Free Agents 59: Kaizen



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In this episode of Free Agents, Mike and I look at the concept of kaizen and how little changes can add up to big results. We also help listener Michael, who wrote in, as he makes his second attempt at free agency. Then, Mike and I share what we do for fun, how bad I am at using virtual assistants, and the music we listen to while we work.

This episode of Free Agents is sponsored by:

  • FreshBooks: Online invoicing made easy.

  • Timing: The automatic time-tracking app for macOS. Use this link to save 10% on your purchase. Check out the Timing blog for articles for independent workers.

The October 30 Apple Event

I’m looking forward to seeing what Apple does tomorrow at its  “There’s more in the making” event. I’m super-curious about the new iPad pros. Are they going to take even more steps for power users? I sure wouldn’t mind a trackpad on the new iPad keyboard. Either way, I’ve got a few things for you to remember:

 It’s at 10:00 AM … Eastern

That’s three hours earlier than usual. Adjust accordingly. 

It’s Live-streamed

You can watch the event from Apple’s Events Page. If you want to watch on your Apple TV, you can watch on the Apple Events app.

I Know a Great Place to Watch it with Fellow Nerds

Join this thread at talk.macpowerusers.com. Twitter is increasingly turning into a mess. The Mac Power Users community is a pretty nice group of folks. It’s just a forum so you wont get flooded and it is fun to chime in as the news comes down.

See you on the other side. 

Let SaneBox Remind you About Missing Email Replies (Sponsor)


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This week MacSparky is sponsored by SaneBox. SaneBox is the email utility that we all need. It is loaded with features, like the ability to auto-sort your email as it arrives. Every morning when I wake up, I don’t see 300 emails in my inbox but instead just a few. Importantly, those few emails are the ones that I really need to see. All of the advertisements and other nonsense are automatically sorted by SaneBox into separate folders so I can look at them later.

The past few weeks SaneBox has really been helping me out with its reminder service. It is the end of the year so on the legal side I’m sending a lot of client emails about getting their annual minutes prepared. I do this, because I am a nerd, through an automated email that I created in Siri Shortcuts. Part of that form email in Siri Shortcuts includes a blind copy field to 1week@SaneBox.com. SaneBox then automatically monitors whether or not I was a reply to that email. If I don’t in 1 week, SaneBox reminds me to follow up. I could have also done this with an OmniFocus project, but why when SaneBox does it for me automatically.

This is just one of the ways SaneBox helps me manage my email every day. I have heard from many listeners that decided to give SaneBox a trial just for a few days and then ended up subscribing within a few days because they immediately see the value in this product. If you’d like to spend less time on email, check out SaneBox and use this link to get a nice discount.

Mac Power Users 454: MPU+: Did You Just Fall Down?



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It’s MPU+ time. Katie shares the end of her MacBook Pro saga and AppleCare Experience, and I talk about playing with my widget screen, moving out of Evernote, and finding more uses for Keyboard Maestro. We also discuss upcoming Apple Events, packing apps, our favorite non-tech podcasts, and listener feedback.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • Gazelle: Sell your iPhone for cash at Gazelle!

My Learn OmniFocus Seminar

I’m doing a live seminar over at Learn OmniFocus this week on October 31 (Halloween!) at 10:00 AM PST. It’s an hour long session and I’ll be walking through some of the ways I use OmniFocus in my daily setup. There is still a little room left so get in there if you’d like to participate.

Too Much Email

Cal Newport linked to an Adobe study that concluded average users check email 5.6 hours per weekday. If you look into the study a bit further, it looks like these numbers are inflated but even cutting them in half, 2.3 hours a day on email is too much.

Historically, I always thought of myself as that guy who answered all of his email. It wasn’t until I realized the cost of that self-image in terms of my personal productivity, my relationship with my family and my clients, and my simple ability to ship interesting products that I was able to abandon that particular hangup.

A big help for me was time blocking email. (Hooray for hyper-scheduling!) I have about 40 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the late afternoon blocked for email. On days that I stick to those numbers, I generally get a lot more work done.

Maybe this week you should keep track of how much time you spend with email. If you’re spending hours a day in your email client and don’t have a really good reason for that, start thinking about ways to lower that number.

BestPhotos 2.0


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I wrote awhile back how how I started using BestPhotos for doing the initial photo sort and purge on on my iPhone. The thing is, it is really easy to take a lot of pictures with your iPhone. Ask me to take a picture of a group of friends and I won’t shoot just one. I’ll shoot six with the reckless abandon of someone who grew up in a family where we only bought a few rolls of film a year.

While the small iPhone screen may not be sufficient to do fine edits, it’s a great place to trash photos that, for one reason or another, don’t make the cut.


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Trying to accomplish this in the native Photos application is painful. Apple requires multiple tasks to get rid of photos and doesn’t present them in a way that makes it easy to see the keepers versus the rejects.

BestPhotos solves all of those problems and now they have released version 2.0. With BestPhotos, just tap on an image and expands from its thumbnail so you can look at it and swipe right to make it a favorite (or hide) or left to delete it. Think of it as Tinder for your pictures. One nice new feature in version 2.0 is “auto advance” that, once you swipe a photo left or right, immediately advances to the next one in your library.

If you want to compare two images side-by-side, the application can do that too. PowerPhotos is particularly useful after a family event, where I’ve taken multiple pictures of groups of people and I want to quickly get rid of the rejects before looking at the keepers closer on my Mac or iPad. BestPhotos is a free download with a $2.99 unlock of all the application features .