My iPhone Home Screen: One Page Does It All

Since trading in my two iPads, my iPhone 15 Pro Max has become my daily driver. This shift made me re-evaluate how I use the Home Screen for maximum efficiency. Here’s the thing: I despise cluttered screens with multiple pages, folders, Today View widgets, or widget stacks. So, my challenge was to access everything I needed from a single, Home Screen.

Here’s where the “Choose from Menu” action in Apple Shortcuts comes in. The “Choose from Menu” action in Apple Shortcuts is designed to streamline iOS device automation. It allows you to create customizable menus, presenting options for you to choose from when the shortcut runs. Whether it’s selecting a favorite contact, choosing from a list of apps, or picking a specific destination in a navigation app, the “Choose from Menu” action lets personalize your shortcuts and tailor them to your specific needs.

I use three “Choose from Menu” shortcuts:

Other Apps: This shortcut houses apps I don’t use daily but still need occasionally.
My Shortcuts: This one groups my most-used shortcuts for quick access.
Read-Later Apps: This shortcut brings up my favorite read-later apps like Omnivore or Instapaper.

By placing these shortcut icons on my Home Screen, I have all my essential apps and shortcuts readily available on a single page.

This approach might not be for everyone, but if you want a clutter-free Home Screen, give “Choose from Menu” shortcuts a try!

Another and another and another look at Obsidian

I’ve tried Obsidian before, but the whole process of migrating my Apple Notes into it just seemed like too much fucking work. I ended up deleting it and moved on. Then, the other day, I stumbled upon news of an Obsidian importer plugin for Apple Notes. Importing everything, including attachments, suddenly felt doable. So, I reinstalled Obsidian, imported my notes, and voila! It worked like a charm.

Next, I dove into the world of Obsidian setups and workflows. I watched videos, read articles, and eventually came across an insightful piece on the Drafts Forum by Stephen Millard, a highly respected member of the Drafts community.

Stephen describes his usage of Drafts and Obsidian, highlighting the distinctive roles each plays in his workflow. Drafts serves as his capture hub, a place where he preprocesses information for use elsewhere, acting like a transport service for his ideas. Obsidian, on the other hand, is one of his destinations, functioning as a personal filing cabinet for notes and writing.

He emphasizes that Drafts and Obsidian serve different purposes. Drafts excels in speedy capture and flexible text manipulation, focusing on simplicity and efficiency. Meanwhile, Obsidian is more about finding and exploring relationships between notes, featuring a more complex plugin architecture and a specialization in Markdown format.

Stephen’s longer investment in Drafts makes it a staple in his workflow, as it does for me, and he sees himself using multiple tools rather than replacing one with another. The availability of Obsidian on more platforms, including Windows and Linux, is a significant factor for him. Additionally, he discusses the lock-in aspect, mentioning that while Drafts allows easy extraction of data, Obsidian’s use of Markdown files makes it more accessible on different platforms and apps.

Stephen’s approach gave me a clear picture of how I could actually continue using Drafts seamlessly while still benefiting from Obsidian’s powerful features.

Can’t quit Alfred? Me neither! But I use these Raycast extensions

I have been using Alfred since 2016 version 2. My Alfred workflows and muscle memory are so ingrained that moving to Raycast just isn’t an option. That said, I’ve got Raycast installed, and I’m currently using the free version, leveraging just two extensions that I find particularly useful.

The first is the Raycast Reminders extension. Here’s what it does:

Create Reminders: You can create new reminders, add notes, set priority, and specify a due date. The due date can be expressed in natural language. For instance, you can say “Remind me tomorrow at 3 PM” to set a reminder for that time.
My Reminders: This command lists all your uncompleted reminders. You can mark them as complete, set their priority, copy details, or open them in Apple’s Reminder app.

The second is the Calendar My Schedule extension. Here’s what it does:

My Schedule: View upcoming events for different time frames, from today’s agenda to the weeks ahead. Search for specific events. No more calendar app hopping!

Alfred simply has nothing like these two extensions.

iPad Pro rant: the clipboard saga that tests my patience daily

Let me tell you something: I love my iPad Pro. It’s a fantastic tool for reading, research, and even writing. But here’s the deal: the lack of a decent clipboard manager makes me want to tear my fucking hair out.

