Do you ever feel like you forgot to do something, but you can’t remember what? Oh, yeah, that email you meant to respond to but just didn’t because … life. SaneBox, this week’s sponsor at MacSparky, has got you covered.
SaneNoReplies tracks emails that you haven’t responded to yet. With SaneNoReplies, you can monitor who you haven’t replied to yet and follow up with them. “What’s this magic,” you’re asking. All of the emails you haven’t responded to end up in one place with SaneBox: the SaneNoReplies folder. Emails that haven’t received a reply go in here, allowing you to keep track of whom you’re supposed to get back to. Now no one will slip through the cracks. It’s a round up of the emails you need to follow up, all in one place.
Interested? SaneNoReplies is included with all SaneBox plans. Click here to sign up for your free trial, and you’ll get a $10 credit you can use towards a SaneBox subscription. Give it a whirl.
This week MacSparky is sponsored by Daylite, the best native CRM app for your Mac. It is that simple. Daylite has been around a long time, yet it has evolved with great features like cloud sync and a modern user interface. You should check it out. Rather than me waxing on poetic about Daylite, the team at Daylite wanted me to write about productivity this month (after all, Daylite is all about boosting you and your team’s productivity!), and I’m glad they did because I’ve got a lot on my mind about time block lengths.
One of the most common bits of feedback I get from people trying to hyper-schedule is that it falls apart on them after a day or two. This, most often, is the result of people making unrealistic block lengths. For example, say you want to work on your personal cloaking device tomorrow, and you give it an hour block. Then when the time comes, you spend three hours working on the project. That’s great that you got three hours of deep work done, but it blows your daily schedule to pieces. Then you feel like you’re behind on everything else for the rest of the day.
The failure when that happens, usually, is in the planning. Specifically, as humans, we tend to be way too optimistic in estimating how long things will take. If you had thought about it the day before, could you have anticipated you’d need three hours instead of one? If you’d planned your day around three hours (instead of one), wouldn’t things have gone a lot better?
If you want to seriously give hyper-scheduling a go, I’d recommend a few things:
1. Overestimate the time it takes.
If you think something is going to take an hour. Multiply that by 2 (or 3!) when making your plan. This is particularly true for project work. The kind of stuff that requires you to dig in always takes longer than you think. If you over-estimate and finish early, give yourself a break (or work on something else). Most likely, though, by doubling your estimate, you’ll just be giving yourself adequate time to finish your work. Once you consistently land within your time estimates, you’ll see the real benefit of time blocking.
2. Keep score.
Whether you do time tracking or keep notes, find a way to track how often and how badly you miss your estimates. That can create a feedback loop for you when planning future blocks. By paying attention, over time, you’ll get much better at estimating how long your work will take, and your scheduling will get a lot more effective.
3. Be kind to yourself.
You will make mistakes when trying to make these kinds of changes. As you are learning how to get better at this stuff, do not beat up on yourself. This stuff is hard. With a bit of patience and time, it does get a lot easier. You’ll see.
When blocking your time, your calendar is your friend. And do you know an app with excellent calendar integration? Daylite! See how I did that? (Daylite has a whole suite of tools for small business including a calendar.) My thanks again to Daylite for sponsoring MacSparky this week and letting me turn this sponsored post into a content post.
Looking your best isn’t just about what you see in the mirror. When you hand someone your business card, you also want to look your best. Thoughtful. Classy. Refined. Memorable. Is that you?
That’s also Hoban Cards. Hoban Cards is a tiny letterpress printing shop that specializes in minimal printing for creative individuals and small businesses. They not only print business cards but also calling cards, stationery, thank yous, invites, wedding invites and RSVPs, dinner menus, wine lists, coasters, and clothing tags. Watch their letterpress in action craft tiny pieces of personalized art.
You could pay less for something that will come off a laser printer. Or you can take it to the next level with a Hoban Card. There are beautiful templates and typography to choose from. The crisp letterpress impression will make a splendid notable impression when you hand them out. Use “MacSparky” to get $10 off any order. Get yours today.
There’s nothing to download, and SaneBox works with any webmail/email client. So, why SaneBox? SaneBox will learn from you how to manage your inbox.
They have powerful A.I. that analyzes your email history and learns what is important to you. Not every email needs to be read immediately. There are some that you can read and respond to later, and SaneBox will automatically move those to your SaneLater folder after some training. That leaves only the important messages in your inbox so distractions are kept to a minimum.
Then, SaneBox will send you a daily digest, which summarizes the new email in your SaneLater folder, and here you can check if there any mistakes or emails you need to move or re-train. Not all email is created equally.
My thanks to TextSniper for sponsoring MacSparky.com this week. I’m a fan of this app.
TextSniper is a Mac OCR app that can extract text anywhere on your Mac’s screen and automatically save it to your clipboard so that you can paste it anywhere you need it. It can even read the text to you. The whole thing works a lot like the built-in screen capture on the Mac, just way more powerful.
Also, TextSniper doesn’t collect your data. The text recognition is processed on your Mac and does not require an internet connection.
