{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Productivity on Jamie Thingelstad", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2025/14/1545.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/", "feed_url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/10/15/i-added-a-new-upcoming.html", "content_html": "

I added a new Upcoming feature to Release Notes:

\n
\n

Release Notes now has a new section for what’s coming next. In Upcoming you can save birthdays, anniversaries, trips, and one-time events. You can choose when you would like these events to show up in your Release Notes. Trips include a destination with a start and end date. All of these upcoming events are private to only you.

\n
\n

I’m having a lot of fun journaling each days version.

\n", "date_published": "2026-10-15T21:21:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/10/15/i-added-a-new-upcoming.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/10/08/in-i-wrote-about-your.html", "content_html": "

In 2018 I wrote about Your Version Number. A few months ago I made a website for it (including a work edition). Then I thought “I wish I got my version number in email” and what if you could add notes for each version!

\n

Release Notes

\n

This is brand new today. Let me know what you think!

\n", "date_published": "2026-10-08T19:55:35-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/10/08/in-i-wrote-about-your.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/10/04/i-was-inspired-by-the.html", "content_html": "

I was inspired by the time analysis I had Claude do last week on what it took to send the Weekly Thing so I decided to build in some additional logging and a better visualization. Now I get a report like this for each issue I send. WT352 showed some benefits from my new automation! 🪄

\n\"Stats\n", "date_published": "2026-10-04T21:17:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/10/04/i-was-inspired-by-the.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","AI","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/09/26/i-realized-i-could-probably.html", "content_html": "

I realized I could probably get a data point I’ve never been able to from WT Builder: how long does it take for me to create the Weekly Thing? Turns out I can now answer that. Additionally, I can now evaluate features on how they improve my workflow and time required.

\n\"Table\n", "date_published": "2026-09-26T17:17:49-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/09/26/i-realized-i-could-probably.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/06/15/with-some-trepidation-im-taking.html", "content_html": "

With some trepidation I’m taking my third try with Obsidian. This time with the promise of using it in collaboration with various agents. We’ll see how this works. Obsidian being primarily used by Agents may actually be a worthwhile path.

\n", "date_published": "2026-06-15T21:25:08-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/06/15/with-some-trepidation-im-taking.html", "tags": ["Productivity","AI"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/05/23/a-pattern-ive-adopted-when.html", "content_html": "

A pattern I’ve adopted when I’m heavily engaged with Claude Code or Codex is to have an open text file where I’m keeping the “next prompts” that I’m considering. While the agent is working I’m continuing to refine these so we are ready to move to the next feature or task.

\n", "date_published": "2026-05-23T08:50:52-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/05/23/a-pattern-ive-adopted-when.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity","AI"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/05/12/the-weekly-thing-team.html", "title": "The Weekly Thing Team", "content_html": "

I’ve been publishing the Weekly Thing for nine years and automation is one of the things that has made that possible. I shared a while back how I find content, assemble the issues, and my project structure. Without these well defined workflows there is no way I could continue this project.

\n

The structure I have has worked well but it isn’t autonomous. It only runs when I engage with it. It is also brittle and “one way”. I can only easily run it one time. Additionally I think I could use some help getting things collected and reviewing the in process writing.

\n

To this end I decided to create my support team for the Weekly Thing!

\n

My starting points were:

\n\n

This is the genesis of my Workshop and the four agent team that I have now created to assist me.

\n

One thing worth being clear about: I have stated many times that “My words are mine!” and not AI’s and that is still the case. I don’t have any of these agents working to write content for me. They are my support team. The words are still mine. The only case where an LLM is “writing” or engaging with anyone is Thingy, the librarian for the Weekly Thing, and the Supporting Membership program where I have an explicit preference that that be a different voice than mine.

\n

Here is the broad outline of the multi-agent solution that allows me to have dedicated agents that focus on different aspects of publishing the newsletter each week. This allows me to focus more on writing and commentary!

\n

Each of these agents are operating with a full set of tools that include the entire archive of the Weekly Thing. As a result they are much more tuned to the job at hand than a generic LLM.

\n\n

I’m focused mostly on Eddy and Linky right now as they are core to my authoring cycle. I can already see that this is going to allow me to focus on the content more, will be a quality of life improvement to get more incremental content and less scrambling at the end of the publishing cycle, as well as a more readable final email to subscribers.

\n", "date_published": "2026-05-12T21:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/05/12/the-weekly-thing-team.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Featured","Productivity","AI","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/04/12/my-first-meaningful-print-with.html", "content_html": "

My first meaningful print with the new Bambu P2S is a Gridfinity setup for my office desk. The grid is down and now I’m populating with various bins. There are so many options and the Bambu P2S prints things effortlessly. This may be showing up in more drawers soon.

\n\"Open\n", "date_published": "2026-04-12T19:55:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/04/12/my-first-meaningful-print-with.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/03/30/there-is-engagement-to-be.html", "content_html": "

There is engagement to be harvested at the extremes of everything.

\n", "date_published": "2026-03-30T06:56:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/03/30/there-is-engagement-to-be.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/03/03/i-just-learned-that-you.html", "content_html": "

I just learned that you can register a Shortcut in Unread to create your own actions for feed items. This is huge for my workflows! 🤯🥳

\n", "date_published": "2026-03-03T11:12:35-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/03/03/i-just-learned-that-you.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/12/30/it-seems-nearly-every-platform.html", "content_html": "

It seems nearly every platform does a “wrapped” or year-in-review thing now. Only some of them are interesting to me. Sanebox did what these should do by explaining the value I’m getting from the service.

\n\"SaneBox\n", "date_published": "2025-12-30T13:12:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/12/30/it-seems-nearly-every-platform.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/12/07/add-to-list-shortcut.html", "title": "Add to List Shortcut", "content_html": "

OmniFocus is my trusted system for tracking all of my commitments, as well as my “someday, maybes” and a number of other lists that I have. A while back I started using a set of “Idea Lists” that work really well for me to capture things like books to consider, shows to watch, restaurants to visit, gift ideas, and whatever else. These lists are a form of a “someday, maybe” because they are not actionable, but they are very specific to a thing where someday buckets are broader.

\n

I want to make it as simple as possible to get things into these lists so I made one of my most simple and frequently used Shortcuts — “Add to List”. I find this super helpful and thought I would share. It relies on you have a Folder in OmniFocus where you keep these kind of lists. The magic is that it makes it super easy to capture into the right list and stay in the flow of what you are working on. For me, having it display a menu of lists and being integrated into the share sheet removes a lot of friction.

\n

You can add the Add to List shortcut.

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2025-12-07T09:19:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/12/07/add-to-list-shortcut.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/11/22/i-dont-know-when-or.html", "content_html": "

I don’t know when or what app did this but I finally purged a bunch of Twitter “profile” values from my Contacts database. Little housecleaning. Related.

\n", "date_published": "2025-11-22T10:18:02-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/11/22/i-dont-know-when-or.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/11/16/galls-law.html", "title": "Gall's Law", "content_html": "

I was listening to The Omni Show — How Jorge Arango Uses OmniFocus. It was an overall good episode and at the end Arango shared a reference to Gall’s Law. I had not heard of this before so I looked it up:

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\n

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.

\n
\n

Arango was sharing this in reference to GTD systems — build a simple system that works and then figure out what you need from there. But I keep coming back to this because I think this happens in software and technology frequently.

\n

I’ve been thinking about big enterprise system changes that companies have to make and the huge challenge that you face is really fighting Gall’s Law. These systems are always complex and due to the domain you cannot start simple — you have to start complex.

\n

Gall’s Law is worth keeping in mind.

\n", "date_published": "2025-11-16T18:41:56-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/11/16/galls-law.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity","Work"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/10/18/tammy-led-the-way-while.html", "content_html": "

Tammy led the way while we all helped and the shed is in better shape than it ever has been! I didn’t get a before picture — but you could not see any of the floor before.

\n\"Organized\n", "date_published": "2025-10-18T17:49:30-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/10/18/tammy-led-the-way-while.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Home"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/10/05/im-using-the-new-use.html", "content_html": "

I’m using the new Use Model capability in Shortcuts to bring My Version number to life on my phone each morning. The prompt is still off — too software focused and not enough zen. But I like where this is going and how easy it is to create.

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2025-10-05T08:30:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/10/05/im-using-the-new-use.html", "tags": ["Productivity","AI"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/09/21/use-apple-intelligence-models-in.html", "title": "Use Apple Intelligence Models in Shortcuts", "content_html": "

Shortcuts on OS 26 got a big new feature with the ability to use Apple Intelligence models directly. I’ve already had a taste of this by using OpenAI API calls in Shortcuts to add LLM capabilities. You can see how I’m using AI in the Weekly Thing for some examples. Accessing LLM capabilities from Shortcuts is a very powerful capability for various automations. I love how easy this now is with Apple Intelligence.

\n

To compare, this is how I did it with direct calls to the OpenAI API.

\n\"Apple\n

There is a lot of fussy stuff to do to get keys, pass dictionaries around, get the specific values, etc. And actually this is hiding the hardest of it all. If you expand that Get Contents of URL action you’ll see this.

\n\"Shortcuts\n

No way anyone without programming background is going to do this successfully. On top of it, my method for doing this is really brittle and prone to errors. I’m not catching all the possible API responses and if there is a problem it will just bail.

\n

I’m also just kind of hoping that the response is JSON and I can marshal it into a variable. It works, but the prompt has to be right and you’ll see I’m handling that in the API call.

\n

So, how about with Apple Intelligence and the built-in integration? Night and day difference.

\n\"Apple\n

Of course it is easier but it is so much easier. And one of the big wins is the output format. You can just tell it what you would like to get back. This avoids a ton of prompt engineering and parsing.

\n

The only thing I lose with all this complexity is the ability to do a system message. For all of my use cases this hasn’t mattered at all. I just merged the system message into the prompt.

\n

This is so easy I would encourage a lot of experimentation to pull AI into your automation.

\n", "date_published": "2025-09-21T09:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/09/21/use-apple-intelligence-models-in.html", "tags": ["Productivity","AI","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/09/12/im-slowly-starting-to-adopt.html", "content_html": "

I’m slowly starting to adopt the new Planned Date in OmniFocus 4.7. At a minimum it will reduce the use of a “Today” tag. I already use Due Dates sparingly but can now use them even less. The combination of Planned and Defer Dates are good enough for most things.

\n", "date_published": "2025-09-12T16:18:09-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/09/12/im-slowly-starting-to-adopt.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/07/05/fun-using-poaprss-and-feeding.html", "content_html": "

Had fun using POAP2RSS and feeding through Make with Claude doing some creative for me and then syndicating to 612 POAP Challenge accounts on Mastodon and Bluesky. Whew!

\n", "date_published": "2025-07-05T16:36:20-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/07/05/fun-using-poaprss-and-feeding.html", "tags": ["POAP","612 POAP Challenge","POAP2RSS","Productivity","AI"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/05/22/omnivore-announced-they-were-shutting.html", "content_html": "

Omnivore announced they were shutting down last October, but it wasn’t until this week I saw a group of Omnivore addresses subscribed to the Weekly Thing bounce. Seems they turned off the email addresses now.

\n", "date_published": "2025-05-22T17:34:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/05/22/omnivore-announced-they-were-shutting.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/05/06/how-to-newsletter-lessons-from.html", "title": "How to Newsletter: Lessons from 300 Issues of the Weekly Thing", "content_html": "\n

This is an article version of the presentation I gave at Minnebar 19 on How to Newsletter.

\n

To create this I used Whisper Memos on my iPhone to capture the transcription. I did some general editing to remove some preamble and ad hoc dialog, did a read through to correct any obvious issues, and added images for each of my slides. I then asked GPT o3 to use the transcription to create an article using this prompt:

\n
\n

I have a raw transcript of a talk. Please convert it into a well-structured written article that preserves the speaker’s voice, tone, and all content exactly as it was spoken–do not omit or add anything. Improve readability by correcting grammar and sentence flow, organizing content into appropriate paragraphs, and inserting section breaks that follow the speaker’s original structure. Do not turn this into a summary or reinterpret the ideas. Use images from the transcript as section markers when available. Maintain the informal, personal tone of the speaker throughout.

\n\n
\n

With a proofread here is that version of this presentation.

\n\n\"A\n

What I wanted to talk about is “How To Newsletter.” I’ve been sending a newsletter now for eight years, and I’ve learned a lot in that process. I thought it’d be fun to share that knowledge. I actually planned to do this session in 2023–so if you’re thinking, “Didn’t he already do this?”–I had to cancel it that year. Now we’re two years later, and I’ve got two more years of learnings and 50 more issues of my newsletter under my belt.

\n

As I put this talk together, I realized it’s not just about how to newsletter. It could also be about how to run a complex side project, or how to consistently do something for eight years. It’s also about how to apply automation to make that kind of work easier. So, depending on what you’re looking for, you might take away more than just newsletter tips–this is also about managing a long-term, detailed endeavor.

\n\"A\n

First, who am I? I’m Jamie Thingelstad. I’m a passionate technologist. I’ve been into tech since I was a kid, started programming BASIC on a TRS-80–you can figure out my age from that–and I’ve always loved building things. I’ve had a 20+ year career as a Chief Technology Officer, came into the field as the web was being born, built a couple of companies, and eventually started building things with groups to do even bigger work.

\n

I’m on the board of the Minnesota Technology Association and previously served on the board of Minnestar. I live in Minneapolis with my wonderful family. I’ve also been a blogger for 20+ years–which plays a big role when we talk about newsletters–and I’ve been publishing The Weekly Thing for eight years now.

\n\"The\n

Why a newsletter? What led me to start The Weekly Thing? The image here shows the very first issue from May 13, 2007–it looked totally different from current issues. The one shown here is issue 316 from two weeks ago.

\n

Back in 2017, newsletters were having a moment. People were launching them, companies were seeing them as a way to go directly to inboxes and bypass platforms. That intrigued me. I’d been blogging for over a decade and wanted to play with the newsletter medium. But then came the question: what would I put in it?

\n

I’ve always been a voracious consumer of online content. I used bookmarking services like del.icio.us (anyone remember that?) and later Pinboard. My first bookmark is from August 2005. At one point, I thought about making a link blog, but it didn’t vibe with me. So I combined that impulse with the newsletter idea and decided I’d curate and share content I found interesting each week.

\n

Importantly, I ignored most of the newsletter “growth hacks.” I’m cynical about stuff like that. I just wanted to share good content, without any tricks. I didn’t have a specific topic, but I committed to doing it for a year. Now, eight years later, it’s still a fun and meaningful project, and I feel like I’m giving back by sharing useful information.

\n\"A\n

The first thing I had to solve: how do I find content? For me, it’s RSS. I’m a huge fan. I don’t get content from social media–it’s all RSS feeds and readers like Feedbin and Unread. No algorithms. I scan headlines efficiently and ask one question: is this interesting?

\n

If yes, it goes into my Safari Reading List. From there, I narrow it down–maybe 100 items become 10. Then I read them more closely. The final step is saving them to Pinboard, my bookmarking tool. It’s super fast, hasn’t seen a new feature in a decade, and that’s totally fine. I also tag links there to mark if they’re a “featured item” or just a “brief.” That tagging helps structure my newsletter.

\n

I also blog every week and include a photo I’ve taken that week–no cheating from the archive! That addition pushes my creative side and makes each issue more personal.

\n\"A\n

Now let’s talk about workflow. You can’t just have one OmniFocus task that says “Send newsletter”–there’s way too much involved. I’ve practiced GTD (Getting Things Done) for over a decade, and I use OmniFocus with TaskPaper templates.

\n

Each issue is a full project, with variables like the issue number and date. I run a Shortcut that sets the new issue, defines the date, the range of days it covers, and then creates a project in OmniFocus. I like templates more than repeating projects because they let me make adjustments for each issue.

\n

There are four main phases: create content, curate content, build it, and finalize it. And I spend very little time on the assembly because almost all of it is automated.

\n\"A\n

The key tool for automation? Shortcuts. You have it on your iPhone and Mac. I’ve built dozens of Shortcuts to run everything from creating sections to finalizing output. Each section returns Markdown. One Shortcut runs the list, combines them, and boom–newsletter built.

\n\"A\n

Here’s how it works. One main Shortcut runs an array of other Shortcuts. Each returns a Markdown section like intro, quote, featured, currently, etc. They can pull from APIs, my blog (via RSS), Pinboard, and Drafts. I store shared data in Data Jar–a kind of lightweight, shared memory for Shortcuts.

\n

So when I say “build the issue,” it runs each section, combines the results, and I’ve got a finished draft ready to go. All of this is lightweight–no Python, no compiling, just using built-in tools.

\n\"The\n

Here’s my toolchain and why I use each part:

\n\n

Each piece of this toolchain plays a role. They’re like instruments in an orchestra, and together, they make this weekly project sustainable and honestly kind of delightful to run.

\n\"A\n

Let’s talk AI. I don’t use it to write for me–I’m protective of my voice. But there are areas where it helps. One is creating the subject line. I give it instructions: avoid publication names, maybe use alliteration, avoid negative terms, and be fun. Then it suggests five options. I pick the one I like–or modify it.

\n

I also use AI to generate a fortune at the end of each issue, based on that week’s themes. And the Supporting Membership emails? Those are written in a different voice, and I let AI take more control there. It’s actually kind of fun to create a character out of that voice–something that feels separate from me.

\n\"A\n

Sustainability over eight years requires boundaries. I cut off new content Friday night, giving me time to assemble and write. I also build buffers–if I miss Saturday, it goes Sunday.

\n

And I take real breaks: July and August, plus mid-December through mid-January. These breaks keep me from burning out. I think I’d have quit long ago if I didn’t step away like that.

\n

And this is a big one–I don’t look at analytics. I don’t track opens or clicks. I don’t want to be influenced by what gets engagement. I’m doing this to share what I find valuable. I don’t want to chase metrics. Every week, some people unsubscribe. Every week, new people join. That’s the rhythm. And it’s okay.

\n\"A\n

I’ve also treated the newsletter like a playground. During the pandemic, I raised over $12,000 for Second Harvest in Weekly Thing 141. I’ve tried launching a forum using Ponder. Community engagement is tough, especially via email. People see a newsletter as a message, not a conversation starter.

\n

And I’ve started Supporting Memberships. Each year, I pick a nonprofit to support. This year, it’s Creative Commons–we’re on track to raise around $560. Next year I’m thinking Electronic Frontier Foundation.

\n\"A\n

So, some final thoughts:

\n

Automate the drudgery. Save your energy for your words. Really preserve your voice. I do some spellcheck with AI, but I avoid grammar checks–they over-correct and erase personality. I’ll ask AI to point out unclear sections, but I always make the edits myself.

\n

And if you’re thinking about doing this, start small. A newsletter doesn’t have to be forever. You could do one for a project, or a trip. Newsletters are a great medium–no platform noise, no algorithm drama. Just you and your readers.

\n

And if you want to subscribe, head over to Weekly Thing. The eighth anniversary edition is coming up soon–and yes, there’s a POAP for that too.

\n

That’s all I’ve got. Happy to take any questions!

\n

Related Articles

\n

Further reading…

\n\n", "date_published": "2025-05-06T20:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/05/06/how-to-newsletter-lessons-from.html", "tags": ["Minnestar","Weekly Thing","Software Development","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/03/24/i-would-like-to-create.html", "content_html": "

I would like to create blog posts from some workouts. It seems like something that Shortcuts should make possible but I’ve not seen anything to make it easier to do. Is anyone familiar with something that does this? I’d like a map and statistics in the posts.

\n", "date_published": "2025-03-24T18:23:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/03/24/i-would-like-to-create.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/03/23/the-llm-functions-ive-built.html", "content_html": "

The LLM functions I’ve built for the Weekly Thing have worked really well. So well in fact that I’m redoing my Shortcuts to move from simple calls to the ChatGPT app to using the OpenAI API directly. This has the added benefit of additional fine tuning including optimized system messages. 👨‍💻

\n", "date_published": "2025-03-23T09:23:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/03/23/the-llm-functions-ive-built.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","AI"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/03/09/how-i-use-ai-in.html", "title": "How I Use AI in the Weekly Thing", "content_html": "

I’ve been working with AI for a while now, and as I feel with all new technologies, the best way to learn them is to play with them. I’ve started to bring AI into my workflow for the Weekly Thing and thought it would be good to share specifically where and how I’m using it.

\n

Before I get into the specifics, I want to make one thing clear: AI does not create the content of the Weekly Thing. I don’t use it to summarize articles or generate any of the comments I make on them. It is critically important to me that I use my voice and that what I share is my voice. I am using AI as an assistant rather than a creator. If I had someone else helping me assemble the Weekly Thing as an assistant, where would that be helpful? Where would that assistant do a better job than me? Or where might it be desirable to have “another voice” in the mix?

\n

Right now I’m doing all this with a ChatGPT subscription using the 4o models. It is great that the ChatGPT app supports Shortcuts so I can do all of this in a largely or completely automated way. I could easily swap Claude in if I wish as it also supports Shortcuts automation.

\n

With that in mind, here is where I’m using LLM capabilities now. You’ll note that in many of these cases I’m asking my “assistant” to generate options and then I’m doing the final selection and modifications. I think this is a good model.

\n

Subject

\n

The subject follows a simple structure of “Weekly Thing «Number» / «Word», «Word», «Word»”. These three words are selected from the titles of the links in each issue. I try to select triples that are interesting and engaging. The challenge is avoiding words from the website’s name, which appear inconsistently in article titles.

\n

Here is the prompt I’m using for this:

\n
\n

You are a great editor and are helping me create the subject line for issue «Issue Number» of the Weekly Thing. The subject line follows a template with the number of this issue followed by three comma-separated words that are picked from the titles of the links contained in this issue. For example, “Weekly Thing 234 / Blogging, Bitcoin, Bison”.

\n

Guidelines for picking great words include:

\n\n

Please identify five options for subject lines. Each option should include three words from these titles. The three words are separated by commas. Return the list of options as JSON.

\n

List of titles for this week are:

\n

«List of titles»

\n
\n

The prompt requests valid JSON output. I extract the JSON and use the “Get Dictionary from Input” method to create a structured data object. This allows me to put the LLM completely behind the scenes.

\n

Fortune

\n

The fortune first showed up in Weekly Thing 53 and has been the last thing in the emails for a while. I got the inspiration for this from the fortune command in Unix. The text files that serve as the “database” for fortune are easy enough to find, and building a Shortcut around them was simple. I randomly select fortunes until I find one I like.

\n

But with an LLM, I thought — why not make the fortune relevant to each issue’s content?

\n

Here is the prompt that I’m using for this.

\n
\n

You are helping me create a fitting fortune for issue «Issue Number» of the Weekly Thing. The fortune is similar to what you may get inside of a fortune cookie. The best fortunes are light-hearted, humorous, and thought provoking for the reader. The fortune is one of the last items included in each issue of the Weekly Thing.

\n

Guidelines for creating great fortunes:

\n\n

Please identify five options for fortunes. Return the list of fortunes as a JSON object.

\n

List of titles for this week are:

\n

«List of Link Titles»

\n
\n

This also returns a list of options. They are impressively good and it does a great job pulling in themes from the links in each issue.

\n

Byline

\n

The “byline” is the first sentence in the email. Over time, its role has evolved. Initially, it was a reminder of why you’re receiving the email. Then I used a template to mechanically describe what was in the email. I’ve always desired this to be an “intro” to the links in the issue but it is difficult to do that. It is also a rare place in the email where I want it to be a “different voice”. Ideally this is more of a second person voice describing what is included.

\n

To generate a meaningful byline, I provide more than just article titles — I also include my commentary. I focus only on featured links, skipping the “briefly” section.

\n

Here is the prompt I’m using:

\n
\n

Please generate a single sentence description using the list of articles below. This description will be used as the first line of an email to introduce these items along with other things. Please provide 3 options.

