State of the Apps: 2018

It’s no secret that I think a lot about the software I use. Simply put, spending all day in front of some kind of electronic device raises the stakes for the decisions I make around the software I choose to use. If I’m going to spend all day looking at a screen I want to interact with tools that I find enjoyable, well-designed, and help me get my work finished as seamlessly and efficiently as possible.

When I look back at 2018 I’m struck by how many of the tools I continue to use are the same tools I used in 2017, 2016, and even before. I definitely spent a significant amount of time investigating new entries into the market (it’s one of my favorite ways to procrastinate), and reacquainting myself with old friends, but at the end of the day my “official” tech stack looks a lot like it has always looked.

What follows are the major task categories/actions I need to take on a regular basis and the tools I use to get those jobs done. I’ll try to say a few words both about the primary winner in each category but also my experience with any other notable options I tried over the past year.

Before I dive into the specifics, here are the most important principles I’m looking for when deciding which app to use:

1. iOS & macOS compatible: I use both Apple operating systems extensively and I need my apps to seamlessly sync between my phone, iPad, and various computers. If an app doesn’t have a version for the other operating system it’s either so niche that it doesn’t matter or it’s so good I can look past that glaring omission.

2. Well-designed: This is obviously a pretty subjective criteria but it’s something I feel like I can get a pretty good read on after using an app for a couple hours. I’ll try to call out specific examples that I think really exemplify this principle. Basically, if it’s able to spark any kind of joy in me when I’m using it, that’s a good sign.

3. Dark mode, please: I’ve become a big fan of using apps in “dark mode” whenever it’s available. Whether its a true black mode that looks great on an OLED iPhone or just a more traditional dark mode that tends to look better on my iPad or Mac, I will prioritize an app that has a dark mode.

4. Default wherever possible: Given that I’m about to write several hundred words about the apps I use it might be hard to believe that I actually try to use default apps and services wherever possible. I’m a big fan of the interoperatbility and integration you (sometimes) get when you use all Apple devices and Apple software. Much of my tinkering this year was investigating which default apps and services were good enough to replace some third-party app that I used to use.

5. Clear business model: I want to see and understand the business model of any app or service that I use consistently. I don’t want important parts of my workflow yanked from underneath me because the developer can’t afford to keep a free thing going indefinitely. I want to pay for apps and I’m not averse to signing up for a subscription if it’s something I like and use a lot.

Without further ado, here’s the state of my apps as I head into 2019!

Short-Form Note Taking & Reference Storage: Bear (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid subscription)

This category of app needs to allow me to quickly take notes (usually in Markdown) and then allow me to store those notes in an easily searchable way. For the last couple years, the hands down winner in this category has been Bear. Any time I need to write something that’s shorter than an article it probably starts in Bear. Emails, long Slack messages, notes during meetings… all of these start as Bear notes. The main tweak I made this year was to figure out a tagging system that allows me to review active notes on a regular basis, without having to go through my whole archive. That’s probably an article for another time, but I essentially mirrored the structure of Things in Bear so that it’s easier to find relevant notes for the projects I’m working on at any time.

Honorable mentions in this category are Agenda and the default Apple Notes app. I made a go of switching over to Agenda this year but ultimately decided not to stick with it. I think they are doing some really interesting things with the nature of note-taking and reference storage with Agenda but it ended up being too radical of a shift from my GTD-esque way of thinking about my work. And the default Apple Notes app continues to be a very good app (I especially like that I can just tap my sleeping iPad screen with the pencil and be brought into a new note) but I can’t abide a folder-based organizational structure. I’m a tags man through and through nowadays.

