How I Defer Email with SaneBox – Sponsor

This week MacSparky is sponsored by SaneBox, the email management service I’ve now used for years. For this post, I’d like to focus on one SaneBox feature, deferring email.

Deferring email is the process of taking something in your inbox and snoozing it for a set period of time. This gets the email out of your life and lets you focus on other things until some time in the future when you’re in a better place to process that mail.

When I first heard of the idea of deferring email, I mocked it. It seemed like a waste of time. However, I was wrong. I’ve now been postponing email for several years and find it useful. I get a lot of email that doesn’t merit getting sorted into my task system but also isn’t appropriate for right now. Deferring that email just takes a second and there is something to be said for getting that mail out of the way while you continue doing the hard work.

With SaneBox, you have nearly unlimited options for deferring email. You can defer it to tomorrow, or next week, or Saturday morning, or a specific time. For today, I thought it’d be fun to share my deferred email boxes on my MacSparky email account.

Afternoon

This is the nutty one that will make a lot of people angry. I do a thorough sweep through my MacSparky account every morning and afternoon. I try to stay out of that email account in between but inevitably find myself in there for one reason or another. Pushing email away until the afternoon review by deferring it is a great way to keep myself from getting sidetracked by non-critical email.

Tomorrow, 2 Days, 5 Days

I only give a certain amount of time to email every day, primarily in the morning. I always deal with the most critical email first either answering it directly or turning its response into an OmniFocus project. If there is still email left and time’s up, I defer the email out into the future.

Deferring non-critical email is a great solution, and it’s just one of the many features available to you with a SaneBox subscription. Best of all, use the links in this post to get a discount.

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Moment Lenses

For a few years now I’ve been using my iPhone as my camera. While I was never a diehard camera enthusiast, I have owned SLR and Micro Four Thirds cameras in the past. Don’t get me wrong; in many ways those fancier (and more expensive) cameras are way better than an iPhone, but I never could muster up the will to carry those cameras around except in the rarest circumstances. When I realized I was taking 99% of my photos with the iPhone, I decided I should get better at using the iPhone to take photos. I even put together a bag of gear for taking iPhone photography.

An item in that bag that I have never covered properly here are my Moment lenses. Moment makes some really nice third-party glass to give you more options when you take photos with your iPhone. They have an assortment of lenses ranging from zoom to macro, and they all use a clever screw-on mechanism that lets you attach your lenses onto a special iPhone case made by Moment with mounting points. I have really come to enjoy these lenses and want to share some of the details.

The Disneyland Castle with the native iPhone lens. (Click to enlarge.)

Available Lenses

There are several different Moment lenses available.

The Wide Lens

This is my favorite Moment lens. If you get just one Moment lens, this is probably the one for you. It gives your iPhone a wider view (about two times more picture) while still keeping things in your image straight without fisheye.

This lens takes great wide, landscape shots, but it is also useful when your big, crazy family is gathered around the kitchen table. I also found this lens useful when shooting video.

The Disneyland castle with the Moment Wide lens from the same spot. (Click to enlarge.)

The Superfish Lens

If you want a fisheye look, Moment has a lens for that too. I’ve never been a fan of fisheye-style photos, but I tried the Moment Fisheye lens while on vacation with my family and took several photos that I’m really happy with.

The Disneyland Castle from the same spot with the Moment Superfish lens attached. (Click to enlarge.)

The Macro Lens

A macro lens is a pretty specialty item, but they are fun to have in your bag. With this lens, you can take a very detailed photo of objects at a focal length of less than an inch. That is NOT a photo you’ll be able to take with the native iPhone lens system. Here’s an image of the stitching on my WaterField Bag.

The Tele Portrait Lens

This is a 60mm lens that seems like a copy of the zoom lens on all of the two-lens iPhones; however, it really isn’t. I mount this lens on the 1X lens mounting point on my iPhone and use it as a portrait lens. It’s sharp in the center and drops off toward the edges in a way you can only really do with glass.