\n\n

Do not include any explanations, numbering, or formatting. Just provide each option on a line by itself like this:

\n

option
\noption
\noption

\n

Here is the list of article titles with commentary.

\n

«List of Featured Links Only with Commentary»

\n
\n

This one still requires a bit more editing from me before I’m ready to use it, and I think that will always be the case. So rather than returning JSON I just get it to put the options in text and then I present it in the Shortcut for editing and refinement to finalize it.

\n

Supporting Members

\n

The newest section where I’m using AI, and a new section to the email itself is in the Supporting Members segment. This is a new thing where we raise funds for digital non-profits as a community. This is the section where I rely on AI the most, without requesting multiple versions. I’m okay, and actually kind of prefer, this to be in a different voice than mine.

\n

To generate this section, I pull data from Buttondown and Stripe and do some quick calendar math to provide the LLM with context. This is then embedded into to two different prompts that generate the two “versions” of this section.

\n

Here is the prompt to become a member:

\n
\n

You are a pleasant membership expert. Please write a call to action to encourage a reader of the Weekly Thing to become a Supporting Member. Some data to use for the call to action:

\n\n

Remember to highlight that all of the money raised goes to the non-profit. Keep it fresh and fun. Limit to one paragraph. Do not include the pricing and subscription options. Do not add any links. That will be handled elsewhere.

\n
\n

Here is the prompt for existing members:

\n
\n

You are a grateful newsletter author. Please write a THANK YOU for being a Supporting Member. Some data to use for the note:

\n\n

Remember to highlight that all of the money raised goes to the non-profit. Keep it fresh and fun. Limit to one paragraph and thank them for being part of it.

\n
\n

This is a new addition, but early tests look promising. This is also interesting because the LLM knows what Creative Commons is and can infer some additional context for the messaging. It is different with each run which will keep the messaging fresh.

\n

Overall Editing

\n

The most recent AI addition to my workflow is final editing. Here I take the draft generated through my automation and I send it for review. I do a brief review of each email but honestly I never review it that much. Most of the time, what I send is my first draft — straight from the keyboard. As a result, typos get through or simple grammar issues that I wish were caught. I’ve considered Grammarly before, but it’s too thorough and over-edits my work. I want a very specific kind of review.

\n

Here is the prompt I’m using. Note the specifics on what I don’t want it to do.

\n
\n

Below is a draft of the «Subject». Please review it to find any typos or notable grammar mistakes. Do not follow any of the hyperlinks or suggest meaningful content modifications. Ignore text in the blockquotes.

\n
\n

«Body Markdown»

\n
\n

This works okay but it unfortunately is at the very end of my workflow. The challenge is that fixing errors requires updating two places: the email draft and the original blog post or Pinboard entry. That isn’t ideal but it is better than nothing and hopefully will reduce the number of silly errors that get all the way through.

\n

I ran this on my draft of Weekly Thing 312 as a test and it found 16 edits. 🤦‍♂️

\n", "date_published": "2025-03-09T10:04:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/03/09/how-i-use-ai-in.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","AI","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/03/02/sync-omnifocus-with-shortcut-automation.html", "title": "Sync OmniFocus with Shortcut Automation", "content_html": "

OmniFocus 4.5.2 shipped recently and with it was this little snippet in the release notes.

\n
\n

Shortcuts — Sync OmniFocus action has been added.

\n
\n

This caught my eye and I was sort of looking for it. When I listened to Omni Group’s 2025 Roadmap on the Omni Show Ken Case made a reference to creating an automation to sync his OmniFocus tasks. I thought that was a great idea and tried to figure out how to make that work and didn’t find an easy way to do it. When I saw this new Shortcut action I connected the dots. Case was referring to a not-yet-released version.

\n

Now why would you want such an action? OmniFocus sync is super capable for me. I’ve never had it lose data and it is super stable. With that said, when a device gets very far behind, meaning it hasn’t been synced for days or weeks, the “log of updates” gets longer and longer. This causes sync to get slower on all your devices and the device that is out-of-date takes longer to get caught up. To be fair, none of this really impacts my user experience more than a couple seconds but I like to keep my devices in sync and ready to go.

\n

This is where less often used devices become an issue. I regularly will go a couple of days without using my iPad. And my Vision Pro may go a week or two in between sessions. Both of these devices have OmniFocus natively and the sync backlog could get long — particularly on the Vision Pro. Using this Shortcut along with a time-based Automation this is no longer anything to be concerned with. Now early in the morning before I’m up my iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro automatically sync OmniFocus and are ready for each day. No long “log of updates” and when I do go to them it is super fast to get caught up.

\n

Now if I could only do a Shortcut Automation like this on my Apple Watch. That is the last device I have that routinely gets very behind, and sync to OmniFocus on the Watch is slow. I’m sure Omni is working on that!

\n\"A\n", "date_published": "2025-03-02T10:13:23-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/03/02/sync-omnifocus-with-shortcut-automation.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/17/i-suspect-the-reason-apple.html", "content_html": "

I suspect the reason Apple Intelligence mail categories are only supported on the iPhone is at least in part because of the difficulty with synchronizing that state across multiple devices. Feels similar to People identification in Photos at first, but Apple can’t control the backend on email.

\n", "date_published": "2025-01-17T09:01:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/17/i-suspect-the-reason-apple.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/16/ive-used-sanebox-for-a.html", "content_html": "

I’ve used Sanebox for a decade to defer emails, but now I’m trying Fastmail and I’m realizing how nice it is to be able to individually specify a defer time per email instead of just having two or three options as folders. Downside is I can only defer in the Fastmail clients.

\n", "date_published": "2025-01-16T21:57:52-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/16/ive-used-sanebox-for-a.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/14/ive-been-a-sanebox-user.html", "content_html": "

I’ve been a Sanebox user for over a decade on all my mailboxes. I’m trying going without on my personal email and using Apple Intelligence features with Fastmail support for defering. Sanebox hasn’t been innovating for a long time and I want to see if I really need it.

\n", "date_published": "2025-01-14T22:20:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/14/ive-been-a-sanebox-user.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/12/microblog-collection-exporter.html", "title": "Micro.blog Collection Exporter", "content_html": "

I’m adding one more Shortcut to my Micro.blog Collections Shortcuts. One of the concerns I’ve had with collections is making sure that I have some way of undoing them. If I move to another blog service and it doesn’t support these I need to know which photos are in those collections. This is gracefully handled by micro.blog when you export your blog. It will replace them all at that time and your good to go.

\n

However, I’m a bit of a “belt and suspenders” person and I’d like more than just that. Also, what if I just wanted to undo a single collection and I’m not exporting my whole blog? I’d like to be able to get at this data easier. Add to that that for very large blogs micro.blog export doesn’t work today due to file size limitations. I wanted another way.

\n

This Shortcut gets a list of all your collections, then iterates through that list building a JSON data object that contains all your Collection names along with an array of the photos in that collection.

\n

It can take a bit to run, and Shortcuts in general isn’t great with loops of loops and building larger data sets. Give it some time and it will finish just fine. It takes about 15 seconds to run for my over 60 collections.

\n

Add Micro.blog Collection Exporter

\n

The output of this Shortcut will give data like this:

\n
{\n    "Collections": {\n        "Coffee": [\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2021/31d369a8f6.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2021/c41923433b.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2021/015df1a057.jpg"\n        ],\n        "Iceland": [\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2022/799a9cb53a.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2022/1822276426.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2024/24df887cc9.png"\n        ],\n        "Italy": [\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2023/020261c875.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2023/269481db10.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2023/43c4de5c52.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2024/054ebe3a4d.jpg"\n        ]\n    }\n}\n
", "date_published": "2025-01-12T15:23:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/12/microblog-collection-exporter.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/11/microblog-collections-shortcuts.html", "title": "Micro.blog Collections Shortcuts", "content_html": "

I’ve gone “all in” on Micro.blog’s photo collection feature. I’ve created 64 collections so far which if I’m reading id numbers right means 17% of all collections on micro.blog are ones I made. 🤓

\n

I needed some tooling in order to migrate to collections and use them the way that I want to. I’m sharing here the three shortcuts that I’ve created to do this: Creator, Copier, and Viewer.

\n

Requirements to be aware of:

\n\n

Collection Creator

\n

I’ve updated my original Collection Creator shortcut through my own use. Most of my collections have been populated with this Shortcut. I’ve found it even more useful than I thought to be able to take a clipboard full of URLs and create a collection out of the linked images. I’ve used it for posts, for pages, and even some cases where I just grabbed a bunch of image links and create a collection.

\n\"macOS\n

Improvements since the first release:

\n\n

Add Micro.blog Collection Creator Shortcut

\n

Collection Copier

\n

I’m not sure how common this will be, but at times I want to include all the photos from one collection into another collection. For example:

\n\n\"macOS\n

In this case these photos are in three collections. The easiest way to populate the aggregated collections would be to copy all photos from individual collections to them. It would be nice to “Add all photos from Collection X to Collection Y”. That is what this Shortcut does.

\n

Add Micro.blog Collection Copier Shortcut

\n

Collection Viewer

\n

The viewer collection I don’t use a ton because it doesn’t do anything different than just looking at the collection on micro.blog. But I do like having the ability to quickly index into a collection and just verify what is in there so I’m keeping it around too. It was also the first Shortcut I wrote for this to figure out how to get into the API and see the responses.

\n

Add Micro.blog Collection Viewer Shortcut

\n
\n
\n
    \n
  1. \n

    The API method to add images to a collection was made much faster but it still takes about a second per image. This gives you a better indicator of where you are in the process. Think of it like a status bar. ↩︎

    \n
    2. \n
  2. \n

    I find it odd that in Shortcuts I cannot seem to retrieve the HTTP status code for an API call. I can access the body of the response, but not the status code. I now have the shortcut check the body of the API call to add the image to a collection and if there is any content there log a warning. I wish I could check for a 200 but it doesn’t seem possible. ↩︎

    \n
    3. \n
\n
\n", "date_published": "2025-01-11T09:57:11-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/11/microblog-collections-shortcuts.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/12/27/my-friend-patrick-rhone-patrickrhone.html", "content_html": "

My friend Patrick Rhone @patrickrhone chooses a word for each year and he just shared that “better” is his word for 2025. I like this a lot. I think I’m going to pursue better in 2025 too.

\n", "date_published": "2024-12-27T16:17:46-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/12/27/my-friend-patrick-rhone-patrickrhone.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Holidays"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/12/11/getting-a-massive.html", "content_html": "

Getting a massive overhaul of Shortcuts support in OmniFocus 4.5 this morning is like an early Christmas present! I whipped up a quick “Add to List” shortcut to try it and love the new interfaces. They are significantly more intuitive. 🎁

\n", "date_published": "2024-12-11T07:57:04-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/12/11/getting-a-massive.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/11/25/omnifocus-just-shipped.html", "content_html": "

OmniFocus 4.4.3 just shipped with a bug I found in the change log!

\n
\n

Sync – Fixed issue of the same Mac showing multiple registrations in Settings > Sync > Registered Devices, when running macOS 15 Sequoia. After this update, OmniFocus 4.4.3 may show up as one additional registration; delete all other registrations of the same Mac (that don’t include “this device”) to improve sync times.

\n
\n

I’d been pruning these ghost devices every few days. Happy to not need to look at sync devices now. 🙂

\n", "date_published": "2024-11-25T15:50:04-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/11/25/omnifocus-just-shipped.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/09/02/my-gtd-structure.html", "title": "My GTD Structure", "content_html": "

I suppose I’m a “list person”. Although I would say I’m a GTD practitioner. I like the sound of that better. And my lists, or GTD system, is managed with OmniFocus. Since my Omni Show appearance I’ve had several email exchanges with fellow “list people” about how I structure my lists. I thought I would share a more complete view.

\n

Before getting to the lists themselves a comment. The structure that I have in my system, “the stuff” as it were, the things to do and how I organize them, is fluid. I don’t change tools often but the content and structure I refactor when it suits me. With that said though, these top level folders for my lists have endured in largely this structure for a decade.

\n

They have endured because they are specifically aligned around dimensions of my life. If the dimensions of my life change then these would change. But really this big picture stuff doesn’t change frequently. Also note that these folders may at times have only a couple projects, which may be a signal to me that I should be doing more there.

\n

In OmniFocus these dimensions or groups are stored as folders, and these folders contain projects. You could use this structure in most any list manager.

\n\n

Those are my “working” folders and projects. I do have three more folders that are a little different.

\n\n

That is all of it! This structure has served me well for a while now and maybe you’ll get some value out of it as well.

\n", "date_published": "2024-09-02T07:45:31-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/09/02/my-gtd-structure.html", "tags": ["Things 4 Good","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/08/30/i-currently-have.html", "content_html": "

I currently have 326 different Masked Email addresses set in Fastmail. It takes effort but is a powerful way to limit tracking and increase security. 🔒🥸

\n", "date_published": "2024-08-30T22:49:29-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/08/30/i-currently-have.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/08/04/gmails-spam-randomness.html", "title": "Gmails Spam Randomness", "content_html": "

I subscribe to my own newsletter via Gmail so that I can see how it is treating the Weekly Thing. I have Gmail configured to forward things to Fastmail which I intercept into an “External” folder. I do the same with iCloud. This morning it didn’t come through. So I went looking…

\n

Sure enough Gmail had decided that Weekly Thing 291 / Ireland 🇮🇪 was deserving of the spam folder. Why? The sender address is in my contacts! It hasn’t relegated any recent issues to junk! No idea. And isn’t an address being in your contacts effectively an allow-list to get email? I guess not.

\n

While there I noticed that Gmail had also put several Google Search Console, Google Cloud, and Google Account emails in spam as well. Perhaps this is some nod to anti-trust watchers but it seems ridiculous that Google’s own emails to a Gmail user be flagged as junk — including my Google Cloud invoice notification!

\n

I share this mostly out of frustration due to the popularity of Gmail and also the perception that people have that it is the senders issue if an email doesn’t land in the inbox. It is fairly common that a friend will say the Weekly Thing went to their spam folder, and the implication is that there is some issue with the email. I’ve properly configured every email acronym you can imagine — SPF, DKIM, DMARC. But still the battle persists.

\n

Gmail likes to add arbitrary other criteria like “Hey, this email is just too long.” or “Hey, we don’t like hyperlinks in emails.” I’m not going to change how I write for some email service, regardless of how popular it is.

\n

What is the point? I guess my thought is to remember that your email services actions are under your control more than the sender. And beyond following standards there is nothing a sender can do to make it better. I would suggest making sure to keep tabs on these other folders too.

\n", "date_published": "2024-08-04T08:55:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/08/04/gmails-spam-randomness.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/08/04/enabling-with-automation.html", "title": "Enabling with Automation", "content_html": "

I just sent Weekly Thing 291 / Ireland 🇮🇪 as a special issue all about Ireland. This issue didn’t follow my usual structure so I did all the assembly by hand. It took me about 2 hours just to get the sections, links, headers, images, and outline together. Then I could start the actual writing!

\n

It was illuminating to show how important my automation is to successfully sending my newsletter each week. Everything I did in those two hours is done with automation and takes just a few seconds each week. Without that capability It would at least double the time it takes me to send each Weekly Thing.

\n", "date_published": "2024-08-04T07:11:52-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/08/04/enabling-with-automation.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/06/25/summer-challenge-create.html", "title": "Summer Challenge: Create a Counter using Shortcuts", "content_html": "

This post is part of the Summer Challenge Collection, a collection of tasks or projects for our kids to do over the summer.

\n

For this challenge you will create a simple counter to keep track of any number of events that you might want to track. You could use this to keep track of the number of books you’ve read, the number of times you did a certain activity, or how many summer challenges you’ve completed.

\n

The counter must be created using Shortcuts and Data Jar. The shortcut should have at least these functions:

\n\n

Once you have created the Shortcut then write a post about how you created it, and include a link to install the shortcut via the share sheet.

\n

Completed! ✅

\n", "date_published": "2024-06-25T20:29:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/06/25/summer-challenge-create.html", "tags": ["Family","Productivity","Summer Challenge 2024"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/06/05/i-am-excited.html", "content_html": "

I am excited to see sync improvements to OmniFocus 4.3 for Apple Watch. The new watchOS app is very good but sync is always behind and makes it very difficult to use. Smart to use the iOS app as a sync speed up!

\n
\n\n
\n", "date_published": "2024-06-05T17:54:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/06/05/i-am-excited.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/06/03/omni-show-how.html", "title": "Omni Show 136: How Jamie Thingelstad Uses OmniFocus", "content_html": "

Episode 136 of the Omni Show podcast just showed up with me as the guest! I recorded this a couple weeks ago with Andrew Mason and it is great to see it live. The Omni Show is also trying out video and I agreed to give it a try so there is also a video version on YouTube.

\n

This was really fun for me because I am a regular listener of the Omni Show podcast and an avid user of OmniFocus for a very long time. I was excited to get an opportunity to share and go deeper on this topic. I hope you enjoy it too!

\n
\n \n
\n\n

Some links to things that I mentioned in the interview:

\n\n

P.S.: A huge thank you to Pete Edstrom who was on episode 133 for introducing me to Andrew and team!

\n", "date_published": "2024-06-03T16:20:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/06/03/omni-show-how.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/04/08/these-new-custom.html", "content_html": "

These new custom perspective capabilities in OmniFocus 4.2 are very welcome. I’ll be able to do some long desired use cases with these! 👏

\n
\n\n
\n", "date_published": "2024-04-08T19:12:13-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/04/08/these-new-custom.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/04/02/today-i-learned.html", "title": "Today I Learned: DNS and Wildcard Records", "content_html": "

One of my favorite features of Fastmail is mail routing. I can use that to create any number of ad hoc email addresses in the format of anything at jamie.thingelstad.com. I’ve been using this feature for a while and to set it up you create a wildcard MX entry for your domain pointing to Fastmail. This way it works for all users of your domain. A couple of weeks ago these addresses stopped working though and I had no idea why.

\n

I actually raised the issue with Fastmail support and they confirmed that there was no MX entry for jamie.thingelstad.com. They then asked if I had setup any CNAMEs or A records recently for that name. Then it hit me, I had recently created a TXT entry for jamie.thingelstad.com.

\n

It turns out the second that there is any record of any type on a name you no longer get the benefit of the wildcard entry. I created the specific MX entries for jamie.thingelstad.com and everything started to work just as it should.

\n", "date_published": "2024-04-02T21:11:23-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/04/02/today-i-learned.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/02/15/i-was-very.html", "content_html": "

I was very excited to read that OmniFocus is now on TestFlight for Vision OS! I enrolled and am now one step closer to having my core productivity tools in Vision OS.

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2024-02-15T19:17:05-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/02/15/i-was-very.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/02/09/i-got-a.html", "content_html": "

I got a Magic Keyboard to pair with the Apple Vision Pro. I want to use the Vision Pro for productivity and typing is a must. I hooked it up (it is charging in the picture) and I was surprised to see this typing display that floats above the keyboard. it also knew which keyboard I was using?

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2024-02-09T22:47:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/02/09/i-got-a.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/02/06/ordered-a-magic.html", "content_html": "

Ordered a Magic Keyboard to pair with the Apple Vision Pro so I can dive into more of the productivity use cases.

\n", "date_published": "2024-02-07T00:16:27-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/02/06/ordered-a-magic.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/01/28/jumping-into-obsidian.html", "title": "Jumping into Obsidian", "content_html": "\"Purple\n

I recently decided to give Obsidian a serious investigation and voluntarily dive down the “rabbit hole.” 🕳️🐇

\n

The tipping point for me was this post by Daniel Tan reflecting on his journey with Obsidian and how it has become an “indispensable tool” for him. I once ran my own personal wiki which likely makes me a prime candidate for Obsidian, but the complexity of these setups has always made me steer clear. About two years ago this was my perspective on Obsidian.

\n
\n

When I read articles from people sharing their bespoke Obsidian setups I think one of the best things I’ve done for my productivity is to completely ignore Obsidian.

\n
\n

While I’ve been ignoring it I have noted a lot of continued momentum with Obsidian. Additionally MacSparky has continued to be a big advocate of Obsidian and even released an Obsidian Field Guide. MacSparky’s strong endorsement is a big deal for me, we share OmniFocus enthusiasm and his OmniFocus Field Guide was a game changer for me.

\n

I signed up for a year of Obsidian sync service, have a couple of different “vaults” setup and have started using them mostly via Daily Notes, and I signed up for MacSparky’s field guide so I can accelerate my learning and avoid mistakes. Wish me luck! 🍀

\n", "date_published": "2024-01-28T09:38:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/01/28/jumping-into-obsidian.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/12/13/upgraded-to-omnifocus.html", "title": "Upgraded to OmniFocus 4", "content_html": "

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of OmniFocus 4.0 and today is the day! I haven’t used any of the betas so it is all new to me. It was an easy decision to upgrade because OmniFocus is one of my most frequently used apps and the cornerstone of my GTD system.

\n

I upgraded three Macs, my iPhone, iPad, and was excited to see a proper Apple Watch version that now runs completely independently.

\n

My initial impressions:

\n
    \n
  1. The user experience is a big change. It will take me a bit to get used to it, but I can already see how it is more streamlined.
    2. \n
  2. The logical role of perspectives in the user experience is way better.
    3. \n
  3. Love that the Apple Watch version is useful. I never used the previous version and it hadn’t been updated in years. This one I will use.
    4. \n
\n\"OmniFocus\n", "date_published": "2023-12-13T22:48:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/12/13/upgraded-to-omnifocus.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/11/12/i-created-my.html", "content_html": "

I created my very first custom GPT tonight — GTD Coach. This GPT is designed to help practitioners of GTD that use OmniFocus improve their practice and get advice. I started with more robust questions around different levels of planning and gave great suggestions.

\n\"Illustrated\n", "date_published": "2023-11-12T22:23:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/11/12/i-created-my.html", "tags": ["Productivity","AI"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/10/01/task-management-for.html", "title": "Task Management for the Weekly Thing", "content_html": "

I’m often asked about how I create the Weekly Thing and how I’ve been doing it for over six years. People are usually curious about how I find things to write about or how I build the Weekly Thing. However, there is a critical part that is invisible to others but key to the consistency of sending every week for 262 issues — project management!

\n

With the recent rebuild of my automation I needed to update my project template which seemed like a good time to share how I do this. I’m a Getting Things Done practitioner, and my tool of choice for as long as I can remember has been OmniFocus. Everything here is in OmniFocus or supporting automation.

\n

A detail to share on dates and times for the publishing schedule. My target for sending the Weekly Thing is Saturday at 7:00 am CT. If I miss that it’s fine, I can shift things. However, the content cutoff is actually Thursday at 11:59 pm CT and that never changes. This allows me a window from Thursday night to Saturday at 7:00 am CT to publish. One odd side effect of this is that a blog post I publish on Friday will not be in that issues Journal on Saturday, but will wait for the following week. Nobody seems to notice this and it is necessary for me to have the time to do the publishing.

\n

Project

\n

Here is what the project to send Weekly Thing 264 looks like in OmniFocus. The two dates on the right are the defer and due dates. Defer dates are critical for me since they keep things off my plate until they need to be. Note everything in gray is deferred. You can see that right now, there are only three tasks available. I’ve expanded select tasks so that you can see the helper links and text that make things a bit faster for me.

\n\"OmniFocus\n

There are four major steps to publishing each issue:

\n
    \n
  1. Creating Content: Most notable activities here include writing the introduction, adding any “Currently” topics, taking and setting the picture for the week. Some of these I can do immediately, others I defer until a few days into the week. The writing is done in Drafts.
    2. \n
  2. Curating Links: I try to curate links and various points through the week, but I have two “deadlines” for the publishing cycle. Links are curated in Pinboard.
    3. \n
  3. Building and Sending: Content and Links are done, time to build and send. I’ve automated this to be pretty simple. See how I build the Weekly Thing for more.
    4. \n
  4. Finalizing: After the issue is sent and in peoples mailboxes, I need to do some final activities and most importantly create the project for the next issue.
    5. \n
\n

All of these steps are sequential. And the tasks in them are sequential, except for Creating Content which can be done in any order.