Long-Form Writing: Ulysses (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid subscription)

For much of the year I was actually doing my long-form writing (like this article) in Bear. Eventually I realized I didn’t like having pieces of writing that require hours and hours of work intermingled with one-off notes, so I decided to seek out an app to house my “real” writing. In the past I’ve used WriteRoom, Byword, and Drafts. All are very minimal and very good word processors optimized for writing. However, I decided to use this opportunity to investigate an app that I see lots of people I follow using — Ulysses. Turns out, it’s pretty damn great. Great Markdown support, dark mode, versions for all my devices, unique but logical organizational structure… I could go on. Technically, Bear is completely capable of handling the long-form writing that I tend to do but psychologically I’ve really appreciated having a separate home for the type of writing where I want to linger over it for awhile.

Calendar: Fantastical 2 (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid app)

No big surprises here. I’ve been using Fantastical for years and although I made a half-hearted effort to explore the calendaring space a little bit this year, I found myself back in the warm embrace of Fantastical almost immediately. It seems that many calendar apps try to be too many things at once. I don’t want my calendar app to handle reminders (Fantastical gives you that option but it’s easy to turn off). I don’t want my calendar to try to handle my task list. I don’t want my calendar to be in my email app. Ultimately, Fantastical gives me the simplicity I’m looking for in a calendar app with some of the nice bonuses that make it feel professional (like top-notch natural language processing for creating new events and having different calendar “sets” on macOS).

I made a go of using the default Apple Calendar for a couple months of this year and it was mostly fine. Weirdly, I noticed it being kind of slow in updating when calendar events changed in the backend (like when a coworker moved a meeting or changed the description). That’s the type of thing I would expect a default app to be better at, not worse. If Fantastical went away tomorrow I’d be fine running with just the default app and if it continues to improve — and Fantastical stays mostly static — then I could see this being another category where I simply settle into using the default app everywhere.

Task Management: Things 3 (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid app)

Things is life. Things is everything. Things drives the way I work and without it I would be wandering in the wilderness. That’s not to say that I’ve never had a wandering eye. In the past I think I’ve flirted with every major to-do app on the market: Todoist, 2Do, and OmniFocus have all had their time in the sun. But I always, always, always end up coming back to Things. In the past there was always a little bit of disappointment in that fact because it severely lagged behind a lot of the other major players. Sometimes it almost seemed abandoned. But ever since Things 3.0 came out in May 2017 it feels like a whole new app. Cultured Code is updating it at a torrid pace (it’s at version 3.8.1 right now) and is including all sorts of great features: insanely good iPad keyboard shortcuts, dark modes across all versions, Siri Shortcuts support, etc. It’s a good time to be a Things user.

Email: Airmail (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid app)

As with many Slack users, it seems like my email usage is getting less and less every year. That being said, email is still an important enough part of my workflow that I want to use a tool that I like. I actually used the default Apple Mail app for several months this year and like with the default Calendar app, it was fine. Airmail could go away and everything would be copacetic (especially since Things introduced a “mail to Things” feature that lets you forward emails directly into your Things inbox). However, Airmail has one key feature (other than just being nicely designed) that keeps me coming back again and again: custom swipes. The important thing to understand is that I treat my email inbox as simple a location where next actions periodically arrive. I almost never respond to an email when I initially read it (unless it’s truly easy and quick to respond to). Instead, I think to myself, “That’s a task I need to take care of,” which means that it needs to show up in Things — because that’s where all my work lives. As I mentioned with regards to the default app, there’s an email address that I can forward an email to that will result in it showing up in my Things inbox. Seems easy and quick, right? It is — except in Airmail I can just swipe right on a message in my inbox and it automatically sends it to Things (with a link back to the actual email) and archives the original email. Perfect.

Read Later: Instapaper (iPhone, iPad, macOS, subscription)

I think it’s vital to use some kind of service that collects and holds things you find on the internet that you want to read or watch. The mental mode I’m in when I’m finding interesting things to read is often very different from the mental mode I need to be in to read something. Instapaper ensures that I always have something ready to read when I feel ready to sit down and dig into something. It’s nice and simple with great typographic options (including a dark mode). It’s easy to send things to it from anywhere, whether I’m on my phone, iPad, or Mac. It may be the oldest app that I regularly use so there’s probably a bit of irrational nostalgia that keeps me coming back to it, too.

