One Year Indie

I have to admit it kind of snuck up on me but a year ago I quit my job and turned my life upside down. Since I owe so much of my independence to the MacSparky readers, I thought I’d fill you in on how things are going.

Declaration of Independence

I explained in excruciating detail what I was up to when it first happened. In short, after over 20 years working in “the firm” I decided to go out on my own. I wanted to have options and freedom that simply are not possible when working for and with other people.

So I quit my job and hung my shingle. This isn’t nearly as heroic as it sounds. I’ve been practicing law for over 20 years and already had a healthy client stable. I’ve also been able to make some money with the books, podcast, and other media products. I knew I wasn’t going to be out on the street but I also knew my life was going to change dramatically. After a year, I have more control over what I do and don’t do. I’m not making as much money as I used to but I’m doing okay. I love my newfound freedom and I’m definitely in a different place now than I used to be and that’s true in all phases of my life.

Sparky the Lawyer

When I left I wanted to grow a practice that was more transactional and included less litigation. That’s been the general trend of my career for the last 10 years anyway. I still do some trial work but it’s much less than I used to do.

What I didn’t expect was the significant number of clients I would receive from, of all places, my geeky website and podcast. Several readers and listeners actually need the professional services I offer. In the last year I’ve added many of them as clients and I have to say they are some of the best clients I’ve ever had. They are nice people who take their lawyer’s advice and pay their bills.

Because I’m not part of a big organization, I don’t need to be a slave to the billable hour. I’ve revolutionized the practice of law in my own tiny, little way. Most of the work I do is for a flat fee. My clients love it and don’t have to look at their watch while they are talking to me. Put simply, I’m enjoying being a lawyer now more than ever.

Sparky the Geek

Getting the law practice off the ground took longer than I expected (of course) and was quite a bit of work in 2015. Add to that the fact that I had kidney stones kicking my ass for several months and I didn’t get nearly as much produced on the MacSparky side last year as I had hoped. While I didn’t get a book out the door, I did release several MacSparky Video Field Guides and started a new partnership with Lynda.com that resulted in the Lynda.com OmniFocus series.

Rather than beat myself up over not hitting my goals for 2015, I have turned the page and I’m rolling now for 2016. I’m working every day on two new MacSparky Field Guide books and some video projects that I can’t wait to share. I’m going to be throwing content at you this year like never before. Although nothing is at the point where I can share it yet, I’ve been seriously productive on the MacSparky side the last three months.

Sparky the Dad

Another splendid side benefit of these changes is that I get to spend a great deal more time with my wife and children. I work at home more than anyplace else these days. So I’m around to lend a hand when needed or just “be there”. As an example, my oldest daughter (all grown up and in college!) and I go out together and enjoy talking during this new phase of our relationship. My youngest daughter and I went seriously deep into Star Wars with the new movie coming out. In a few years when these young women head out into the world, I’ll be really happy that we had that time.

My wife and I also get to spend more time together. We take walks and talk more than we were ever able when I was getting up everyday, suiting up, and heading to the office. Many friends told me that we’d drive each other crazy if I spent any time working from home. Fortunately they were wrong. After over 20 years of marriage, we still really enjoy each other’s company.

Living the Dream

There really aren’t many negatives to these big changes in my life. I took an income hit but I’m working on that. I do miss some of my colleagues from the old firm. They were nice people and outstanding lawyers. Getting sick with kidney stones last year gave me an early lesson that when you work for yourself and you can’t work, things can get ugly pretty quickly.

All that aside, I’m happier now than I think I have ever been in my life. There’s something about being the master of your own domain that is irreplaceable. I need to figure out how to make this work because, frankly, I’m not sure I’m capable of going back. It is not lost upon me that had it not been for the success of this website, the podcast, and the books, none of this would ever have happened and for that I am grateful to every single person reading this post.