\n

Repetition

\n

This project is not a repeating project. That is the reason for the last step in the project, to create the next project. Why not repeating?

\n
    \n
  1. Changes: Not having it repeating means I can change and alter any given instance however I like. I might add a special task to one issue, like adding a POAP for the anniversary issue. Or a special section I’m only doing that time.
    2. \n
  2. Schedule: I may move the due dates for one step or another and I love knowing that will not persist to the next iteration.
    3. \n
\n

So how do I get the repeating project without doing all the work? Plus, there are tons of date references that need to be calculated, where does that come from? This is where TaskPaper and project templates come to the rescue.

\n

TaskPaper allows me to have a template for sending the Weekly Thing that I can “run” via a Shortcut. You can see the Send Weekly Thing Taskpaper Template for all the details. Take note of two special “tokens” in the template: «Issue» and «Date». These are not part of TaskPaper, but instead two “variables” I handle.

\n

Before I hand OmniFocus the TaskPaper to create the project, I’m going to process those two tokens using a Shortcut. My Send Weekly Thing shortcut will get the “Publish Date” and “Issue Number” from Data Jar. It will set those “variables” in the TaskPaper and the rest of the data offsets are magically handled by OmniFocus. Most critical thing here is making sure I format the «Date» as yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm aa so that OmniFocus understands it.

\n

The Shortcut also puts a time block on my calendar for Thursday night to send the issue. This is a nice benefit of combining Taskpaper and Shortcuts together.

\n\"Apple\n

Summary

\n

Creating the Weekly Thing isn’t a single “Send Weekly Thing” task on my list. Instead I’ve focused on “next action thinking” to try and make each component a simple task. Overall this works really well for me. It doesn’t solve writers block, but frees me up to focus on the creative aspects instead of the tasks.

\n

You might be curious how this works when I take my summer or winter breaks? In those cases, I still create the next project for the issue when I come back from break, but then I set the defer date for the whole thing to the week before that issue publishes. I also usually add a housecleaning task to the beginning of that issue to clean out my Safari Reading list and Pinboard Unread links.

\n", "date_published": "2023-10-01T10:18:19-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/10/01/task-management-for.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/09/30/i-created-a.html", "content_html": "

I created a Shortcuts Collection page to connect various blog posts I’ve written about Shortcuts and how I use them. Few posts so far, but thinking this is a topic I will write about more since I do so much with it.

\n", "date_published": "2023-09-30T08:54:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/09/30/i-created-a.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Shortcuts"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/09/30/launch-apps-shortcut.html", "title": "Launch Apps Shortcut", "content_html": "

I’m a big fan of Shortcuts and find it useful for many small automation tasks, creating one off scripts really fast, and even building complex solutions like the Weekly Thing.

\n

“Launch Apps” is a shortcut that I think every Mac user can benefit from. I have a set of applications that I always use. Mail, Calendar, Drafts, etc. Some apps I add contextually based on which computer I’m on, or what network. Launch Apps gives me one shortcut I can put in my Menubar and easily get everything that I want running quickly.

\n

You can grab my Launch Apps Shortcut as a starting point to make your own. It is a very simple shortcut, and a great way to get started with automation.

\n

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

\n", "date_published": "2023-09-30T08:12:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/09/30/launch-apps-shortcut.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple","Shortcuts"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/09/24/how-i-build.html", "title": "How I Build the Weekly Thing", "content_html": "

One of the common questions I’m asked is how I create the Weekly Thing. There are two flavors of this question. One is about finding content and writing, and the other is about the technical act of producing each issue. This article is an attempt to answer the second question about producing each issue.

\n

I just finished a big revamp of the automation that I use to build each issue of the Weekly Thing so it feels like a good time to document and share how it works. I’m very happy with how this is working now, and have used automation to achieve two goals.

\n
    \n
  1. Remove as much of the fiddly bits around formatting and connecting systems as possible, leaving my time for the creative part of writing and sharing.
    2. \n
  2. Allow some sections to be authored ahead of time, so I can create in small chunks of time.
    3. \n
\n

The revamp had some additional goals, or things to fix that I badly needed to address.

\n
    \n
  1. It should run on any platform. Some of my steps required software that only worked on iOS so I oddly couldn’t run my automation on my Mac.
    2. \n
  2. No Python scripts, all native Shortcuts. I had some steps that involved Python and that was harder to maintain and change.
    3. \n
  3. Durability, better error handling, and logging. When my automation didn’t work it was hard to know why. Not good when your on deadline!
    4. \n
  4. Automation for all sections. For 6 years the photo section has never been supported with automation.
    5. \n
\n

I’m happy to report that my new automation does all of the above, and even pulls in an additional big feature of reducing image sizes.

\n

Overall Solution

\n

Let’s start with an overall view of the whole process. This diagram shows how the various parts are connected. Green boxes are Shortcuts, and grey boxes are Apps or Services. The people represent where I author and interact to create content. This isn’t 100% of everything, but covers the important parts.

\n\"Flowchart\n

The easiest way to think of this is that the Build Issue shortcut has a list of other Shortcuts. It iterates through that list calling each shortcut. Those shortcuts in turn return a block of Markdown text. Once all shortcuts have been called, they are then combined into one Markdown block for final review and editing.

\n

This approach is fundamentally the same as I have used since 2017. The biggest change since then is I call many more Shortcuts, and back then I pulled HTML since MailChimp required that.

\n

The huge change that I’ve been making is that each section Shortcut is much more durable, and uses Data Jar to cache and manage data.

\n

Software Manifest

\n

Core technologies that are used for this include.

\n\n

Shortcuts is where the majority of the work for this occurs and here is my current set.

\n\"Apple\n

The “Build Issue” Shortcut is the one that collects markdown from all the sections and assembles it. You will see a lot of “Section:Name” shortcuts, those are the ones that are responsible for returning a section. Mostly the names make sense for a number of other utility shortcuts.

\n

Data Jar

\n

The other very important component is Data Jar, which you can think of like a database or cache for Shortcuts. Data Jar is a game changer for Shortcuts as it allows you to share and keep state between various Shortcuts. Here is what the Data Jar dictionary for issue 262 looks like.

\n\"Craft\n

As much as possible the section Shortcuts use Data Jar to store anything they need. I’ll use a simple example with Section:Fortune. Each issue of the Weekly Thing has a Fortune that I set. The basic flow is:

\n
    \n
  1. See if “Weekly Thing.«Current Issue».Fortune” exists in Data Jar, if it does return markdown and you are done.
    2. \n
  2. If “Weekly Thing.«Current Issue».Fortune” does not exist present random Fortunes to user until one is selected.
    3. \n
  3. Once Fortune is selected, store it at “Weekly Thing.«Current Issue».Fortune” and return markdown.
    4. \n
\n

By using this approach I can run this anytime I want to get that section final, and when I build it at publishing time it will not require any input from me. This makes things very durable as well since I can re-run the automation easily.

\n

Summary

\n

One of the takeaways I hope you have from reading this is that while Shortcuts seem pretty trivial, you can assemble them in interesting way with additional software to create very powerful solutions. Especially with add-ons like Data Jar and S3 Files you can do some incredible stuff.

\n

I also think this is a good example of how you can apply automation to personal workflows. I try to use as much automation as possible to remove mundane components from my week. It is worth investing the time in Shortcuts or similar tools to see where you might personally benefit.

\n

See discussion on Weekly Thing Forum.

\n

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

\n", "date_published": "2023-09-24T09:03:02-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/09/24/how-i-build.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging","Shortcuts"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/09/23/smaller-images-for.html", "title": "Smaller Images for Weekly Thing", "content_html": "

In the Journal section of the Weekly Thing I include any blog posts that I’ve made for that week. To keep things easy, I’ve always just linked to the same image files that are used on my blog. That has never been ideal since those images are much larger than what you would ideally include in an email.

\n

I decided to try and solve this problem in Shortcuts and the amazing S3 Files. The basic approach I take to getting blog posts into the Weekly Thing is:

\n
    \n
  1. Retrieve the RSS feed for www.thingelstad.com
    2. \n
  2. Find items in feed that are within the time period of this issue
    3. \n
  3. Convert each post to markdown and do some post processing to make it work in the newsletter better
    4. \n
\n

To do this I would add another step after 3 to detect my own images in the posts, and do the following:

\n
    \n
  1. Detect any URL’s that are uploads into my blog, and make sure to not grab any others.
    2. \n
  2. Retrieve the image file at that URL
    3. \n
  3. Resize it to 1,200 pixels on the “long edge”
    4. \n
  4. Add to S3 bucket for files.thingelstad.com in the right directory for this issue
    5. \n
  5. Replace the original image URL with the new URL
    6. \n
\n

It wasn’t too hard to make all this work. After tweaking the regular expressions, and making sure that the replacement worked right it was working great.

\n

Here is a snippet from my logs.

\n\n

When I ran this to the Journal images in Weekly Thing 262 it was able to resize 28 images from an original size of 43 MB to 12 MB, saving 31 MB of download data!

\n

This is a big win in two ways. First, when you open the Weekly Thing from 263 on your device will download way less data and need to use way less memory. Also, some email services apparently dislike it if emails reference images that are longer than 1,200 pixels on the longest side. Hopefully this little efficiency will also get finicky mail servers to be nicer to my emails.

\n

This was only possible with the revamp I’ve been doing to my automation, and the ability to add this step in was a great result of those changes.

\n

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

\n", "date_published": "2023-09-23T17:35:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/09/23/smaller-images-for.html", "tags": ["Kubb","Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging","Shortcuts"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/08/18/remarkable.html", "title": "reMarkable", "content_html": "

I got a reMarkable 2. ✍️

\n\"Handwritten\n", "date_published": "2023-08-18T20:47:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/08/18/remarkable.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/07/19/i-think-there.html", "content_html": "

I think there is a huge potential for Generative AI in tools, but this is a heavy expense that is going to make it a tough decision.

\n
\n

Microsoft announced that it would charge $30 a month for AI features in its productivity software. That could mean a cost increase of up to 83% for the millions of subscribers to products such as Word and Excel. Shares in the firm jumped to a record high at the prospect. — Economist Espresso, July 19, 2023

\n
\n

🤔

\n", "date_published": "2023-07-19T14:07:40-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/07/19/i-think-there.html", "tags": ["Productivity","AI"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/03/26/tyler-has-been.html", "content_html": "

Tyler has been doing some coding projects and is liking it so I ordered some books to help him along: Coding for Kids: Python and Coding Projects in Scratch. And same as I did with Mazie, sharing my enthusiasm about GTD with\nGetting Things Done for Teens.

\n\"Stack\n", "date_published": "2023-03-26T22:11:56-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/03/26/tyler-has-been.html", "tags": ["Family","Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/01/22/antisocial.html", "title": "Anti-Social", "content_html": "

Social media is a mess.

\n

I’ve lost track of what is social about it. It is a Skinner Box of addiction. The reductionism of a timeline is tiresome. The dopamine inducing likes are there to create some saccharin view of engagement.

\n

I recently noticed that I was falling back into behavior I had broken out of years ago. I was again finding myself checking the Twitter timeline to see what is happening. Then I would feel bad about introducing into my brain all this random crap. The coach part of me knows this isn’t what I should be doing. But the monkey brain loves to see new things, chase them down, and play with the ideas in my head.

\n

The problem is me Twitter, not you. Actually that is wrong. The problem is both of us. The problem is actually the entire social media model. It is an apparatus of addiction built around nothing. There is no there to find. There is no end to reach.

\n

So I unfollowed every account. If you notice I unfollowed you on Twitter, don’t take it personally. It’s me, not you.

\n", "date_published": "2023-01-22T20:57:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/01/22/antisocial.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/01/21/i-have-never.html", "content_html": "

I have never seen a CAPTCHA on an unsubscribe form! That is a new level of obnoxious. 😤

\n\"CAPTCHA\n", "date_published": "2023-01-21T15:19:44-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/01/21/i-have-never.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2022/12/31/holiday-week-list.html", "title": "Holiday Week List", "content_html": "

During the week between Christmas and New Years I like to focus on some different things.

\n

Write a meaningful blog post each day ✅

\n\n

Focus on Meditation

\n\n

Read “The Bed of Procrustes” by Taleb ✅

\n

Finished reading this, but read it like a book so I could read it all. I will plan to come back to this and reflect on select aphorisms from time to time.

\n

Complete Christmas LEGO ✅

\n

Each Christmas Tammy surprises us each with a Holiday LEGO project. I got the Super Mario 64™ Question Mark Block this year.

\n\n\"LEGO\n", "date_published": "2022-12-31T11:36:29-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2022/12/31/holiday-week-list.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Productivity","Games"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2022/12/28/on-audience-capture.html", "title": "On Audience Capture", "content_html": "

When I first started writing the Weekly Thing the email service showed me two reports that I knew I didn’t want to see. The first was who opened the email, when, where, on what device, and how often. That was a clear violation of privacy. What business do I have knowing what you do in your mailbox? None. The second report was which links got clicked on the most. This caused me grave concern right away. I felt certain that knowing what links people clicked on would influence the content I wrote about each week. Even if I could somehow convince myself that I wouldn’t be influenced, how could I possibly prove that I wasn’t? Thankfully the service allowed me to turn off both of these capabilities.

\n

The thing I was worried about was audience capture. Particularly with a project like the Weekly Thing, where I’m exploring the topics that are interesting to me and sharing that journey with others, audience capture has the potential to impact me as the author in ways that could change my journey and where my exploration took me.

\n
\n

[Audience capture] involves the gradual and unwitting replacement of a person’s identity with one custom-made for the audience. — The Perils of Audience Capture

\n
\n

I do many things to limit the amount of advertising I’m exposed to. I pay for ad free versions of services if I can. I run an ad blocker. Frankly I just limit the amount of advertising supported content that I’m exposed to. I also work hard to limit algorithmic promotion of content. Some of that is about protecting my privacy, but more important to me is protecting my liberty.

\n

When I think of my liberty I’m considering the ability to act as I please, without constraint and on my own discretion. That last part is the one that I worry about in regard to advertising, or algorithms prompting me with information. It is also the primary concern about audience capture.

\n

Captured by Analytics

\n

The mechanics of audience capture on the web tend to start with analytics. We have analytics for nearly everything. All social media platforms show you analytics on your profile like the number of followers you have, as well as analytics on each item you share in the form of views, likes, shares, and more. I believe services have weaponized this, making analytics as addiction, and the same features open the door for getting captured by your audience.

\n

This bit from the Waking Up podcast is what got my head spinning on this topic in the first place.

\n
\n

[27:01] “If I’m alert to anything, it is to not getting captured by my audience. If ever I were to find myself not wanting to say something for fear of how the audience will respond even though I think it’s true and important, that’s the thing I know I can’t do. There’s obviously a problem of audience capture in the podcasting and alternative media space. This is true wether one is getting support directly by subscription or donation, and it’s also true if you are running ads. And in several cases the evidence of audience capture is absolutely clear. There are people who’ve done 50 episodes more or less in a row on the same topic as though they had lost interest in every other thing on Earth. What’s going on there? There is some training signal coming from the audience, and almost certainly a bad economic incentive that is capturing that podcast host.” — Sam Harris, On Disappointing My Audience

\n
\n

That whole bit from Harris is compelling, but I bolded the key component that I think we need to be mindful of. The same way that we can train an algorithm given a data set and a target, we can also train people by giving them a training signal from the audience. That training signal is the stream of analytics.

\n

I think you could take this further. Something akin to a principle or rule:

\n

The more detailed metrics you have on an audience, the more likely you are captured by that audience.

\n

The metrics provide a mirage of insight and influence. It “feels like” you are learning more about the audience, but you may be modifying yourself to fit the pattern of what you see in the data. Your audience engages a lot with this one topic? It seems far too likely that more of that will start appearing in front of you. In reality all of this data bends and shapes the creator to fit into the mold of their audience.

\n

The opposite is also true. The fewer metrics you have, the less likely you are captured by your audience. I publish the Weekly Thing using Buttondown and I have no tracking of open rates or any links that people click on. Since I have no way of knowing what links people click on, I have no way of being captured going forward. I know that the next set of links I select are for sure not driven by what I think people will click on, since I don’t even know what people click on!

\n

In general, as a creator, I think we need to be very cautious about what data we collect, and how we plan to use that. Don’t collect data unless you know how you are going to put it into action.

\n

We all have an audience now

\n

Audience capture is an interesting concept for people that publish things. Bloggers, podcasters, newsletter writers all have obvious audiences. But it no longer stops there does it? Thanks to social media services we all have an audience, in fact many audiences. You have a set of followers on Facebook, or Twitter, or LinkedIn. Those services give you many metrics about how your “followers” engage with the content you share. This is a perfect setup to be captured.

\n

Much has been written about how social media damages discourse and how people do all of this performative dunking. Typically that is connected with the idea of eroding civility, or not knowing the person as a person but as just an avatar. But some of that performance could obviously be for your audience as well. And if the likes pile in the right way, the vicious cycle will continue. You become what your audience rewards. If you are in a room full of barbarians, be mindful of what they will reward!

\n

As we ponder the challenges of social media, perhaps it is worth considering if we really need another audience — and if so, how will this audience influence us and impact our identity.

\n

Captured Media

\n

Audience capture is easy to personify in the form of a person, particularly an individual creating something. Clearly the activities of thousands of people in the audience can have impact on that one creator. However, I don’t see any reason that an audience can’t capture a brand or a company.

\n

A company doesn’t have liberty or free will. So the capture of a company or brand is very different. In fact, many brands may want to be captured. That may be their ultimate goal. And for some there may be no downside to that. Harley Davidson is probably a better company if they are captured by their audience. They may call that customer obsessed!

\n

But take a moment to think of media. Is media bias accurate? Or is it more accurate to say media is captured by their audience? This is a bit of a chicken and egg question, and perhaps the end result doesn’t really matter. But as we think of modern media organizations they tend to obsess about data. They have a never ending “training set” of data on what their audience likes. The smartest thing as a company may be to feed more content into that known topic. Repeat. More engagement. And magically audience capture.

\n

Where this lands us may be no different than media bias, but it speaks to a totally different cure.

\n

Media bias says that the actors in the media are intentionally biased to one perspective or another. Certainly true for some, but I don’t believe true for all. And I don’t know how you can fix that. Likely you just give up and say everything is biased. But if we frame this different and suggest that modern media has gotten itself trapped, captured by their audience, then the answer is pretty simple. Ditch the analytics. Stop telling the creators what the audience engages in. Starve them of that feedback loop and the capture will die away.

\n

Kids with audiences

\n

The last area of audience capture that I’ve been thinking about scares me the most. Most teenagers use some form of social media. They are acutely aware of their follower counts, likes, retweets, and whatever other feedback loops these platforms have. They have an audience, and that training set of data is coming right at them. Now, lets consider two things about this point in someone’s life:

\n
    \n
  1. Most teenagers are working as hard as they can to fit in. To be part of the group. They may not be aware of audience capture, but they are seeking to be captured in the most desperate way.
    2. \n
  2. These same teenagers do not have a strong sense of self. They are in the act of defining that. Liberty, free will — these are new thoughts and they are building their identity as they go.
    3. \n
\n

Adding an audience to a child that is still developing their own identity will forever alter that persons identity.

\n

Yes, you could argue that there is nothing new here, this is just part of growing up and forming your identity. To an extent that is true. You maybe had an audience in Chemistry class that you performed for. You might have had a club that you connected with that was a form of audience. But not really. In-person groups are totally different. They are not an audience, they are friends and acquaintances. There is no training set here. You don’t get a data feed of likes and engagement scores at the end of the event. The performative behavior for an audience that social media enables is completely different.

\n

***

\n

Thinking more concretely about audience capture highlights for me the importance of collecting very little data, and on platforms that you cannot opt out of it, try to avoid it at all costs. Want to know a shameful secret of mine? I take note of how many likes and retweets my content gets on Twitter. I’m not proud of it. I don’t know that it has changed what I write about, but I also don’t know that it hasn’t. That notifications section on Twitter is one of the things that makes me want to disengage from that platform.

\n

I know there are certain topics that I blog about and mention in the Weekly Thing that are not popular. Some folks don’t like one topic or another. I know that because they have told me directly, not through analytics. That is fine, but I’m going to keep writing about whatever I want because I’m not selling a product to get maximum engagement. I’m sharing my journey of learning. And where that goes is only up to me. Liberty!

\n

So ask yourself, are you captured? What audiences do you have? How are you protecting your liberty?

\n", "date_published": "2022-12-28T21:11:39-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2022/12/28/on-audience-capture.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2022/03/05/consider-for-today.html", "content_html": "

Consider for today:

\n
    \n
  1. Take a moment to reflect on how much the world has changed in the last 10 days.
    2. \n
  2. Consider how those changes may affect your current priorities and opinions.
    3. \n
  3. Determine how those changes can be actioned.
    4. \n
\n", "date_published": "2022-03-05T08:44:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2022/03/05/consider-for-today.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2022/03/03/slacks-delayed-send.html", "content_html": "

Slack’s delayed send feature is nice, but I wish there was an option to delay sending to when the person is next online, instead of a specific time.

\n", "date_published": "2022-03-03T14:00:04-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2022/03/03/slacks-delayed-send.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2022/01/14/when-i-read.html", "content_html": "

When I read articles from people sharing their bespoke Obsidian setups I think one of the best things I’ve done for my productivity is to completely ignore Obsidian.

\n", "date_published": "2022-01-14T23:28:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2022/01/14/when-i-read.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/12/26/ordered-a-continuous.html", "content_html": "

Ordered a 2022 Continuous Wall Calendar from Kairos Cognition today. Going to try using this as a family planning tool this year.

\n", "date_published": "2021-12-26T20:46:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/12/26/ordered-a-continuous.html", "tags": ["Family","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/12/15/great-list-from.html", "content_html": "

Great list from Ryan Holiday. 🤔

\n
\n

9 short rules for a better life:

\n
    \n
  1. Wake up early
    2. \n
  2. Focus on effort, not results
    3. \n
  3. Read every day
    4. \n
  4. Strict with yourself, forgiving of others
    5. \n
  5. Seek out challenges
    6. \n
  6. Stay a student
    7. \n
  7. Cut toxic people out of your life
    8. \n
  8. Think about death
    9. \n
  9. Focus on what you can control
    10. \n
\n
\n", "date_published": "2021-12-15T23:37:48-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/12/15/great-list-from.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Books"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/11/28/now-that-apple.html", "content_html": "

Now that Apple has Shortcuts working on all platforms, I would like to renew my wish list item of having my Mail.app signature be a Shortcut so that I can have fun with dynamic signatures. 🤓

\n", "date_published": "2021-11-28T16:26:56-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/11/28/now-that-apple.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/11/22/four-thousand-weeks.html", "title": "Four Thousand Weeks as Rings", "content_html": "

I’ve been reading Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. The title comes from the fact that if you live to be 80, you’ll have had about 4,000 weeks. Technically it is 4,174 but that wouldn’t make a very good title for the book.

\n

I’m still just in the beginning of the book but as I pondered his focus on the finitude of our time, I couldn’t help but think of how to visualize this! I knew Shortcuts could do the math for me, and then I realized Charty could do the visualization.