I explored Pocket for awhile this year because it seems to be the most popular read later option. It’s good. No major complaints from me other than I think it’s trying to be a bit more than I need it to be. There’s a social component to it that I’m not interested in as well as a discovery feature that tries to guess what you might like to read and serves it up to you. I already have enough interesting content coming at me throughout the day so I don’t need my read later app to get into that action, too.

I also played with the default Reading List feature in Safari. It’s also fine but it lacks the ability to “like” an article and have it be easy to find again, like Instapaper. I use the “like” feature in Instapaper to indicate which articles I might want to include in The Ready’s weekly newsletter that I read so if I went all in on Reading List I’d need to create a new workflow for saving those (probably just a normal bookmarks folder). Not the end of the world, but I’ll stick with Instapaper for now.

Recurring Reminders: Due (iPhone, iPad, paid app)

There’s a class of reminders that I want to set and receive that a.) happen on a recurring basis, b.) I want to be as annoying as possible, c.) I don’t want to see when they aren’t being triggered. I call these my “Daily Guardrail” reminders and they’re simple things like being reminded to “Drink a glass of water” within a couple minutes of waking up, “Water the plants” every week, and “Last chance to do daily #yearofmundane Instagram post” at 9:00 PM every night. These reminders shift and morph over time as I try to develop various habits. Due is great because once a reminder is triggered it will keep going off on a cadence you’ve determined until you indicate you’ve finished the task. I keep the app buried in a folder somewhere so I don’t have to think about it or see it until the reminders pop up and I take the action I need to take to get it to shut up.

For more run-of-the-mill reminders, reminders that I want to trigger based on a location, or reminders I want to use Siri to set, I’ll use the default Apple Reminders app.

Habit Tracking: Streaks (iPhone, iPad, paid app)

There are four things I try to do every day: read a book, write, meditate, and exercise. The app I use to track how well I’m doing those things is Streaks. It’s really simple but has some nice touches that make it satisfying to use. For example, indicating you’ve finished a task requires you to hold down the button for a second or two, instead of just tapping it. I don’t know what part of my brain this is tickling but it feels better to do it that way. Every Sunday I like to look back at the previous week and record how well I did with each of these habits and Streaks makes it easy to go back and see which days you did and didn’t accomplish the habit. For such a simple app it has actually become a pretty important part of my life over the past year.

Shared Grocery List: AnyList (iPhone, iPad, subscription)

My girlfriend and I needed a way to contribute to a shared grocery list and The Sweet Setup recommended AnyList. We’ve since added a few more shared lists (TV Shows to Watch Together, Vacation Locations, Things to Do in DC) and it is doing a fine job of holding those, too. I’ve recently had some frustrations with getting Siri to add items to the grocery list (as a family with copious amounts of Apple devices including multiple HomePods I want to be able to just exclaim grocery store items into the air and have them added to a shared list) but once I realized I could connect the default Reminders app to AnyList that frustration largely went away.

Music Streaming: Apple Music (iPhone, iPad, macOS, subscription)

This is the one category where I probably went back and forth the most all year. Apple Music and Spotify both scratch different itches for me. Starting with Apple Music, I’m obviously a fan of the fact that it’s the default option for an Apple-centric household. It integrates with all my devices, including HomePods, in a mostly seamless and pleasing way. I also prefer its overall design and aesthetic over Spotify. Spotify, on the other hand, is so goddamn good at recommending me music that I like. Plus, it does things like the end-of-year summary that the data nerd in me loves.