Sponsor: SaneBox gets connected



image.jpg


This week MacSparky is sponsored by SaneBox. SaneBox is the answer to your email problems. It filters your email for you, only showing you the most important in setting the less important aside for later. SaneBox also gives you the ability to defer your email, no matter which email client you use. There are many additional features like the ability to remind you when someone doesn’t reply to an email you sent.

The point is they are always making it better. The latest example of that is the SaneConnect service. It’s currently in beta but it’s pretty impressive. SaneConnect shows you the history of your relationship with different companies. Just type in the name of their domain and you see who you’ve been emailing and how often. It even rates the strength of the relationship. It gets even more powerful with team accounts where you can search for a Company and see which of your teammates have relationships there. It’s like asking for introductions on LinkedIn based on email history. It’s a great idea and it’s available to SaneBox subscribers.

Learn more at SaneBox.com.

∞

Typing on the iPad Pro

David Chartier is getting pretty good at touch typing with an iPad Pro and he is not alone. I’ve heard from a lot of nerd friends that are really pleased with their typing times on the iPad Pro. That makes sense.

The iPad Pro offers a full-size touchscreen keyboard. That’s the first time we’ve ever seen such a thing on an iOS device. No longer do your fingers need to figure out the jujitsu that’s involved with typing on a glass keyboard where every key just a little bit smaller and closer together. I have never been particularly fast typing on glass. Nevertheless, I’m at my fastest when my iPad Pro is laying on a table and I’m tapping away on it.

The problem, for me, is when I need to look at something else. I’m a touch typist and I can easily type while reading a book or something on the screen. When I try this on the glass with the iPad Pro, my fingers inevitably shift a bit and while my fingers are tapping in approximately the right places, my hands are not situated properly. When I do look at the text, I find that I’ve typed a bunch of gobbledygook.

So while typing on the iPad Pro glass is possible and superior to prior iPads, it still requires you to keep an eye on your fingers as you’re going at it. I’d also argue it’s still a bit slower than a traditional keyboard but not so much slower that it isn’t worth doing.

For me, the real sweet spot with the iPad Pro is Apple’s Smart Keyboard cover. It’s just slightly thicker than a standard smart cover and it has a keyboard. It is a mechanical keyboard but just barely. Nevertheless, the tips of my fingers can feel when they’ve drifted off the key. For just the tiny bit of added weight and bulk, I get a keyboard that I can fly on.

As full disclosure, I am hardly a keyboard snob. I can type on just about any physical keyboard. I’m used to and don’t mind at all the controversial keyboard on the new MacBook (that a lot of people hate) and the Apple Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro is equally acceptable.

1Password for Families

Today 1Password announced a new pricing model. Dave Teare from 1Password explains:

data-animation-override>
“Families are near and dear to our hearts, so we wanted to find a way to make 1Password affordable and accessible for all families everywhere.

Today, I’m happy to announce that we succeeded! We’ve created a special plan with an amazing price just for families, and we went even further by making it easier than ever for families to use 1Password.”

With 1Password for Families you can license 1Password for a family of five for $5 per month. You can use 1Password on any platform and you can manage the family from the Admin console. I think now, more than ever, families need a way to create and manage secure passwords. Early adopters get additional benefits including two free months and an increase to seven family members. Learn more from 1Password.

Mac Power Users Bonanza!

I’m behind on linking some of our recent Mac Power Users shows. If you haven’t listened to these three, you’re missing out.

MPU 303: Email Clients and Workflows

Katie and I spent some time talking about how we are handling those pesky email problems with the latest workflows and software recommendations.

MPU 304: Looking for Solution that Doesn’t Cost $1,000

Our February live show had some great topics including follow-up on interesting uses of Plex for home media, and discuss Day One 2.0 with guest Bradley Chambers.

MPU 305: Travel Tips with Amateur Traveler Chris Christensen

Chris Christensen came in with some great tips for how to get the best airfare and hotel prices on your next trip. He also had some excellent tips on how to avoid technology disasters on the road.