\n\"Concentric\n\n

It strikes me as an interesting visualization. Something to ponder. 🤔

\n

However, I showed it to my family and they didn’t care for it much at all. The common theme seemed to be that “filling ones rings” is seen as a goal, something to look forward to, and filling these rings didn’t seem like a thing to look forward to. 😇

\n

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

\n", "date_published": "2021-11-22T18:29:31-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/11/22/four-thousand-weeks.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Books","Shortcuts"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/10/08/the-extent-to.html", "content_html": "

The extent to which Shortcuts on iOS 15 is broken is shocking. Any moderately complex shortcut will randomly fail from one execution to another, with multiple different error conditions. It is unusable in current form.

\n", "date_published": "2021-10-08T21:04:20-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/10/08/the-extent-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/08/29/just-helped-my.html", "content_html": "

Just helped my brother escape his overpriced and bloated hosted email service and move his custom domain and all saved mail to Fastmail. 🤩

\n", "date_published": "2021-08-29T00:11:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/08/29/just-helped-my.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/08/11/on-family-vacations.html", "content_html": "

On family vacations I still use technology, but as much as possible I try to put the Internet in “write-only” mode. I’ve done a pretty good job of it this trip. Having Feedbin mark all new items as read has been great to keep diversions away.

\n", "date_published": "2021-08-11T20:59:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/08/11/on-family-vacations.html", "tags": ["Travel","Productivity","Vermont Road Trip 2021"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/07/30/we-head-out.html", "content_html": "

We head out on vacation tomorrow. I setup my email auto-responders on both work and personal accounts. Created Vacation deferral folders for Sanebox to use. And a new thing, I decided to make my own DIY Vacation mode for Feedbin to mark all new items as read.

\n\"Feedbin\n", "date_published": "2021-07-30T16:11:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/07/30/we-head-out.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/07/24/not-being-busy.html", "content_html": "
\n

“Not being busy is a competitive advantage.

\n

Most people are so strapped for time they can’t take advantage of lucky opportunities or quickly resolve unexpected problems.

\n

Maintain a bias toward action, but leave room for the unexpected.” — James Clear, 3-2-1 Newsletter on July 22.

\n
\n

There is a lot of wisdom here. Managing your time, and not being fooled into thinking that business is value, is critical to making progress on the goals that really matter for you. This is true in all aspects of life.

\n", "date_published": "2021-07-24T07:23:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/07/24/not-being-busy.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/06/16/i-love-when.html", "content_html": "

I love when friends surprise you with the gift of a good book! I’m looking forward to reading Tiny Habits. Thanks Nick! 📚

\n\"Hand\n", "date_published": "2021-06-16T21:49:50-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/06/16/i-love-when.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Books"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/06/13/day-streak.html", "title": "848 Day Streak", "content_html": "

Yesterday ended my 848 day meditation streak.

\n

Streaks are a great way to build habits. They can also become obsessions. I had certainly been there, sometimes squeezing in a meditation right before bed.

\n

I told a friend that I would purposefully break the streak at 1,000 days.

\n

The streak ended the best way possible. I just forgot. We had a great pool party with family for Mazie’s upcoming birthday and it was an amazing and packed day. Action from dawn to dusk.

\n

And thus the streak ends, and with it no need to obsess. Perfect.

\n\"Streaks\n", "date_published": "2021-06-13T15:32:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/06/13/day-streak.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/06/08/ive-been-testing.html", "content_html": "

I’ve been testing the new calendar integration with Craft and after a week have decided to upgrade and keep exploring. I’ve been using Agenda for a couple of years and it is great. But I’m finding Craft’s environment more productive. Both are great apps though.

\n", "date_published": "2021-06-08T10:00:49-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/06/08/ive-been-testing.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/05/04/i-love-seeing.html", "content_html": "

I love seeing the constant innovation in Drafts! We now have Drafts Capture for the Web? I never considered this but there are a number of times when adding a draft from the browser would be handy. Great product Agile Tortoise!

\n", "date_published": "2021-05-04T19:33:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/05/04/i-love-seeing.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/03/27/every-action-you.html", "content_html": "

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” — Atomic Habits (p 38)

\n

I made four votes for the person I wish to become in my 60-min zone spin class this morning. See blue circles for digital version.

\n\"Peloton \n

Analog version.

\n\"Peloton\n", "date_published": "2021-03-27T08:30:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/03/27/every-action-you.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Workouts","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/01/24/bring-back-inline.html", "title": "Bring Back Inline Replies", "content_html": "

The vast majority of the email I reply to I do a simple top reply. Particularly on mobile. It is fast and simple.

\n

However, I have started replying to friends and family with longer inline replies. It feels sort of old fashioned, like I’m writing a letter. It puts me in a context to write more thoughtfully. If you haven’t tried inline replies lately, with nice formatting and trimming of the note you are replying to, give it a go. ✍️

\n", "date_published": "2021-01-24T12:57:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/01/24/bring-back-inline.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/01/14/noticed-in-streaks.html", "content_html": "

Noticed in Streaks today that I have meditated 700 days in a row. Meditation has become a bedrock habit. It has also become a key component of my #FitByFifty missions.

\n", "date_published": "2021-01-14T19:53:30-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/01/14/noticed-in-streaks.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Productivity","Fit by Fifty"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/09/19/i-have-wanted.html", "content_html": "

I have wanted folders in Shortcuts since it was called Workflow. It is a huge help to have that in iOS 14. I rediscovered shortcuts I had forgot about because they were lost in the flat library! I also love that I can group project specific shortcuts like the Weekly Thing.

\n\"iOS\n", "date_published": "2020-09-19T19:32:23-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/09/19/i-have-wanted.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/06/30/started-reading-the.html", "content_html": "

Started reading The Bullet Journal Method. Recommended by Dan Grigsby to give it a full read versus just scanning the syntax. More depth here than I suspected. 📚

\n\"The\n", "date_published": "2020-06-30T22:10:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/06/30/started-reading-the.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Books"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/05/28/i-wanted-to.html", "content_html": "

I wanted to keep my #FitByFifty objective very front and center for me throughout the day. I created a simple graphic and ordered some custom stickers from Sticker Mule. Love it! 💪

\n\"FitByFifty\n\"Breville\n\"Space\n", "date_published": "2020-05-28T21:28:52-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/05/28/i-wanted-to.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Productivity","Fit by Fifty"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/05/28/i-am-excited.html", "content_html": "

I am excited to try out Omni Automation inside of OmniFocus! I’ve automated OmniFocus for years with Shortcuts and x-callback-urls for. But being able to execute JavaScript inside of OmniFocus could be super powerful!

\n\"OmniFocus\n", "date_published": "2020-05-28T06:45:43-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/05/28/i-am-excited.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/04/02/gtd-practitioners-what.html", "content_html": "

GTD practitioners, what project names have you created as we have fallen into this pandemic? I’ll start, one called “Grow through the pandemic”. You?

\n", "date_published": "2020-04-02T23:19:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/04/02/gtd-practitioners-what.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Current Events"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/03/21/ive-rebooted-my.html", "content_html": "

I’ve “rebooted” my gratitude journal. 🙏 This may seem like the worst time possible to do that, but I suspect that makes it the best time possible.

\n", "date_published": "2020-03-21T22:44:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/03/21/ive-rebooted-my.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/12/06/i-like-to.html", "content_html": "

I like to use emoji to bring fun to unexpected places on my devices. Command line prompts, OmniFocus tags. My new favorite is emoji folder names for my Favorite boomarks in Safari. 👍

\n\"Safari\n", "date_published": "2019-12-06T09:52:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/12/06/i-like-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/12/04/it-would-be.html", "content_html": "

It would be a fun trick for Mail on iOS to allow you to specify a Shortcut for your email signature, which could generate a dynamic signature for each new mail message.

\n", "date_published": "2019-12-04T09:33:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/12/04/it-would-be.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/12/01/iphone-home-screen.html", "content_html": "

iPhone home screen, December 2019. I have a somewhat surprising number of text / writing / notes apps on there.

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2019-12-01T23:49:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/12/01/iphone-home-screen.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/10/25/i-like-this.html", "content_html": "

I like this new feature in the Sanebox digest! Great to get “wisdom of the crowd” benefit. 👍

\n\"Sanebox\n", "date_published": "2019-10-25T17:59:48-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/10/25/i-like-this.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/09/26/its-great-to.html", "content_html": "

It’s great to see OmniFocus with iOS 13 Features coming soon! I particularly like seeing some new Shortcut options being added right away! 👏

\n", "date_published": "2019-09-26T22:57:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/09/26/its-great-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/08/19/the-shortcuts-app.html", "content_html": "

The Shortcuts app on iOS should have a setting that causes shortcuts to error if you reference an unknown or undeclared variable. Would help reduce errors and could default to off for folks that do simpler things.

\n", "date_published": "2019-08-19T20:49:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/08/19/the-shortcuts-app.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/04/21/using-api-credentials.html", "title": "Using API Credentials in Shortcuts", "content_html": "

Shortcuts on iOS can do incredibly powerful things, and with a little bit of extra magic you can connect to most API’s as well. Pulling data from API’s, manipulating it, and extending your shortcuts is really powerful. However, you need to have a good way to manage the authentication tokens and secrets for those APIs.

\n

Most Shortcuts I have seen use a Text variable and put the token in that variable. It’s then used throughout the Shortcut. This works, but it exposes problems if you share that Shortcut. It also has issues if you use the same API in multiple Shortcuts. You are now copying that token in numerous places.

\n

Another approach that I prefer is to create Shortcuts that do nothing but return those tokens. You can then call those Shortcuts from another Shortcut to get the token. I prefix these Shortcuts with the prefix “Secret”.

\n\"Four\n

Then when I need to use an token for an API I call the Shortcut and then reference the magic variable returned from it. You can even hide the execution of that second Shortcut.

\n\"Apple\n

In addition to reuse, you also get other benefits from this approach. Your Secret Shortcut can have some logic. For example, I access Working Copy from Shortcuts and it does so with a local URL call, protected with a random key. That key is specific to each iOS device. So, rather than try to synchronize the keys I have the Secret shortcut return whatever key is right for the device that is running.

\n\"iOS\n

I do a similar thing with MailChimp’s API token that requires some encoding be applied to it.

\n

I find this a better way to manage these secret tokens, get reuse, and make it easier to change them. 👍

\n

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

\n", "date_published": "2019-01-22T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/04/21/using-api-credentials.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple","Shortcuts"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/12/21/im-going-to.html", "content_html": "

I’m going to give Agenda a solid workout to see if it’s a better solution for tracking work related notes and activities. Keep looking for something that works with the way I work, and this might be it.

\n", "date_published": "2018-12-21T17:05:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/12/21/im-going-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/10/10/just-used-the.html", "content_html": "

Just used the new iOS Shortcuts “Run JavaScript on Web Page” feature to automate a task that had no API endpoint before. It’s a very interesting capability. You can shove stuff in and out of the page and trigger other events while doing it. 🤔

\n", "date_published": "2018-10-09T23:52:25-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/10/09/just-used-the.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/10/04/my-apple-watch.html", "content_html": "\"Apple\nMy Apple Watch has gotten very confused with 8 duplicates of all calendar events. Can’t figure out how to clear or reset this yet.\n", "date_published": "2018-10-03T20:16:13-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/10/03/my-apple-watch.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/18/wired-my-ios.html", "content_html": "

Wired my iOS 12 Shortcut so “Hey Siri, Loons win!” starts playing Wonderwall. 👍🏻⚽️🎧

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-17T19:45:38-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/17/wired-my-ios.html", "tags": ["Sports","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/17/impressive-update-for.html", "content_html": "

Impressive update for Streaks today! Happy to see iCloud sync arrive and already support for Siri Shortcuts! 👏🏻

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-16T19:23:02-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/16/impressive-update-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/07/just-got-invitation.html", "content_html": "

Just got invitation to OmniFocus 3 for Mac beta. Impressive and big redesign. I have a feeling multiple windows will be better used in this version. Nice to have powerful Perspectives on all platforms.

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-06T22:28:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/06/just-got-invitation.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/06/10/the-new-capabilities.html", "content_html": "

The new capabilities of OmniFocus 3 are great, but I will be happy to get it on macOS so I can take full advantage of them. Having perspectives and tags so different across the platforms limits how I can modify my workflows.

\n", "date_published": "2018-06-10T13:58:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/06/10/the-new-capabilities.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/06/04/my-productivity-geek.html", "content_html": "

My productivity geek wish for tomorrow’s WWDC event is to learn what Apple had in mind when it bought Workflow. 🤓

\n", "date_published": "2018-06-03T23:25:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/06/03/my-productivity-geek.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/05/24/got-my-preorder.html", "content_html": "

Got my pre-order of OmniFocus 3 in! 👍🏻

\n", "date_published": "2018-05-24T18:12:58-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/05/24/got-my-preorder.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/05/12/when-you-put.html", "content_html": "

😲 When you put email from one account into a different email accounts Sanebox deferral folder. 🤦🏼‍♂️

\n", "date_published": "2018-05-12T07:25:51-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/05/12/when-you-put.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/05/12/learned-the-hard.html", "content_html": "

Learned the hard way that if you are using ZURB Foundation for Email, you really need to use their CSS Inlining tool. Did that, and it was like magic. MailChimp’s inliner didn’t get it right.

\n", "date_published": "2018-05-11T23:44:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/05/11/learned-the-hard.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/05/04/its-possible-to.html", "content_html": "

It’s possible to make some pretty crazy stuff with Workflow and Pythonista on iOS. Improving my Weekly Thing automation.

\n", "date_published": "2018-05-03T22:55:44-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/05/03/its-possible-to.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/05/03/013027.html", "content_html": "

Excited to see OmniFocus 3.0 for iOS ship date announced! Wonder why it’s not in App Store for pre-order. Instant buy for me. 👏🏻

\n", "date_published": "2018-05-02T20:30:27-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/05/02/013027.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/03/28/ive-gone-from.html", "content_html": "

I’ve gone from being ambivalent about OmniFocus 3 tags, to now constantly thinking about how they will help me. Waiting… ⏱

\n", "date_published": "2018-03-27T19:32:49-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/03/27/ive-gone-from.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/03/17/why-mailchimp-for.html", "title": "Why MailChimp for Weekly Thing", "content_html": "

I’ve now completed the migration and automation of the Weekly\nThing using\nMailChimp, and I’m very happy with how it has\nall worked out. Newsletters are experiencing a renaissance, so let me\nshare why I moved from TinyLetter to\nMailChimp.

\n

Be aware that TinyLetter was purchased by MailChimp. I don’t expect\nTinyLetter to get shut down, but I also don’t expect it to get any\nsignificant attention. TinyLetter is purpose-built for personal\nnewsletters and ease-of-use. It is very easy to use, as promised, but it\nlacks power features that I knew I would want.

\n

My move to MailChimp was driven by a few things:

\n
    \n
  1. I wanted to customize the template for my newsletter. I make\nfrequent use of block quotes and TinyLetter didn’t deal with those,\nneither did the standard MailChimp templates. TinyLetter doesn’t\nallow you to change the template, so I knew I would need to use\nsomething more powerful, and at some point I would need to author my\nown template. This a pain because dealing with HTML in email is\nreally gross.
    2. \n
  2. I wanted to automate the process of creating the newsletter. I use\nWorkflow to build the sections of the Weekly\nThing. I also can use Workflow to access the MailChimp\nAPI to create my campaign, upload\npictures and send the HTML of the newsletter. This saves me\nsignificant time each week.
    3. \n
  3. I knew that the advanced segmentation features of MailChimp may come\nin handy at some point. I haven’t used them yet, but it’s nice to\nknow I can reach out to a subset of subscribers if I want.
    4. \n
\n

MailChimp gives significantly more freedom and control, but it comes at\nthe expense of additional complexity. When I first moved from TinyLetter\nto MailChimp, the time it took me to generate the Weekly Thing doubled\nor worse. I also had to use a laptop, since some of the tools wouldn’t\nwork on my iPhone. Now that I’ve gotten my workflows updated, I can\ngenerate the newsletter faster than ever before, and once again I can do\nit all on my iPhone.

\n", "date_published": "2018-03-17T14:36:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/03/17/why-mailchimp-for.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/02/27/im-amazed-at.html", "content_html": "

I’m amazed at the “superpowers” Workflow gives me automating routine things from my phone! 🙌🏻

\n", "date_published": "2018-02-26T23:53:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/02/26/im-amazed-at.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/02/22/weekly-thing-enhancements.html", "title": "Weekly Thing Enhancements", "content_html": "

This weekend I made some significant improvements to the automation and\ntemplate for the Weekly Thing. I’ve\nalways had reservations about the template I was using since moving to\nMailChimp. It just didn’t fit me, and even more frustrating I didn’t\nhave any ways to make simple changes to the styling. I use quotes\nextensively in the Weekly Thing, and it wasn’t possible to get those\nquickly styled.

\n

I got a lot done over the weekend to make this better.

\n

Template

\n

I used a very basic HTML\ntemplate\nand extended it as I need it. I wanted it simple and didn’t want a lot\nof decoration. I like how it ended up.

\n

You will notice that quotes look significantly better in the links\nsection, with indentation and a left border. I’ve also added the\nhostname of the link, so you know what site you are going to go to if\nyou click on that link, something I appreciate before I click on a link.

\n

Automation

\n

My automation is now complete again. I figured out the MailChimp API’s\nand my workflows now format all the content for me and then create the\ncampaign in MailChimp, set the body content and I even got the photo\nuploaded with the API.

\n

Now I can once again publish entirely on my iPhone if I want to.

\n

Microblog

\n

While I was working on the template and the automation, I decided to\nmake the microblog section better. I’ve never liked having those posts\nbe a list of links. Often the only content is the text itself, and it\nfeels disappointing to click on a link to get nothing new. But sometimes\nthere was a photo there, so people did.

\n

Microblogs are now directly in line with the Weekly Thing. You no longer\nneed to click out to see an image, and you don’t get disappointed by\nclicking on a status post to only see a web page with nothing more than\nthe status you already read.

\n

Thank you for the time, and I would appreciate any feedback you have. 🙏\nI finally feel like I can change this with some confidence and make\ncontinual improvements.

\n", "date_published": "2018-02-22T22:45:25-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/02/22/weekly-thing-enhancements.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/02/19/using-the-get.html", "content_html": "

Using the Get and Set Clipboard actions in Workflow to pass more than just “Workflow input” between different workflows is great (and a total hack). 🤓

\n", "date_published": "2018-02-19T00:48:40-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/02/18/using-the-get.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/02/19/went-down-a.html", "content_html": "

Went down a rabbit hole 🕳 automating MailChimp for the Weekly Thing. Wrestled control on my template.

\n", "date_published": "2018-02-18T19:05:39-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/02/18/went-down-a.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/01/28/sunday-morning-project.html", "content_html": "

Sunday morning project: Figured out how to connect Workflow and Pythonista and rewrote the links section of the Weekly Thing in Python so I can structure it better.

\n", "date_published": "2018-01-28T10:42:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/01/28/sunday-morning-project.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/01/21/in-meetings.html", "title": "2017 in Meetings", "content_html": "

Manager and maker\nschedules is a\nrelatively popular topic. The basic thesis is that maker schedules need\nto consist of large blocks of dedicated time on a goal. You need time to\nconnect with the work, hopefully, achieve some period of\nflow and realize an\nobjective. Manager schedule, however, is divided up into small segments\nof time to connect with people and topics, get information and make\ndecisions.

\n

In my position, I operate on manager time with occasional injections of\nmaker time. I am deliberate about how I manage this. My objectives and\ngoals are realized, in part, through my calendar. In recent years I felt\nI could better align my calendar and time with my objectives, so in 2016\nI did an end-of-year one-time analysis of my calendar and made some\nchanges. After reviewing that analysis, I decided the benefit was\nvaluable enough that in 2017 I committed to collecting more granular\ndata. My goal is to determine alignment and effectiveness of my schedule\nto my objectives. I developed a set of workflows that I run at the end\nof every day to collect this data.

\n

Now that I’ve collected a full year I can look at an overall budget to\nactual analysis. In business, we always look at our financial budget and\ncompare to actual. In managing my time, I find it helpful to consider a\nbudget and measure the actuals as well. You cannot budget well if you\ndon’t collect actuals.

\n

I’m going to share some of the statistical information that I gathered\nwhile doing this in 2017. I’m not sharing any information about the\ncontent or context. You may consider this\nnavel-gazing, but some\nmay find it interesting, and perhaps it will encourage others to be more\ndeliberate about managing their time.

\n

This analysis refers to meetings on my calendar. These are meetings\ninvolving other people. I block time on my calendar for solo work, and\nthat is excluded in this analysis.

\n

In 2017 I had a total of 1,512 meetings. These meetings occurred\nover 223 days. That is an average of 6.8 meetings per day.

\n

Meeting frequency is highest on Thursday. However, the largest\ncumulative hours are on Wednesday. Friday has shorter meetings on\naverage. I would have thought that meeting count would spike on Tuesday\nand then trend down through the week.

\n

\"2017

\n

Let’s look at how these meetings occur over the course of the year. The\naverage of 6.8 meetings per day shows visually here. There are many\nspikes, with one notable day having 13 meetings. Weekends are shown\nhere, and you can see the 2-week vacation I took in the summer.

\n

\"2017

\n

Daily data is noisy, and it’s easier to look at the 52 weeks of the year\nversus the working days. Here we look at the meeting count by week along\nwith a 4-week moving average.

\n

\"2017

\n

I got curious about how much of the week is scheduled in meetings. If we\nuse an 8-hour day as a baseline then consider the load to be the percent\nof those 8 hours that were scheduled what would my weeks look like? It\nisn’t uncommon for me to have all of my time scheduled, and occasionally\nbe over scheduled. As mentioned earlier, I do block time on my schedule\nfor solo work activities. As a result, 81.3% is fully scheduled.\nWhenever I am over 81.3% I’ve removed that block to allow for more\nmeeting time.

\n

\"2017

\n

How about the start time, do more meetings start in the morning? I\ncertainly feel like the morning is more frequently scheduled than the\nafternoons. Here is meeting frequency by start hour. My average day gets\na fast start at 8 am with a dip at 12 pm. Most days I have meetings\nthrough lunch. There is a dip again at 4 pm. In our office, we are much\nmore likely to start earlier than later, and you can see that with the\nfrequency of 7 am meetings versus 5 pm. The meetings in the middle of\nthe night were in Ukraine and are represented here in central time.

\n

\"2017

\n

I was curious to know the distribution of durations. What duration of\nmeetings do I have the most often? The most common meeting for me is 30\nminutes (37.3%) and then 60 minutes (29.1%). 45-minute meetings are also\ncommon (12.5%), that is the normal time I schedule for 1-1 meetings with\nmy team.

\n

\"2017

\n

This statistical data is most likely to gauge overall stress level or\ndemand for my time. I also get this data in a weekly report and it is a\nnice check on my qualitative assessment of the week. The additional data\nI collect about topic and context is very actionable. I can see areas\nwhere I’m over or under budget on time and can consider structural\nchanges to my schedule to align better. I like this act as the shift\nforces me to delegate some topics more, disconnect from some things and\ngive more time and focus to the areas that I specifically need to focus\non for success.

\n

I would highly encourage anyone that has more than 50% of their time\nscheduled to do a similar exercise. It will provide some insight both to\nhow you are feeling and the results you are getting.

\n", "date_published": "2018-01-21T09:56:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/01/21/in-meetings.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity","Work"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/01/21/i-cant-think.html", "content_html": "

I can’t think of a reason I would ever want a notification from my Kindle app.

\n", "date_published": "2018-01-21T09:32:25-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/01/21/i-cant-think.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/01/02/just-finished-module.html", "content_html": "

Just finished module 1 of The Focus Course. It is a slow start but I see it building some foundational things. Looking forward to the rest of the modules.

\n", "date_published": "2018-01-01T22:30:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/01/01/just-finished-module.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/12/29/what-apps-make.html", "title": "What apps make you better?", "content_html": "

I’ve been very intentional about which applications I put on my iPhone and even where I put them. I don’t put any social media applications on my phone, and don’t put news applications on it either. I specifically seek out applications that have addictive patterns baked into them and remove them as well.

