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• The 🫠 empji is the most useful one to come around in a while.

• Note to self: problems are not solved with blank pages.

• I spend a near unhealthy amount of time time staring at this. This was easily one of my top 3 builds ever. I loved every moment of it. 🧱

  

• My app defaults

  On the ninety-seventh episode of the Hemispheric Views podcast, which has gathered a storm of infamy and controversy, hosts Jason and Martin squared off in a no holds barred competition over who might be the most default in their app choices, “helped” by Andrew.

  Now, I am very late in participating, I understand this. As they say, the best time to plant a tree was 150 years ago, the second best time is now.

  Let’s be honest, there were no bad choices from either competitors. Thank goodness Andrew wasn’t a competitor. 

  But enough banter! For your consideration, here follows my answers to each of the questions posed.

  📫 Mail server: iCloud+ (with custom domain)

  📥 Mail client: Mail

  📝 Notes: Notes

  ☑️ Todos: Reminders

  📷 Photo taking: Camera (usually Control Center, but maybe the icon on the Lock Screen)

  🎞️ Photo management: Photos

  🗓️ Calendar: Calendar

  ☁️ Cloud file storage: iCloud Drive

  🗞️ RSS: None, intentional trips to sites only.

  📇 Contacts management: Contacts

  🌐 Web browser: Safari

  💬 Chat: This is a bonkers category, because there is no default, so I refuse to play Andrew’s ridiculous game. The only reasonable answer is Messages.

  🔖 Bookmarks: Safari

  📚 Read later: Reminders

  ⌨️ Word processing: Pages

  🔩 Spreadsheets: Numbers

  🩻 Presentations: Keynote

  🛒 Shopping list: Reminders

  🧆 Meal planning: Again, balderdash. This category has no default. But being real, it’s Notes.

  🏦 Budgeting and personal finance: Sigh, there is no real… nevermind, I’ll not chew my spinach thrice. Apps for the banking institutions with which I have accounts and a set of Numbers sheets.

  📰 News: Apple News, do you need to know the feeds, really? Oh wait, is this kind of RSS? Hm.

  🎶 Music: Music

  🔊 Podcasts: Podcasts

  🔐 Password management: Keychain/iCloud Passwords

  Also, my favourite app for shortcuts is Shortcuts. ❤️

  This episode and participations (I love reading them from the amazing directory put together by Robb Knight) are a blast. Love all of this!

• I feel like could legitimately be a remake of Apple’s iconic 1984 ad, except with Apple on the giant screen.

  Who might be the brand throwing the hammer, though?

• Random Acts

  Sometimes I just need a little inspiration to get unstuck.

  This Shortcut adds 1, 3, or 5 random Things tasks to the Today list, for when I can’t decide what’s next.

  It only considers tasks that are set to start Anytime (let’s not mess up my schedule) and, because I don’t want anything tagged Waiting showing up (and because Things searches don’t allow for negative matches - sigh), this sets all tasks tagged Waiting to start Someday before picking the random tasks, then sets them back to Anytime after.

  Download the Random Acts Shortcut →

• Is it just me or is every Shortcuts action to do with markdown bizarrely broken?

• I 100% would love Continuity Camera for iPad. To be able to join a meeting, be on camera, and share my screen that is Freeform while I Pencil mark it up? That would be awesome.

• 1. Don’t do anything that would make John Wick want to kill you.

  2. Don’t try to kill John Wick.

  It’s pretty simple, really.

• Hm, the 17.0.1 security updates are not out in the beta feeds. Set updates to beta off to make sure you update!

• Horizontal rule

  This is so dumb, but I’m tired of hacky and weird ways to insert a horizontal rule in Mail.app, so I made this, which copies one to the clipboard.

  Victory! / Sigh

  Download the Horizontal rule Shortcut →

• Every day is a chance to make someone else’s.

• Review my Things

  Perhaps another one for the “so-simple-it-works” pile, I made myself a review workflow for Things.

