Mac Navigation
Nerdy Mac users are known for customizing their machines. Between keyboard shortcuts, Spaces, and third-party apps, you can effectively set up a computer that is perfect for you and unusable by someone else.
Articles
Dvorak Transition
I've had an interest in the Dvorak keyboard layout for a couple years now. The concept makes sense to me and I'm finally doing something about it.
18: Cold Turkey on QWERTY
After an awesome break for Christmas and the New Year, I'm back with a slight change and format to talk about my switch to Dvorak, the bloated web, and resolutions.
2015 by the Numbers
With 2015 completed, we'll start seeing numbers roll in summarizing what happened throughout the year. So I thought I would pull together this site's numbers for 2015. It's been a ride.
Writing a Book with GitHub
A lot of time and effort go into writing a book. It gets even harder when you need to collaborate with your editor and make revisions.
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Trust & Let Loose
It takes time to develop consistency in a task management system. I forget. I climb back on the horse, but fall off again. It looks easy - and it is at times - but other times it feels like one more item on my to-do list.
17: Time Off for the Holidays
Take time off this holiday season. And try not to spend too much time doing support for family. Also, don't miss out on the discount for Working with OmniFocus.
Bad Bar Charts
In previous roles I worked on data analysis and visualization. When you boil it down, that just means I was well versed in Excel and building charts.
Merry Christmas
I'm thrilled to give you a gift for Christmas this year. I've wanted to do something like this for a long time and the opportunity is finally here.
16: Geofenced Lists
Location based lists have a lot of uses. In this episode, I talk about the main ways I use them and how they've helped me in the past. There's also some follow-up to my time tracking mechanism.
Monthly Planning
We're sneaking up on the annual goal setting push. It's exciting to sit down and dream about what you want to do next year. But what if your life moves and changes too fast for annual goals?
TextExpander Snippet Nomenclature
I currently have 217 snippets in TextExpander. That's likely not a big number for some people, but for my forgetful mind it's a lot. To keep them straight, I use a simple nomenclature for my snippet abbreviations.
15: Messed Up Mornings
The way people structure their morning routine can easily dictate your motivation for the day. But what happens when you can't control the circumstances around your morning? What about kids?
Keeping Up with Ideas
Ideas are sometimes hard to come up with. But what happens when you have so many that you get lost? You have all these ideas begging you for attention and it becomes unclear which ones you should take on and which ones you should let go.
Generating Creative Energy
I had never thought of myself as a creative person until recently. Math and science have always been my strengths, so the arty side never took center stage.
14: How Much is Down Time Worth?
I'm starting to track my time. I've struggled with this in the past, but now I want to tie it to dollars. I want to know where my time is best spent.
13: Wandering Brain
I have more ideas than I can keep track of. And this is the whole of my creative process from idea development to storage.
Breaking the Cycle
It's time for a confession: I'm addicted to my phone. I want to check Twitter every five minutes and find myself refreshing Feedly every ten. And I hate it.
Reviews and Scripting - Learn OmniFocus Webinar
A great asset behind OmniFocus is the community of people willing to share and ask questions; and one place to enjoy the resources this community creates is at Learn OmniFocus.
12: The Higher Horizons
A quick overview of how I see the higher Horizons of GTD and why they are important. Also, I talk about why I think our babysitter is awesome.
Take a Break
Numerous times I've said that being able to put off work is an important step of being productive. And when you have a big push, it's even more important to stop.
Working with OmniFocus
In the two days before this book launched I checked off 387 tasks in OmniFocus. And there's no other tool I'd rather do it with.
Favorite Workflows
I've received a number of requests for more detail around my use of Workflow (iTunes). I've said that it saves time, but here are some details.
11: Using Evernote for GTD
Before I got into OmniFocus, I used Evernote for GTD. I had a few different structures, but I think I ended with a simple setup that worked well for me before I outgrew it.
Stop Being Productive
There are a lot of productivity bloggers and podcasters out there. And we're all looking for ways to get better, faster, and create higher quality products. That's pretty obvious when you read our articles.
10: Why I Don't Use Ads
I've avoided ads in my creative work from the beginning. But there's a lot of pressure to use them as a way to make an income. In this episode, I explain why I don't plan to change.
From WordPress and Google to Jekyll and Piwik
This website has run on WordPress and Google Analytics from day one and they've both treated me pretty well. But I've started to see a need for more flexibility in the site, so it's time for a big change.
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9: Really? Journaling?
I can't believe I've started journaling every day. I've always equated journaling with writing in a diary, which is not for me. But the effects of not journaling caught me off-guard.
Using Drafts
Drafts is one of those apps that I cannot go without. The funny thing is that my tech-resistant wife is now dependent on it as well. And you can be sure that I am pretty excited about her use of it.
8: Waiting to Upgrade
I've started waiting to upgrade operating systems and hardware when new releases are available. My impulse is to upgrade immediately, but I've put it off for a variety of reasons.