The Anamorphic

This is Moment’s newest lens. I don’t have one of these … yet; however, I am looking for an excuse to buy one. This lens is primarily for use in video and gives you horizontal lens flares. It’s a cool idea and not something you would expect you can do with an iPhone.

The Mounting System

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I really dig Moment’s lens mounting system. People have tried lots of ways to mount third-party lenses on iPhones, and I haven’t been impressed with most of them. Clipped lenses fall off and misalign. Lenses that require you to stick or glue anything to your bare iPhone are just wrong as a matter of principle.

Moment has an iPhone case with mounting points embedded in them. In turn, the Moment lenses have screw threads at their base so you can just screw the appropriate lens into your Moment iPhone case. When you’re done with the shot, you can unscrew the lens and replace it with another or just keep the case on without the lens.

The cases are nice, but nothing amazing. When I was on vacation, I kept the Moment case on my iPhone 24/7 because I was constantly taking shots.

One of the best parts of this is that when Apple comes out with a new phone, you just need to buy the updated case, and your lenses will continue to work. That way, the most expensive parts, the glass, move forward with you to future iPhones. It’s an excellent solution.

Use Under Fire

I’ve been using these lenses now for four months, and I’m really happy with them. The Moment lenses take great photos and open up my options far beyond what I get when just using the native camera on the iPhone. I’m sure this will make some readers cringe, but when I’m going out, I’ll often make sure my iPhone has the Moment case attached, and then I’ll put the lenses in my pocket (the lenses come in little microfiber bags so they’re safe and always close) so I can then get the lens out and on to the phone with little trouble.

Moment doesn’t just make lenses and phone cases, they also have a curated selection of bags, gimbals, filters, and other iPhone camera bits at their website. Check it out

The History of the iPhone on MacCast

This week I joined Adam Christianson on the MacCast where we reminisced about the history of the iPhone and how it changed so many things. We also compared our first app purchases, which was really fun. Adam and I have been friends for a long time and every time we do one of these podcast geek-out sessions it’s fun and informative.

The Waterfield Air Porter

I’ve been doing quite a bit of travel lately for fancy lawyer-related business. Usually I just take a backpack on trips, but it doesn’t really look good in the business meetings where I have to wear a suit. So, of course, that gave me an excuse to get a new bag. I ended up with the WaterField Air Porter Carry-On Bag, and I’m quite happy with it.

The Air Porter is a leather and canvas bag from WaterField, the same team that makes most of the bags I buy. They are based out of San Francisco, and they always nail the little details. The Air Porter is no different. In this case, WaterField actively solicited customer input while they were designing the bag, and the result is something that makes travel easier. By combining WaterField’s ability to make a bag with active customer feedback, we get a really nice travel bag.

The Air Porter has two zippered compartments. The large compartment has lots of space and pockets. The smaller compartment is for storing a laptop or tablet (or both) and features an extended zipper that makes it easier to deal with airport security. A nice small touch here is the way the laptop pocket dips on each side, making it easy to plug your Mac in for a charge while it is still in the bag.

There is a separate zipper for the main compartment that feels pretty roomy, considering the size of the bag. It has several pockets and space for files, books, and even the Air Caddy (explained below).

All of the WaterField bags use gold fabric on the inside, which makes finding things a lot easier compared to the standard black interiors found in most bags. I own several WaterField bags, and it baffles me that other manufacturers don’t do this. It’s so obvious once you try it. Finally, there is a flap for an accessible slot on one side good for holding things you need quick access to in the airport, and the other side has a fabric panel that will attach your AirPorter to your carry-on luggage handle. There’s also a padded strap so you can put it over your shoulder.

The bag’s size, 15 x 10.25 x 4.5 inches, is travel-friendly. The bag easily stands and its height upright (10.25 inches) fits perfectly under the seat in front you and, because it is standing, your feet can still fit under the seat. That alone is a huge improvement over traveling with a backpack.

