Focused 139: Soundtracks and Self-Talk
This episode of Focused is sponsored by:
MacSparky Field Guides Thanksgiving Sale
As a lot of Americans prepare to spend some time off tomorrow, I do think the idea of setting aside time to give thanks is a good one. One of the biggest things I have to give thanks for is the success of MacSparky. The fact that you listen to my shows, read my words, and buy my Field Guides is a precious gift.
So I am doing a sale this year. I don’t run these holiday sales every year and don’t know when I’ll do one again. But starting today through Monday, the code TURKEY21 will get you 20% off any of The MacSparky Field Guides at Learn.MacSparky. That's nearly $10 off most courses. You have my permission to go nuts.
SaneBox (Sponsor)
My thanks to MacSparky’s sponsor this week, SaneBox. My plate is full enough as it is, but I’ve got SaneBox to help me clear my plate by managing my inbox. I’ve tried using rules before, but things would slip through that weren’t supposed to, so rules didn’t work for me. What works for me, what does the work for me, is SaneBox. It takes some training, but SaneBox manages the emails that I don’t need to read immediately and moves these distractions into folders like SaneLater, and moves the unwanted and annoying ones into SaneBlackHole.
If you’re looking to manage your workflow more productively, try SaneBox with a free trial. You'll get a $10 credit you can use towards a SaneBox subscription. Don’t waste your time on the clutter and unimportant emails. Spend time on working on what are actually your priority messages and what’s important to you.
PIxelmator 2.3, Uses AI to Remove Backgrounds
Today Pixelmator dropped version 2.3 of Pixelmator Pro. There are a few highlights of note:
• AI-powered automatic background removal: With just a click, users will now be able to remove the background from any image
• AI-powered automatic subject selection: Again with just a click, users will now be able to automatically select the subject of an image
• A Select and Mask tool for advanced selections: This is designed to make it easy to select the most challenging image areas of all – hair, fur, and other objects with very complex edges.
These new features are powered by ML algorithms that are integrated into Pixelmator Pro using Core ML. As a resul, they are very fast on M1-powered devices. For example, background removal takes around 2-5 seconds on M1 devices and up to 30 seconds on Intel devices for an average image.
I spent some time with the pre-release version and the background removal is remarkably good with the press of just one button. I love how Pixelmator has been jumping on the use of artificial intelligence to make image editing easier (and better). In celebration of the new release, Pixelmator is 50% off starting today and for a limited time.
Mac Power Users 615: The Clipboard Manager Roundup
There is a range of applications to supercharge your copy-and-paste game. This week’s Mac Power Users has Stephen and me exploring some of the best options for macOS and even the iPad and iPhone.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
Hullo: A simple, natural pillow designed for comfort. Try it for 60 days.
TextExpander from Smile: Get 20% off with this link and type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.
Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
Capital One: Machine learning at Capital One. What’s in your wallet?
Automators 89: Kelly Guimont, iPhone Automator
In this episode of Automators, Rosemary and I are joined by Kelly Guimont and dive into getting started with automation, fun seasonal lighting, and the trouble with tribbles, er HomePod mini multiplication.
This episode of Automators is sponsored by:
LinkedIn Jobs: Post a job for free by visiting this link.
Hunter Douglas: Take advantage of Hunter Douglas’ ‘Season of Style’ rebate savings event – until December 6, 2021.
Hover: Make a name for yourself. Get 10% off any domain name.
Time Track with Timing (Sponsor)
This week MacSparky is sponsored by the Timing App, the time tracking app that tracks time for you automatically. It’s that “automatic” part you should really pay attention to. Because I do so much work at my Mac these days, I’ve been using Timing and it is really nice being able to have the application keep track of exactly how long I spent in this Word document or on that Website. It makes my time tracking data so much easier (and more accurate).
Also, the app recently got a new “Activities” screen which gives you everything you need to know including App usage and project time spent. Other new improvements include the ability to start and stop timers right inside the app and growing support for automation. For instance, I’m working on a Shortcut that will call out to the Timing web API and automatically start and stop timers from my iPhone and iPad. (It’s still a bit ugly but I’ll share it here soon.) If you’re curious, you can get started with Timing’s web app to track time from anywhere, and combine that with Timing’s sample Siri shortcuts to start and stop timers as quickly as possible.