Every. Single. Day. I’m copying and pasting things. Snippets from articles, research notes, half-written sentences. And yet, on the iPad Pro, it’s an exercise in frustration. The measly one-item clipboard is a joke.

Sure, there are those workaround tactics that I wrote about the other day, but let’s call a spade a spade – they’re just that, work-arounds. I get pissed when I start a task that demands copying and pasting; it’s at that moment I reluctantly shift to my Mac. A move that shouldn’t be necessary yet becomes an unavoidable ritual due to the iPad Pro’s clipboard limitations.

Why should I be compelled to switch devices mid-stream just to manage a fundamental function like copy-pasting? This iPad Pro issue really bothers me, even though I enjoy using it. It deserves better, and it’s high time Apple addressed this glaring shortcoming. Fix it please, Apple.

How to see the Today View in Apple’s Reminders sorted by Lists

I prefer organizing my day sorted by lists in Apple’s Reminders. While the app provides alternatives like sorting by due date, creation date, priority, and title, the list-based sorting feature is noticeably missing. In this post, I’ll share the workaround I’ve crafted to view my Today tasks sorted by lists until Apple (hopefully) introduces this feature in a future update.

Creating a Group:

To get started, I create a new Group in Reminders and give it the name “Today’s ToDo List” or any title that suits my preference.

Smart Lists for Each List:

Within the “Today’s ToDo List” group, I set up a smart list for each of my existing lists. This involves creating a new smart list and filtering tasks based on the specific list criteria.

Accessing Today’s ToDo List:

When I want to see my tasks sorted by lists, I simply click or tap on the “Today’s ToDo List” group. This action opens up a comprehensive view of all my tasks for the day, neatly organized by lists.

Now, managing my daily tasks is organized in a way that I can quickly identify and prioritize tasks based on their respective lists. Give this method a try to streamline your daily task management in Reminders.

Published first to ldstephens.me – January 21, 2024

Conquer the clipboard in iPadOS: My system for always-on copying

While iPadOS offers an API for apps to access the clipboard, it’s limited to when apps are in the foreground. This poses a challenge for clipboard manager apps like Copy ‘Em, as they miss the latest copied item when inactive.

To address this limitation, I have two effective workarounds:

Stage Manager: By placing your clipboard manager app in a stage, you ensure it remains active. For instance, during research, I keep Copy ‘Em in a stage with Safari. Everything I copy in Safari within that stage is automatically saved to Copy ‘Em. When transitioning to the writing stage, I move Copy ‘Em, to my writing stage ensuring access to all the copied content during research.
Universal Clipboard: This feature allows seamless copying and pasting of content (text, images, files) across your iPad, iPhone, and Mac. For my workflow, I keep Copy ‘Em running on my iPad Mini alongside my iPad Pro. Anything copied on my iPad Pro is saved in Copy ‘Em on the iPad Mini, enabling easy access for pasting on the iPad Pro.

These workarounds enhance the clipboard experience, ensuring accessibility across your different workflows.

My Drafts + Day One journaling workflow

Sparky and Stephen’s deep dive into journaling on the Mac Power Users podcast episode 762: got me thinking about how I approach this practice. So I thought I would chime in with how I journal.

Here’s my workflow:

Quick capture with Drafts: I use Drafts to write my text entries, it’s perfect for capturing fleeting thoughts or brain dumps.
Monthly organization: My Drafts Monthly Journal keeps everything neatly organized, month by month.
End-of-month migration: At the month’s end, I seamlessly share the entire journal with Day One, preserving my reflections for posterity.
Day One: I use Day One to add images to my journal. I use it on my iPhone to take photos or import them from my camera roll.
Daily dose of nostalgia: Day One’s “On This Day” feature is my daily dose of happy memories and self-reflection.

This workflow is a part of my daily life. Drafts provides the perfect place for capturing fleeting thoughts, while Day One transforms them into memories I can revisit anytime.

Published first to ldstephens.me – January 8, 2024

Why I abandoned Drafts and returned to text files for managing my information repository

In a recent blog post, I discussed my decision to switch back to Drafts as my primary information repository. While this move has proven beneficial, there was one lingering concern: the potential for data loss due to database corruption or iCloud taking a shit. To address this concern, I adopted the practice of saving all information in both Drafts and text files. However, maintaining synchronization between the database and files has become a constant challenge.

