Hm, the 17.0.1 security updates are not out in the beta feeds. Set updates to beta off to make sure you update!
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
Every day is a chance to make someone else’s.
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!
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:
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.
When I’m not sure where to turn, let this list light a way forward.
Work hard
Be kind
Have fun
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.”
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!
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?
I love keeping track of my reading, and though I keep my library up in micro.blog, I also track my lists in Things. So, naturally, a Shortcut.
This is intended to be run from the Share Sheet in Apple Books. Because Books aren't actually shared as a first-class citizen object, I use some regex to get the title of the book from the URL that is shared (the only parameter, sad face), search that in the store, then get all the real parameters from the search result.
The result is then loving placed under one of three headings in my Books list in Things, but you can modify this based on the examples. I also have handling if you wanted to let the Shortcut return more than one result from the Book Store search, but so far, all of mine have worked.
Enjoy!
Apple Watch: It’s time to stand!
Me: Deletes iCloud account.
Fun iOS 17 feature: searching a Shortcut in Spotlight gives the option to run it and the three dots to edit it!
I thought this might be a fun little thing to try, tracking content through its states while I work on it.
Pretty self explanatory, really. We’ll see if it takes or if this fun little idea just fizzles.
Share a Bear note to this Shortcut (not an export or text, but a full Bear note), and it will look for any incomplete (unchecked) tasks in the note.
For each of those tasks, this Shortcut:
I like this for processing meeting notes or daily rapid logs, making sure I don’t lose track of tasks I noted without worrying about adding to Things right away.
Because I always forget how math works, this Shortcut asks for a current and previous result of a measurement, then shows (and copies to clipboard) the percentage change between the two numbers.
I use this for work, comparing, say, a current month's metric's result to the previous month to give a sense of how things are moving along.
What I also like is that after calculating, the Shortcut asks if I need to do another calculation (who likes only one calculation?!) and, if yes, runs itself again. I thought that was kind of clever.
This Shortcut is one I just set up using the Humboldt actions for Shortcuts. It asks for the name of a Shortcut shared to it, then prepares a post to micro.blog for that Shortcut.
A Shortcut for an easy way to share Shortcuts!
This makes me pretty happy, a new Shortcut that takes Bear tasks to Things so that I can jot down tasks in a note but know that they’ll get handled.
You share the Bear note to that Shortcut (not exported markdown, the actual note).
Then the Shortcut:
Magical cross-linking!
Finished reading: Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer 📚
… this might take a while to process.
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!