If you want simple, accurate time tracking data and you work on a Mac, look no further. You can download the free 14-day trial today and get 10% off for the first year.
Hazel 5.1
I’ve longed talked about Hazel being one of the best tools available to automate using your Mac. Noodlesoft, the makers of Hazel, have released an update with Hazel 5.1, which now supports macOS Monterey. Features include:
New “Run Shortcut” action to run Shortcuts workflows on Monterey.
AppleScriptable: You can use AppleScript to control Hazel’s run status as well as the active status of any rules.
Support for newer modes of SFTP for the “Upload” action.
Various fixes and other improvements.
If you purchased Hazel 5, the update is free. If you’re running version 4 or earlier, the upgrade is $20.
Nonprofit Productivity Summit
I’m excited to be joining Michael St. Pierre for the upcoming Nonprofit Productivity Summit, which is from December 7-9, 2021. Other guests include Mike Vardy, a past guest of Mac Power Users and Focused (back when it was Free Agents), and the father of Getting Things Done (GTD), David Allen, a past guest on the Mac Power Users. If you’re interested in learning more about how to be productive, reserve a spot today and join us. It’s free and virtual.
FastScripts 3
I’ve been using FastScripts for years to run AppleScripts, and it’s just released a major update. FastScripts 3.0 has got:
Parallel script execution: no more waiting for long tasks before starting another.
ScriptLight menu searching: quickly see a summary of matchings scripts in your script library.
Script progress feedback: If there’s something wonky going on, this makes it easy to help me decide if I want to stop a script.
FastScripts 3 is free to use, but the premium features are disabled. If you’re an existing user who wants to upgrade a paid license for FastScripts 2, the price is $19.95 (free for those who purchased it on or after January 1, 2021). For automation and keyboard shortcuts ninjas who want to use the premium features, you can purchase FastScripts 3 for $39.95. My congratulations to Red Sweater on this new release.
The First Year of Craft
I’ve chosen Obsidian as PKM weapon-of-choice, but that doesn’t take anything away from the strides made by the Craft team during the App’s first year.
Craft now supports inline Markdown, backlinks, code snippets, images, videos, attaching PDF files, and rich link previews. With Craft, you can nest notes within notes and create your own structure so you can group and organize your thoughts and notes in a way that makes sense to you, and you can easily create links and connections between pages. Craft also makes sharing and exporting your docs and notes easy by simply sharing a link or working with others in real time.
While Obsidian is evolving faster, thanks to the third party plugin architecture, Craft is much more of a native-app experience on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. I know a lot of readers prefer Craft over Obsidian for this reason and I completely get that.
I’m so happy to see that this notes revolution we’re going through has multiple good options. My congratulations to Craft on their first anniversary.
Mac Power User 614: The 2021 MPU Gift Guide
Believe it or not, it is time for the annual MPU Holiday Gift Guide. Listen here.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
TextExpander from Smile: Get 20% off with this link and type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.
Indeed: Get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post.
Shopify: Grow your business with Shopify. Start your 14-day free trial today.
DEVONthink: Get organized—unleash your creativity. Use this link for 10% off.
Ambient Video of the Millennium Falcon
I've been suffering from a creeping case of tinnitus over the years. My left ear rings at a minor third to my right ear. I've gotten used to it, but I notice it a lot more often in silent rooms.
So I've become a fan of ambient noise. One version of that is the extensive list of ambient videos on YouTube. You can find them in Yoda's hut, at Hogwarts in the rain, or even on a beautiful hike. Recently, I decided to make my own at Disneyland, of the Millennium Falcon. So my friend Liana Lehua and I showed up at Disneyland one Sunday morning with our fancy cameras. We shot several long videos of different angles of the Millenium Falcon. There is no music, just the ambient sounds of Disneyland and the Batuu spaceport.
This one is scratching my own itch, but I love it. If you'd like some noise on in the background along with a pleasant video, check this out. You'll even see a few cameos from Liana, Daisy, and myself. We're thinking about making more if people like this one.
Obsidian Live Preview
Many folks have written me to explain that they don't use Obsidian because there is no live preview of the Markdown syntax.
