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Following on the conversation from today’s post from my good friend Scott Gould (and his mate Ian) I share with you my 3 productivity tips for today!

1. Reading something inspiring keeps the mind active, it gives you focus and direction.

I am currently working through the wonderful 80′s classic book “Money, Sex, Power” by the fantastic pastor Richard Foster (author of Celebration of Discipline) – just picking up a couple of nuggets that get the brain juices flowing on a daily basis is sometimes all it takes to get the creativity and productivity flowing.

2. Think about getting an iPad (or some useful desktop widgets!

Using “Things” on the iPad has completely consolidated my mish-mash approach to task management up until now, and Evernote being always with me makes finding things much easier.

Also check out some of these great little nuggets:

• DropBox – File sharing made easy
• Focus Booster – Break your time down into 25 minute chunks
• Doomi – Handy Adobe Air To Do List App
• OmniFocus – Heavyweight To Do App
• The Pomodoro Technique – What Focus Booster is based on!

3. Knowing how to turn things off is crucial.

What I mean by this is knowing that things do have a Off button, and you can choose to press it. You change choose to tune out. And you should.

We often forget that the world will not end if we don’t check in, tweet, email or text for a couple of hours, or even a couple of weeks.

The more we learn to switch off for appropriate amounts of time, the more productive we are when things are turned on!

Over to you…

What makes you more productive? What tools do you use? Are you more creative when you are being productive or more productive when you are being creative?

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Here it is… the one you have all been waiting for. The Wedding Video (Highlight version – we won’t subject you to the whole 3 hour Directors cut!)

Massive thanks to our videographer Paul for his brilliant handy work. Give me a tweet if you want his details!

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The new Fuji HS10 is one of a number of recent “bridge” cameras to hit the market that sports a super zoom lens- in the case of the HS 10 a whopping 30x magnification! Providing the sturdiness and lens quality of a SLR with the ease of use or a compact is no mean feat – the Fuji certainly delivers in both areas, with some neat additions along the way, not to mention the zoom – did I mention that?! 30x!!

FujiFilm FinePix HS10

The other big talking point with this model is that it now sports HD video recording on board. Using a dedicated control button on the back of the unit, combined with the positionable LCD screen makes this actually a great little shooter, running a full 1080p spec on board. Using this in conjuction with the zoom lens means that it can actually has many advantages over using a straight forward HDD Cam, as white balance control and B&W filming are all within easy reach.

It also packs a lot of othe neat little tricks – here is the PR spiel..

• High Resolution super wide Fujinon 30x optical zoom (24-720mm) with manual on-lens zoom control familiar to DSLR users
• True wide-angle and extreme telephoto capture in a single compact unit
• Triple image stabilisation (sensor shift IS, high ISO IS, Digital IS)
• 10 MP BSI CMOS sensor with high speed low noise and high image quality
• 3.0″ High Resolution tilting LCD
• Electronic Viewfinder with eye-sensor for automatic switching
• Full HD (1080p) movie capture with stereo sound
• New motion panorama mode for ‘one shot’ sweeping panoramas
• High speed 10 fps continuous shooting at full resolution

So is the HS10 worth the £399 you are going to shell out on it. The answer is – kind of. As a HD camcorder it actually performs really well, the motion is smooth and the 10FPS stands up to quite a lot of movement. Actually using this as a SLR however is not so plain sailing. I am not a big fan of EVF’s (Electronic View Finders) as they are essentially very small LCD screens viewed through a little black box! Not exactly ideal for shooting anything up close, or at distance – which if you are buying this for that whopping built in optical zoom, kind of defeats the object.

All in all if you are looking for an alternative to a standard HD Cam then take a look at the HS10, however if you are looking to enter into the DSLR market I would consider doing just that!

The FujiFilm HS 10 is available from http://www.jessops.com for around £399

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Well many of you reading this may already be aware of this, (news travels fast in this game) but I am glad that I am now able to make it public here.

After a short 5 month stint with the wonderful people at Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster. This week marks my first week as Digital Consultant at Lexis PR.

So why the move? Well the past 6 months have been quite a big shift for the Poulter household – moving house, changing jobs (twice now!) and getting married – people have asked if I have gone a little mad, and to be honest I have asked myself similar questions! But it seems that life moves in seasons like that.

The new job holds some amazing opportunities and the opportunity to work with some fantastic brands, from the likes of Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Unilever and Boots. So exciting times ahead!

If you want to get in touch, or pop by for a coffee just shout – james@jamespoulter.co.uk

I’ll leave you with this passage from Ecclesiastes, that often neglected scripture, which I think sums it up perfectly…

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What does the worker gain from his toil?10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men.11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

Tonight I am giving a little talk at my good mate @BernieJMitchell’s London Meetup Organisers Group, (they are people who organise groups in London using the site – Meetup.com – does what it says on the tin really doesn’t it?!)

The subject of the talk and the prezi below is looking at how you can use Facebook and Meetup together to get people more engaged in community groups.

Meetup and Facebook share a lot of similarities so it’s great to see how you can integrate the two together. Meetup’s themselves have been springing up recently around all sorts of subjects, from the #140conf meetup groups that me and Bernie and others (@LeeSmallwood and @JeffPulver) have been involved with for a year or so now, to groups around Mashable, Evernote and the Huffington post.

Some of the most interesting London groups include:

• The London Bloggers Meetup
• The London Over 30 and Delicious
• The Late Late Breakfast Show

All well worth checking out… And now for the Prezi…

Some Meetup Related Articles!

• Check-in to your Meetups (meetupblog.meetup.com)
• Introducing: Evernote Meetups (evernote.com)
• Easily connect with other Meetup members on Facebook, Twitter and more! (meetupblog.meetup.com)
• Rebecca Harrington: HuffPost Thursdays: Meetup to Talk About the News (huffingtonpost.com)