MPU 464: Stephen Who?

The latest episode of Mac Power Users is now available for download. In this episode, my friend Stephen Hackett joins as the new co-host. Stephen and I have been friends for years and working with him over the last several months as we chart out the future of Mac Power Users has been a joy. In this episode, we get to know Stephen a little better and how he uses his Apple technology to get work done. Stephen also weighs in on other critical questions, like “who shot first”.

We’ve got some great content planned in the coming months and this episode is the start of it all.

Manage Your Email with SaneBox (Sponsor)

This week’s sponsor, SaneBox is the solution to so many of my email problems. SaneBox is the email service that adds a pile of productivity features to your email, regardless of what email client you use. For a lot of folks, email is a constant pain point, and it doesn’t need to be. With SaneBox at your back, you can:

Wake up every day to find the SaneBox robots have automatically sorted your incoming email for you so you can address the important and ignore the irrelevant.
Defer email for hours, days, or weeks, so it is out of your life until a more appropriate time. They’ve even added a new feature that can optionally auto-reply to snoozed email with something like, “I’m sorry, but I’m underwater right now. I’ll get back to you in a few days.”
Set secret reminders so if someone doesn’t reply to an important email SaneBox gives you a nudge to follow up.
Automatically save attachments to the cloud (like Dropbox).
Use their SaneForward service to automatically send appropriate emails to services like Evernote, Expensify, and Kayak.
Move unwanted email to the SaneBlackHole and never see anything from that person again.

The list goes on, and MacSparky readers love this service.

The SaneBox team has been hard at work lately improving the SaneBox interface and releasing even more new tools. For instance, now you can have SaneBox send an auto-reply when you defer an email. Why not straighten out your email by getting a SaneBox account today. If you sign up with this link, you even get a discount on your subscription.

Automators Meet Up In Seattle January 19

I am going to be attending the PodCon conference in Seattle January 19-20. My pal Rosemary orchard is also going to be there so we thought it would be fun to have a meetup. We’re planning it for Saturday evening January 19. We haven’t figured out the location yet but if you’re interested, sign-up here.

Automators 14: Automated Journaling

Get out your artistically crafted paper notebook and favorite fountain pen as we talk about journaling in Automators episode 14. Actually, forget that stuff. We are nerds so while the focus of this episode is journalling, it’s really about automating the process so you can get more efficient at your navel-gazing.

We start out talking about the idea of journaling and why automation can help. The first app we recommend is Day One.

Last year I bought a year subscription to Day One, and I’m digging it. We both approve of Day One’s automation tools with things like IFTTT along with several built-in features (like the activity feed) that ease the process of journal entry creation so you can focus on your precious words. Day One can integrate with third-party apps, like Instagram and Swarm.

Much Love for Day One

Day One is also friends with Siri Shortcuts, which opens you up to lots of potential automation, although I would like more. This leads to the discussion of automating Day One entries in a “prompt style” with a new journal entry generated out of Siri Shortcuts and used to create a Day One entry. I created a sample shortcut on a meditation journal. You can watch it in the Automators course at Learn.MacSparky or on YouTube.

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Rosemary goes a step further by using Launch Center Pro to launch her Siri Shortcut to launch her journaling prompts. This lets her present different prompts on different days of the week. Clever. We’ve shared a link to Rose’s shortcut in the show notes.

I also explain audio transcription in Day One, that works much better than you think it would be.

If This Then That (IFTTT) can also create a Day One entry, pulling data from other web services. Think about that one for a moment. Simple things, like a Google Calendar event, can be enough to trigger a new Day One entry. Rose has a cool automation that helps her log and journal television consumption using automation between trakt.tv and Day One.

Another way to automate journal creation is through text automation. You could use tools like Drafts or Text Expander to give you prompts to easily create journal entries.

Other Options

We then talk about journaling solutions outside of Day One. Using third-party applications like Ulysses or even just a plain text file, you can use many of the above referenced prompt-based journal automation to create new entries. There can be some challenges with things like photos and other media, but it can work. I even at one point suggests using Pages, which would work better than you think if you want media in your journal.

Next, we discuss automating public journals with services like micro.blog.

Fancy Pens and Paper

Finally, we break out the pens and paper. Just because you have a fancy pen and paper, doesn’t mean you can’t bring some technology to the table. Use ScanBot or Scanner Pro to grab an image for a digital backup. If you like the idea of us a pen but not paper, there are some great iPad-based digital alternatives like GoodNotes and Notability.

It’s January and a great time to develop a journaling habit. Why don’t you use some automation to make it easier?

Apple’s Reduced Earnings in Perspective

Today Apple announced they didn’t expect to hit their earning expectations, apparently largely due decreased Chinese sales. I expect the tech-related Internet to lose its collective mind over the next few weeks. Apple has already taken a beating on Wall Street. I don’t own Apple Stock and prefer to write about using Apple technology (as opposed to the business of Apple) with my little corner of the Internet. However, as the “Apple is Doomed” machine is getting warmed up, I would advise you to keep in the back of your mind that Apple’s reduced expectations doesn’t mean it’s losing money. It just means that instead of selling $89 billion in gizmos, they expect to sell $84 billion in gizmos.

Of course this isn’t good news for Apple. The company is worth less money this evening than it was this morning. Among other things, that makes it harder to hold on to top engineering talent. Still, I’m not going to lose any sleep over this and you probably shouldn’t either.

MPU 463: All Good Things…

After nine and a half years of getting on the microphone once a week with Katie Floyd, Katie is on for her last episode. Katie’s been a friend and partner for a long time and I’m sure going to miss her. In this episode we cover feedback on subscriptions, iOS tips, and more. We also look back on the last 463 episodes and discuss the origins of Mac Power Users. Katie discusses her journey, favorite workflows, and answers a few listener questions. By the end, I was a wreck.

This episode is sponsored by:

1Password Have you ever forgotten a password? Now you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Save up to 20% using this link.
The Omni Group We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Sanebox Stop drowning in email!
Luna Display: The only hardware solution that turns your iPad into a wireless display for your Mac. Use promo code POWER at checkout for 10% off.

Free Agents 63: Lessons Learned

Mike and I wrap up the Free Agents run with a discussion of depression and free agency, and I have some overall thoughts on free agency as we transition the show to “Focused”.

This episode of Free Agents is sponsored by:

Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code FREEAGENTS at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
FreshBooks: Online invoicing made easy.

Mac Power Users 462: Return to the Snell Zone

Jason Snell returns on this week’s episode of Mac Power Users to tell us about his iMac Pro, how he uses his Mac mini, his move towards iOS, being an avid reader, making time for it all, and a few of his favorite picks.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

PDFpen from Smile: With powerful PDF editing tools, available for Mac, iPad, and iPhone, PDFpen from Smile makes you a Mac Power User.
1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? Now you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Save up to 20% using this link.
The Omni Group: We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Luna Display: The only hardware solution that turns your iPad into a wireless display for your Mac. Use promo code POWER at checkout for 10% off.

Timing Gets Calendar Support

Today Timing, the app that automatically tracks your time on the Mac got a nice update. The headline new feature is calendar integration. If you block schedule time, like me, this is really helpful since it shows all of your time across the bottom of the Timing data, making it even easier to categorize and make adjustments. There’s more, like weekend mode, that you can learn about from the developer.