Here is another Things Shortcut that takes selected tasks and tags them with a tag named through ask for input.
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.
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.
Because this uses the Get selected items action, it can be invoked from either Share Sheet, Spotlight, or with Siri (which is rewarding). Enjoy!
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.
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.
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… 🧱
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:
Enjoy!
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.
Some of the job titles I’ve held. How is this not fiction?
Just finished: So, Anyway… by John Cleese 📚 Very enjoyable! It read like it was written to be spoken, and John’s voice comes through very clearly in this retrospective on his life leading up to Python (and a few bits after, but it’s really about his life leading up to that).
Recommended if that interests you, but skip it if you’re hoping to hear about Python experiences.
Converting an OmniFocus Shortcut for use with the new Things 3.17 Shortcut actions (currently in beta released publicly!), here is a Shortcut that asks for the name of a tag, then adds anything with that tag to a list in an email. It also asks if the tag is the greeting (the common use case is for a tag that is a person’s name). Enjoy!
As content-generating AIs continue to improve, I’m excited that the skills of the future lie not in having good answers, but in formulating good questions.
“You know," said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young.”
“Why, what did she tell you?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t listen.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts
On a recent episode of Nested Folders (Episode 92: I Lost My Towel, specifically), Rosemary Orchard and I talked about being out of sorts, of finding ourselves in contexts to which existing habits and tactics might not apply so deeply.
There’s been a deeper truth there for me.
Not a secret, but only shared in passing on the show, is the fact that I live with multiple sclerosis (I did get the wonderful opportunity to talk about this with my pal Jay on episode 10 of Conduit, however). The last almost two years have been quite a ride, from the time half of my body went numb in the late spring of 2021 through many MRIs and CTs and tests and assessments to diagnosis to now.
And pain.
While MS affects everyone differently, one of my particular features is muscle pain, predominantly in the legs. It hurts every day, but most days I can manage. Sometimes, it can even fade pretty well into the background.
Other times, it takes centre stage. When it does, I am usually able to enjoy some waxing and waning, where even though it’s bad, it lightens up a bit for day or even half a day.
This last while, I’ve been getting all the wax and none of the wane. The pain has been a constant, and a severe constant. It’s been hard to walk, hard to sleep, and hard to focus. It feels like all my energy goes to each day’s critical path and trying to manage the hurt. Once it hit the late afternoon, I have pretty much nothing left to spare.
As I work to prioritize my energy (see also Conduit episode 27: These are the spoons you have), I have to make hard choices about what I do, and subsequently, what I don’t. There are no easy choices here; I pride myself on being the kind of person who doesn’t just do stuff I don’t believe to be wonderful or know to be necessary. The downside of that, though, is that every single choice I could make, while necessary to make room in my life, os going to pull some heartstrings and have emotional implications.
But something’s gotta give, as they say.
And so I (finally, I know) get to the point: Rosemary Orchard and I have just scheduled a recording session for what will be the last episode of Nested Folders.
I never dreamed that I would have been given the opportunity to try podcasting, let alone get to co-host one for more than three years and create 120 episodes. I have Rose to thank for that. Thanks for everything, Rose. Sincerely.
I also never imagined how many people I would get to connect with, whether briefly or weekly or even more often than that, as a result of doing the show. All of those friendships and connections live outside the scope of the show; I don’t quit you.
But I carry with me, all the time, the depth of experience and expertise about productivity that the show gave me. Every two weeks, we reflected on life and work and how to try and best navigate it. Not lost on me is the irony that, because of what the show has taught me, I have to stop doing the show.
Does the show ever come back? Maybe? I don’t know what the future could hold. I can say with conviction that I don’t get back the space and energy by hanging on to maybes, though. I need the freedom of less things to consider and worry about, no matter how small it may seem. Never say never, but I need the sense of finality in my psyche to create room for rest and a slower pace in all that remains, so an end feels more right to me than a hiatus or a period of uncertainty where I’d have to potentially provide routine apologies.
Do I do other things? No. I am not stopping this to start something else. That defeats the purpose. For my personal and professional well being, I will continue to unearth best practices and build Shortcuts, and as I’m able, I’ll share. But I’m also dialling back any pressure I might have put on myself to build out the website and blog or whatever. I’ll do what sparks joy, I guess.
But I’m still online, I’m still around! If you’ve read this far, you’re either a friend or a masochist, and I hope we stay connected in some form or fashion (except for the masochists, unless you’re also a friend; friendship and masochism aren’t mutually exclusive).
I will always cherish everything Rose and I accomplished together, the fun we had, and the stuff we made. I am incredibly proud of it all, as we worked to make the show we’d listen to. I’m so grateful that you listened, too.
My first read of 2023: Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny 📚
I love mysteries, and this was particularly charming. Set in rural Quebec, there were a lot of cultural references, and the author did a great job about saying without explaining. It was also very wonderfully character-driven, no doubt setting the stage for the future of the Chief Inspector Gamache character.
The only oddity was the use of American spellings, but maybe that was a conscious choice for market appeal?
Anyway, I look forward to continuing this series through the year!
Some things I find impossible:
Of course I find a million things impossible, these are just some of my favourites.
LEGO Botanicals give me so much joy every day 🧱
I really love the bookshelves feature in micro.blog! I wonder if there is a plugin for other inventorying of “stuff”?
Use case: I want to curate and share Apple Shortcuts on pages that are particular to different categories. Certainly I can make pages and write the CSS, etc. for them, but I figured I would ask in case there was a faster way. 😁