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One of my favorite things about the Air Porter is that it is actually two bags. For $20 more you also get the Air Caddy. The Air Caddy is a zippered pouch made to hold an iPad (10.5 inches or smaller) and a few other bits, such your mid-flight granola bar. The Air Caddy fits in the main cargo area of the Air Porter, but when you board your plane, the power move is to slip it out and drop it in the seat pouch. The combination of the Air Porter and the Air Caddy makes boarding a plane much easier. Just slip out the Air Caddy, put it in the seat pocket, then slide the Air Porter under the seat, and you’re good. I like this system so much that I’m going to be using the Air Caddy when I travel with my backpack instead of the Air Porter. The Air Caddy is also useful for other things. For instance, I’ve taken to using it to carry my iPad, journal, a few pens, and snacks and throwing it in my bicycle pannier on days that I’m getting around by pedal power.

I like the Air Porter so much that I’ve been using it for the day job even when not traveling to the airport. It looks classy and efficiently holds my stuff. I also like its relatively compact size on a day full of meetings.

The Air Porter comes in a few looks including ballistic nylon, leather, or canvas, and options in shades of brown and black. It’s a great bag. You should check it out.

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Mac Power Users 427: Creating the iPhone Field Guide

I wrote a new book: the iPhone Field Guide. In this episode, we discuss my latest project, the process of creating a multimedia book, the state of iBooks Author, and more.

This episode of Mac Power Users 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.
SaneBox: Stop drowning in email!
Timing: The automatic time-tracking app for macOS. Use this link to save 10% on your purchase.
Mack Weldon: Smart underwear for smart guys. Get 20% off your first order with the code MPU.

My iPhone Home Screen, 2018 Edition

It’s been awhile since I shared my home screen and since I finally shipped my iPhone Field Guide, this seemed the right time to share my iPhone home screen, 2018 edition.

Since getting the iPhone X, I’m still in love with the OLED display. I like it so much that I’ve been keeping a pure black background on my home screen since the iPhone X first released.

The top row is my folders of apps. I’ve been using this system for some time, and I still think it’s the best, at least for me. Each folder has a verb for its name: Make, Learn, Fix, Play. Any app that doesn’t make the home screen cut goes into one of these folders. I just ask myself what I’d do with the app and put it in the appropriate folder. I use Siri or Spotlight to find most apps, not on the home screen but having this rough sort helps. I also really like keeping my phone to just one screen.

The second row has some Apple Fundamentals: Phone, Mail, Safari, and Maps.

Occasionally I swap out the Mail app for a third party client like Spark or AirMail. The trouble is, they are never quite as stable for me as Apple Mail, so I usually end up going back.

Likewise, when I travel outside of California, I’ll often replace Apple Maps with Google Maps, but Apple Maps works for me in California.

The next row includes my essential audio apps: Overcast, Audible, Music, and Sonos.

In the past several months I’ve tried out several alternatives to Overcast just to see what’s out there. I wanted the Apple Podcast app to work because I love the idea of kicking off podcasts with my voice, but that was a bust. Moreover, Overcast keeps getting better. The latest update rewinds the podcast a few seconds any time you pause or stop, which helps me get back into the swing and I like the way Overcast works with CarPlay.

I’ve been a subscriber to Audible for years, and I used to keep the app in a folder but moved it to the home screen this year, and I think it will stay. Finally is Sonos. I’m hoping that AirPlay 2 will allow me to easily stream to Sonos from the Apple Music App. As much as I like my Sonos speakers, I’m not a big fan of the Sonos app.

The fourth row has my social apps: Messages Twitterific, Slack, and Unread.

I switched from TweetBot to Twitterific in December, and I like it. I’m not sure it’s better than TweetBot, but I was ready for a change. This week in response to the Twitter’s threatened further moves against third-party apps, I tried to use the official Twitter app for a few days. Ugh. Twitter is definitely a better experience with third-party apps. Slack is home screen worthy and Unread remains my favorite RSS app.