\n

A while back I started keeping an entire page of applications that are all there to help me achieve my goals and improve as a person. Novel idea huh? This is what that screen looks like today.

\n

\"Apps

\n

YouAte

\n

Keeping a food journal is a great way to eat better and YouAte does it all with photos. I had used Rise for a while which you typically use with a coach. YouAte can be used with friends for support or you can use it solo.

\n

Day One

\n

Journaling is a great way to reflect on things. This is by far my farvorite journaling application. It supports multiple journals and also has strong encryption.

\n

stickK

\n

When my book club read Nudge it referenced the work and theory behind commitments that has now been built into an offering called stickK. I haven’t used this for a commitment yet but I like the mechanics and think it’s a solid approach.

\n

Happy Scale

\n

This is a great application for logging and analysing your weight data. It applies smoothing to all of your data which I think is a far superior way to look at weight data.

\n

Headspace

\n

Meditation app with a tremendous amount of options.

\n

Streaks

\n

Streaks is a habit tracker. I consider habit trackers to be very different from task management. Habit trackers tend to focus on streaks, and Streak does just that. I’ve also used Productive in the past and like it a lot. The built-in HealthKit hooks in Streak are a nice benefit to me.

\n

Zones

\n

Zones is a fabulous app for tracking the intensity of your workouts and letting you know what heart rate zone you were in for how long. If you have an Apple Watch and collect this data Zones can even tell you info on historical workouts.

\n

SleepTown

\n

Fun app that helps you keep consistent sleep patterns. This app helps me make sure I’m not staring at my phone too late.

\n

Forest

\n

Fun app for forcing yourself to not use your phone during the day. Great for keeping yourself from habitually checking your device.

\n

Health Mate & Omron Wellness

\n

Both of these are here because they support devices I have. The Health Mate app connects my Withings Scale to HealthKit so data flows automatically. The Omron Wellness app connects my blood pressure monitor to HealthKit as well. I like having as much automation as possible from measurements to storage.

\n

What is yours?

\n

What apps are on your mobile device to encourage good things? I’d highly recommend putting them in one place and making it a regular stop on your phone.

\n", "date_published": "2017-12-29T13:16:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/12/29/what-apps-make.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/12/10/earned-the-botanist.html", "content_html": "

Earned the botanist badge in Forest! 🌳🌳🌳

\n\"Forest\n", "date_published": "2017-12-10T13:47:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/12/10/earned-the-botanist.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/11/30/thanks-to-jbwhaleyhttpsmicroblogjbwhaley.html", "content_html": "

Thanks to Jarrod Whaley I have a nice little Python script so I can easily update micro.blog without getting distracted. Now to wire it into LaunchBar!

\n", "date_published": "2017-11-29T20:18:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/11/29/thanks-to-jbwhaleyhttpsmicroblogjbwhaley.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/11/26/got-my-scansnap.html", "content_html": "

Got my ScanSnap iX500 setup tonight. Cloud scanning seems to be working well.

\n", "date_published": "2017-11-25T23:14:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/11/25/got-my-scansnap.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/11/22/signed-up-for.html", "content_html": "

Signed up for Shawn Blanc’s The Focus Course. Looking forward to learning and improving. 👨‍🎓

\n", "date_published": "2017-11-21T22:13:54-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/11/21/signed-up-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/11/04/got-workflow-working.html", "content_html": "

Got Workflow working with the Mailchimp API. Weekly Thing automation leveling up! 👍🏻

\n

My biggest ask for Workflow is to put groups of workflows in folders. 🤞🏻

\n", "date_published": "2017-11-04T21:07:13-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/11/04/got-workflow-working.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/10/15/decade-of-gtd.html", "title": "Decade of GTD", "content_html": "

I stumbled on this link from Feb 2007 when I started looking into Getting Things Done. Over 10 years later and I’m still practicing, and improving, GTD practices. This is one of my decade projects that I expect to continuously get value from.

\n", "date_published": "2017-10-15T17:47:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/10/15/decade-of-gtd.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/10/14/033543.html", "content_html": "

Tomorrow’s Weekly Thing will delivered from MailChimp instead of TinyLetter! 🤞 Hoping for the best!

\n", "date_published": "2017-10-13T22:35:43-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/10/13/033543.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/09/29/gave-another-copy.html", "content_html": "

Gave another copy of Getting Things Done to a #TeamSPS member. One of my favorite things to do!

\n", "date_published": "2017-09-29T16:32:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/09/29/gave-another-copy.html", "tags": ["TeamSPS","Productivity","Work"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/06/23/assembling-the-weekly.html", "title": "Assembling the Weekly Thing", "content_html": "

I had been interested in creating a newsletter like the Weekly Thing for a while but I was worried it would be difficult to do and quickly turn into a chore. I wasn’t worried about the email part, I knew a service like TinyLetter could deal with that. The daunting part was getting the content structured the right way, even when I the bits of the content were mostly in other systems already.

\n

I knew the main item I wanted to build it around were links to other sites that I use Pinboard to collect. But how to make that easy?

\n\"Six\n

Workflow to the Rescue

\n

As I thought about this I tried a number of options. I tried making an Automator workflow but that was weird, and even worse it meant I had to be on a Mac and I knew I would want to send this when I wasn’t near a computer. I started to look at Workflow and realized it might do the trick.

\n

Workflow has a great feature to retrieve published metadata, such as description and date, from a URL (Get Article from Web Page). Sometimes when I stored URL’s I didn’t write a description so that would be nice. I pulled the data using Pinboard’s RSS feed, put it in a loop getting a variety of data and assembling the draft content as I watched. Voila! 👏

\n

The entire process that I use to create Weekly Thing is based on RSS (mostly) and tied together with Workflow on iOS. I have a collection of workflows that I run, with one master workflow that kicks everything off. The master workflow is responsible for ordering the sections and setting the cutoff date for content, which in my case is midnight of the relevant Saturday. The master workflow spawns the other workflows for each content section, passing into it the cutoff date for content.

\n

Each workflow is then free to do whatever it wants as long as it returns a valid block of HTML back to the main workflow. I can chain as many of these modules together in whatever way I wish. Some of them don’t use RSS, like the photograph one. That prompts me to look at my photos and pick one, then fills in all the appropriate template text for me to finish off.

\n

At the end the workflow combines all these blocks of HTML into one fully assembled newsletter and gives me the option to copy it, share it, generate a PDF or anything else I wish. I’m very happy with this. From here I put it in TinyLetter, do a final review and hit send!

\n

Extensions

\n

Since this is extensible, I can easily add new modules by creating another workflow that is then stitched into the assembly process. And because I’m using Workflow in iOS, I can access a wide variety of data from different systems. RSS is a basic one that many services support, but Workflow can look at my Calendar, Address Book and many others. I’ve thought about weird things like calendar statistics for example. Or if I really wanted to overshare I could pull in recent data from the Health app.

\n

I’ve found that it’s easiest to understand Workflow when you see what other people do with it. Perhaps this will turn some lightbulbs on for others on how they could automate use Workflow effectively!

\n

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

\n", "date_published": "2017-06-23T21:38:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/06/23/assembling-the-weekly.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Blogging","Shortcuts"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/06/09/omnifocus-tip-using.html", "title": "OmniFocus Tip: Using Context Notifications", "content_html": "

I use OmniFocus as the core of my GTD system. I also keep notifications on my phone to a minimum, including for OmniFocus. OmniFocus on iOS has the ability to give you a notification when you enter or leave a context with a location. This is pretty handy and I’ve used it for some specific locations associated with my Errands context. Errands : Hardware store gives me a nudge if I am nearby and have tasks available. I’ve never used this feature with Home and Office contexts because it would be very noisy.

\n

There are times however when I would like OmniFocus to be in my face at home or at the office. I may have a task in OmniFocus that I need to do when I get to work on Monday morning, or when I come home on Friday evening and a notification would help. I realized there is a really simple solution to this.

\n

I have a Office context, and inside that context I created a Office with notification context. The context with notification has a location and notification with it.

\n\"OmniFocus\n

Now I can easily put a very small number of tasks in the Office : Office with notificaiton context and know I will be notified when they are avialable. I’ve created a similar context for Home with notificaiton. This has already allowed me to not forget a couple of time sensitive things.

\n", "date_published": "2017-06-09T07:04:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/06/09/omnifocus-tip-using.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/06/06/attending-my-first.html", "content_html": "

Attending my first GTD workshop today. Have been doing GTD for a long time and am looking to reinforce and deepen core concepts.

\n\n", "date_published": "2017-06-06T08:12:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/06/06/attending-my-first.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/06/05/sirikit-supports-tasks.html", "content_html": "

SiriKit supports tasks and OmniFocus 2 is on the slide? Yes please! 😍

\n", "date_published": "2017-06-05T13:05:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/06/05/sirikit-supports-tasks.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/05/26/bear-notes-added.html", "content_html": "

Bear Notes added sketching support on iPad. Looks nice. Time to give it another look.

\n", "date_published": "2017-05-25T20:35:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/05/26/bear-notes-added.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/05/19/using-project-templates.html", "title": "Using Project Templates", "content_html": "

I’ve seen and read about people using project templates for a while, but I’ve never adopted them myself until recently. Mostly I found many of the means of managing project templates to be bothersome and I never dug into it further. That has changed recently, and I think many systems now support robust ways of importing projects and using them as templates.

\n

What is a Project Template?

\n

A project template is a set of actions and tasks that can be brought into your task management application. It’s significantly more powerful if the templates allow for some variable substitution for words or dates so that it can be customized for each use. It is even better if you can do some minor calculations on things like dates and indicate that one task is deferred or due relative to the date of another task.

\n

Use Cases

\n

I have found project templates to be particularly useful for three types of projects.

\n

Frequent Activities

\n

The most obvious use case for project templates is for recurring, relatively frequent events. At the office, I have multiple meetings that happen on a certain schedule, such as a team all-hands. Each time I do one of these meetings, there are a set of tasks I need to do. Determine agenda, prepare a draft, get input from others, arrange a guest speaker. Using a template for these events is very helpful.

\n

Business trips are another good example. Each business trip has a series of before, during and after actions. I put these in a template with the proper variables and relative dates to help with trip planning and preparation.

\n

Multiple Instances

\n

One area where templates can be great is when you have multiple instances of the same thing with a slight variation. The best example I have for this is doing performance reviews. I have to write several of them, and each one has multiple steps. They are mostly direct copies of each other, but the person is different and possibly the dates. To make this easier I create a template and then run it for each person and can quickly build the multiple sets of projects that I need to get done for this process.

\n

Infrequent Activities

\n

I have found project templates to be a good way to make improvements to things that I rarely do. In fact, this is probably my favorite use of templates. It feels like a way to apply continuous learning to things you do once a year.

\n

The template I made for Daylight Savings Time adjustment is a great example. I do this twice a year, and every time I tend to forget one or two clocks. There are also a couple of clocks that are tricky, and I often end up searching the Internet each time for instructions.

\n

This year I made a project template for this that helps in many ways:

\n\n

Now that I have a template I can do it faster, more efficient and know I didn’t forget anything.

\n

A similar example to this is a recent template I made for Apple OS Upgrades. I have Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and Apple TV’s that all need upgrading. I now have a template so I can easily capture those activities when needed.

\n

Another example that I’ve come to like a lot is project templates for major holidays. Christmas is a perfect example of a very fun time of year but also a complicated time. Sending Christmas cards out, traditions and getting presents add up to a lot of things to make sure you get done and don’t have a bunch of last minute things to do.

\n

I created a template for this and was able to capture all of the main things that we do each Christmas. This let’s me have more confidence that I do not forget anything. The last item on these templates is usually a task that suggests to “Update template with any changes from this year” which is a great way to get better for next year.

\n

Scheduling

\n

Project templates are handy, but often you want them to get setup on a schedule. I’ve decided to keep this out of my task management system and instead I have a task list in the Reminders application called ‘Project Reminders.’ This is where I set the annual triggers to create various projects from their templates.

\n

Next…

\n

I purposefully kept this post independent of the tools that I use so I could just make a case for using project templates in your personal GTD system. In a future post, I’ll talk about the tools that I use to implement this.

\n", "date_published": "2017-05-19T20:31:31-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/05/19/using-project-templates.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/02/15/sending-email-to.html", "title": "Sending Email to OmniFocus Using Flow in Office 365", "content_html": "

This workflow is mainly for people that use Office 365 and are looking for an easy way to selectively put emails into OmniFocus or another task management system that can receive tasks via email.

\n

I’m always looking for easier ways to move an email from my Inbox into OmniFocus. I only put a small number of emails into OmniFocus, but I’d like it to be nearly automatic. Some emails I always want to send to OmniFocus, and for those I use a mail rule to automatically route. I also use Sanebox’s SaneFwd feature to do something similar. But those are only good when it is a sender that you always want to go to OmniFocus. What about when you selectively want to grab a couple emails?

\n

I started wondering if I could do something with Microsoft Flow. For those that don’t know, Flow is very similar to Zapier and is in the same category as IFTTT. I would put it closer to Zapier since it handles much more complex workflows with loops, conditionals and also connects to more complicated systems than IFTTT. Flow was launched less than a year ago.

\n

Mail rules can only fire on a mail activity, such as an email being received. Once it’s received and in your mailbox mail rules don’t have a trigger event. Flow, since it is directly integrated into Office 365, can see a bit more and has a trigger for “When an email is flagged”. That caught my eye right away and within a couple of minutes I had this workflow for sending things to OmniFocus by flagging them in my Inbox. The “To” address should be your OmniFocus Mail Drop address.

\n\"Microsoft\n

Look at the 2nd step in the workflow to “Get user profile”. I’d like these items to be associated with who the email came from, and my pattern for that is to prepend the persons name to the task seperated by a colon. Since Flow is part of Office 365, it can talk to Active Directory and get things like the “Display name” of the sender. I could also include their phone number or any other data that was in Active Directory as well.

\n

I did also set two advanced options to avoid getting raw HTML in the OmniFocus task.

\n\"Two\n

This workflow works really well. It triggers quickly and is as frictionless as I think I can get. I also really like that Flow gives some extensibility if I wanted to pull in other data related to the person or message. Most of my limitations there are related to what Mail Drop can interpret.

\n

Couple things about Flow:

\n
    \n
  1. While Flow allows you to author workflows on the iOS app I found it really clumsy. I’d do the authoring on a web browser and computer.
    2. \n
  2. There are some really interesting options that can tie Office 365 with Azure Functions using Flow. You can see there is some brilliance here on how this is implemented.
    3. \n
  3. If you like IFTTT and are in an Office 365 environment at work, you definitely should look at Flow. It has some powerful automation options.
    4. \n
\n", "date_published": "2017-02-15T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/02/15/sending-email-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/01/20/this-is-neat.html", "content_html": "

This is neat. Would be cool if OmniFocus did some fun stuff like this.

\n

Love this data visualization by @todoist https://t.co/XvsDV6TaMn pic.twitter.com/jOGQJ25T9Z

— Federico Viticci (@viticci) January 19, 2017
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2017-01-19T21:04:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/01/19/this-is-neat.html", "tags": ["Tweets","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/12/26/i-finally-have.html", "content_html": "

I finally have realized the huge win of Workflow after a long time. Now to see if I can do similar with Launch Center Pro. There is a lot of value in automating routine workflows in iOS. Will keep focusing on this.

\n", "date_published": "2016-12-26T10:57:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/12/26/i-finally-have.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/12/26/grew-a-lot.html", "content_html": "

Grew a lot of big trees in Forest today.

\n", "date_published": "2016-12-25T19:58:46-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/12/25/grew-a-lot.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/12/23/finally-bit-and.html", "content_html": "

Finally dove into DEVONthink and am very impressed thus far. New iOS app got me to try it.

\n", "date_published": "2016-12-23T12:40:45-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/12/23/finally-bit-and.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/11/21/successfully-extracted-dropbox.html", "content_html": "

Successfully extracted Dropbox from my computing ecosystem. Simplifying.

\n", "date_published": "2016-11-20T20:34:13-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/11/20/successfully-extracted-dropbox.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/11/19/195215.html", "content_html": "

I made a workflow to simulate the 5-disc CD changer I had in the 90’s.

\n", "date_published": "2016-11-19T14:52:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/11/19/195215.html", "tags": ["Music","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/11/12/153347.html", "content_html": "

Enjoying the Canvas episodes on Workflow. Can’t wait to dive deeper! Thanks Federico Viticci and Fraser Speirs!

\n", "date_published": "2016-11-12T10:33:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/11/12/153347.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/11/12/142603.html", "content_html": "

Can’t wait to share this Workflow automation I’m finishing up for OmniFocus templates. Got it wired up and working on this long flight.

\n", "date_published": "2016-11-12T09:26:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/11/12/142603.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/10/20/found-this-a.html", "content_html": "

Found this a good listen → GTD and The Organized Mind 🎧

\n", "date_published": "2016-10-20T17:19:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/10/20/found-this-a.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/10/13/living-boldly-with.html", "content_html": "

Living boldly with 1,155 notes in iOS/OS X Notes app. iCloud syncing solid still. Search could be cleaner.

\n", "date_published": "2016-10-12T21:30:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/10/12/living-boldly-with.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/10/11/lot-of-gtd.html", "content_html": "

Lot of GTD truth to this.

\n

Sometimes I skip the weekly review due to a fear of what I'll learn. https://t.co/pqyPJU4jNe

— Joe Buhlig (@JoeBuhlig) October 10, 2016
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-10-10T21:21:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/10/10/lot-of-gtd.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/09/22/very-much-like.html", "content_html": "

OmniFocus 2.7 for Mac Release Notes — Like the adoption of TaskPaper format for sharing and copying!

\n", "date_published": "2016-09-21T23:02:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/09/21/very-much-like.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/09/14/siri-can-send.html", "content_html": "

Siri can send a message using LinkedIn (please never do this) but can’t add a task to OmniFocus. Ugh. 👎🏻

\n

Sadly, Siri on iOS 10 doesn't support To Do apps like @OmniFocus yet, just 6 other kinds of apps: https://t.co/wKtomdSnT3

Maybe in iOS 11!

— Ken Case (@kcase) September 14, 2016
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-09-14T05:50:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/09/14/siri-can-send.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/08/22/love-to-hear.html", "content_html": "

Love to hear Edward Tufte highlighting Atul Gawande “Checklist Manifesto”. A must read book and great to act on.

\n", "date_published": "2016-08-22T11:53:05-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/08/22/love-to-hear.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Books"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/08/22/collaborative-gtd.html", "title": "Collaborative GTD?", "content_html": "

A friend of mine that has been on the path to GTD for a long time now recently emailed me about using GTD in a collaborative environment. His specific question was pretty direct:

\n
\n

OmniFocus is awful in a\ncollaborative environment. What gives?

\n
\n

I’ve been down this road, and his question prompted me to peel the layers back a few times on this issue.

\n

What is GTD?

\n

Let’s first start by taking a look at how Getting Things Done describes itself.

\n
\n

Getting Things Done (GTD) is the proven path to getting in control of\nyour world, and maintaining perspective in your life.

\n
\n

We see a focus on “your world” and “your life.” Nothing about collaboration there. Let’s continue.

\n
\n

Much more than a set of tips for time management and organization, GTD\nis a total work-life management system that transforms overwhelm into\nan integrated system of stress-free productivity.

\n
\n

Now we see some other concepts like “work-life” and “stress-free,” but again nothing about collaboration.

\n

I’m highlighting this definition just to level set on the objectives of the GTD method. I revisit this because like my friends question I have many times thought that it sure would be great if I could extend my GTD system to my colleagues at work. Wouldn’t it be great if the “Waiting for” context could be seen not just by me, but those that I’m waiting for? It seems like a little step to make, but when you extend it further, I think it’s a step too far.

\n

GTD is Personal

\n

I’ve been practicing GTD now for several years and if there is anything that I can guarantee it is that every person has a slight personalization to their GTD system. I use a combination of OmniFocus, Notes (built-in Apple version) and Due. Within those tools, I have a system of contexts, projects, and folders that optimized to my way of managing my activities.

\n

I can guarantee that my structure of tools and the way that I use them is different from yours. Even if you use the same tools the way that you use them will be different. This is part of what makes GTD work for a wide variety of people. It isn’t prescriptive on the how, just the what. Go ahead and use note cards and a physical inbox or use electronic tools. It doesn’t matter.

\n

To use a GTD tool in a collaborative environment would need commonality. It would require that we agree that the context “Work → Computer” is a valid context and that it means the same thing. Without the freedom of tooling and configuration, I don’t think people would be as successful in using GTD.

\n

GTD isn’t Project Management

\n

While GTD has many of the nouns and verbs of project management, it isn’t. It’s easy to look at the list of projects in your GTD tool, and the associated next actions and think of it like you are doing project management. However, you are not. This is a very lightweight version of project management.

\n

Extending GTD tools into a collaborative environment is attempting to turn them into a project management tool. Leave this to the world of specialized tools like Microsoft Project or OmniPlan. GTD tools don’t have the proper capabilities (and should not) to do this type of work. I would suggest that when people ask about collaborating with GTD, they are asking about doing project management across a team.

\n

What you can do!

\n

I don’t see a good way to extend GTD tooling to a collaborative environment, but that doesn’t mean we are stuck only to use GTD methods alone. There are many things you can do.

\n
    \n
  1. I routinely share my GTD experiences and tooling with colleagues. I\nshare the Getting Things Done book with people and will highlight\nGTD rituals like a weekly review.
    2. \n
  2. I use GTD language, such as asking people what their next actions\nare for a project.
    3. \n
  3. Use your GTD system to interact with others, but always through a\ndiscussion. I will routinely bring up an OmniFocus perspective and\nwalk through items during a status. The other person often is doing\nthe same. We have different tools and labels, but it works just\nfine.
    4. \n
\n

I do think that groups of people who use GTD together will be more efficient. However, I would hold on using a tool to solve the problem. Let everyone adopt the system that works for them, share the concepts and language.

\n

Getting Things Done and GTD are ® trademarks of The David Allen Company.

\n", "date_published": "2016-08-22T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/08/22/collaborative-gtd.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Work"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/08/05/really-glad-dayoneapp.html", "content_html": "

Encryption Update ← Really glad Day One is working on encryption for journals! Very needed!

\n", "date_published": "2016-08-04T21:07:39-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/08/04/really-glad-dayoneapp.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/08/01/very-happy-to.html", "content_html": "

Very happy to see Omni Group adding full encryption to OmniFocus! Upgraded all my installs and am now encrypted!

\n

With version 2.15 for iOS and 2.6 for Mac (both out today), OmniFocus supports end-to-end encryption: https://t.co/eXW3T8mbHh

— OmniFocus (@OmniFocus) August 1, 2016
\n\n\n\n

Autosave for /add actions will be a really nice win for Workflow automations! Thanks OmniFocus and Ken Case!

\n

Beyond end-to-end encryption, @OmniFocus 2.15 also adds iOS backups, an autosave option for /add URLs, and more: https://t.co/1Dd7475ikZ

— Ken Case (@kcase) August 1, 2016
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-08-01T20:17:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/08/01/very-happy-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/07/05/stodosnext-actions-for.html", "content_html": "

s/todos/next actions/. +1 for GTD.

\n

The act of writing down your list of todos is more important than anyone else actually seeing them

— Jon Phenow (@jphenow) July 5, 2016
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-07-05T12:54:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/07/05/stodosnext-actions-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/06/21/vibe-stats-for.html", "title": "Vibe - Stats for OmniFocus", "content_html": "

I downloaded Vibe and gave it a run and got this fun display.