However, in the past few weeks I think I’ve mostly negotiated a truce between these two services and have landed on the one I’m going to run with for the time being (and hopefully long term): Apple Music. This is probably an article for another time but what seemed to flip the switch for me was completing wiping my library, turning off the setting that adds songs to my library when I add a playlist, spending an hour re-creating my library from memory, and creating three playlists (The Sound of High School, The Sound of College, and The Sound of Productivity). With a fresh and interesting library that I actually invested some time in creating I felt like I had some skin in the game with Apple Music. Add to the fact that it integrates like a dream with my HomePod and allows me to stream music to my Apple Watch without needing to bring my phone on a run means that I think I’ve made myself mostly cozy in the Apple Music universe and I can try to ignore Spotify and it’s sweet, sweet, recommendation engine…

Twitter: Tweetbot 5 (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid app)

This category has gotten much more complicated in the past year. With Twitter’s continued slow-motion strangulation of third-party apps (this time through removing the APIs that allow for notifications) I’ve had to slightly adjust my approach to Twitter over the past year. The simplest option, and something I experimented with for much of the year, would be to just use the default Twitter app. I don’t hate it as much as many old-school Twitter users do, but I also don’t love it. What I’ve decided to do is keep it on my devices, buried in a folder, but with some of its key notifications turned on (yes, I know I should probably turn off Twitter notifications all together but I’m not so popular that it’s a.) an overwhelming number of notifications or b.) ever particularly negative). Basically, I use the Twitter app as the notification engine and Tweetbot as the primary way I interact with my actual feed. Tweetbot has had some nice updates recently (on both iOS and macOS) so I think I’ll be riding it into oblivion with the rest of the Twitter die hards who will only let go of our third-party apps when they are pried from our grasps.

E-Books: Kindle (iPhone, iPad, Kindle Oasis) and Apple Books (iPhone, iPad, macOS)

I’m in the weird position of actively using both Amazon and Apple for my e-book needs. It’s kind of dumb… I definitely go through periods of time feeling like I wish I had just picked one and stuck with it for the long-term instead of spreading myself across two devices and services. On the other hand, I kind of like that I don’t give Amazon 100% of my book buying budget. And the lover of default apps in me likes using Apple Books (especially with the iOS 12 update) and being able to consolidate nearly all my work and much of my leisure onto one device. But then the premium experience lover in me likes taking my Kindle Oasis into an environment where a 12.9” iPad Pro or an iPhone screen would suck and using a device that is specifically designed for reading books. Anyway, if you can’t tell I’m pretty conflicted but I don’t actually see my approach changing here anytime soon. I’m probably 70/30 Kindle to Apple Books at this point and if anything it might shift closer to 60/40 or maybe even 50/50 in the future. In either case, Goodreads will remain as my primary way for tracking books I’ve read and still want to read and Audible is really the only game in town for audiobooks.

Podcasts: Overcast (iPhone, iPad, subscription)

Podcasts are another category of job where I did some major experimentation with using the default Apple app. Like the other default apps I made a go of using this year, it is fine. The problem, though, is that my preferred third party option is so much better than “fine” the default app never really stood a chance. Overcast is maybe my favorite app on my phone. It’s filled with nice design touches, is extremely easy to use, and has one of the best features ever — Smart Speed — that lets me listen to podcasts faster without having any noticeable distortion. Plus, it has extremely nice dark mode options and is being actively developed by a guy, Marco Arment, who I feel like I know thanks to the years of listening to him on various podcasts. If it suddenly went away I’d be fine using the default app but I would be very sad.

Time Tracking: Toggl (iPhone, web, subscription)

After years of listening to Myke and Grey talk about time tracking on Cortex I decided to give it a go in the last few months of 2018. I’ve been treating this as a test run to figure out how I want to do it “for real” once 2019 rolls around. My tool of choice has been Toggl and for the most part it has been pretty straightforward and relatively painless to use. I know there’s a bunch of stuff I could be doing with Siri Shortcuts to potentially make it easier to trigger and stop various timers, but I’m running it pretty vanilla right now.

