On this episode of Focused, Mike and I return to the subject of hyper-scheduling after we’ve both been at it a few years. What works? What doesn’t? And how did Mike’s experiment go where he stopped blocking time?
This episode of Focused is sponsored by:
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We’re getting down to the wire with the Focus Mode Webinar. I’ll be giving it at 9:00 A.M. Pacific on November 10, less than 12 hours after this post goes up. You can still sign up with the above link. If you sign up but don’t make it, I will be sending a replay link to those folks signed up.
I’ve spent a lot of time with Focus Mode in the last week as I’ve been preparing for this, and I like it better now than ever. There is a lot you can pull off with Focus Mode and a little creativity. Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow.
Stephen and I talk with Sean McCabe on this episode of Mac Power Users about how he runs his businesses from what can only be described as a Mac battle station while stitching together macOS apps and several cloud services to be more productive.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
Ryan J. A. Murphy joins Rosemary and me on this episode of Automators to share automation tips for Obsidian, augmented intelligence, and automated parenting.
This episode of Automators is sponsored by:
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Flexibits released a nice update to Fantastical. This update continues to put the pedal down and simplify virtual meetings with the addition of Webex integration. This version also improves the toolset for big meetings with public meeting proposals via URL, granular control over guest permissions in Google events, and general performance improvements when dealing with lots of invitees.
My favorite thing about the new version, however, is the Shortcuts support. The Fantastical developers jumped in with both feet with their Shortcuts for Mac integration with a pile of new actions. If you want to automate calendar events on your Mac, make sure to check out this update. (I’ll be covering all of these Fantastical actions in the upcoming Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide.)
I joined Tim Chaten on the podcast iPad Pros to discuss DEVONthink and how my computer usage has shifted this past year with the introduction of the 6th generation iPad mini and the M1 Macs. Have a listen.
My thanks to this week’s MacSparky sponsor, TextExpander. TextExpander works for you to take your time back by helping you work faster and smarter so you can focus your time on your most important work by instantly inserting your text snippets with just a few keystrokes.
Think of all of the different kinds of links you share everyday with your friends, colleagues, or customers. You can turn all of these must-see links into TextExpander snippets in a way that won’t look like alphabet soup, but that will also save you time. Once you create a new Snippet Group for things you frequently link to, like “My GIFs” or “Work Links” or “Affiliate Sites”, you would just have to type the abbreviation you created for your link snippet, instead of copying and pasting an entire address. For example, you could set up a snippet “/twitter” or “/instagram” which will pop up your account URLs so you can share links to your social media accounts. Or a link snippet could save you time if you have to go to a recurring video conference room. If you’ve created a link snippet for this virtual meeting room, you don’t have to go searching for that URL or email that has it for you to join that meeting. Think of all the link snippets you could create.
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For years now, Lee Garrett has been perfecting the art and science of screencasting over at ScreenCastsOnline. Just recently, Lee created his own online course about mastering Todoist. I spent some time in the course, and Lee did a great job. I’m so pleased for him in getting this school and course launched. I know it’s not easy. If you’re using Todoist and would like to get better at it, there’s no better place.
Hooray! There’s a big update to Keyboard Maestro today. The new version 10 includes a pile of new features. Banner features include the ability to add data to menu bar icons, create “Favorite” actions, and subroutines. (That’s right, you can now program subroutines in Keyboard Maestro.) Below are some of my favorite new additions:
Added configurable Favorite Actions.
Added Select Macro by Name, as well as This Macro and This Macro Group options to the macro selector pop-up.
Added search field to macro selector pop-up.
Added search field to Insert All Actions, All Functions, All Tokens, and Variables menus.
Added Copy as Set Macro Group Enable and Toggle Macro Group actions to contextual menu for Macro Group column.
Support double-clicking dividers in the editor window to set the ideal size.
Added Edit ➤ Insert ICU Date Field menu to insert the various ICU Date components.
Added OCR Screen and Paste by Name to the Macro Library.
Added support for manipulating Keyboard Maestro Engine windows.
Added option to include Macro Groups in the status menu bar.
Added Return action to return a value from subroutine macros.
Several new triggers, including unlock, appearance changed, online and power status triggers.
Added “long press” option for Hot Key and USB Device.
Added support for selecting multiple files or folders in the Prompt For File action.
My congratulations go to Peter for shipping this update. I am kicking the tires on the new features now, and I will be doing a free update to the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide after the new year covering the new features.
On the latest episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I review macOS Monterey and cover the features and changes it brings to the Mac. Then, we give our impressions of the new M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pros.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
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