I’ve posted a better look at my home studio and gear. It now has a permanent place on the site.
Automators 29: The Dark Dungeon with Adam Tow
On the latest episode of Automators, Rose and I talk to Adam Tow, creator of MsgFiler and writer of a few amazing Shortcuts automations. From having photos taken on his DLSR automatically shared to him via iMessage, to playing text adventure games with Shortcuts, there is plenty of automation fun to be had!
This episode of Automators is sponsored by:
-
TextExpander, from Smile: Unlock your productivity with TextExpander. Get 20% off with your first year.
Good Times at Macstock 2019
I spent the weekend in Illinois attending the Macstock conference. Macstock started out as a group of friends getting together following the demise of Macworld, and over the years it has grown into a conference and social event that includes about 200 people having a good time talking about AppleScripts, Shortcuts, and debating the finer merits of the very best text editor; in other words, they are my kind of nerds, and it is a lot of fun.
It took me several years to make it to Macstock, but I finally made it there last year and had a great time.
This year, Stephen Hackett and I had the privilege of recording episode 500 of Mac Power Users in front of a live audience at Macstock, and it came out great (although it won’t drop for a few weeks now). I also gave a talk falling somewhere between nerdy tips and hippy-style productivity. Best of all, I got to catch up with some old friends and make several new outstanding ones. Also, northern Illinois gave me more mosquito bites in two days than I’ve had in the last 10 years.
Just a few highlights:
-
With a call out to the room something akin to asking for a doctor on an airplane, Stephen sprang into action like a nerdy superhero, replacing RAM and a drive on an aging iMac. In order to do so, he had to peel off the screen, pull every part of the machine out, and then put it all back together. He did that on a lunch table.
-
Mike Schmitz (co-host of Focused) crushed a presentation on Ulysses and taught me a few tricks.
-
I made a friend who recently played percussion on a symphonic performance of the Harry Potter score.
-
I made another friend who came from Perth, Australia, to nerd out with us.
-
Best of all, when we finished recording episode 500, we received a standing ovation. That was a moment I will cherish forever.
Flying home, I couldn’t help but reflect that this was an outstanding use of my weekend, and if they put on another one next year, I’ll be there.
Stop Hating Email with SaneBox (Sponsor)
This week’s MacSparky sponsor is SaneBox, the email tool that everybody could use. You may have heard about some of the innovative new email features like inbox auto-sorting, deferred email, and reply tracking. The trouble is that early implementations of those features were all app-specific. You had to switch to a different email client that you didn’t necessarily like to get those features.
SaneBox fixes that. SaneBox has all of those cool new email tools (plus many more), and it works with just about any email client. Over the last few years, I have been jumping between iOS email clients trying to find the right app for me. Throughout this process, my one constant has been SaneBox because no matter which email client I’m using, I can still get auto inbox sorting, deferred email, reply tracking, and a pile of additional email tools via SaneBox. The service gives me the freedom to try and use any email client that tickles my fancy. SaneBox makes Apple Mail feel like a bad-ass email client and that is saying something.
There is a lot more to SaneBox, but in addition to all of that, SaneBox gives you email client freedom. To learn more head over to SaneBox and sign up today. Using the links in this post, you’ll even get a sweet discount.
Pixelmator Pro Update Works with Photos on Mac
The new update to Pixelmator Pro acts as a massive upgrade to the Apple Photos app. With the updated Photos extension, you can can access all of the tools and features from the full application, including layers and machine-learning tools. You can also save Pixelmator Pro documents to Photos. The update has additional features (e.g., new zoom tool, improved crop tool, and a delete mode), but the story here is that Apple Photos + Pixelmator Pro just became a potent photo editing solution.
GoodNotes Journaling Files
I wrote up my GoodNotes journal pages a few months ago. Since then, I have found myself increasingly using a paper journal for much of this data, but I know a bunch of readers wanted to modify my forms. Links are below in OmniGraffle, PSD, and PNG format. (I built all of these using OmniGraffle.)
These differ from the versions I made for myself in that I used a custom flavor of Futura that I purchased years ago. I changed the font to a system font for these downloads and changed some of the titles specific to me, such as working on a Field Guide every day, to something more generic. Enjoy, and let me know if you make something amazing with them.
Once you complete customizing your form, export to PDF, and you can then import and edit them in GoodNotes. You can leave them right in GoodNotes or, if you are a fancy Day One user like me, export the completed page as an image to Day One. Sort of related, Tom Solid made his own forms that are far superior to mine if you want more detail.
Regardless, click below to download:
Daily Diary Forms
Daily Plan Forms
Week Scorecard Forms
Week Review Forms
Go nuts!
Finding Margin with Shawn Blanc
Shawn Blanc’s productivity courses are some of my favorites because Shawn speaks to you instead of speaking at you. Today he is releasing his newest course. This one on Margin. This course is particularly dear to me since it has been this quest for margin (which I think of as space to make my best stuff but also live my life) that I’ve been most obsessed with the last few years. Shawn’s thinking on this is way ahead of my own and I learned a lot watching the course. If you find yourself lacking margin and in need of a little help, look no further than the Margin Course.
Mac Power Users 493: My Life is an Edge Case, with TJ Luoma
On the latest episode of Mac Power Users, pastor and Apple nerd TJ Luoma returns to the show to catch us up on his journey with Apple’s notebooks and the iPad. He also shares some of the apps that he uses every day to make his work more efficient, as well as his explorations in Internet filtering and content blocking.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
-
1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.
-
TextExpander from Smile: Get 20% off with this link and type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.
-
Direct Mail: Create and send great looking email newsletters with Direct Mail, an easy-to-use email marketing app designed exclusively for the Mac.
-
Hover: Get 10% off any domain name — extensions for anything you’re passionate about.
Unlock Your Productivity With TextExpander
This week MacSparky is sponsored by TextExpander, the application that saves me time every day. TextExpander works everywhere you type, improving your productivity and accuracy no matter what apps you use.
You may think of TextExpander as a way to quickly type your address or phone number but it is so much more. I use it to run AppleScripts, draft legal contracts, and everything in between. With TextExpander, you can easily insert text snippets in any application from a library of content created by you and your team.
I’ve talked on my podcasts about my Date and Time stamp TextExpander snippet I use all the time to date/time stamp notes on my Mac. Here it is if you’d like to create it in your copy of TextExpander. I use the the snippet “xdts” to trigger it.
Whether you use it on your own or with your team, TextExpander makes you more productive. TextExpander is available for macOS, Windows, iPhone and iPad, and Chrome. Head to this link to get 20% off your first year.
Focused 78: Changing Defaults, with John Zeratsky
John Zeratsky had the dream job at Google but left it all to write a book, Make Time, and reset his defaults. Join us for the latest episode of Focused to hear about John’s journey and how resetting your own defaults can make all the difference.
This episode of Focused is sponsored by:
-
Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code FOCUSED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
-
Blinkist: Read 3,000+ books in 15 minutes or less. Start your 7-day free trial.