After careful consideration, I concluded that storing information in both Drafts and text files was an unnecessary redundancy. Since I am unwilling to abandon text files, I decided to eliminate Drafts as an information repository and rely solely on text files for data storage.

To implement this change, I have consolidated all my text files within the iA Writer library. Drafts now serves as a temporary workspace for short-term notes and text capture, with permanent information residing in text files accessible from any text editor. Additionally, I have integrated HoudahSpot search to facilitate efficient information retrieval.

I am confident that this simplified system will serve my information management needs.

Took another look at Obsidian

The other day I read a post by Denny Henke where he writes about Obsidian.

It’s only been a couple weeks since I decided to give Obsidian yet another try and yes, this is going to work out. I’m so glad I decided to give it a try again. First, my primary use of any markdown/text app is for writing blog posts. In this regard Obsidian is generally on par with any other markdown editor and so it’s easy to just copy my archive over. That’s the beauty of working from folders of files.

After reading Denny’s post, I decided to give Obsidian another try. The last time I tried Obsidian, there were no iOS or iPadOS apps and very few plugins, so it has evolved considerably since then.

I spent most of the past two days exploring Obsidian. Like Denny, my primary use for a markdown/text editor is writing blog posts and journal entries, not knowledge management. Ultimately, I found that Obsidian is not the right fit for me. For simply writing blog posts and journal entries, I prefer the simpler and more streamlined experience of a dedicated writing app like iA Writer.

Turn your iPad into a reference monitor for your MacBook

One of the most useful ways I use my iPad is as a reference monitor with my M1 MacBook Air. By using a feature called Universal Control, I can extend my MacBook Air’s display to the iPad. This means that I can have two windows open at once, one on each device. This is much more efficient than using the split-screen feature on my MacBook Air.

Universal Control also makes it easy to share content between my MacBook Air and iPad. I can drag and drop files, text, and images between the two devices. This is very useful when I am doing research on my iPad and need to transfer information to a document that I am working on with my MacBook Air.

To set up Universal Control on Mac and iPad, follow these steps:

On your Mac:

Choose Apple menu () > System Settings (or System Preferences).
Click Displays.
If using macOS Ventura or later, click the Advanced button at the bottom of the settings window.
Turn on “Allow your pointer and keyboard to move between any nearby Mac or iPad.”
Leave the other Universal Control settings turned on for now.
Click Done.
Next, click Add Display.

On your iPad:

Launch the Settings app on your iPad.
Tap General in the sidebar.
Tap AirPlay & Handoff in the menu window.
Toggle on the switch next to Cursor and Keyboard.

Once you have enabled Universal Control on both your Mac and iPad, they will automatically connect to each other when they are within range. Now you can use your cursor and keyboard between devices.

How to Use Fastmail’s Auto-Purge Folders

Fastmail has folders that can auto-purge emails? This feature lets you automatically delete messages from a folder after a certain amount of time. I’ve found it to be a great way to manage notification emails that I want to keep for a while, but not forever.

Here’a how to set up an auto-purge folder:

Go to the Settings page in Fastmail.
Click on the Folders tab.
Find the folder that you want to set up auto-purge for.
Click on the Edit button.
Scroll down to the Automated Actions section.
Check the box next to Auto-purge this folder on a selected date.
Select the number of days after which you want the messages to be deleted.
Click on the Save button.

That’s it! Once you’ve set up a folder with auto-purge, any messages that are older than the specified number of days will be automatically deleted.

Click here to try Fastmail for Free for 30 Days: 30 Day Free Trial

Apple Notes gets a productivity boost in iOS and iPadOS 17

Hey friends, Apple Notes is one of the best note-taking apps for iPhone and iPad, with features like nested folders and tags for organization, support for rich-text formatting, Apple Pencil support on iPad, a built-in document scanner, and more. With the iOS 17 update, the Notes app has received several new features you will love but there are four that I’m really looking forward to using:

Notes Linking: This will help me keep my notes organized and interconnected.
PDF Editing: Annotating and marking up PDFs right in my notes is a game-changer. I’ll no longer need a third-party app.
Undo/Redo Buttons: Making corrections will now be a breeze. No more three-finger swipe.
Block Quotes: Perfect for emphasizing important text or citing sources.

For an in depth review of all the new features, I recommend watching Christopher Lawley’s How I Use Apple Notes: iPad Productivity YouTube video.