 

Home Screens – Author Brandon Callum


There are a group of authors out there embracing the iBooks format with interactive books like we’ve never seen before. Brandon Cullum (Website) (Twitter) is one of those guys with his recent iBooks Author Children’s book, Alfred the Time Traveling Dinosaur. In addition to being a pretty smart guy, Brandon also loves his iPhone. So Brandon show us your home screen.


What are some of your favorite apps?

YNAB I’ve been with YNAB ever since getting married 2 years ago. It has been a huge help in keeping my wife and myself on the same page with our budget. They recently moved to a web-based platform and update the iPhone app to allow you adjust your budget categories on the fly. Super easy to use and a great piece of mind to know where all our money is going.

Casts There are a lot of podcast reader apps out there but Casts has stuck with me. I like its ability to create episode filters. Since I subscribe to a ton of podcasts and listen to a quite a few during the day (especially when I’m doing illustrations), it’s great to have them dropped into different lists.

Day One I have been using Day One as a productivity journal for over a year. I used to keep a journal inside of Evernote but found it getting lost with everything else I throw at the “everything bucket”. Day One is a super clean design and entries can be added from my iPad and Mac. One of my favorite things to do is to flip into the past and see the things I was working on and thinking about.

Slack I was and still am the champion for Slack at our small company. I’m also one of the admins and love introducing people to what it can do. I can waste a good bit of time trying to figure out new integrations and bots that our team can use. On the design side of things, Slack has made feedback so much faster and less formal as works are progressing. Also, Giphys are never a bad thing…..

1Password 1Password continues to improve their product and user experience. Having the ability to create a unique password for every single login I have is great. I am able to set up separate vaults for work and home and the extension ability makes logging in on iOS so easy.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Pinterest. I’ve created boards for potential children’s book projects and add to them several times a day. I’ve also gotten into woodworking and can lose myself looking at new shop projects and furniture I can build around the house.

What app makes you most productive?

Omnifocus does a great job keeping my projects top of mind and serving up just what I need to get done next. After using the Mac app as a standalone for a couple years, it still surprises me how much I can get done just on iOS.

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

I know I’m underutilizing Workflow. I currently have a workflow that saves an email receipt to PDF and drops into a Hazel folder on my Mac which then gets filed automatically. It feels like magic every time I see it run and know I could tinker around and find a lot more use cases.

What is the app you are still missing?

I wish HomeKit had a mission control style app that was native to Apple. We recently purchased Netgear Arlo security cameras and Hue lights to go along with our Nest. It has been fun to think through ways to hack them all together with IFTT but I wish the process was easier.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

Way too much. If I am in the process of doing illustrations for picture books I’m constantly taking pictures with my iPhone of hand drawings to digitize on my Mac. I’m also using the iPad to test features in iBooks and Kindle.

What Today View widgets are you using and why?

Dark Sky Great weather app with a quick look at the weather for the next hour.

Fantastical This is a great way to a get a quick glance of what is coming up for the day. I also like that I have fast access to a calendar view and a list of appointments for that day in just one glance.

Huemote I love creating custom scenes for our Hue Lights and Huemote makes it so easy to access them all with a quick swipe to control the lights in the entire house.

Strava Strava is my favorite running and cycling app. When I am training for my next race I can get a quick summary of my weekly training and see my progress.

Personal Capital-Holding Personal Capital is kind of like Mint if you added investments. They feature a few different widgets but I’ve added holdings. This gives me a quick glance of how my investments are performing versus the index.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

The ecosystem. The ability to transition between Mac, iPhone, iPad and pick up right where I left off is pretty amazing. Since I make books that are intended to be read on multiple devices it is fun to create them on multiple devices too.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Thanks so much for the incredible work you are doing David! If anyone is interested in children’s books and wants to help me make my next one you reach me at my website or on Twitter.can.

Thanks Brandon.