The fifth row includes productivity apps: Ulysses, Notes, Dragon Anywhere, Workflow.

When I first put Ulysses on my home screen, it was just an experiment, but I find myself opening the app and writing in it often. I’ve flirted with Bear, but Apple Notes still is my place for reference notes. Dragon Anywhere and I are at a difficult point right now. Some days it works amazingly well. Other days it doesn’t. With a $15/month subscription, I feel like it should be more consistent. Nevertheless, it remains on the home screen.

And then there’s Workflow. My beloved.

Interestingly, my dock has all third-party apps in it: Fantastical, Drafts, and OmniFocus

Fantastical runs circles around the native calendar app. I wrote this week about Drafts 5. Finally, I’m running the beta of OmniFocus 3 and digging it. I’ll be posting more on that next week.

I also find apps through the Today View. The Siri recommendations are pretty good. I’ve been using Headspace lately, and I’ve even given it the right to give me limited notifications. Because I normally meditate at the same, it gives me an appropriate notification at the right time to get mindful and I don’t have to dig for the app.

What I’d Change

I often ask home screen guests about the one thing they would change about the iPhone if they were in charge. I’ve got a few.

First, I’d do whatever it takes to make Siri work better, faster, and more consistently. Siri is a great idea that needs better execution, now.

Next, I’d open the iPhone up more to allow users to change default apps, for instance substituting Chrome for Safari. I’d also put in place whatever resources are necessary to make the Workflow-as-part-of-iOS project awesome and the envy of all non-iPhone users.

My Apple Watch

For a hyper-scheduler such as myself, the Siri watch face is ideal. A lot of people don’t realize it, but you can turn on and off individual components of the Siri watch face to make it work for you. I’m using Drafts as my single complication because it’s so damn handy.

My Lock Screen

I’ve currently got a home-made inspirational quote lock screen. That’s not usually my thing but someone made this wallpaper from a Merlin Mann quote years ago and it does inspire me. The trouble with the above-linked wallpaper is that it is too hard to read with 50-year-old eyeballs so made my own version and spread on the Futura Bold extra thick.

That Blank Space

I like having empty space on my iPhone home screen. A lot of people think its nuts, but I like the way it looks and should we like the way our stuff looks?

And a Shameless Plug

I did a whole section in the iPhone Field Guide on Home Screen layout. I’ve shared several of the pages below. It’s fun reading, and maybe it’ll even tempt you to check out the whole book. Enjoy.

Free Agents 45: Like Going Back to High School

My home workspace gets invaded by teenagers, Jason reprises his old commute and learns to appreciate the ability to work from anyplace, and a listener reminds us of a classic technique: making promises that your future self has to keep. Join us for the latest episode of Free Agents.

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.
Freshbooks: Online invoicing made easy.

Big Update for Drafts

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Drafts, one of my favorite utilities for the iPhone just got a big update to version 5. For some of you, that’s all you need to hear. Download the new version and subscribe. For the rest of you, let me explain a bit further.

Drafts is an iOS app that does two things remarkably well:

It lets you capture text.
It lets you process that text.

Capturing Fast

Unlike any other text app, Drafts doesn’t require you to open a new file, create a new email, or do any other process before you start writing. Instead, when you open the app, you get a blinking cursor and a blank screen. Just start writing. That makes Drafts the starting place for just about any text I write on iPhone or iPad, including these very words.

Drafts doesn’t just let you type, it also lets you dictate, and through some smart programming, it gets around the usual 45 second Siri Dictation timer. With Drafts, you can dictate as long as you want to Siri Dictation and it just keeps going.

One of the nice things about Drafts is that because you go straight into writing, you don’t even have to have a clear decision about where the text will end up when you start writing. Maybe these words will end up an email, or an OmniFocus task, or a Ulysses project, or something else entirely. It doesn’t matter; I just need to write.