Published first to ldstephens.me – September 23, 2023

Streamline Your Ulysses Journaling with a Quick-Add Shortcut

Hello friends. This post is for Ulysses enthusiasts! I’ve recently found a way to speedup my journaling workflow within Ulysses. Not only am I using it for my regular writing, but I’ve also adopted it for my Monthly Journal. I wanted to be able to add journal entries swiftly, without the need to navigate through Ulysses menus. So, here’s a Shortcut I hacked together for the Mac:

Here’s how it works:

1. Input Prompt: It starts by prompting you for the text you want to enter.

2. Format Selection: Next, it allows you to choose the format for your entry, whether it’s plain text, markdown, or HTML.

3. Position Selection: It then asks where you’d like to position the text within the sheet, whether at the beginning or end.

That’s it! To keep my entries consistent, I created two Keyboard Maestro text snippets:

For Monthly Journal Headings:

2023–10: Monthly Journal

For New Entry Headings:

23 October 2023 02:58 PM

This setup has significantly boosted my Ulysses journaling experience, making it quick, efficient and uniform.

So, if you’re a Ulysses user, don’t hesitate to give this shortcut a try.

Published first to Medium – October 23, 2023

Why I Made the Switch from Apple Reminders to GoodTask

I heavily relied on Things to manage my daily tasks for quite some time. It’s an app that many of us are familiar with and trust. However, as my needs evolved, I found myself turning to Apple Reminders for a change. But it wasn’t long before I realized I needed more functionality, and that’s where GoodTask came into the picture. GoodTask is a powerful task management tool that builds upon Apple’s Reminders app and seamlessly integrates with your calendars as well.

Here are a few things that make GoodTask work for me:

GoodTask takes task organization to a whole new level. Its Custom Smart Lists feature allows me to sort tasks based on my specific criteria. Whether it’s prioritizing, categorizing, or customizing the view, GoodTask offers a high degree of flexibility. You can choose to view your tasks as traditional lists or opt for a Kanban-style board.

In addition, you can create subtasks, attach tags to your tasks, and set customizable deadlines complete with alerts. And Quick Actions and Shortcuts simplify the automation of routine tasks.

While Apple Reminders is a solid choice for basic task management, GoodTask’s exceptional customization options and advanced capabilities have allowed me to make my task manager function exactly as I want it to.

Published to ldstephens.me – September 25, 2023

xSearch: A Safari extension for improved searching on iPhone and iPad

Every day, while using my iPad, I often stumble upon new apps that help me be more productive. Take, for example, my Mac setup – I’ve got Alfred triggers that speed up searches on certain websites. These websites usually have a predictable URL structure for search results, making automation pretty easy. With Alfred, you can set up the URL, add your search terms, and boom, you’re searching away. You can kinda do something similar with Shortcuts on iOS and iPadOS, but it’s not as smooth because it doesn’t work directly from the address bar.

With xSearch, you can set up the same sort of thing inside the address bar. xSearch is an iOS and iPadOS Safari extension that allows you to seamlessly switch between multiple search engines with ease, and even search directly from Spotlight. This can make your browsing experience more efficient and.

Here are some of the features of xSearch:

Switch between multiple search engines with ease: You can add as many search engines as you want to xSearch, and then switch between them.
Search directly from Spotlight: You can also use xSearch to search directly from Spotlight, without having to open Safari first.
Custom search prefixes: You can create custom search prefixes for each search engine. For example, you could set up a prefix of “g” to search Google, and a prefix of “ddg” to search DuckDuckGo.
Shortcuts: You can also create shortcuts for frequently searched terms. For example, you could create a shortcut for “weather” that would search for the weather in your current location.

xSearch is a paid app on the App Store, priced at only $1.99.

I hope this app boosts your iPhone and iPad productivity!

Published first to ldstephens.me – September 10, 2023

Everything you need to know about Apple Notes

Hey friends, Apple Notes has come a long way and has become a really powerful app. It’s the app that I use for long-term reference documents and quick capture. If you’re not using Apple Notes it is worth a fresh look. And even if you are using Notes you’re going to want to check out Josh Ginter’s article the “The Ultimate Guide to Apple Notes”.