  This is quite straightforward, and just relies on a tag in Things called Review. Running the Shortcut then adds the Review tag to every project and every action whose parent is an area, then opens the Review list.

  From there, it’s a matter of me reviewing each bit, then removing the Review tag when done. That’s all there is to it!

  Download the Review my Things Shortcut →

• My Things task deferral workflow

  One of the things (ha) that I miss since adopting things as my task management system is the notion (no) of defer dates. I’d love to be able to look my Anytime list to see tasks as options for me, minus those that I have actively decided “not right now” to.

  Thanks to the Shortcuts support in Things, I was able to devise a simple workflow to implement the concept of deferring tasks to a later time for being viable options (not necessarily due on or starting on that date, just off my radar until then).

  There are several components to this workflow:

  1. A tag called Defer
  2. A Shortcut to defer tasks with (though it is easily enough done by hand, too)
  3. A Shortcut to “clear” deferred tasks (more on this in a bit)
  4. A rule: trust my dates in Things

  Basically, the logic is this: any task on a date but tagged with Defer is known to neither be due on the date it is set to, nor necessarily starting on that day. So, it’s as simple as “set the date and add the Defer tag” to a given task(s). My Defer Things → Shortcut guides this (using selected tasks).

  On a day on which there are deferred tasks, they appear in the Today list, of course, and identified by the Defer tag. The Clear Deferred Things → Shortcut “clears” these, by removing the Defer tag and setting the start to Anytime, thus making them available options as tasks to work on.

  As I write this, it all seems rather elementary, but it is really helpful for me to push off tasks I know I’m not committed to (but don’t feel comfortable about throwing into the deep box of Someday).

  I’d love to hear if anyone else finds this useful as well!

• Unprompted, uncoached, and not even by my introduction, my daughter just put on The Smiths. I think I can retire from parenting.

• My beacon list

  When I’m not sure where to turn, let this list light a way forward.

  Touchstones

  Work hard
  Be kind
  Have fun

  Try to always

  • Take ownership
  • Think small
  • Appreciate the moment
  • Share openly, listen more
  • Be collaboration
  • Go slow
  • Think inside the box
  • Add value or do something else
  • Be amused
  • Read
  • Laugh
  • Don’t just start; establish
  • Less debate, more sell
  • Family first
  • Listen to understand, not to reply
  • Drive awareness
  • Make everyone a winner
  • Prove it

  Planning triggers

  • What’s working? What isn’t?
  • What’s starting? What’s completing?
  • What’s changing? What should change? What isn’t? What shouldn’t?
  • What’s inspiring? Depressing?
  • What’s meaningful? What’s inconsequential?
  • What’s next?

• I told her what time it is.

  

• Hands (Nathan Sawaya, Art of the Brick) 🧱

  

• My daughter pointed out that it is polite to say “Have a great day!”, but creepy to say “Enjoy the next 24 hours of your life.”

• Golf score tracker

  This is a neat Shortcut that was requested by an internet friend that I thought others might find useful. The goal was an easy way to keep a running record of golf scores in a note, but I wanted this to be as simple and as elegant as possible.

  On import, the Shortcut will ask for the name of the note to create for this. On first run, it will ask where you are playing and your score for hole one. This will be added alongside a datestamp to the note. On subsequent runs, the Shortcut will use the last scored hole to know to know what hole's score to ask for next, which will be appended to the note.

  If the last scored hole was 18, it will start a new game, asking where you're playing and the score for hole one, thus restarting the count.

  Hope someone can enjoy this!

  Download the Golf score tracker Shortcut →

• If I gave myself the title of Freelance Shortcuts Developer, what might I do with that? Maybe indie devs need someone to create an array of Shortcuts to showcase their app? Maybe individuals have a need for a solution to a particular problem? What do you think?

• Just clap your hands.

  

• I see… blue skies… through the tears in my eyes. And I realize: I’m. Going. Home.

  

• What do Microsoft 365 users do in leap years?