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• Finished reading: Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer 📚

  … this might take a while to process.

• Shortcut: Copy link to file

  I worry that this is wildly engineered, but I couldn’t find an easy way (or way at all?) to quickly grab a URL to a file on my Mac. At least some cursory web searches suggested I’m not the only one, so even if there is a simple way, it is not simply found 😂

  So of course, I made a Shortcut:

  Download my Copy link to file Shortcut →

  It doesn’t work cross-platform, because there doesn’t seem to be a URL scheme for Files on i(Pad)OS (but please let me know if I’m wrong!). I use this via Finder Quick Actions, so that I can right-click → Quick Actions → Copy link to file, and then I have a link to the file on my clipboard. Useful for referencing files in a Things task or Agenda note!

• After.

  

• Family togetherness is a bacon-wrapped turkey.

  

• Shortcut: Clear Today’s Things

  Another day, another list of incomplete stuff in my Today list in Things. Sometimes life has other plans for my day!

  For days like today, when that’s all I got, I’ve made a “no more things” (get it?) Shortcut.

  This Shortcut grabs every task on my Today list and, one by one, gives me options for ways to treat the task to get it off of Today.

  Download my No more Things today Shortcut →

• TIL: Text Replacements, as set in Keyboard Settings in iOS/iPadOS/macOS also work on the Watch.

• Shortcut: Review my Things Someday list

  One of the things (ha) that I really like about OmniFocus is the review feature, particularly combined with defer dates. I like pushing off as many tasks as possible so that only a subset are available, keeping me from getting overwhelmed.

  As I continue to explore Things, I love the Someday list to shove stuff aside, but I worry that too much in there will get lost.

  To help myself out, I made a Shortcut that grabs every task in Someday, tags it with Review, then opens the Review list. That way, I can remove the tag as I go, and not worry about leaving stuff in the ether.

  Download my Review my Things Someday list Shortcut →

  I like shoving as much as I can into Someday this way, ensuring that I only look at tasks/projects that I have deliberately selected as options for actions as opposed to seeing all that is not yet done (read: infinity).

  I hope this is useful for others!

• With thanks to Beck Tench for inspiration that I took some time ago in a Learn OmniFocus, I have revamped my view of work and life to orient around high altitude goals.

  This… feels really good.

  

• Tag these Things

  Here is another Things Shortcut that takes selected tasks and tags them with a tag named through ask for input.

  Tag these Things →

  I like this because I can select a bunch of tasks for tagging at once (read: inbox) and not use the tag selector. And, because this uses the Get selected items action, it can be invoked from Siri (or Share Sheet or Spotlight), so I can speak the tag to add.

  Enjoy!

• My son made dinner!

  

• TIL that port 17 is generally reserved for QOTD (Quote of the day), which is technically its own protocol. The internet needs more whimsy by design.

• Finished reading: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 📚 I read this back in 2017, and wow, there was a lot I did not remember. I enjoyed this more and took much more from it this second time through. Having this very incredible stack of experiences all told from one character’s perspective, flawed and compromised, left me wondering what really happened, and imagining other versions of events. A great read.

• Bump Things Tasks

  Okay, so I don’t always finish my work as intended. Fine.

  To help out, here is a Things Shortcut that takes selected tasks and moves their start date to the next business day.

  Bump Things date Shortcut →

  Because this uses the Get selected items action, it can be invoked from either Share Sheet, Spotlight, or with Siri (which is rewarding). Enjoy!

• Agenda Daily Note with Tasks from Things

  Certainly, there are all the Shortcuts on my Day automation page, but I happened to simplify one today and thought I’d share:

  Agenda Daily Note with Tasks from Things →

  This Shortcut creates a new note in Agenda (yes, that’s a referral link for a bonus 6 months on a subscription), titled with Today’s date, containing calendar events and tasks for the day.

  I used the Agenda native Shortcuts actions (now federated across all platforms, hooray!), so no more bonkers URL encoding everything (another big hooray!), and the newer Shortcuts actions in Things to get those tasks on its Today list, linking back to them in Things natively.

  Hope someone can make some use of this!

• Just finished (again): Rabbits: A Novel by Terry Miles 📚

  This was my second go, and despite knowing the end, there was a lot in the middle I forgot about, and the second experience was definitely different. Between my first read and this second one, I also listened to the podcast (I had not, previously), which I also really enjoyed for different reasons, and so my thoughts about the universe of Rabbits were very different from the outset.

  This remains one of my favourite books of all time.

• Finished: A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny 📚 I enjoyed this in the end, but it was trickier at first, with an unexpected and new group of characters. Once it hit its stride, though, this was another lovely story.

• Just finished: The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny 📚. My favourite of the series so far, a fantastic character-driven experience. Some leaps of faith required to get past some questionable plot points, but just letting go and letting the author carry me makes for a great experience.