With TextSniper, you can:
Quickly get a text from PDFs, Zoom calls, Presentations, and Videos.
Copy text from anywhere, even images and websites that don’t let you select text.
Quickly grab data like email addresses, phone numbers, and links.
Read QR codes and barcodes.
Get text out of just about any image format, including JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and BMP.
I find myself using TextSniper constantly in my daily work. As an example, my wife sent me a picture of a letter she received. I needed to grab some data from the letter (account number, etc…) TextSniper came to the rescue.
TextSniper works with macOS Catalina and later and also works with Parallels Desktop
Get TextSniper now and enjoy the fastest way to copy uncopyable text, wherever it may be. Use promo code TS2022 to get an additional 25% off.
This week MacSparky is sponsored by Timing. Timing is a time tracking app that records your time automatically and then reviews it for you later.
It’s a new year and time to get rolling with some new habits. The problem is that your perception of how you are spending your time is a lot different from reality. How can you make changes without good data? It’s hard to track your time if you’re doing a bunch of different things at once or don’t have the right tools.
That’s where Timing comes to the rescue. With Timing, you instantly see how you are spending your time so you can work more productively and make smarter decisions about how to spend your time.
The Timing app makes recording and reviewing your time easy with automatic tracking and a simple interface for adding details about what you did each day so you can see how much time was focused on each task. In addition, you can use Timing to share projects and times across your team while preserving each team member’s privacy.
This year, I bought HyperPlan from WinterFest. It’s an interesting visual planning tool that lets me use a graphic model to connect ideas. This is just the kind of thing I can get excited about.
All of the software in WinterFest comes from long-time, respected Mac software developers that are all about making great software. Even though everything is discounted you’ll get full versions with complete support and upgrade privileges. Go check it out before the sale ends.
I want to thank WinterFest for sponsoring MacSparky this week. WinterFest is a collection of some of the best Mac software for people that like to make things, all at a significant discount.
This year’s list is stellar:
Tinderbox ◆ Scrivener ◆ DEVONthink ◆ BBEdit ◆ Panorama ◆ Mellel ◆ Scapple ◆ Bookends ◆ Hook Pro ◆ HoudahGeo ◆ Nisus Writer Pro ◆ SmallCubed Mail Suite ◆ DEVONagent Pro ◆ Aeon Timeline 3 ◆ Easy Data Transform ◆ Trickster ◆ HoudahSpot ◆ The Tinderbox Way ◆ ImageFramer Pro ◆ HyperPlan ◆ Timing ◆ Marked
WinterFest features 22 great tools for writers, thinkers, planners. Many of these apps have features on the pages of MacSparky and the podcasts over the years. Just a few of my favorites from this list:
HookPro: Link anything on your Mac. This is a key player in my own contextual computing setup. 25% off.
Timing: The time tracker that doesn’t require you to throw switches 25% off first year.
DEVONthink: What more can I say about this one? 25% off.
If you are planning to get some work done in 2022, WinterFest 2021 is here for you. These are all full versions with complete support and upgrade privileges. Just great prices for great software, right at the workshop door. Get all the tools you need at a terrific price, for a very limited time with WinterFest 2021.
Winter is here. We have work to do. Many of us need to reimagine our workplaces and our workflows. We have kids to raise, degrees to pursue, new jobs to find, care to give, and care to take. This week’s sponsor, WinterFest 2021 is here for you.
WinterFest 2021 features 22 great tools for writers, thinkers, planners. So many of my favorite Mac app are part of WinterFest. Among this year’s bangers are:
Tinderbox ◆ Scrivener ◆ DEVONthink ◆ BBEdit ◆ Panorama ◆ Mellel ◆ Scapple ◆ Bookends ◆ Hook Pro ◆ HoudahGeo ◆ Nisus Writer Pro ◆ SmallCubed Mail Suite ◆ DEVONagent Pro ◆ Aeon Timeline 3 ◆ Easy Data Transform ◆ Trickster ◆ HoudahSpot ◆ The Tinderbox Way ◆ ImageFramer Pro ◆ HyperPlan ◆ Timing ◆ Marked
These are all full versions with complete support and upgrade privileges. Just great prices for great software, right at the workshop door. Get all the tools you need at a terrific price, for a very limited time with WinterFest 2021.
Daylite is an award-winning CRM and productivity app made exclusively for your Mac, and it’s now Monterey ready! Daylite goes beyond the essential CRM experience or project management tool for small businesses. Daylite is the only Mac-focused CRM and productivity app that seamlessly integrates with Apple devices and most of the built-in Apple apps and features, like direct Apple Mail integration, so you and your team can capture all email communication in one place.
That means you can create opportunities, appointments, and tasks in Daylite right from your Apple Mail. Daylite empowers small businesses by improving team efficiency and making collaboration easy—everything is organized, searchable, and accessible (even offline). You and your team can easily access information and use smart lists to segment data tailored to your specific client story. You can manage and share everyone’s schedules, project status, and next steps, all done in Daylite.