Password Management: iCloud Keychain (iPhone, iPad, macOS, default)

First, let me say that everyone should be using some kind of password manager. For me, for years, that was 1Password. I wasn’t always the most diligent making sure I used strong and non-duplicative passwords but 1Password helped me take my password hygiene in a positive direction. For the past few months I noticed that every time I was prompted to enter a saved password it seemed like it lived in iCloud Keychain, not 1Password, though. So, I decided to see if I could run with just iCloud Keychain as my password manager (like Dr. Drang). So far, it seems like I can. Another third-party app falls to the default option!

Web Browsing: Safari (iPhone, iPad, macOS, default)

Logically, I know I should probably be using Chrome nearly everywhere I can because The Ready is a Google Suite shop and I spend a ton of time in Google’s software. But I just can’t do it. I don’t like what Chrome looks like. I don’t like what it “feels” like. Safari feels like home and I don’t see myself moving away from it any time soon.

Personal Journal: Day One (iPhone, iPad, macOS, subscription)

Day One and I go way back. I have entries in it from 2009! I go through periods of time where I seem to write something every day and I go through periods where I’m much less consistent with my writing. At this point, though, I have hundreds of entries saved in Day One and nearly every day I’m presented with something I wrote on that date in the past. I really like seeing these quick shots of what I was thinking about and struggling with at some point in the past. I have a notoriously bad memory so it helps me remember what I’ve done, what I’ve seen, what I’ve worked through, and what hopes and dreams I had for the future.

Weather: Dark Sky (iPhone, iPad, paid app)

Weather apps are a playground for design. As such, I’m a sucker for exploring the latest and greatest. For much of this year I was rocking CARROT Weather across all my devices (albeit, with the personality setting set way down) and I mostly liked it. However, like with some of my other tried and true favorite apps, I could never shake my first true weather app love: Dark Sky. The precipitation notifications can’t be beat and I haven’t found anything with as classy or agreeable visual design. So, after my long sojourn with CARROT and a few other weather apps, I’m happily back with Dark Sky.

Delivery Tracking: Deliveries (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid app)

I always seem to have a box being shipped to me. Deliveries lets me know where that box is and when to expect its arrival. It’s a nice bit of peace of mind to know I can swipe over to this app and see where my deliveries are. It’s a simple app that make it easy to add new tracking numbers and good notifications that keep me apprised of what’s going on.

Sleep Tracking: AutoSleep (iPhone, paid app)

The key feature for a sleep tracker that I’m going to use consistently is the ability to work consistently even when I forget about it. AutoSleep does just that as it automatically figures out when I fall asleep and wake up. I’m not in love with its design choices but what keeps me coming back to it is the dashboard view that shows me summary data for several different periods of time, including the last week. I pull out the weekly data every Sunday and put it into my own spreadsheet so it’s important that my app can show me that weekly view.

Recipes: Paprika (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid app)

I’m trying to do a better job of cooking more consistently and Paprika has helped me take some strides in that direction. It has all sorts of features that I haven’t really explored in depth, like keeping a list of the ingredients you have on hand and various meal planning features, but even just as a way to keep a list of recipes it excels.

Movie Tracking & Backlog: Letterboxd (iPhone, web, paid app)

I don’t watch very many movies, but I like to keep track of the ones I do. I’ve used simple lists in notes apps and other apps specifically for that task but Letterboxd is the one that stuck.

TV Tracking & Backlog: TV Time (iPhone, web, paid app)

Same as above. I don’t watch a ton of TV but I like knowing which series I’ve started, which ones I’m caught up on, and what I want to watch in the future. TV Time does that perfectly well.

Subscription Tracking: Bobby (iPhone, paid app)

As you may have noticed reading through this article, many of the apps I mention above are subscription-based. I don’t have a problem with that, but I do like to keep a handle on how many subscriptions I have ongoing at any one time. This little app does a good job of holding all that subscription information and showing me how much I’m spending on a monthly or yearly basis.

Calculator: PCalc (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid app)

That’s right, I use a third party calculator. Inexplicably the iPad doesn’t ship with a default calculator and I’m not going to use different calendars on different devices. That means I need something that shows up on each of my devices and PCalc fits that bill.

