Found under the Mission Control System Preference, “Automatically rearrange Spaces based on recent usage” takes any Spaces you’ve set up and scrambles them every time you open a new app. So it just adds a bit of chaos to your day. I’ll never understand why this is turned on by default.
P.S. I just checked. It’s also turned on by default with a macOS Ventura install.
I’m starting a five-part webinar series this Friday for the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide, Plus Edition customers. If you signed up for that course you should have received an email with a sign-up link. I’ve also added the sign-up link to the course under the “Shortcuts Webinars” Section. Let me know if you have any problems.
The Webinars will be new materials on Shortcuts for Mac. All of the webinars will be edited and added to the course. So if you can’t make the webinars, you’ll still get all the content as part of the Shortcuts For Mac Field Guide, Plus Edition content.
I’m behind on my email, which made me rethink my email practices and how I can improve them. This is no less than my quest for email serenity. I’ve decided to do this as a series for the MacSparky Labs. Here’s the first entry talking about the problem, potential solutions, and some trouble areas where a specific email can gum up the works. I also share diagrams of some of my email workflows…
This is a post for MacSparky Labs Level 3 (Early Access) and Level 2 (Backstage) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
I’ve been working on the RSS Feeds. Now there are three of them.
This feed gets you everything. It includes the MacSparky Labs posts as well, but you’ll only see content in those posts matching up with your membership level.
I publish a lot of content for the MacSparky Labs Members. If you don’t want to see any of that, use this feed.
I have custom feeds for each level of the MacSparky Labs. These are generated individually for each Member. If you are a MacSparky Labs member…
You don’t have access to this RSS feed..
Mark Gurman recently reported there are four M2 Macs in the works.
These are all rumors, but to play along, if this is true, that would mean the M2 generation is not going to be used to update the entire line. Missing from the list was the iMac and the Mac Studio. I could see a world where Apple decides to skip generations on some of its hardware and lets the iMac and Mac Studio wait for the M3.
I don’t know all the intricacies of production and global supply chains, and maybe they wouldn’t have a choice. Nevertheless, I hope Gurman is wrong. Now that Apple is in control of the chips and the hardware, I would prefer Apple to upgrade all their hardware with each generation.
Following up on today’s public post on how I do mid-year reflection and planning, I’ve released an extended audio session in the Labs podcast going deeper…
This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
Tony Miceli is a world-renowned jazz vibraphonist. This week on Mac Power Users, he joins Stephen and me to talk about how music and technology have become more intertwined over his career, and how he built an online community of vibraphonists.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
As we are about to leave June and enter July, we’re hitting the halfway point for 2022. It’s hard to believe we are halfway through 2022. This is particularly true for me with so much change in my life. I’ve now been a full-time MacSparky for six months and I consider this mid-year turn an excellent time to reflect and plan. I’d encourage you to do the same.
There is nothing magical about going from June to July. It’s another day, like any other. However, there is something special about calendar transitions like mid-year and new-year that gets in our heads and makes us all more reflective and more amenable to stepping back, taking stock, and making changes. I prefer planning in quarters, not years or half-years, but the mid-year transition works on me too. I have a system for this sort of thing, and I’d like to share it with you.
I want to draw your attention to how I’ve named this: Mid-Year Reflection and Planning. It is all about reflection (which is first) and planning (which is second). So often, you’ll read about these planning sessions that omit reflection. That’s dumb. Attention to your past is how you improve your future. My best plans have always sprung from careful observation of my past. Whether you do this with pen and paper or on a keyboard, I think it is easier to keep reflection and planning as one thing together instead of two separate things.
I’ve written extensively about this before. The foundational building blocks of my life are the roles I serve: Husband, Father, Brother, Friend, MacSparky, and Student are a few I’ve identified. If you are curious, I suggest reading this.
Regardless, my mid-year review starts with an examination of my roles. For each, I have a few open-ended questions:
The questions are simple, but the answers are not. Take as much time as you need to empty your head concerning each one. Examining each role is a critical first step for me. This takes me a few hours.
Next, I like to spend time on challenges that I’ve faced and challenges that I expect.
I start by reflecting on the challenges thus far, and I ask a few questions for each:
Then I turn my attention to the rest of the year and consider if I expect any challenges heading my way. For each one, I have a list of questions:
All these questions probably make sense to you except the last one about the worse potential outcome. I’ve discovered that fear of the unknown is much more painful than knowing a potential challenge or bad outcome. Imagining the worse outcome settles me and (usually) helps me avoid it.
Projects and habits are up next for me. In my mind, projects and habits are on an equal footing. Both are how I move forward.
As to Projects, I begin looking at what I’ve shipped so far in the year. For each, I consider:
Then I look forward and consider projects for the rest of the year. For each, I consider:
Habits work the same way.
After this, I take an overview of the roles, challenges, projects, and habits with the gut check bandwidth questions:
If you did all of the above, the planning part is easy. Now you know where the role changes are needed, the challenges to be faced down, the projects and habits to nurture. Now go do it.
What actions do you need to take in the next six months to make it happen? Which resources do you need to assemble? What people do you need to reach out to? How do you set yourself up to pull it off? Assemble the troops and make your plans.
My friends Myke Hurley and CGP Grey have themes (and theme journals) to help you simplify the process and make progress on what’s important to you. It’s a great idea that doesn’t land with me. Somewhat related, I do try and observe trends.
For example, looking back at my last six months, it’s clear that the big word for me was “transition”. I made significant changes in my life, and a lot of it was new. I saw transition every day. “Change” and me became close friends.
Looking forward, I expect more transition, but I can also see consolidation becoming a thing as I nail down the workflows to deliver more and better content and (hopefully) complete and move into a new studio space. You could call these themes, but they feel more like trends to me. I’m not choosing them so much as I observe them as they grow out of my decisions concerning my roles, challenges, projects, and habits.
100% Yes! People write to me asking how much time I spend on this stuff and if I wouldn’t be better off spending the time doing “actual” work. In my experience, reflection and planning time is always worth it. You have to experience this for yourself to believe it, but why don’t you take a shot right now? Go through the above questions. Do the work. Make plans. Then see where you are on New Year’s Eve.
Can you believe that we are halfway through 2022? With the move into the second half of the year, I’ll be doing some reflection and planning this week. I will share the process with the Early Access members, and I will do a Zoom call this Wednesday at 16:00 Pacific with anyone doing the same to talk about the process and implementation of mid-year reflections and planning. I’d love to see you there…
This is a post for MacSparky Labs Level 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
All of us nerds are enjoying the appearance of the alternate timeline Apple Newton in season 3 of For All Mankind. Filipe Espósito chased down the details at 9to5 Mac. It turns out they just made a Newton-ish case to go over the top of an iPhone 12 Pro Max.
If you’re curious about the Newton, Stephen Hackett, unsurprisingly, has the details. I actually feel like the Newton was a lot closer to its original vision right before Steve Jobs gave it the ax on his return. Granted, Apple was on the ropes and had to get extremely focused at the time and you can’t really argue with the results.
Either way, the Newton, and the idea of the Newton influenced a lot of our thinking on the future portable devices and it will always have a warm place in my heart. It’s nice to see it flourishing in an alternative fictional timeline.
Also, seeing that adorable rainbow logo made me want Apple to bring it back even more.