\n

\"Vibe\nScreenshot\"

\n

What a fun project to take the data from OmniFocus and give you some nice visuals. I’m not sure these are real actionable data points but it’s a fun start. It would be pretty amazing if OmniFocus had an API that 3rd parties could access to do some interesting visuals like this.

\n", "date_published": "2016-06-21T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/06/21/vibe-stats-for.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/05/27/im-still-digging.html", "content_html": "

I’m still digging Notes on Mac OS X and iOS but it would be 10x more useful if I could link to a note with a URL from another app.

\n", "date_published": "2016-05-26T20:39:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/05/26/im-still-digging.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/05/15/great-interview-that.html", "content_html": "

Great interview that hit on many of the reasons I’ve decided to make GTD a “life skill“.

\n", "date_published": "2016-05-15T16:42:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/05/15/great-interview-that.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/04/26/and-another-person.html", "content_html": "

… and another person starts their path on the GTD journey. 👍🏻

\n

Took the boss's recommendation about omnifocus. Thinking I might really like it.

— John Kelly (@jkelly3) April 26, 2016
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-04-26T13:39:28-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/04/26/and-another-person.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/04/23/i-completed-an.html", "content_html": "

I completed an OmniFocus task today that was 6 years old. This is not a GTD best practice.

\n", "date_published": "2016-04-22T20:40:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/04/22/i-completed-an.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/04/12/a-captcha-on.html", "content_html": "

A CAPTCHA on an email newsletter unsubscribe page? Is that CAN-SPAM compliant? That’s a new low IAB.

\n", "date_published": "2016-04-12T15:36:25-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/04/12/a-captcha-on.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/03/16/email-rule-to.html", "title": "Email Rule to OmniFocus Action", "content_html": "

I get a large volume of email and I try to find every tool I can to better manage it. There are a number of systems that notify me of actions I need to take via email. These clutter up my workflow and I never process these messages like email from people. For example, someone submits an expense report and I need to approve it so Concur sends me an email.

\n

For emails that are always actions, I’ve found it nice to route them straight into my OmniFocus Inbox using a rule. The Omni Sync service has a Maildrop feature that will route from an email address directly to your OmniFocus Inbox.

\n

\"mail

\n

I use a rule like the one above route these system emails around my email and then close them out in my task workflow in OmniFocus. It’s a great way to keep email clean and automatically get these next actions in my system.

\n", "date_published": "2016-03-16T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/03/16/email-rule-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/03/13/workflow-for-meeting.html", "title": "Workflow for Meeting Management in Email", "content_html": "

I’m not sure why it took me a couple of decades to come up with this but I’ve had these mail rules in place for a little over a year, and they are great! After putting these in place, I was able to streamline my processing of meeting related notices and more importantly take action on the important messages.

\n

Folders

\n

Create three folders in your mailbox like this:

\n
\nMeetings\n├── Affirmative\n└── Review\n
\n

The rules below will route mail into those three folders.

\n

Rules

\n

Note that my email rules are for Office 365 and Exchange Online. These would work directly in any Exchange environment, but I suspect that the spirit of these rules could be put in place in any email/calendar system with translation.

\n

Invitations

\n

My workflow for accepting meeting invites is completely unrelated to processing my email inbox. The first thing I want to do is get all meeting requests out of my inbox so I can deal with them while I’m planning out my day and week. I route these into my “Meetings” folder.

\n
\n

Rule: Meeting Invitation

\n

After the message arrives and…
\nthe message is Meeting Request.

\n

Do the following…
\nmove the message to folder ‘Meetings’
\nand stop processing more rule on this message

\n
\n

Typically first thing in the morning I process all items in this Meetings folder acting upon each request as appropriate.

\n

Actionable Items

\n

I want to take note of and possibly act upon three kinds of responses to meetings. These three rules catch these and places them in the “Review” folder. I review this folder right after going through the Meetings folder.

\n

Decline

\n

Action is required when people decline meetings. Declines are what made me evaluate how I process meeting notifications. The most common one for me is a repeating 1:1 with a declined occurrence. I would miss these declines and not cancel on the occurrence as the meeting owner. Then I would be waiting for the person to show up only to realize that they had declined the meeting weeks ago due to a planned vacation.

\n

This rule will capture these declines so you can process them appropriately. By catching declines I’m able to make sure that all necessary people I’ve invited to a meeting are there, and we can have a productive session.

\n

Note that this rule includes a forward as well. If you have someone who helps manage your schedule, forward these to that person as well so that they can take action on your behalf.

\n
\n

Rule: Meeting Declines

\n

After the message arrives and…
\nthe message is Meeting Response.
\nand the message includes specific words in the subject ‘Declined:’

\n

Do the following…
\nforward the message to ‘John Doe’
\nand move the message to folder ‘Review’
\nand stop processing more rule on this message

\n
\n

New Time Proposed

\n

Sometimes people don’t decline but suggest a new time. Now I need to visit my calendar and see if this alternative time works for me and possibly everyone else. I put these in the “Review” folder and also forward a copy to anyone that may help me with this.

\n
\n

Rule: Meeting New Time Proposal

\n

After the message arrives and…
\nthe message is Meeting Response.
\nand the message includes specific words in the subject ‘New Time\nProposed:’

\n

Do the following…
\nforward the message to ‘John Doe’
\nand move the message to folder ‘Review’
\nand stop processing more rule on this message

\n
\n

Forward

\n

Meeting forwards don’t require revisiting the schedule, but I do want to know about it. It’s worthwhile to know that someone decided to add another person to the conversation. Possibly we’ll need a different room, or we may need to adjust the agenda.

\n
\n

Rule: Meeting Forward

\n

After the message arrives and…
\nthe message includes specific words in the subject ‘Meeting Forward\nNotification:’

\n

Do the following…
\nforward the message to ‘John Doe’
\nand move the message to folder ‘Review’
\nand stop processing more rule on this message

\n
\n

Meeting Acceptances

\n

Meeting acceptances are complete noise. The rules above make sure I see only actionable responses. These notifications I ‘mark as read’ and put in the “Affirmative” folder. I then delete them when a large number pile up. I could just as easily get rid of the folder and just delete these upon arrival, but I do like to see them there for some reason.

\n

It is critical that this rule is last! If you put this rule ahead of the others, it will intercept important notices, and you’ll miss them!

\n
\n

Rule: Meeting Acceptance

\n

After the message arrives and…
\nthe message is Meeting Response.

\n

Do the following…
\nmark the message as Read
\nand move the message to folder ‘Affirmative’
\nand stop processing more rule on this message

\n
\n

Optimize Schedule and Decrease Distractions

\n

By using these rules I’ve been able to:

\n
    \n
  1. Optimize my process for accepting meeting invitations,
    2. \n
  2. Completely ignore meeting acceptances, and
    3. \n
  3. Never miss that someone was unable to join a meeting and have a broken calendar when the necessary people aren’t there.
    4. \n
\n", "date_published": "2016-03-13T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/03/13/workflow-for-meeting.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/03/10/me-thinks-day.html", "content_html": "

Me thinks Day One for Web might be coming… 👍

\n

We are searching for a passionate React / Front-end Web dev. Interested and near Lehi?

DM me or apply here: https://t.co/8yz4uNAgUW

–PM

— Day One Journal (@dayone) March 9, 2016
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-03-09T19:42:44-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/03/09/me-thinks-day.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/02/21/its-february-and.html", "content_html": "

It’s February and our entire summer is pretty much scheduled out. Not sure if I’m excited or depressed by this.

\n", "date_published": "2016-02-21T16:56:05-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/02/21/its-february-and.html", "tags": ["Family","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/01/26/neat-mindnode-now.html", "content_html": "

MindNode now supports tasks in trees. Good idea.

\n", "date_published": "2016-01-26T10:01:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/01/26/neat-mindnode-now.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/12/31/have-journaled-days.html", "content_html": "

Have journaled 101 days in a row now with the help of Day One and Streaks.

\n", "date_published": "2015-12-31T00:53:54-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/12/30/have-journaled-days.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/12/16/045517.html", "content_html": "

I’ve become a fan of this app. Great for building positive habits.

\n

Now available: Streaks 1.6.1, featuring a couple of small bug fixes, plus translations for Thai, Malay + Finnish. https://t.co/2hUBndraHM

— Streaks (@TheStreaksApp) December 16, 2015
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-12-15T23:55:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/12/15/045517.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/12/08/cool-omnifocus-push.html", "content_html": "

OmniFocus push sync on Mac works great — instant sync across OmniFocus everywhere!

\n", "date_published": "2015-12-07T21:50:24-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/12/07/cool-omnifocus-push.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/12/06/days-of-journaling.html", "content_html": "

75 days of journaling! Streaks and Day One facilitating.

\n", "date_published": "2015-12-05T23:28:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/12/05/days-of-journaling.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/12/05/love-having-omnioutliner.html", "content_html": "

Love having OmniOutliner on my iPhone to capture structures as they come to mind.

\n", "date_published": "2015-12-05T10:21:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/12/05/love-having-omnioutliner.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/22/would-be-big.html", "content_html": "

Would be big win if Notes app on iOS and Mac supported a URL schema to open a specific note or a folder.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-22T08:41:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/22/would-be-big.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/21/service-need-a.html", "content_html": "

Service need: a way to get a TextExpander template response professionally written on demand.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-20T21:03:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/20/service-need-a.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/20/really-happy-to.html", "content_html": "

Really happy to see that Instaviz has come back to life with new releases. Using Instaviz on iPad Pro with Pencil is pretty amazing brainstorming tool.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-20T20:39:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/20/really-happy-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/07/114218.html", "content_html": "

One of my biggest OmniFocus wish list items? Ability to “tag” people from my contacts in tasks.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-07T06:42:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/07/114218.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/10/26/journaled-for-days.html", "content_html": "

Journaled for 35 days straight (using Day One & help from Streaks)! Mindfulness and exercise are next two habits to work on.

\n", "date_published": "2015-10-25T19:32:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/25/journaled-for-days.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/10/03/journaling-habit.html", "title": "Journaling Habit", "content_html": "

For years I’ve thought it would be great to keep a daily journal. I bought Day One for iOS and my Mac. But I’ve never been consistent. About a month ago I changed tacts. Hit 13 days in a row so far.

\n\"Bar\n", "date_published": "2015-10-03T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/03/journaling-habit.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/10/03/as-someone-that.html", "content_html": "

As someone that just could never get cozy with Evernote I’m really digging the new Notes app in iOS 9 and El Cap.

\n", "date_published": "2015-10-02T20:35:29-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/02/as-someone-that.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/26/just-completed-a.html", "content_html": "

Just completed a task that was added to OmniFocus in June 2011. 😬

\n", "date_published": "2015-09-26T06:47:38-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/26/just-completed-a.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/22/liking-this-app.html", "content_html": "

Liking this app for reinforcing habits.

\n

Download Streaks 1.5 now from http://t.co/2hUBnd9zjc, featuring new languages, Health features, and a watchOS 2 app. pic.twitter.com/cM1MIBlmaq

— Streaks (@TheStreaksApp) September 22, 2015
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-09-21T23:28:03-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/21/liking-this-app.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/19/fun-listen-for.html", "content_html": "

Fun listen for users of OmniFocus particularly.

\n

We interviewed Ken Case (@kcase) from @OmniFocus about #GTD & Tech on the latest episode of Getting Things Done - https://t.co/bCdelZ2m8D

— Andrew J. Mason (@andrewjmason) September 19, 2015
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-09-18T20:08:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/18/fun-listen-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/16/192824.html", "content_html": "

This is a big deal for Apple Watch users of OmniFocus.

\n

On watchOS 2, OmniFocus lets you choose which items to see in its Glance and Complications: https://t.co/1ud1TyY1Ur https://t.co/j8UvcqyTZB

— Ken Case (@kcase) September 16, 2015
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-09-16T14:28:24-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/16/192824.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/13/following-katiefloyd-lead.html", "content_html": "

Using Due for simple stuff to keep OmniFocus clear of trivial matters. Wish Due had tags so I could filter tasks.

\n", "date_published": "2015-09-13T17:39:27-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/13/following-katiefloyd-lead.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/10/ipad-pro-smart.html", "content_html": "

iPad Pro + Smart Keyboard + Apple Pencil = 98% of my office needs

\n", "date_published": "2015-09-09T20:40:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/09/ipad-pro-smart.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/05/this-is-going.html", "content_html": "

This is going to change how I use my Apple Watch in a meaningful way! Awesome work OmniFocus crew!

\n

@thingles Why, yes, you most certainly can! pic.twitter.com/0k6cfjpSnQ

— Ken Case (@kcase) September 5, 2015
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-09-04T20:28:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/04/this-is-going.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/07/22/subscribed-to-learnomnifocus.html", "content_html": "

Subscribed to Learn OmniFocus for a year. Looking forward to more learning!

\n", "date_published": "2015-07-21T23:29:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/07/21/subscribed-to-learnomnifocus.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/07/09/im-starting-to.html", "content_html": "

I’m starting to defer email but not a habit yet. Like Sanebox for this and other features.

\n", "date_published": "2015-07-08T19:41:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/07/08/im-starting-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/29/trying-to-get.html", "content_html": "

Trying to get religion with OmniOutliner. Have a couple of use cases that are working really well.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-28T22:50:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/28/trying-to-get.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/27/surprising-miss-that.html", "content_html": "

Surprising “miss” that muting notifications for a group MMS on your iPhone does NOT stop notifications on Apple Watch.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-26T20:15:23-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/26/surprising-miss-that.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/20/no-support-for.html", "content_html": "

No support for perspectives makes OmniFocus for Apple Watch useless when you defer v due date tasks. Hope that is added.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-20T06:32:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/20/no-support-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/20/got-a-task.html", "content_html": "

Got a task into my OmniFocus inbox by talking to my watch. 🙂 Feels like magic! 🪄

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-19T21:37:45-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/19/got-a-task.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/14/got-my-protonmail.html", "content_html": "

Got my ProtonMail account invite. Cool to see how they are bringing encryption to email in a better way.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-13T20:14:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/13/got-my-protonmail.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/13/my-mailbox-went.html", "content_html": "

My mailbox went crazy today, then I realized I had changed my password and Sanebox wasn’t helping me. Fixed!

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-13T18:41:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/13/my-mailbox-went.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/11/i-struggle-to.html", "content_html": "

I struggle to see how teams of size (1,000+) can make Slack pricing work. HipChat is crazy cheap by comparison.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-10T20:59:09-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/10/i-struggle-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/10/sanebox-week.html", "title": "SaneBox Week", "content_html": "\"Stacked\n

A couple of weeks ago I started using SaneBox to help me manage my email. I love the weekly report that it sends me, including the graph of email I’ve received. This is from my personal mailbox.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-10T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/10/sanebox-week.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/24/have-been-using.html", "content_html": "

Have been using Sanebox for last couple of days. New tricks for a 20+ year email user, but I think I’m liking it.

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-24T09:13:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/24/have-been-using.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/24/browsing-the-apple.html", "content_html": "

Browsing the Apple Watch apps and wishing I didn’t have 3 more weeks to wait. 1Password and OmniFocus at top of my list to install.

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-23T21:05:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/23/browsing-the-apple.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/14/psa-if-you.html", "content_html": "

PSA: If you have OmniFocus running in different timezones on different devices side-by-side you get some odd looking sync behavior.

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-14T00:54:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/13/psa-if-you.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/10/push-syncing-coming.html", "content_html": "

Push syncing coming to OmniFocus! Nice… can’t wait.

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-10T17:25:49-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/10/push-syncing-coming.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/07/so-happy-that.html", "content_html": "

So happy that OmniFocus new release has given me full control of the sidebar. Great enhancement!

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-06T20:22:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/06/so-happy-that.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/03/new-omnifocus-is.html", "content_html": "

New OmniFocus is great! Finally full perspective support on iPhone. Also deferred in today widget is great!

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-02T23:37:04-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/02/new-omnifocus-is.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/03/10/013402.html", "content_html": "

Excited to see what Rise, Day One, OmniFocus, and You Need A Budget do with Apple Watch.

\n", "date_published": "2015-03-09T20:34:02-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/03/09/013402.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/12/28/wishing-macsparky-did.html", "content_html": "

Wishing MacSparky did a weekly OmniFocus newsletter with suggestions and power user content. Bite size field guide.

\n", "date_published": "2014-12-28T10:24:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/12/28/wishing-macsparky-did.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/12/14/024015.html", "content_html": "

If you like IFTTT and Launch Center Pro you should check out Workflow. Having fun with it.

\n", "date_published": "2014-12-13T21:40:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/12/13/024015.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/11/29/took-a-trip.html", "content_html": "

Took a trip through my spam folder for first time in forever. Seems things have gotten a bit aggressive in Bayes land.

\n", "date_published": "2014-11-28T19:35:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/11/28/took-a-trip.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/17/214949.html", "content_html": "

Very happy to have OmniFocus 2 for iPad!

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-17T16:49:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/17/214949.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/16/nice-fastmailfm-better.html", "content_html": "

Better security and privacy through image proxying — Nice! 👍

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-16T06:48:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/16/nice-fastmailfm-better.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/06/021301.html", "content_html": "

I think it’s time to give nvALT and Simplenoteapp a serious go.

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-05T21:13:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/05/021301.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/03/nice-improvements-from.html", "content_html": "

Nice improvements from FastMail on the iPhone web interface.

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-02T20:15:50-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/02/nice-improvements-from.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/08/12/hmm-office-mail.html", "content_html": "

Office365 mail offline? Maintenance window? Sure it’s 3:46a back home but it’s mid-day Kyiv. #TeamSPS

\n", "date_published": "2014-08-12T03:46:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/08/12/hmm-office-mail.html", "tags": ["TeamSPS","Travel","Productivity","Work"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/06/15/inbox-metrics.html", "title": "Inbox Metrics", "content_html": "\"Weekly\n

Yes, I actually do graph the activity in my inbox. How does it go? You can’t manage it if you don’t measure it? I do this for my SPS inbox as well. The numbers are much larger.

\n", "date_published": "2014-06-15T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/06/15/inbox-metrics.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/05/25/omnifocus-is-not.html", "content_html": "

OmniFocus is not a bug tracker! Use bug trackers for issues. Don’t put them in OmniFocus, it clutters your GTD system with a lot of noise.

\n", "date_published": "2014-05-25T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/05/25/omnifocus-is-not.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/05/11/spent-most-of.html", "content_html": "

Spent most of evening after kids were in bed doing digital weeding.

\n", "date_published": "2014-05-11T01:11:53-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/05/11/spent-most-of.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/05/10/email-from-mazie.html", "title": "Email from Mazie", "content_html": "

I’m starting to introduce Mazie to email. I also showed her how to use emoji characters. One of her first emails to me celebrating her favorite emoji!

\n\"Email\n", "date_published": "2014-05-10T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/05/10/email-from-mazie.html", "tags": ["Family","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/04/23/garrickvanburen-you-dont.html", "content_html": "

👍

\n
\n

Garrick van Buren: You don’t need a new tool. You need to commit to getting more out of the ones you have.

\n
\n", "date_published": "2014-04-23T07:36:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/04/23/garrickvanburen-you-dont.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/04/10/creating-entire-presentation.html", "content_html": "

Creating entire presentation on PowerPoint for iPad with Office 365 and pretty impressed with the entire experience.

\n", "date_published": "2014-04-10T06:53:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/04/10/creating-entire-presentation.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/03/07/giving-my-omnifocus.html", "content_html": "

Giving my OmniFocus GTD projects a serious review and refactor. Needed. Tracking lots of open projects.

\n", "date_published": "2014-03-06T21:53:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/03/06/giving-my-omnifocus.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/03/07/ive-always-known.html", "content_html": "

I’ve always known that OmniFocus tasks could repeat, but had never realized projects could repeat! Very nice!

\n", "date_published": "2014-03-06T21:08:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/03/06/ive-always-known.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/02/21/i-find-scheduling.html", "content_html": "

I find the “back and forth” of scheduling frustrating, so I set up a Doodle account with a public “Meet Me” page. I hope it helps!

\n", "date_published": "2014-02-20T20:27:51-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/02/20/i-find-scheduling.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/02/15/fastmailfm-may-have.html", "content_html": "

FastMail may have switched me to a webmail convert. They have a ridiculously fast interface.

\n", "date_published": "2014-02-15T11:56:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/02/15/fastmailfm-may-have.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/02/12/moved-all-my.html", "content_html": "

Moved all my personal email from TuffMail to FastMail and am super happy with it! Huge improvement.

\n", "date_published": "2014-02-11T22:24:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/02/11/moved-all-my.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/01/31/hanging-in-hipchat.html", "content_html": "

Hanging in HipChat with Dan Megears getting MXToolBox MailFlow monitoring for #TeamSPS email round trip. Yeah, that cool. 🙂

\n", "date_published": "2014-01-30T21:11:07-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/01/30/hanging-in-hipchat.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Work"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/01/11/sort-of-surprising.html", "content_html": "

Sort of surprising Day One doesn’t allow audio files to be put in an entry. Seems odd.

\n", "date_published": "2014-01-10T21:28:49-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/01/10/sort-of-surprising.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/12/15/ifttt-also-an.html", "content_html": "

IFTTT also an Office 365 channel could be a game changer for using you at work. Not sure if APIs exist though.

\n", "date_published": "2013-12-15T07:05:03-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/12/15/ifttt-also-an.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/12/14/have-my-sps.html", "content_html": "

I now have my SPS Commerce mailbox on Office 365. Very fast. I may actually just use the Outlook web interface for Office 365. Really like it.

\n", "date_published": "2013-12-14T15:38:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/12/14/have-my-sps.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/11/25/pdfconvertme.html", "content_html": "

Clever idea!

\n
\n

pdfconvert.me is a free email service which will take the content of a message and return that content back to the sending email as a PDF attachment. This allows mobile devices to have a “print to PDF” feature in many circumstances.

\n
\n", "date_published": "2013-11-25T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/11/25/pdfconvertme.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/11/17/not-being-able.html", "content_html": "

Not being able to see free/busy times when scheduling from iOS is a real annoyance.

\n", "date_published": "2013-11-17T12:09:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/11/17/not-being-able.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/11/06/productivity-apps-for.html", "title": "Productivity Apps for iPad", "content_html": "

A bunch of people at work got new iPad’s recently and I figured some may find it useful to know what productivity apps I’ve been using on my iPad. Over the last couple of months the iPad has really become a critical tool for me.

\n

OmniFocus for iPad

\n

I use OmniFocus all day, constantly on my iPhone, iPad and Mac. Everything I need to do gets put in it. It’s a GTD-style task tool. YMMV, but I find it very useful. OmniFocus sits in my home row on all iOS devices.

\n

OmniOutliner 2

\n

If I’m taking notes in a meeting I’m always keeping them in an outline, and a proper outliner is a huge win for that. I also use OmniOutliner 2 to frame out any presentations I’m giving. One thing I particularly like to do is have an outline document for each recurring meeting, and then have a node in the outline for each week where I put my notes. Makes it super easy to see last meeting items.

\n

HipChat

\n

I’ve been using HipChat for team chat. It’s awesome, and the iPad version lets me stay connected all the time. Great tool.

\n

MindNode

\n

If you are at all into mind mapping this is the best one by a mile for the iPad. Great tool for brainstorming a topic.

\n

1Password

\n

I use 1Password to manage 400+ unique passwords for everything I use. Critical to have it on iOS as well.

\n

Skype

\n

An obvious one.

\n

Keynote

\n

I know most folks are PowerPoint junkies. Personally if I can I prefer Keynote. The iOS version is on par with the desktop one. Enjoyable to work on slides on a plane using this.

\n

PCalc

\n

The calculator built-in is no fun at all. This is a serious, heavy hitter calculator that supports RPN for folks that are into that sort of thing. I don’t know if it does the beloved 12C functions for all the finance folks, but this is my preferred calculator by a mile. Nice bonus is you can email the “tape” if you’ve done a set of calculations.