Ad Blocker: 1Blocker (iPhone, iPad, macOS, paid app)

Safari continues to do a pretty good job of making using the Internet a somewhat reasonable endeavor, but I like to use an ad blocker as well as the native features. I’ve used 1Blocker for a long time and the new version seems to continue in the same vein, albeit with even more customizable options, as the last version. Bonus points for being able to use it across all my devices, too.

Call Blocker: Nomorobo (iPhone, subscription)

I almost never answer a call that comes from an unknown number, but Nomorobo makes sure I never answer a call from a known robo-caller. It’s super easy to have it run in the background and every time it catches a robo-call I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth.

RSS Backend: Feed Wrangler (web, subscription)

Google shut down Reader years ago but I’m still not used to the fact that I now need a separate RSS backend and reader. David Smith’s Feed Wrangler took over from Inoreader this year and it seems to do a fine job. I don’t use it to actually read my RSS feeds — it’s just where I go to add new ones.

RSS Reader: Unread (iPhone, iPad, paid app)

Another one of those apps that I’ve had forever but still seems to be the best option for how I think. It has a delightful dark theme and makes it easy for me to send useful articles to Instapaper which is where I actually do the reading.

Wallpaper Finder: Vellum (iPhone, paid app)

This delightful little app makes it super easy to find interesting and handsome wallpapers for my phone. I especially like the blur tool that lets you take any of the wallpapers and add a neat effect. I like to use the regular version for the lock screen image and then a blurred version of the same image for the home screen (because it allows apps to stand out better). If you like to change up your wallpaper from time to time this app is a no-brainer.

Drawing: Linea Sketch (iPad, paid app)

This is a category I’m still actively exploring. I’m not an artist but I have been in situations with clients where flipping to a drawing app, sometimes while projecting my iPad onto a screen so everyone can see it, and drawing in real-time has been very useful. Right now Linea is my favorite app for doing that but I have a few more I’ve liked (Paper by 53) or still need to investigate (Goodnotes & Notability).

The Stuff I Don’t Have Much of a Choice in Using

Slack

The Ready runs on Slack. Many of my clients run on Slack. I’m increasingly ambivalent about the effect it’s having on me — and work in general — but for now it’s the best we have.

Google Drive, Docs, & Sheets

The Ready also runs on Google apps. As somebody increasingly interested in using iOS-only in my computing life, this isn’t ideal. The Google iOS apps range from okay (Google Drive) to flaming garbage (Docs and Sheets).

Trello

We use Trello at The Ready to publicly track various projects and other work. I still haven’t found a good way to integrate my personal task management system with the way we use Trello at work, but overall I think Trello is a pretty great tool.

Zoom

As a member of a fully remote company I spend a lot of time on video calls. That means I spend a lot of time on Zoom. I wish so much that the Zoom iPad app would allow for split screen usage. What that actually means is that I spend a decent amount of time with Zoom on my iPhone and my iPhone awkwardly propped up against something or Zoom on my iPad and my video going away every time I alt+tab into another app. It’s not ideal, but I make it work.

Looking into the Future

I’m mostly happy with the tools I’m using in my life right now. Does that mean I’ll never try a new app? Of course not. At this point, it’s practically a hobby. Trying new apps and combing through settings screens is one of my favorite ways to relax. But when it comes to the main jobs to be done in my personal and professional life I feel like my chosen tools actually help me do great work. They get out of the way when they need to get out of the way and they help me take action when I need that help.

Looking into 2019 there’s a handful of things that I hope to see happen or am thinking about. First, I really hope Apple decouples the default apps from the yearly iOS update. There’s no reason Mail, Notes, Podcasts, and the other default apps should only be updated once per year. Let those teams ship updates to those apps like any other app. If that were to happen I have a sneaking suspicion that even more of the default apps might make their way into my regular stack.