Processing Text

Once you’ve finished writing your precious words in Drafts, then you get to decide what to do with them. There’s a lot of options. If it’s possible to add an integration for words to Drafts, the Drafts developer has added it. (Not many people realize it but Draft’s developer, Greg Pierce, was instrumental in the original development of URL scheme-based automation on the iPhone.)

You can do simple things with your text, like send it along to another text editor, send it as a message or email. You can also go deep down the rabbit hole.

One thing I love about Drafts is using it to send an email. This way, I don’t have to go into my email application and get tempted away by the siren song of the inbox. Instead, I write and send the relevant email and then get back to work.

One of my favorite productivity hacks is to go into Drafts on the iPad and just dictate through 5-10 writing tasks on my plate every day. It lets me eliminate all the process steps while I’m doing the hard work of getting words out of my head and on the page. Then later I process all those words using Drafts’ automation tools. I get more work done this way, faster.

Drafts also has one of the best implementations of an Apple Watch app. I keep it on my Siri watch face, and if I’m walking down the street, I just press the button and dictate into my watch to capture the draft for later processing. (Here’s a Drafts power tip: enable the app badge to show for any unprocessed tasks.) Also, it uses iCloud to sync your text to all your iOS devices.

For me, Drafts was a game changer. It’s one of the few apps I vividly recall loading for the first time, realizing how useful it is, and audibly saying “yes!”. It’s the poster child for apps that uniquely grew out of the App Store for a touch-based interface.

Drafts is in my dock.

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About Drafts 5

With Drafts 5, Greg rewrote most of the code to make it faster, more efficient. He also added a bunch of features. Most of the features I discussed this far come with the free version of the app. If you want to go deeper, there is a pro version for $2 month or $20 a year that includes additional features including:

The ability to create an unlimited number of customizable actions. These are helpful. For instance, I have one called “Sparks Prime” that lets me send a text message to key members of my family very quickly. In my mind, that is there in case we ever have a significant earthquake an I want to get a message out before the networks get flooded and go down. These days, however, I just use it to send pictures of cute puppies.
Themes and Icons. There are a bunch of themes, and now you can set the icon color if that’s your thing.
You can add saved workspaces
Get even more powerful workstations.

These are all great features but for me, the best reason to pay Greg $20 a year is to ensure Drafts continues to exist and flourish. I use this app every day, and I don’t want to lose it.

If you’ve never used Drafts before, I encourage you to download the free version and try it out. If it grabs you the way it grabbed me, I’d further encourage you to subscribe.

I’ve made a few screencasts for Drafts 5. Enjoy.

OmniGraffle, Graphics Software for Mortals – Sponsor

This week MacSparky is sponsored by OmniGraffle, by the Omni Group. OmniGraffle is the diagramming and graphics tool made for people that don’t have the time to get a degree in diagramming and graphics. It’s a powerful application that is also easy to use. In other words, it’s an application made by the Omni Group.

I initially bought OmniGraffle to make simple diagram-style graphics for use in presentations during trials, but once I realized how easy the application is to use, I found all sorts of uses for it. I often use the iPad version to diagram relationships as clients describe them to me during meetings. I’m a visual thinker so seeing things in diagram form help me understand better (and clients are always impressed).

I use OmniGraffle to make our family holiday card. I use Omni Graffle to design stickers for the rubber storage bins we put in the attic. I’m getting a new office later this year, and I’m currently designing that in OmniGraffle. I even use OmniGraffle to design the covers of my books. The iPhone Field Guide cover was made in OmniGraffle.

If you believe you don’t have a single graphic artist bone in your body, you should download the OmniGraffle free trial and check it out for yourself. What you’ll find is that the application does most of the hard work for you. They even have extensive online-based stencil libraries, making many projects as easy as drag and drop. They’ve got versions for Mac, iPad, and iPhone so no matter which Apple platform you prefer, you can make beautiful diagrams and graphics with OmniGraffle.