Linked

Link Posts

Yours Truly on Mac Power Users Talking About Workflows and Leadership  →

David and Stephen were generous enough to invite me back onto to the Mac Power Users podcast this week.

We spent a fair amount of time talking about my gradual move away from the Mac and toward to the iPad Pro. For those who’ve been waiting for my thoughts on why I switched from the 12.9- to the 11-inch iPad Pro, this is a great opportunity to catch that.

We also spent a lot of time talking about leadership, management, and team culture. Specifically, how I manage the team behind my two sites: The Sweet Setup and The Focus Course.

Here’s a direct link to open the episode in Overcast.

Yours Truly on Mac Power Users Talking About Workflows and Leadership

The Best Apps for Thinkers  →

Over on The Sweet Setup we put together this list of great apps for thinkers.

If you’ve got ideas to wrangle, brainstorming to do, and thinking is part of your normal day, then you’re going to want to use some of these apps.

I quipped on Twitter that this list is like my app love language. These are the apps I live and work in every single day.

Two brief, personal side notes:

  • While we recommend Notability as the best app for taking handwritten notes on the iPad, I personally use and prefer Goodnotes. However… I use Goodnotes differently than as a note taking app. Goodnotes is the app I use to mark-up PDF documents. And, something new I’ve just begun fiddling with is the idea of having certain PDF templates stored within Goodnotes and then using those PDFs when working on certain types of projects or doing planning.

    So, for example, having a project planning outline template. Or a decision-making framework template. Or a marketing editorial calendar template. Etc. I could create these as PDFs and store them as blanks within Goodnotes, and then when I need to fill one out I can just duplicate the blank one and use it within Goodnotes.

  • A few months ago I was introduced to infinite canvas whiteboard apps, and it’s apps like Concepts that make the iPad plus Apple Pencil make perfect sense.
The Best Apps for Thinkers

Last Call to Register for Fantastic Systems  →

Tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb 19) I am hosting a live webinar workshop that’s all about accomplishing your goals.

The topics we will cover include:

  • Meaningful Productivity: How to align your energy with your values.
  • Margin: What is breathing room and why do you need it to accomplish your goals?
  • Goals vs. Systems: What are the differences between a goal and a system? And why do you need both?
  • How to Schedule Your Day: Time ownership plays a huge role in accomplishing you goals. Discover a simple way to schedule your time in order to stay focused and maintain breathing room.
  • Weekly Planning & Reviewing: You must incorporate a simple and regular review session if you want to accomplish your goals.

Plus, there will be a time for Live Q&A where you can ask me anything.

I’ll be answering as many of your questions as I can. It can be about focus, entrepreneurship, creativity, time and attention, work/life balance, or anything else you submit.

I know for sure that this webinar is going to be a blast. Several hundred people are already signed up.

You can registering here. Once you’re signed up, I’ll send you all the details you need for how to tune in live via Zoom. (You will also get access to the video replay.)

I don’t host live training events like this very often any more. Last year I only did a few. And so far this is the only one we have planned for all of 2019.

thefocuscourse.com/fantastic-systems

Last Call to Register for Fantastic Systems

How to Use Do Not Disturb to Your Advantage  →

Also on The Sweet Setup, Rose Orchard posted this quick walkthrough of all the ways you can ensure your iPhone does not disturb you. The Do Not Disturb features in iOS over the past few years have been some of my favorite. Especially Do Not Disturb while driving.

And, speaking of Rose, she shared her Mac Setup on Monday. Is it just me, or are stickers making a massive comeback?

How to Use Do Not Disturb to Your Advantage

Notability is the Best App for Taking Handwritten Notes on an iPad  →

Earlier this week on The Sweet Setup, Drew Coffman dove deep into the world of note-taking apps that support Apple Pencil and handwriting and other sorts of multimedia.

This has long been a category of apps that the iPad seems made for. And thanks to the new iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil 2.0 that is always available and always charged, I think we’re going to see a significant uptick in app usage within this category.

I spent some time over my holiday break looking into infinite canvas whiteboard apps, and while there is definitely some overlap between whiteboard apps and note taking apps, there is also quite a bit of differences.

Notability is the Best App for Taking Handwritten Notes on an iPad

The Best Habit Apps For Your iPhone  →

If you’re looking to improve and/or start some new habits and routines, then one of the absolute best ways to help yourself stay steady is by tracking your progress.

That’s why, over on The Sweet Setup, we just updated our review for the Best Habit Tracking app.

I have a few daily and weekly habits that I track in my Baron Fig notebook as part of my Hybrid Productivity Method. But if you prefer a digital app for tracking your routines, then check out our review of the best habit tracking apps here.

The Best Habit Apps For Your iPhone

Want to Write More in 2019?  →

As I mentioned on Tuesday, one of my main areas of focus this year is on improving and giving more time to my writing and editing routine.