• No PKM necessary

  Personal knowledge management apps are unnecessary because they focus on the wrong aspect of knowledge management. Knowledge management is more than just taking and storing notes; it is about making sense of the information and turning it into useful knowledge. Personal knowledge management tools are often limited to note-taking and do not provide the tools needed to make sense of the data and put it to use.

  The concept of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is flawed in that it fails to recognize that there is more to knowledge management than simply collecting, storing, and organizing data. Rather, knowledge management is a process of transforming data into information and then into knowledge through the application of cognitive processes. To be effective, knowledge management requires an understanding of the context in which the data is generated, as well as the ability to apply this knowledge to the situation in hand. PKM tools are limited in their ability to provide the necessary cognitive processes and other tools required for effective knowledge management, making them largely unnecessary.

• Obsidian vs. Bear

  When comparing Bear to Obsidian, it is clear that Bear is the superior note-taking application. Firstly, Bear offers a more organized, visually appealing interface that is easier to use than Obsidian’s. Bear’s interface is focused on making the note-taking experience more enjoyable and intuitive. It also has a wide range of features, including a powerful search engine, text editor and formatting tools, that make it ideal for a wide range of tasks. Additionally, Bear has native support for popular cloud storage services like iCloud and Dropbox, allowing users to easily sync their notes across multiple devices. Finally, Bear comes with a comprehensive feature set that is regularly updated to keep up with the latest trends in note-taking.

• I think I found a new blog genre I love: productivity shitposts generated by GPT.

• Well then. 6,167 pieces. And presumably a whole additional room to keep it in? But wow. www.lego.com/en-ca/pro… 🧱

  

• Make a Things project from a task template

  Another Things Shortcut, this one is for creating a project based on an existing task as a template.

  It assumes there is a task in Someday that has a checklist items within it. This Shortcut will search for that task based on key words, confirm it found the right one, then make a project from it with each checklist item as a task inside it.

  I like this approach, because the management of the template is super easy inside of Things, and this Shortcut could then be bigged up pretty easily with more features:

  • make a menu of known task templates to use instead of typing keywords
  • add ask for input actions to set deadline dates
  • add placeholder text that is replaced with other ask for input questions
  • show the checklist items as a list and select which all to add to the project in cases where maybe not all tasks apply
  • and so on

  Enjoy!

  Download the Things project template Shortcut →

• So about iPads

  There is a lot of chat about this excellent Viticci article on MacStories, looking at the art of software and challenging the place in which the iPad finds itself.

  One thing I think about a lot is the congruency in technical architecture. What this means is that “computing” is now more about form factor and form factor-oriented software experiences than actual capabilities; no longer can I not do something until I get back to my desktop, but rather operate based on the shape of device that makes sense for my context.

  In this way, I think the MacBook (Air/Pro/whatever) muddies the waters the most. Plug in an external monitor, and it is a capable desktop experience, but it also operates in the same manner when pulled from a backpack in a coffee shop. It shuns the dichotomy between desk and mobile computing activity. This isn’t necesarily bad, but it’s interesting, and has, I think, secondary effects.

  In my case, my MacBook Air is lighter than my iPad+keyboard, and is the “whole desktop experience” anywhere I take it. So really, I’m treating a non-mobile experience in a mobile context, but I do think that there is an opportunity to differentiate in-home-at-desk-sit-down computing experiences from those that arise when on the move.

  The iPad could fill this space (mobile device with a mobile experience), but then doesn’t really need to, again, because MacBook Air. Putting a keyboard and trackpad on the iPad doesn’t help clarify; it’s steering away from a mobile mode of computing and in to basically trying to impersonate a laptop, but then it isn’t a laptop, so everything is confused (or at least I am).

  To me, this is why the iPad Mini is the magic device. It’s never going to pretend to be a laptop with the full Magic Keyboard kind of set up, even though I could Bluetooth peripherals in a pinch, and it clearly positions itself as a mobile device. It’s not big enough to have Stage Manager-oriented nightmares, nor is it small enough to confuse itself with a phone. It supports and carries the Pencil, and it does a great job of living in that middle mobile space.

  The “big” iPads, though, have an identity crisis to solve.

  I hope they do, though. For all of this, my iPad Pro 12.9" from 2018 is still my favourite device to use, in general terms, and I’m even thinking about what it might be like to upgrade it to a modern one, even though I can’t really articulate why. Maybe because I interact with it directly instead of through the peripherals all over my Mac? I don’t know.

  Anyway, I’m still holding out for a Watch-based video editor so that I can opertate solely from it.

• We are at the pinnacle of technological capability, hurtling towards singularity, and I still don’t have an app that is any good at managing calendars.

• Job titles

  Some of the job titles I’ve held. How is this not fiction?

  • Paper carrier (okay fine, flyers)
  • Nanny
  • Groundskeeper
  • Dishwasher
  • Bakery manager
  • Magic shop salesperson and demonstrator
  • Go go dancer
  • Kindergarten teacher
  • Mall Santa