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 .

Accent Colors in macOS Mojave

A surprising number of people wrote in to ask how I made UI elements appear orange in the OmniFocus Field Guide. It wasn’t a bit of clever hacking but instead a cool new feature in macOS Mojave. Watch the short video below to see how it works.

Improve Apple Photos with PowerPhotos (Sponsor)



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This week MacSparky is sponsored by PowerPhotos. There is a lot to like about Apple Photos on your Mac, but if you use it for any length of time, you’ll also realize the app is missing a lot of the tools you need to truly manage your large photo library.

That’s where PowerPhotos comes in. If you have photos scattered across multiple libraries that you want to merge together, have a library that you want to split up because it’s gotten too large, or want to get rid of duplicate photos, PowerPhotos can help you get your photo collection back in order.

PowerPhotos gives Apple Photos the tools it needs, but Apple didn’t provide. With PowerPhotos, you can work with multiple Photos libraries and store them wherever you want, including on an external drive or a network drive. You can also split up your giant library into smaller ones by copying photos and albums with a simple drag and drop, preserving metadata such as descriptions and keywords along the way. Or, if you already have multiple libraries, use PowerPhotos to merge them while weeding out duplicates along the way. PowerPhotos also features a powerful duplicate photo finder, a browser to let you see your photos without even opening up Photos itself, a multi-library search feature, and more.

PowerPhotos also has full support for dark mode on the recently released macOS Mojave.

You may recall an app from the iPhoto days called iPhoto Library Manager that gave you a similar set of tools. PowerPhotos is by the same developer, and it’s just as reliable.

So go check out PowerPhotos today. Best of all, MacSparky readers get a 20% discount. Just use the code MACSPARKY18 at check out.


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Pixelmator Pro and Machine Learning

Last week Pixelmator Pro released a new version, 1.2, including full support for macOS Mojave. As a pro app, Pixelmator Pro has always had a dark mode. So with macOS Mojave, they’ve tweaked the dark appearance and released a new light appearance. That way whether you’re running your Mac in dark or light mode, Pixelmator will fit right in.

What is most interesting to me about this new version is reliance on machine learning for photo optimization. For years I’ve been fiddling with the buttons and dials in photo applications to try and make my pictures look better. But I’m just a little better than a monkey when it comes to fine-tuning images. With Pixelmator Pro, the developer has been using machine learning, having the application look at professional photos, so the application can better understand what makes a good photo and automatically tune your pictures for you. With the latest version, they have a machine learning algorithm trained on millions of professional photos. There’s a video explaining how it works below. Between the iPhone and Pixelmator, the robots are making my picture look better than ever before.

Mac Power Users 453: 30 Under $30



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On this week’s Mac Power Users episode, Katie and I run down 30 of our favorite apps and services that are under $30.

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.

  • TextExpander from Smile: Type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.

  • 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.

OmniFocus Gets Better and Better – Sponsor


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This week MacSparky is sponsored by OmniFocus 3 for Mac. This new version of OmniFocus is a winner. The Omni Group has been hard at work on this new version for some time, and they deliver the goods.


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The new version features a unique design that makes smart, useful changes without making change for the sake of change itself. Moreover, they’ve added several useful features of the application, my favorite of which is tags. Adding tags OmniFocus gives you the ability to have multiple vectors to get into your OmniFocus database and find exactly what you need precisely when you need it. I even wrote an article about how I’m using tags for the Omni Group’s website.

I use OmniFocus every day to keep my life together. There is no way I could run a law practice, video business, three podcasts, and be a dad without the powerful tools that OmniFocus gives me. Why not check it out for yourself? Head over to the OmniFocus website and download the free trial. Make sure to let them know you heard about it here at MacSparky.com

Free Agents 58: A Better Path, with Joe Buhlig



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Podcaster and programmer Joe Buhlig shares his free agent journey, from bean field to office to family room. Listen to this week’s episode of Free Agents to hear Mike talk about his experience solving problems, how to let things go, and finding your own definition of success.

This episode of Free Agents is sponsored by:

  • 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.

  • Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code FREEAGENTS at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

MailSuite Beta


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One big change with Mojave was Apple’s tightening up of the mail plugin mechanism. As a result mail plug-in makers have been hard at work bringing their products in line with the new security protocols. Today SmallCubed, makers of MailTags and Mail Act-On released the beta of its new product, MailSuite, a combination of all of its Apple Mail plugins in one, new product. It is still in beta but I’ve been running it this afternoon with no problems. I’ll be happy when it gets released.


While I’ve toyed with the idea of tagging email, it kind of falls apart when you get to iOS and don’t see your tags. Mail Act-On however, is an absolute beast when used in conjunction with SaneBox to move mail messages (or groups of mail messages) into mailboxes – including deferred email folders – via keyboard shortcut. Mail Act-On also has the ability to delay-send emails, which just might save your bacon one day.