As you may know, Ulysses is the central spot for where I store all my notes, research, and other tidbits of inspiration. It’s also where I toss all my writing ideas, and it’s where I actually do all my writing. (Mostly on iPad these days.)

What’s so awesome about Ulysses is that it excells at each of these functions: it is ideal for capturing ideas and it’s also the best app there is for doing the writing.

If, like me, you’re looking to do more writing as we begin 2019, then you should check out Ulysses.

And, to help you get off to a great start, over on The Sweet Setup I put together seven links to the best articles, tips, tricks, resources, and other how-tos that we have.

Want to Write More in 2019?

Save the Date: January 23  →

So, this is some pretty exciting news from Blanc Media HQ…

In January we are putting on our first-ever LIVE event.

As in… an actual event-event. Right here in Kansas City.

The kind of event where you show up, get a fancy name badge, and have a chair to sit in.

The kind of event where I cater the best BBQ you’ve ever had (no hyperbole; just check out Q39 on Yelp).

The kind of event where you can meet me, my team, and about 40 other awesome folks.

But most importantly, this is the kind of event where you are guaranteed to walk away with fresh focus regarding your time and energy.

This is the kind of event that will help get more intentional about how you pursue the things that are meaningful to you even in the face of so many other urgent issues.

This is the kind of event where you re-align, set goals, and get clarity for how to accomplish them.

The Focus Course LIVE is for you if…

  • You could use some margin and some breathing room in your life.

  • You said “yes” to a few too many opportunities this past year and you want to get better at setting boundaries and saying “no” (in a nice way, of course).

  • You have a big life transition ahead of you and you need clarity and a chance to reflect.
  • You want to ensure that your work doesn’t drown out your personal life and other areas of responsibility and interest.

The Focus Course is my flagship productivity and goal-setting training. We’ve had thousands of people go through the online version of the course over the past 3.5 years. Now we are doing an in-person workshop, led by yours truly.

It’s going to be fantastic! I really would love it if you could join us!

Here’s the link to check it out and learn more:

thefocuscourse.com/live

Save the Date: January 23

Unlock 1Password — New Course on The Sweet Setup  →

Unlock 1Password Course on The Sweet Setup

Today is Tuesday, and we just launched a brand-new course over on The Sweet Setup!

It’s called Unlock 1Password. This is a deep dive into everything you can do with this app and how to really make the most of it.

As I mentioned in the post from last week, I have been using this app for a decade now! It is one of the few apps I consider to be a truly “must-have app”.

So check out the course and let us help you discover some new ways to use this app.

Unlock 1Password — New Course on The Sweet Setup

Live, Interactive Workshop with Yours Truly on Focus  →

This coming Wednesday, Feb 14, I am hosting a live, online workshop called The Fundamentals of Focus.

It’s in partnership with my good friend, Tim Stringer. Tim is hosting the event and managing all the technical aspects, and I will be doing all the teaching.

We are charging just $20 for the workshop and then donating 100% of that to Operation Broken Silence to help build an 8th grade classroom for children in the Yida refugee camp in South Sudan.

It’s going to be pretty awesome, and I hope you will join us. Here is where you can see more details and register.

Live, Interactive Workshop with Yours Truly on Focus

Keeping a Commonplace Book with Ulysses or Day One  →

Ryan Holiday defines a commonplace book thusly:

A commonplace book is a central resource or depository for ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations and information you come across during your life and didactic pursuits.

More or less, my commonplace book exists within both Ulysses and Day One. With the former holding my ideas and quotes, and the latter holding my observations and information.

Over on The Sweet Setup, my friend Chris Bowler wrote a three-part series on keeping a commonplace book. Part One gets in to the what and why, and parts two and three get in to the details of how to toss all that stuff in to Day One.

Keeping a Commonplace Book with Ulysses or Day One

The Best Task-Management App  →

After considerable deliberation, over on The Sweet Setup, Things 3 has become our new pick for the best productivity app.

I was an avid Things user way back in the day, but then switched to OmniFocus because of over-the-air sync.
About a year ago I switched to Todoist for a few months, and then back to Things when version 3 shipped in the spring of 2017.

As I wrote back in December, Things 3 has been getting consistent updates since it shipped. And many of those updates have been some of the most commonly requested features that I’ve seen — such as adding in the ability to have repeating to-dos within projects, keyboard shortcuts to iPad (basic, but still better than none at all), iOS drag and drop support, and the Send to Things email feature.

Things has been around for quite a while, and over the years Cultured Code had developed somewhat of a reputation for shipping awesome updates and then going silent and letting their product begin to stagnate. But from where I’m sitting, that is no longer the case.

You can read the full review here (were we also casually announce something brand new that is in the works).

The Best Task-Management App