\n

OmniPlan 2

\n

Like Microsoft Project but for the iPad. If you need to do any standalone project planning this is a great tool.

\n

iA Writer

\n

If you are brave enough to write long form text on your iPad, this is my preferred tool for that. Has great keyboard setup that makes writing longer form things much better.

\n

Dropbox

\n

Pretty much required.

\n

Tweetbot

\n

If your gonna Twitter, ditch the Twitter official client for Tweetbot. It’s about a million times better. At some point a new iOS 7 optimized Tweetbot will come out for the iPad, it’s already out for the iPhone, but until then this current version is the best out there.

\n", "date_published": "2013-11-06T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/11/06/productivity-apps-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/11/06/managing-my-calendar.html", "content_html": "

Managing my calendar is a lot like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

\n", "date_published": "2013-11-05T22:35:29-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/11/05/managing-my-calendar.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/20/i-successfully-setup.html", "content_html": "

I successfully setup GNU mailman this morning. Where do I go to get my merit badge?

\n", "date_published": "2013-10-20T10:35:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/10/20/i-successfully-setup.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/20/renewed-smime-certificate.html", "content_html": "

Renewed S/MIME certificate tonight FWIW. Decided to also get S/MIME certificate for Tammy. Didn’t like the fact our email wasn’t encrypted.

\n", "date_published": "2013-10-19T20:42:53-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/10/19/renewed-smime-certificate.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/13/very-nice-to.html", "content_html": "

Very nice to be able to check in on #TeamSPS weekend maintenance work using HipChat.

\n", "date_published": "2013-10-13T01:16:58-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/10/13/very-nice-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Work"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/21/010706.html", "content_html": "

Very happy with OmniFocus 2 → OmniFocus 2 for iPhone: Background Sync and a Bold Redesign

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-20T20:07:06-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/20/010706.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/19/210716.html", "content_html": "\n", "date_published": "2013-09-19T21:07:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/19/210716.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/16/when-google-finds.html", "content_html": "

When Google finds the email I sent on a mailing list 20 years ago it gives me pause.

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-15T22:40:30-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/15/when-google-finds.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/08/25/considering-moving-my.html", "content_html": "

Considering moving my daily wake up from 6a to 5a. Feels daunting.

\n", "date_published": "2013-08-25T14:03:08-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/08/25/considering-moving-my.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2012/06/07/interest-in-twin.html", "title": "Interest in Twin Cities OmniFocus Meet Up?", "content_html": "\"Purple\n

I’ve been an OmniFocus user since the very first release and use it all day, everyday on my Macs, iPhone and iPad. I’ve found it really useful to read blog posts from other OmniFocus users, and I know there are a number of people in the Twin Cities using OmniFocus.

\n

I’m curious if there is enough interest to garner an OmniFocus meet up? The meet up would be very informal. An opportunity to connect with others using OmniFocus and share stuff that works for us. Project structures, contexts, perspectives and more.

\n", "date_published": "2012-06-07T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2012/06/07/interest-in-twin.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/07/21/012000.html", "content_html": "

App I most want full screen support for in Lion that doesn’t have it now? OmniFocus I’m sure it will come soon.

\n

App I least need full screen mode in but has it? Twitterific 😀

\n", "date_published": "2011-07-21T01:20:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/07/21/012000.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/07/08/filtering-google-plus.html", "title": "Filtering Google Plus Notification emails", "content_html": "

It sure didn’t take long for Google Plus to start filling my mailbox with email notifications of all sorts of actions. Luckily, its super simple to filter Google Plus notifications. Just capture any email matching…

\n

[@plus.google.com](http://plus.google.com)

\n

and send it to a folder.

\n

If you use Sieve like I do, the rule to match is…

\n
header :contains "From" [\n    "@plus.google.com"\n]\n

Much better.

\n", "date_published": "2011-07-08T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/07/08/filtering-google-plus.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/05/08/created-two-new.html", "content_html": "

Created two new address book groups “MinneBar Pings” and “MinneDemo Pings” so I remember to nag people to get to events.

\n", "date_published": "2011-05-08T15:12:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/05/08/created-two-new.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Tech Community"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/02/06/why-no-mail.html", "title": "Why No Mail Encryption on iPad?", "content_html": "

I like to use digital signing in email, and some friends have done the same and we can exchange fully encrypted email. However, it’s a major issue that iOS has no support for this. If you get an encrypted email, this is all you can see.

\n\"Email \n

There is nothing you can do with the email. This is a shame, since it would be really easy to get all this information from my keychain on my Mac.

\n

Hope Apple decides to add support for encrypted email at some point soon.

\n", "date_published": "2011-02-06T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/02/06/why-no-mail.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/12/14/omnifocus-and-sync.html", "title": "OmniFocus and Sync Server Possibilities", "content_html": "

I often like to dream that I get to wave a magic wand and influence the future product plans of software that I use. I’ve been a constant user of OmniFocus since the very first release on the Mac. I jumped right in when the iPhone version came out and eagerly grabbed the iPad version when it was released.

\n\"Purple\n

A while back Omni started to host their own Omni Sync Server for OmniFocus. Before that, you had to use MobileMe, WebDAV or some other wonky stuff. I used MobileMe for a long time to sync multiple instances of OmniFocus on different Macs as well as my iPhone. I’ve had as many as five separate installs of OmniFocus running and synchronizing and OmniFocus has done a great job making it all seamlessly work.

\n

When the Omni Sync Server was released it made my head buzz with a handful of things that I really wished that I could do with it. Let me take the three ideas that I can’t get out of my head and share them with some hope that Ken Case and the Omni team will think they are awesome and run with it. :-)

\n

OmniFocus for Web

\n

Since my OmniFocus data is on the Omni Sync Server, I would really like to have a HTML browser-based version of OmniFocus that I can get to from any web browser and manage tasks. Why? There are a few reasons.

\n\"Purple\n

Even though I have OmniFocus on my Macs, my iPhone and my iPad there are still times that I’m at a computer that isn’t mine and I would really like to get a full desktop-like experience to work on some stuff.

\n

With that being said, I think the biggest reason to do this would be to reach non-Mac users. The iPhone and iPad versions of OmniFocus are awesome, but I would hesitate to recommend it only on those devices. I have friends that use Windows and if there was a web version it would give them a place to go during the workday and hammer away on things.

\n

This could also turn into the hub for managing devices that you are synchronizing with, and a wonderful way to manage any data inconsistencies that may pop up. It could also be a great partner to OmniFocus on all platforms to host documents in the cloud for access anywhere.

\n

Push Notifications

\n

When iOS 4.0 came out OmniFocus immediately started supporting local notifications, which was a step in the right direction. However, it drives me crazy. Here is the problem.

\n

Assume I have a task due at 4:30p and I do it at 2:00p on my Mac. I switch over to OmniFocus (which is open all the time) and mark the task as complete. A couple of hours later I’m getting ready to go and my iPhone is displaying an alert because I didn’t get the task done. Since I haven’t opened OmniFocus on my iPhone and done a synchronize it didn’t know this alert wasn’t correct, the task is completed.

\n

I really think that Omni Group needs to jump in and deal with this using real push notifications. The sync server should be the one to send those notices, and it would have the current state and know that that earlier task has already been completed. There is no need to notify me. This could also be used to dynamically change the badge count to show the real number of tasks due without me even opening OmniFocus. That is another pet peeve. At 9am OmniFocus will say there are 3 tasks to do, when I open it and it walks through the data I really have 14 tasks. I really want the badge number to be right at all times, regardless of when OmniFocus was last launched.

\n

(While at it all of the weird calendar synchronization stuff in OmniFocus could be removed and the server could just host an iCal feed I could subscribe to.)

\n

Web API

\n

My last big, big hope is to have a web-based API to get access to OmniFocus. OmniFocus is scriptable using AppleScript, but that doesn’t work for the types of actions I want to use it with.

\n

My hope here is to be able to merge cron, a bunch of bash, Ruby or Perl code along with curl to create tasks.

\n

Some scenarios:

\n\n

You get the idea. I think the interface should be simple. Probably should use JSON to transfer data around. Should support HTTPS. Should allow read and write.

\n

This would be really fun, and I think that the creative solutions built around it would go beyond what anyone imagines now.

\n

There is more…

\n

Those three things are the big ones that I want out of the Omni Sync Server. There are more things that I would like to be able to do with it.

\n\n

I realize doing any of this would likely mean that OmniFocus would have to stop supporting the other synchronization methods. That doesn’t bother me. I would still have the data locally. And the added benefits, particularly with an API, would be huge wins.

\n

That’s that. So what do you say Ken Case? OmniFocus 2.0? :-)

\n", "date_published": "2010-12-14T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/12/14/omnifocus-and-sync.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/10/09/hey-launchbar-youre.html", "content_html": "

Hey LaunchBar! You’re great, BUT, could you make your UI a little more fun so I don’t feel all jealous of Alfred.

\n", "date_published": "2010-10-09T18:52:44-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/10/09/hey-launchbar-youre.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/10/03/most-wished-for.html", "content_html": "

Most wished for iPad app? OmniOutliner. OmniFocus is great, and an outliner on iPad would be killer.

\n", "date_published": "2010-10-03T14:29:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/10/03/most-wished-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/07/30/first-blush-of.html", "content_html": "

First blush of OmniFocus for the iPad is: stunning. Love the UI. The Forecast view is great! Hope to see that on the Mac and iPhone.

\n", "date_published": "2010-07-30T10:03:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/07/30/first-blush-of.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/07/14/theme-for-today.html", "content_html": "

Theme for today has been Me v. My To Do List. So far, I’m doing pretty good!

\n", "date_published": "2010-07-14T14:36:07-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/07/14/theme-for-today.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/06/21/ios-folders-for.html", "title": "iOS 4 Folders for Context", "content_html": "

I’ve written before about how much work it is to navigate a lot of apps on the iPhone. Today’s launch of iOS 4 brings us folders in Springboard which is a huge boon to the obsessively organized crowd. I can also report through early use that launching apps with search remains a faster way to get at apps, even with folders.

\n

However, I’ve noticed one really interesting and unexpected side benefit of the folders. They work great to set up context. It makes sense to group apps in folders based on function, but try doing some on context. The reason this works well is a very minor design decision in iOS 4. Here is my folder for Reading.

\n\"iPhone\n

What is interesting about this is that when you launch one of these apps and then return to Springboard the folder remains expanded. You have to press home again, or tap outside of the folder, to get back. This expansion allows you to focus on a context almost in a GTD way. You can expand the folder, launch in to one app, leave, launch into a related app, leave, go back. You could even see making contexts in tools like OmniFocus that map to folders of apps in iOS that you get that stuff done with. Nifty!

\n", "date_published": "2010-06-21T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/06/21/ios-folders-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/03/09/typewithme.html", "content_html": "

TypeWith.me ← Firing up the open sourced code from Etherpad.

\n", "date_published": "2010-03-09T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/03/09/typewithme.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/01/08/051010.html", "content_html": "

I really wish that the Mail application on the iPhone used and displayed the IMAP flag status. Would be HUGE help.

\n", "date_published": "2010-01-08T00:10:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/01/07/051010.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/11/02/adding-symbols-to.html", "title": "Adding Symbols to Mind Maps", "content_html": "

I’ve been aware of mind mapping software for a while but had never found an application that worked like I wanted it to. I need the software to go away and just work exactly as I expect it to. I don’t want it in a browser, I find that too slow and out-of-the-way. A couple of months ago I found MindNode Pro and I’ve been really happy with it.

\n

What do I use mind mapping for? Brainstorming. Taking notes in meetings. Research. Planning. You name it. MindNode Pro’s simplicity allows me to use it for a lot of different things. Also, MindNode Touch gives me an option to sketch things out on my phone and transfer them to my Mac later.

\n

Simple is good, but there are times when I just want a little bit of metadata attached to a mind map. I may want to put some nodes in order of preference, or mark a node for follow-up, or show a node is done. It hit me the that this is all doable with some of the extended Unicode characters, but, it is really awkward to type those characters.

\n

TextExpander to the rescue! I’ve used TextExpander for a long time so I created a group of shortcuts called MySymbols. They are hardly shortcuts since I’m turning something longer that I can remember, like :star into the Unicode character ?. Great! Now I can easily make a mind map that has metadata in it, like this completely fictitious map.

\n

\"Test

\n

I have ranking of vacation destinations. I’ve been able to add a variety of other information into the nodes that is pretty easy to understand. Very nice!

\n

You could use any macro program to do this, you don’t have to have TextExpander. In fact, if you figure out the funky keyboard combinations you could probably do it without another piece of software but I think it’s just easier to remember things like :plane, :check and :seven. If you do use TextExpander you can download my definition file to get started.

\n", "date_published": "2009-11-02T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/11/02/adding-symbols-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/10/29/i-finally-found.html", "content_html": "

I finally found a mind mapping tool that works for me. MindNode Pro. Gets out of the way and just works. The iPhone version is also very good and has easy flow between using email.

\n", "date_published": "2009-10-29T15:54:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/10/29/i-finally-found.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/10/13/mailapp-smart-mailboxes.html", "title": "Mail.app Smart Mailboxes", "content_html": "

I’ve been using Smart Mailboxes in Mail.app for the first time ever and finding them very helpful. I’m guessing there are a lot of people that don’t know that these exist. I found this post on 43 folders helpful for some hints.

\n", "date_published": "2009-10-13T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/10/13/mailapp-smart-mailboxes.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/10/13/rip-thawte-web.html", "title": "R.I.P. Thawte Web of Trust", "content_html": "

Still saddened that the Thawte Web of Trust system is being shut down by the new owners, Verisign. Anyone surprised since Verisign offers a pay product that Thawte did for free? To make matters worse, I had become a Thawte notary a few months ago. It’s crazy that while they have sent emails to everyone the Web of Trust website doesn’t indicate anything about it going away. They are still happily letting people sign up? Huh?

\n", "date_published": "2009-10-13T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/10/13/rip-thawte-web.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/08/24/iphone-pro-tip.html", "title": "iPhone Pro Tip: Launch Apps with Spotlight", "content_html": "

With the 3.0 release of the iPhone software Apple brought the platform level search capabilities of Spotlight to the iPhone. This has been a really nice addition, one that I’ve been using very regularly.

\n

I’m a bit of an “app-aholic”. I’ve got more than a handful of applications installed and as a result I often have to flip through pages of apps in Springboard to find the right application. Sometimes I have a hard time finding the icon I’m looking for. I was thinking how I really wished that the iPhone had something like Quicksilver, and then it dawned on me that Quicksilver was really made as an optimization of using Spotlight as a launcher. Well, the iPhone has Spotlight so this should work, right?

\n

With many applications installed I may have to swipe as many as 6 times to get to the application I want to launch.

\n\"iPhone\n

But if I just do a single swipe, or a double-tap of the home button with the right settings, I can be at Spotlight and just start typing the name of the application I want. Say I wanted to launch a Twitter client like this.

\n\"iPhone\n

One action to get to Spotlight, type two letters, and launch. Pretty much as good as using Quicksilver on my Mac. A lot faster than all that swiping, and it saves on thumb fatigue.

\n

Now, it won’t work like this out of the box because by default Spotlight wants to show you email messages, address book contacts, and pretty much anything else before it will show you an app. So, let’s change that.

\n

How to Set This Up

\n

First, launch Settings and tap on General.

\n\"iPhone\n

Now tap on Home.

\n\"iPhone\n

We are now going to change search preferences. While you are on this screen you may also want to specify that double-tap of Home button launches search. With that, you are just two taps away from launching a new app anytime.

\n\"iPhone\n

Okay, now we are just going to reorder the search results and put the Applications at the top of the list.

\n\"iPhone\n

That’s it. Done. You can now simply double-tap the home button and type a letter or two to launch any of the dozens and dozens of apps on your iPhone. Nice!

\n", "date_published": "2009-08-24T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/08/24/iphone-pro-tip.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/07/15/fancy-email-signatures.html", "title": "Fancy Email Signatures with hCard Microformat", "content_html": "

I recently redid my email signature. I’ve been using an HTML signature for a while and my friend Kent complained to me one day that my emails always wrap odd on the iPhone. I figured out that I had an HTML element with a minimum width around 300 pixels. Fine for a computer, but it made the iPhone mail program scroll - in the worst way possible - horizontally.

\n

I figured since I was going to redo it I would simplify, but also wanted to add some function. So, I decided to make use the hCard microformat in the signature. It wasn’t too hard to get right, and it looks normal when viewed but an hCard aware client would see the data markup.

\n
<div style="width: 100%; margin: 14pt 0px; padding: 2px; border-top: 1px #dddddd dashed; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: black;" id="hcard-Jamie-Thingelstad-Personal" class="vcard">\n    <a style="white-space: nowrap; font-weight: bold;" href="/" class="url fn">Jamie Thingelstad</a>\n<div><a href="mailto:jamie@thingelstad.com" class="email">jamie@thingelstad.com</a></div>\n<div style="white-space: nowrap;" class="tel">mobile: <span class="value">612-810-3699</span></div>\n<div>find me on <a href="aim:addbuddy?screenname=jthingelstad" class="url">AIM</a> <a href="http://twitter.com/thingles" class="url">Twitter</a> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/thingles" class="url">Facebook</a> <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/jthingelstad" class="url">LinkedIn</a></div>\n</div>\n

I found two tools that helped with this a lot. There is an hCard creator that helped with figuring out what the structure should look like, and very importantly an hCard validator that you can pass a code fragment into and it validates and decodes it.

\n

With all that said, I don’t think there is a single email client that will honor hCard. But, if one comes along I’m ready.

\n", "date_published": "2009-07-15T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/07/15/fancy-email-signatures.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/04/23/yikes-thats-a.html", "content_html": "

Yikes - that’s a lot of stuff.

\n\"iCal\n", "date_published": "2009-04-23T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/04/23/yikes-thats-a.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/04/22/im-really-liking.html", "content_html": "

I’m really liking Instapaper, particularly with Tweetie integration. But things stack up faster than they come off.

\n", "date_published": "2009-04-21T22:02:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/04/21/im-really-liking.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Books"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/08/scheduling-help-when.html", "title": "Scheduling Help: When Is Good", "content_html": "\"Green\n

Like all of you reading this, I have some things that I just hate to do. It’s not that they are particularly difficult, I just find them irrationally frustrating. Probably at the top of my list is scheduling things. Here is how I typically end up scheduling something with some buddies.

\n
\n

Me: How about Monday or Thursday night?  \nThem: Oh, man, those don’t work. What about Tuesday?  \nMe: No can do, busy then. What about Friday?  \nThem: No, that won’t work either.  \nMe: Forget it. This sucks. Later.

\n
\n

The extension of this are all the emails about times that are open that swirl and get no conclusion. Add more than two people to this and you reach a point of frustration even faster. I’ve long wished that there was a drop-dead simple tool on the web allowing people to collaborate on times to get together. And now there is!

\n

When is Good?

\n\"Weekly\n

When is Good is just such a tool. It is painfully easy. It doesn’t even require you to register to use it. You can zone out times that work to get a group together and then everyone else can filter those zones down using a 1-click web interface and at the end you’ve found the times that work for everyone. Brilliant!

\n

I think that they are building this service the absolute right way. They are adding more features incrementally but just focusing on making the first thing work really well. You can get absolutely killed in complexity in calendaring dealing with iCal files and syncing. Nothing like that here, just find the time that works for people.

\n

Hopefully When is Good will let me get things scheduled with people and keep my blood pressure down at the same time.

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-08T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/08/scheduling-help-when.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/05/graffletopia.html", "content_html": "

Graffletopia ← Using OmniGraffle? Need stencils? Stop your search, here they are. Wow.

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-05T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/05/graffletopia.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/02/omnigraffle-scripts.html", "title": "OmniGraffle Scripts", "content_html": "

OmniGraffle Scripts ← Several scripts by Peter McMaster that help do some nice things, like drawing arcs, in OmniGraffle.

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-02T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/02/omnigraffle-scripts.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/01/09/updated-email-encryption.html", "content_html": "

Updated email encryption certificate 1 day before it expired.

\n", "date_published": "2009-01-09T17:13:35-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/01/09/updated-email-encryption.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/11/10/major-gtd-action.html", "content_html": "

Major GTD action from Tammy and I in the Thingelstad house.

\n", "date_published": "2008-11-09T21:53:09-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/11/09/major-gtd-action.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/31/stop-twitter-direct.html", "title": "Stop Twitter Direct Messages", "content_html": "

My relationship with Twitter ebbs and flows. Sometimes I find it very enjoyable, and at other times it seems like a worthless distraction. However, there is one part of Twitter that I have never liked, direct messages.

\n

Why not like direct messages? I’m not a fan of anything that creates another queue that I have to monitor and respond to. I try to keep everything in one workflow, and that workflow is email. My annoyance isn’t limited to Twitter direct messages, but extends equally to Facebook messages and any other website specific inbox. I think Facebook could actually do their members a huge service by making their message system IMAP-capable. It would make it infinitely more useful and you could happily sit in your choice of email clients. On the other hand I would rather just not deal with Twitter direct messages.

\n

I’d thought for a while that part of a Twitter Pro premium service could be to turn off direct message function. I decided to take matters into my own hands and rid myself of direct messages now instead. You can use this little program to do the same for you.

\n

The first thing to do is tell Twitter to stop notifying you of a direct message. Go to your account Settings and in the Notices tab uncheck the Direct Text emails option.

\n

\"direct-text-email-setting.png\"

\n

Now, this 28-line Ruby program will simply respond (via direct message) to any direct messages you have received and then delete the direct message from your account, leaving no queue behind. If you don’t like the delete, you can just comment out line 24. To make life easy this uses the Twitter4R library for Ruby. You will have to edit lines 9 and 19 to your credentials and personal message.

\n
# Get requires out of the way\nrequire('rubygems')\ngem('twitter4r', '>=0.2.0')\nrequire('twitter')\nrequire('time')\n\n# Let's get a Twitter Client created\n# Put your credentials in here\nclient = Twitter::Client.new(:login => 'USERNAME', :password => 'PASSWORD')\n\n# Get Direct Messages\nmessages = client.messages(:received)\n\n# Loop through any direct messages received\nmessages.each do |message|\n  # Reply to the message\n  # Set the message text to what you want, make sure it is Twitter length compliant\n  response = Twitter::Message.create(\n    :text => 'PUT YOUR MESSAGE HERE. YOU PROBABLY WANT YOUR EMAIL IN HERE.',\n    :recipient => message.sender,\n    :client => client)\n\n  # Delete the message\n  client.message(:delete, message)\n\n  # Put a brief pause here just to make Twitter happier\n  sleep 5\nend\n

There is no error checking and by default it outputs nothing. It is intended to be invoked via cron at whatever interval you would like. If you do not have the Twitter4R Gem installed just run gem install twitter4r.

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-31T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/31/stop-twitter-direct.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/25/ted-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi.html", "title": "TED: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on Flow", "content_html": "

I’ve known about flow and experienced flow all of my life. I think I started to really understand it when I started programming in my early teens. I had no idea what it was called, but I definitely understood the absence of time, the stream of thought that just worked and the clarity of presence that accompanied it all. Kathy Sierra (her blog is suspended, but she is active on Twitter) talked a lot about the power of flow, and notably how so much on our computers and the Internet is a “flow killer” (i.e., Twitter).

\n

I was watching some recent video segments from TED and was excited to see flow on the agenda. This is a good talk about flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

\n

Csikszentmihalyi is “the man” on flow, and has a book on the topic called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. I may need to read that.

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-25T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/25/ted-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/19/facebook-should-make.html", "content_html": "

Facebook should make an IMAP interface to their messaging system. Growing annoyed that I have to check it. 😕

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-19T10:21:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/19/facebook-should-make.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/15/so-far-omnifocus.html", "content_html": "

So far OmniFocus for iPhone v1.0.3 seems to have fixed my syncing problem. Yeah!