The Obsidian team is now firmly in the process of knocking that particular domino over. I've been using it only a short while, and it works as expected. You type Markdown syntax in, and Obsidian renders it as rich text (including links). I'm happy they've added this feature, though I expect I'll still be doing most of my writing in Obsidian in plain Markdown text. The beta live preview mode is now available for Obsidian Catalyst supporters. It's only a question of time before everyone gets it.
Obsidian sans markdown text
Daylite: A Superior CRM for the Mac (Sponsor)
This week MacSparky is sponsored by Daylite, which also sponsored this week's Focus Mode webinar. Daylite has been the definitive CRM solution on the Mac for a long time. While most CRMs these days rely on a boring, uninspired web interface, Daylite has native apps for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, taking full advantage of all the Apple APIs. At the same time, Daylite uses the latest cloud syncing technology to give you your data wherever you need it. It’s like combining peanut butter with chocolate.
Of course Daylite already has support for Apple's Focus Mode, including setting up Daylite notifications as time-sensitive. You can learn more about Daylite and Focus Mode right here. There is no reason your CRM shouldn’t give you that native app feel and feature list. Just head over to Daylite and check it out.
Timing App Update
Timing, a prior sponsor of MacSparky.com, is out with un update. If you don’t already know, Timing automatically tracks which applications, documents and domains you spend time withs that you can quickly figure out what you’re spending (and wasting) your time on. With this update, they’ve replaced the “Review” and “Details” screens with one unified, and customizable, “Activities” screen. They’ve also got plenty of usability improvements for you to streamline your time-tracking workflow even more:
You can now start and stop timers right from the toolbar of the main Timing app.
You can now also start timers via the right-click context menu of a project.
On macOS Big Sur, toolbar buttons now show labels next to their icons to make their purpose more clear.
They’ve completely reworked the app’s onboarding. If you would like to give the new onboarding a try, you can access it via the “Replay Introduction” item in the “Help” menu. Maybe you’ll learn a trick or two that you didn’t know about yet!
Timing will now warn when creating a time entry causes other entries to get overwritten.
Slightly increased the width of time entry editors, giving you more space to enter details.
When starting a new timer, Timing will now suggest the most recently used project by default.
By default, Timing will stop any running timers when your Mac goes to sleep or when you quit the Timing tracker app. You can now customize this behavior in the app’s “Tracking” preferences.
I’ve been using Timing as my primary time tracking app for several months and it is sticking with me. It is the accurate Mac data that really makes the difference for me. If you want to figure out how much time you spend on different projects and which activities (like games, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) have the worst impact on your productivity, give Timing a try.
Focused 138: Hyper-Scheduling Revisited
On this episode of Focused, Mike and I return to the subject of hyper-scheduling after we've both been at it a few years. What works? What doesn't? And how did Mike's experiment go where he stopped blocking time?
This episode of Focused is sponsored by:
Privacy: Smarter payments. Get $5 to spend on your first purchase.
Indeed: Get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post.
Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code FOCUSED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
The Focus Mode Webinar
We’re getting down to the wire with the Focus Mode Webinar. I’ll be giving it at 9:00 A.M. Pacific on November 10, less than 12 hours after this post goes up. You can still sign up with the above link. If you sign up but don’t make it, I will be sending a replay link to those folks signed up.
I’ve spent a lot of time with Focus Mode in the last week as I’ve been preparing for this, and I like it better now than ever. There is a lot you can pull off with Focus Mode and a little creativity. Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow.
Mac Power Users 613: The Future of Work, with Sean McCabe
Stephen and I talk with Sean McCabe on this episode of Mac Power Users about how he runs his businesses from what can only be described as a Mac battle station while stitching together macOS apps and several cloud services to be more productive.
This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:
Automators 88: Automating with Ryan J. A. Murphy
Ryan J. A. Murphy joins Rosemary and me on this episode of Automators to share automation tips for Obsidian, augmented intelligence, and automated parenting.
This episode of Automators is sponsored by:
TextExpander, from Smile: Communicate smarter. Get 20% off.
Stripe: Learn more about how Stripe and their products can support your business.
DEVONthink: Get organized—unleash your creativity. Use this link for 10% off.