds after hitting the send button?

With Google Labs the feature is free. So the next time you realise just after you sent an email that you’ve forgotten something or sent it to the wrong person – just click Undo Send and no one needs to know.

The add-ons in Google Labs are only small modifications to Gmail, but they take off some of the rough edges of the system, and make it that bit easier and quicker to use. Find the ones that suit your own workflow best, and you can make yourself that bit more productive.  

Are these tips useful? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.