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-14T20:26:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/14/so-far-omnifocus.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/14/just-declutered-a.html", "content_html": "

Just declutered a zillion cables into 4 boxes: power, network/phone, computer, audio/video.

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-13T20:29:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/13/just-declutered-a.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/01/so-far-im.html", "content_html": "

So far I’m really liking the move to OmniFocus. So much more GTD power. iPhone version is nice too. Only gripe is syncing is too touchy.

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-01T08:13:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/01/so-far-im.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/25/taking-the-first.html", "content_html": "

Taking the first step to adopting OmniFocus.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-24T22:22:49-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/24/taking-the-first.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/18/checking-out-omnifocus.html", "content_html": "

Checking out OmniFocus. Considering it as a replacement for Backpack since OmniFocus has a nice iPhone app already.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-18T08:19:58-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/18/checking-out-omnifocus.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/18/inbox-zero-tm.html", "content_html": "

Inbox Zero™ is so far from me right now.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-17T21:07:23-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/17/inbox-zero-tm.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/18/evernote-worries-me.html", "content_html": "

Evernote worries me. I’m not sure why. Backpack seems a lot easier and portable. Evernote feels proprietary and locked in. Wrong?

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-17T21:04:53-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/17/evernote-worries-me.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/15/getting-mobileme-for.html", "content_html": "

Getting MobileMe for calendars and contacts, but using a 3rd party IMAP for mail is a bit confusing. Think I got it setup right. Push love?

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-15T01:27:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/15/getting-mobileme-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/15/if-only-mobileme.html", "content_html": "

If only MobileMe allowed you to use your own domain name for email I’d consider going in with both feet.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-15T01:13:54-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/15/if-only-mobileme.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/05/01/i-really-hate.html", "content_html": "

I really hate it when companies have unsubscribe pages that are just insanely broken. Surprising (?) how often they generate errors.

\n", "date_published": "2008-04-30T22:08:30-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/30/i-really-hate.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/04/28/just-seeing-that.html", "content_html": "

Just seeing that Postini has grabbed some emails from me that were not spam.

\n", "date_published": "2008-04-28T15:59:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/28/just-seeing-that.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/12/tip-paying-attention.html", "title": "Tip: Paying Attention with Laptop", "content_html": "

I’ve spent the last two days in this all day Rails training class. Here is my #1 tip for helping to stay focused. It’s really simple, just a couple of mouse clicks.

\n\"macOS \n

Just go and “Turn Airport Off”. No Internet, less distractions, more focus.

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-12T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/12/tip-paying-attention.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/02/13/t706150422.html", "content_html": "

Struggling to keep my personal mailbox under control. Email is a virus.

\n", "date_published": "2008-02-12T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/02/12/t706150422.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/01/14/new-years-resolutions.html", "title": "New Year Resolutions - Tech Edition", "content_html": "

I don’t have New Year resolutions every year, but this year I figured what the heck. Looking back, while I didn’t call it a resolution, I did force a switch to Camera RAW for photography on January 2nd, 2006 and that was great. I have a few technology and Internet related resolutions that I thought I would share this year. Hopefully I’m as happy with these changes in a couple of years.

\n

Digitally Signed Email

\n\"Postage\nThe time has come for this to be standard. This feels a lot like the\nCamera RAW resolution above. Not many people use digital certificates\nwith their email because it's generally a pain and complicated. But,\nwithout it email is like writing on a bathroom wall, in a really big\nbathroom. It's so wide open it is somewhat shocking. Digital\ncertificates solve this problem.\n

I have now enabled my OS X Mail with a digital certificate from Thawte and if you get email from me it will be signed. This isn’t universal since the iPhone at this point doesn’t sign messages, and I do occasionally have to resort to webmail. But if it’s from Mail.app it will be signed.

\n

Go get your own certificate as well and we can even encrypt the message. There is a somewhat dated, but good explanation on doing this for OS X at Joar Wingfor’s website.

\n

Less Google

\n\"Google\nYes, less Google. Google knows too much about\nme. I've decided this trend needs to reverse. I've stopped using GMail\nand am using Tuffmail for my mailbox. I've ditched Google Calendar. I'm\neven thinking about moving from Google Reader, a frightening thing to\neven consider. But I think 2008 needs to end with less Google than it\nstarted with. It isn't that I think they are evil, it's just that I\ndon't think one company should really have that many angles on my\npersonal data. After moving my email to Tuffmail, I had this sense that\nI was no longer being monitored. Real or not, I had that feeling.\n

More Wikipedia

\n\"Wikipedia\nThis resolution was made by another guy at the office and I liked it so\nmuch I'm adopting it myself. It seems that many times when I search on\nGoogle I end up at [Wikipedia](http://www.wikipedia.org/). So I'm going\nto try to cut down on the middle man. Even better, how about doing\nWikipedia searches from inside OS X's Dictionary.\n

Cleaner URL’s

\n

I have a tendency to put an unnecessary trailing slash on URL’s. I’m going to try to stop doing this.

\n", "date_published": "2008-01-14T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/01/14/new-years-resolutions.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security","Holidays"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/01/14/revamped-os-x.html", "title": "Revamped OS X Desktop", "content_html": "

Sometimes I get stuck on something, particularly late at night and I get totally obsessed. It’s almost always not very important, but then I obsess about it and the only thing that pushes me away to sleep is the dead battery of my laptop. The other night I got totally obsessed with taking a different tact on my OS X desktop. Clean. Simple.

\n

\"screenshot-big.png\"

\n

This is the look. I’m really liking it. I went with an abstract desktop for focus and really minimized what I had in the dock. Instead, I’m using a lot of the fancy Leopard folder tricks to launch things. Front and center in this is CoverSutra for the tangible side of digital music and WeatherDock to keep me in the loop with the temperature. Quicksilver rounds out the stack to tie it all together. Also, Warp is a must have extension to make Leopard’s Spaces more usable. The Shared Desktop folder on my desktop is synchronized on every computer I use with the application that I can’t seem to kick, FolderShare. Microsoft bought FolderShare forever ago and it’s still a PowerPC binary but it works like magic. I wish there was a better Mac-centric, OS X Intel option. Oh well..

\n

I feel so calm. :-)

\n", "date_published": "2008-01-14T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/01/14/revamped-os-x.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/12/04/crash-pen.html", "title": "Crash Pen", "content_html": "

It seems that I lost my Crash pen today. This makes me very sad. I’ve had this pen for a few years and I think it’s just supremely cool looking. I’ve even ordered parts for it in the past.

\n\"Fountain\n

I think I’m going to have to order a new one. Bummer. I guess on the bright side at least I can order a new one.

\n", "date_published": "2007-12-04T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/12/04/crash-pen.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/11/08/initial-review-of.html", "title": "Initial Review of GMail's IMAP Service", "content_html": "

I’ve been yearning for native IMAP for a long time now. Essentially since the day I got my iPhone. It got much worse as Leopard approached and the great features in Mail 3.0 were making me drool.

\n

It wasn’t a simple decision though. I moved to GMail for really good reasons and I refuse to go back to running my own mail server. The result was to look at paid IMAP solutions but none of them offered the complete bevy of features I wanted. I finally identified both Fastmail and Tuffmail as having great services.

\n

I was days away from switching to Tuffmail when GMail announced IMAP support. I eagerly awaited my account to be activated and started using it immediately. However, it’s a mixed bag unfortunately.

\n

GMail has some concepts that make IMAP hard. Like labels versus folders. Like not really liking to delete email. Starred emails. They’ve accommodated that in the IMAP solution, but also complicated things in a bad way.

\n

For example, GMail IMAP has to expose a folder called “All Mail” that is the catch all for email that doesn’t have any label. The unfortunate part of this is that mail clients will see two copies of everything, the one in a “folder” and the other one if the fake “All Mail” folder. This wreaks havoc with things like Smart Folders in Mail.

\n

GMail also has some gnarly non-standard behavior. For example, when you send an email via it’s SMTP service it automatically puts a copy in your Sent Items “label”. This isn’t normal, and requires that you configure your Mail client in somewhat non-standard way.

\n

On top of this, the service is a bit slow and has had some hiccups for me. I may still end up signing up for Tuffmail but I’ll give GMail IMAP a try since the price is right and the webmail client is so nice.

\n", "date_published": "2007-11-08T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/11/08/initial-review-of.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/11/04/buhbye-twitter.html", "title": "Buh-Bye Twitter", "content_html": "

I’ve tweeted my last tweet.

\n

If you’re a diligent visitor to my blog, you’ll notice that the Twitter section on the right hand side is no longer there. My iPhone is noticing that the volume of SMS messages has dropped way down. Most importantly my brain is feeling less distracted.

\n

I’ve been a big fan of Twitter for a while now. So far I’ve created 1,281 tweets. 1,281 little 100 character updates sent who knows where. Now I think I’m done though. There are a number of reasons I decided to get off the Twitter bus.

\n\n

I don’t mean to condemn Twitter. Different strokes for different folks after all. And I do think it’s a great platform for mobile live blogging. I’ve kept my account active even though it’s disconnected from my phone and everything else just in case I want to use it to live blog the Folk Festival or something. But for now, I bid adieu.

\n

If you happen to follow my robot, that account has been deleted.

\n", "date_published": "2007-11-04T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/11/04/buhbye-twitter.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/10/31/t376506582.html", "content_html": "

Wiring up Mail.app with GMail/IMAP. First impression — painfully slow.

\n", "date_published": "2007-10-30T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/10/30/t376506582.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/10/22/t353731592.html", "content_html": "

I think either Tuffmail or Fastmail.fm will do all that I want from an email host.

\n", "date_published": "2007-10-21T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/10/21/t353731592.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/07/25/t167055312.html", "content_html": "

The new version of Backpack is live! Awesome!

\n", "date_published": "2007-07-24T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/07/24/t167055312.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/07/21/t160427142.html", "content_html": "

Expecting that my life will be markedly better when the new version of Backpack is released. Can’t wait.

\n", "date_published": "2007-07-20T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/07/20/t160427142.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/05/29/directory-structure-for.html", "title": "Directory Structure for Digital Photos", "content_html": "

It seems that a lot of people have a hard time settling on a file structure to use for their digital photos. There are a number of different approaches, and the tools that you use will heavily influence this but I think it’s important to settle on something independent of your tools since those will change over time.

\n

There are a couple of things you want to make sure to accomplish with the directory structure that you use for your photos.

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    \n
  1. \n

    Consistency is important. You want to make sure that regardless of camera, subject or any other variable there is a consistent way to find a photo.

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    2. \n
  2. \n

    Uniqueness of photo name is important. Even though the directory structure would allow for multiple files with the same name, you should guarantee that every file is unique and “fully qualified” for each individual photo.

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    3. \n
  3. \n

    Backup management is handled most simply through your file structure. I don’t like to rely on fancy backup programs to know what has been backed up or not, I like to be able to achieve this through chronology.

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    4. \n
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I’ve been using the following structure for over 5 years and I’ve found it to work very well. I’ve used it with a number of different photo management programs, including my current favorite, Adobe Lightroom. It is inherently driven off of the timestamp of the photos.

\n\"Diagram\n

Let me highlight the five critical sections of this (cross-reference to numbers above, sorry Tufte).

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    \n
  1. \n

    Your photos live in a root directory. This could be anywhere and just identifies the home of all photos.

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    2. \n
  2. \n

    Start your directory structure with the year. There should be a year for every year you have photos. This cascades into months and finally days.

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    3. \n
  3. \n

    The “day directory” itself is typically auto-created by your importing software but it likely won’t have the a title for it (e.g. “Around House”). I add this myself, and I have an additional trick in that I don’t add that text until I’m done doing post-processing on those photos (purging, keywords, metadata, etc). The other reason to add a title is to give you some visibility on what you are looking at when you are just looking at your directory structure.

    \n
    4. \n
  4. \n

    The filename itself is really simple. I always use YYYYMMDD (year, month, day), dash, HHMMSS (hour, minute, second), dash, and lastly the serial number of the photo from the camera. The serial number is important since you may take photos in burst mode and have more than one in a second. Or, if you are shooting with multiple people and multiple cameras, and happen to take a photo in the same second, you are still unique. I could put more here (camera serial number, ISO, etc. but I’ve never found it necessary). The completeness of the timestamp inside the filename is great. I can always figure out the full path to any file just using it’s filename.

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    5. \n
  5. \n

    The last “Other” is a catch all. Sometimes I get copies of photos that other people take. I don’t typically interleave these with my photos, and instead just drop them in the Other directory. This is a catch-all for such photos, sometimes even having directories inside other like “Bob’s Trip to Alaska”, that is all grouped together. The other directory is last which is helpful for backup.

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    6. \n
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The backup strategy for this structure is a simple top-down flow. I never backup a month until it’s completed. The great thing here is that once the time has passed, the directory and files in those directories are not changed so you don’t have to worry about going backwards in time. (Note, I also mirror files every night, and this is automated to other discs.)

\n", "date_published": "2007-05-29T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/05/29/directory-structure-for.html", "tags": ["Photography","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/04/13/highrise-crm-for.html", "title": "Highrise: CRM for Home?", "content_html": "\"Isometric\n

I realize that I’m probably on the verge (or well past the point) of being considered a 37 Signals “fanboi”. I’ve written already about how much I like Backpack. I still use it every single day, it’s one of very few things I pay a monthly fee for and never regret it. It is my homepage on all my personal computers. A few weeks ago when I started seeing some of the early information on Highrise I was rather dismissive of it. It seemed like a streamlined, “kiss” version of Salesforce.com. I figure I didn’t have a need for this – unlike the knob. (Note, CRM in the title here is Customer Relationship Management.)

\n

I started using Highrise just to see what it did and explore how the 37 Signals team had built it. It’s a great application, incredibly and simply designed. I’d encourage anyone that builds web applications to check it out just to experience the user interface. I decided to give it a go for my “personal business”. Things like tax preparation with the accountant, projects being done at the house, etc. I warmed slowly to it, and am really liking it now. Highrise has some great features that make it useful even in solo mode, with only me using it. I never would have thought this type of function would be that useful for personal purposes, but it’s pretty nice.

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On a side note, I can totally see how a company of 100 or fewer employees would really benefit from Highrise. In fact, the combination of Highrise (customer, vendor management), Basecamp (project management) and Campfire (distributed meetings) fill out most of what a small- to medium-sized company would need for collaboration.

\n", "date_published": "2007-04-13T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/04/13/highrise-crm-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/03/22/t10871931.html", "content_html": "

Ecstatic that my Hosted GMail account got POP download now. Can finally transfer my mail archive up.

\n", "date_published": "2007-03-21T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/03/21/t10871931.html", "tags": ["Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/02/19/t5581384.html", "content_html": "

Got Gmail working on Motorola Razr!

\n", "date_published": "2007-02-18T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/02/18/t5581384.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/02/11/packrat-taking-backpack.html", "title": "PackRat - Taking Backpack on the Road", "content_html": "

\"BlueI\nmentioned earlier that I’ve become a huge\nfan of\nBackpack. It is my home page in all of my\nbrowsers. I’ve been able to consolidate so many other random things into\nit. The reminder feature is incredibly useful. I’m still learning new\nways to use it (mobile integration is the current item). I just can’t\nsay enough. However, the only issue with Backpack is if you happen to\nnot be online, you are stuck.

\n

Here comes PackRat to the rescue. PackRat is a great Mac OS X application that connects to Backpack and gives you an offline version. You give it your Backpack username and API key, it connects and within seconds downloads all of your content to your laptop. You can then make changes offline and reconnect and magically it’s all back on your Backpack site. It even allows you to manage reminders.

\n

The spiffy thing about PackRat is that since it isn’t running in a browser, there is some stuff that it does nicer than Backpack, like tag navigation. I’m finding myself using PackRat a decent amount even when I am online as it has a nearly identical user experience to Backpack and is a bit faster without the HTTP reloads in the middle.

\n

If you are an avid Backpack user, and a Mac user, this is a great program to add. I just wish there was also a Windows version.

\n", "date_published": "2007-02-11T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/02/11/packrat-taking-backpack.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/02/04/bye-bye-thunderbird.html", "title": "Bye Bye Thunderbird, Hello GMail", "content_html": "

I’m waving a white flag. I give up. I’ve decided to no longer attempt to host my own email. I’ve hosted my own mail for years and years, and I’ve had enough. Why?

\n

Hosting your email used to be pretty simple. You setup your SMTP server, got a mail client and used POP to access your mailbox. You set it up, and didn’t need to worry about it again. These days are long gone.

\n

Today, hosting your own mailbox and exposing an SMTP server to the world, whether you want to or not, engages you in the global war on spam and phishing. To host my own email I had to deal with keeping 3 software packages current at all times, and pay a monthly service fee to a service provider to filter for viruses and spam for me. This simply takes up more time and is frankly too complicated to waste time on.

\n

I’ve dumped this whole game and am now hosting thingelstad.com email using Google Apps for your Domain. Yes, Google now can index my mail and serve me ads. I don’t care. It’s tremendously easier, will save me a bunch of time, and cut my out of pocket cost by nearly $100 a year. This is a no brainer.

\n

I’m happy to also say that I’ve been really impressed with Gmail. I find it’s actually faster than Thunderbird was for casual usage. And I can now give up the madness of trying to keep my address book synchronized.

\n

I’m now a much happier netizen, and no longer am worried about versions of IMAP servers and SMTP daemons and having to worry about the latest spam, phishing and virus issues. Yeah!

\n", "date_published": "2007-02-04T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/02/04/bye-bye-thunderbird.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Productivity"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/01/23/fanatical-about-backpack.html", "title": "Fanatical About Backpack", "content_html": "\"Backpack\n

I think amongst my cadre of hyper-geeky, super web savvy friends I was probably a little late to get to Backpack. About a month ago however I was faced with a challenge. I had a bunch of information all over the place and I wanted to consolidate it. I’d always liked the idea of a “personal wiki” that I could have anywhere and had considered installing something on my machines for this. I had even installed OpenWiki at home but it’s a dead open source project with no future. What to do? I’d heard about Backpack so I decided to give it a serious look. I’ve been using it for a little over a month and I can’t imagine working without it now.

\n

Backpack is a personal information management web tool from 37 Signals. It’s a great example of simplicity in design yielding great power. Backpack is one of those services that you discover new features and functions all the time, even after using it for a while. I’ve been able to get rid of at least five different “places” that I stored things and move them all onto Backpack.

\n

Let me share a somewhat obscure example of how I’m using Backpack. I recently moved this site to a 3rd party hosting service. They don’t provide backups, so I have to do that myself. Backpack becomes a great part of this workflow. I have a script that backs up the database, compresses it, and then emails it to Backpack. Every page on Backpack has an email address so it just appears as an attached file. Awesome!

\n

Backpack now joins the very elite ranks of web tools that I pay for — happily I may add. I can only hope that they continue to add features galore and make the experience even better.

\n", "date_published": "2007-01-23T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/01/23/fanatical-about-backpack.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/01/01/must-have-thunderbird.html", "title": "Must Have Thunderbird Add-Ons", "content_html": "

I’m not one of these folks that scours the internet for Firefox extensions only to make my web browser slower and crash more often. However, I’ve recently been really frustrated by some shortcomings in Thunderbird (email client) and thought I would share some findings.

\n

I use Thunderbird on five different computers popping in and out all the time. My mail server is IMAP-based so that is fine, the same messages are there no matter what computer I use. However, not the address book! This has been driving me nuts. Addressbook Synchronizer has come to the rescue however! This great extension allows you to copy your address book to a network location (including an IMAP folder which is great!) and get the updated one on startup. I now have 5 different address books and they are completely in sync, including the two built-in to Thunderbird. If you use Thunderbird on multiple machines, you need this extension.

\n

There are two other extensions that are immensely useful. Contacts Sidebar restores a feature that Outlook Express had but Thunderbird lacked. It shows your address book in a pane on the left side of your message window. Nice to drop notes to people in your address book. Also look into Duplicate Contact Manager, it does a great job of chugging through your address book and culling out “dups” for you.

\n

Also, in case you are interested I did setup an LDAP server using OpenLDAP and try to just have all my mail clients use the LDAP repository. I got the LDAP server setup, but there were huge problems. A little hidden secret of most personal mail clients, including Thunderbird, is that it can read an LDAP repository but cannot modify or add to it. This is a non-starter.

\n", "date_published": "2007-01-01T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/01/01/must-have-thunderbird.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2006/11/18/good-spam-filtering.html", "title": "Good Spam Filtering for Home", "content_html": "

I’ve started to get deluged with spam again at home. The last time this happened I decided to switch my email address – a little “shake and bake” as it were with due credit to Talladega Nights. At work I’ve been using Postini for years now and I’m a huge fan. They do an amazing job of handling spam and viruses – both of which I had nothing to stop at home.

\n

I would have loved to use Postini but they don’t offer individual accounts, boo! However, they do have resellers. Some quick searches and I found a Postini reseller that set me up for $2.50/month per address. They got me setup very quickly and now I’m a much happier email recipient.

\n", "date_published": "2006-11-18T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2006/11/18/good-spam-filtering.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2005/04/09/forgetmenot.html", "title": "Forget-me-not", "content_html": "

I’m horrible at remembering certain things. At the top of the list is remembering to change the filters in the heater. I have no idea when I did it last, none. Finally it hit me that I can easily have my computers help me out. In about 5 minutes I created a quick Scheduled Task that will send me a reminder every month! I’m using blat.exe to send the email via a command prompt.

\n

(If you just see a big blank space below this you are using Internet Explorer and have a fairly narrow window, make your browser wider. Not sure why the style sheet does this.)

\n\"Two\n

I am sharing this immensely obvious solution since I think others may find this worthwhile as well.

\n", "date_published": "2005-04-09T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2005/04/09/forgetmenot.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Home"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2005/02/06/yesterday-hmail-today.html", "title": "Yesterday hMail, today SquirrelMail", "content_html": "

Had last morning with hMailServer. This morning it was SquirrelMail’s turn. Decided to use this contrary to my firmly held belief that PHP and Windows just don’t belong together. It actually installed really easily, I even got a fair number of plugins to go with it. SquirrelMail is a very nice webmail client, gotta admit.

\n", "date_published": "2005-02-06T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2005/02/06/yesterday-hmail-today.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2005/02/05/switch-to-hmail.html", "title": "Switch to hMail", "content_html": "

I’ve been a longtime user of Xmail for my home email services. Xmail has been stable, reliable, etc. But it lacks IMAP support and configuration is entirely driven on text files. I decided to take the plunge and change over to hMail this morning. So far everything is working great. Configuration was a lot easier. I was able to get all my mail transferred into the IMAP store. If you are looking for an easy to setup windows mail server I would recommend it.

\n", "date_published": "2005-02-05T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2005/02/05/switch-to-hmail.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2004/09/22/thunderbird.html", "title": "Thunderbird 0.8", "content_html": "

I mentioned before that I’ve ditched Microsoft Outlook in favor of Thunderbird. I’ve been using Thunderbird for a while now and I’m really liking it. Also, they just released 0.8 of it which has notably added RSS support! Finally I have a worthwhile RSS reader for home use that is integrated. If you haven’t checked out Thunderbird, it’s worth looking into.

\n", "date_published": "2004-09-22T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2004/09/22/thunderbird.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2004/08/14/thunderbird.html", "title": "Thunderbird", "content_html": "

I’ve really not cared for Outlook Express for quite a while now so I’m giving Mozilla Thunderbird a shot. So far, it’s pretty good. Have to change some of my habits around keyboard shortcuts and the like. The news reader is much better than the Outlook one, but that isn’t saying much. We’ll see how this goes.

\n", "date_published": "2004-08-14T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2004/08/14/thunderbird.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Technology"] } ] }