In his article, Josh discusses how Notes has grown in functionality to become a top note-taking app for Apple devices. He covers its formatting options, such as titles, headers, lists, and more. The Convert to Pages feature allows easy migration of complex notes. Tables, links, images, videos, and PDFs can be added to notes. Quick Notes enable efficient capturing across iOS devices. Notes can be collaborated on with iCloud users. Security features like locking notes and text recognition enhance privacy. Notes can be organized with tags, folders, and Smart Folders. Seamless search capabilities, sharing, and pinned notes for quick access are also available. You can check out the full guide here.

A Magic Mouse transformed my iPad use

Integrating a Magic Mouse into my iPad Pro setup has been a total game-changer. Being iPad first, this transition has significantly improved my workflow.

I’ve always leaned towards using a mouse over a trackpad for precision and familiarity, and bringing the Magic Mouse into the equation took my iPad experience to a whole new level. It’s more than convenience; it’s a completely redefined interaction. The pinpoint accuracy and seamless control a mouse offers has elevated how I navigate and engage with my iPad’s interface. The mouse enhances my productivity across tasks like drafting content, researching, and managing multiple apps.

If you’re a fellow tech enthusiast seeking a fresh way to engage with your iPad, a mouse can transform your efficiency and overall experience.

How Devonthink found the files Finder couldn’t

Recently, I have needed to find some important files that were a few years old. I had forgotten the names of the files, but of course I knew the content of the files and I knew they were on my iCloud Drive. Finder didn’t find the files, no matter how many ways I searched.

I remembered that I had recently indexed my entire iCloud Drive in Devonthink. Devonthink’s search capabilities are far superior to Finder. Devonthink doesn’t rely on the traditional search approach that Finder uses. It takes it to a different level by cataloging filenames as well as deeply analyzing the content and context of documents. This means that the system understands the actual content within your files, allowing for highly accurate and relevant search results.

And of course, Devonthink easily found all the files that I was looking for.

Devonthink is a Mac app that can be downloaded for free from the DEVONtechnologies website. There’s a free trial period of 30 days or 150 hours of runtime, whichever is later. And it’s also a one-time purchase and not a subscription.

Pocket Mac app is shutting down, but there’s a great Mac alternative Instapaper

Mozilla shutting down Pocket app for Mac, recommends installing iOS app – 9to5Mac

Mozilla has announced today that its read-it-later service Pocket will be retiring its Mac app this month. Users are encouraged to install the iOS app on their Mac or use the web going forward. Here’s when and why Mozilla is shutting it down.

This is bad news for Mac users who rely on Pocket to save articles for later. But there is a great alternative: Instapaper. Instapaper is a read-it-later app that has been around for over a decade and I’ve used it since 2016.

Instapaper has a lot of great features, such as:

Offline reading: You can read articles offline, even if you don’t have an internet connection.
Organization: You can organize your articles into folders.
Customization: You can customize the look and feel of Instapaper to your liking.
Syncing: Your articles are synced across all your devices, so you can always pick up where you left off.
Sharing: You can share your highlights and notes to other apps as markdown, plain text, or HTML. This is my favorite feature!

If you’re looking for a great Mac read-it-later app, I highly recommend Instapaper. It’s a great replacement for Pocket Mac, and it’s available for free.

I hope this helps!

Shortcuts in Slide Over: A must-have for iPad power users

I’ve been using my M2 iPad Pro as my main computing device for a while now, and I’m really loving it. I’ve figured out how to do most of the things I used to do on my Mac on my iPad, and I’ve even found a few tricks that have made me even more productive.

One of my favorite tricks is using Shortcuts in Slide Over. This lets me have quick access to my most used shortcuts without having to switch apps. I’ve put my clipboard manager app in Slide Over too, so I can easily copy and paste text without having to leave the app I’m working in.

To access Shortcuts in Slide Over, I just press the globe + backslash keys on my keyboard. This brings up a list of my shortcuts, and I can tap on the one I want to run. It’s so quick and easy, and it’s really helped me to streamline my workflow.

If you’re an iPad user, I highly recommend giving this trick a try. It’s a great way to save time and be more productive.

Here are a couple of specific examples of how I use Shortcuts in Slide Over:

I have a shortcut that copies the current date and time. This is great for when I need to add a timestamp to a document or email.
I have another shortcut that has a list snippets of text that I often use. You could say this is my textexpander for iPadOS.

I’m sure there are many other ways to use Shortcuts in Slide Over. The possibilities are endless!