Tied to that idea, I will continue to pressure the third-party apps I use with the default options whenever possible. I like the idea of running as stock as possible as long as it doesn’t materially negatively effect my ability to work. In some cases, like with iCloud Keychain and Apple Music, that means I use the default options. In other cases, like with Overcast and Airmail, the third-party options remain a better fit for how I like to work. I wonder if at the end of 2019 I’ll say that I’ve adopted more of the default apps?

Finally, I’m going to make a major push to be as iOS-only as possible this year. Partly as an exercise in future-proofing myself and partly as something I think will be fun, I will be prioritizing the apps and workflows that let me do everything from an iPad and my phone. I’m not sure what that means for what this article will look like a year from now, but it’s something I’m keeping an eye on.

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Interested in more? Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Have an app you think I’d like? Let me know!

Use software that sparks joy

In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying UpMarie Kondo introduced the idea of only keeping physical objects that “spark joy.” I’m not a full Kondo-ite who thinks this advice should be taken to its literal and extreme end but I do think that is a mostly useful and interesting piece of advice that aligns with my minimalist tendencies. It’s a high bar and when applied to the vast majority of the items around you leaves you with a much smaller and curated collection that actually feels good to own. It’s a little hard to explain if you’ve never had a chance to experience it but opening a closet or looking around a room and only seeing items that spark joy is a pretty cool feeling.

While Kondo focuses on the physical world, I decided to take a look at my digital world with the same spark-of-joy-trained eye. As a knowledge worker who spends the vast majority of his day in front of some kind of electronic device (usually an Apple device of some kind) my suite of tools is decidedly non-physical (other than the devices themselves, obviously). Regardless of their ephemerality, I think it’s reasonable to expect to feel some spark of joy with your digital tools, too. If you have any autonomy over deciding what you use to get your work done then noticing which apps and services spark joy for you isn’t a bad way to make some decisions about what goes in your proverbial toolbox.

What follows are the tools I use that spark joy and a few words about the joy they spark.

Note: You’ll notice that I didn’t even try to define what “spark joy” even means. For me, I think it’s some combination of obviously thoughtful design, minimal aesthetics, and a high degree of functionality with regards to how I like to work. Your definition will undoubtedly be different — which is okay!

Overcast is an iOS podcast app developed by independent app developer, Marco Arment.

Overcast is one of those apps that you can tell was crafted with a ton of care. Marco is an opinionated guy and it shows up in the design and functionality of this app. He’s a total audio nut and obsesses over how to make listening to podcasts ever better. The Smart Speed feature is incredible. It imperceptibly takes out silences in the podcasts you listen to without adjusting the pitch of the audio. It also keeps track of how much time you’ve saved by using Smart Speed — so far I’m up to 299 hours. The other marquee feature that Marco pioneered is something he calls Voice Boost. When you have it turned on it somehow adjusts the audio playback so that it sounds better/louder through your phone’s speakers. It isn’t a straight volume boost — he’s actually doing something more sophisticated (that I don’t understand) to make spoken word sound clearer and louder through the phone’s speakers. Like I said, he’s a huge audio nerd.

Instapaper is a read-it-later service originally developed by Marco Arment but currently under new management. It allows you to save and read articles you want to read later from anywhere. I like to separate modalities when I’m working and most of the time when I find an article that looks interesting it doesn’t mean I actually want to stop what I’m doing in the moment and read it. Instapaper allows me to easily save those interesting articles for a better time.

Honestly, I think there’s a nostalgia component to why I love this app. I’ve had it on my home screen ever since my first iPhone back in the 3GS days. I understand if that’s not reason enough for you to also enjoy the app. Luckily, it has some other things going for it. It has a lot of great typography options which is kind of what you want from an app where the whole point is to read things easily.

It has a really simple and clean UI that gets out of the way and lets you do the main thing you’re there to do, read the articles you’ve saved. It makes it really easy to save things into it with browser extensions for your computer and sharing extensions on iOS. It has a simple structure (your list of unread items, your archived items, and items you’ve “liked”) that can grow in complexity (by creating folders) if you need it.

I think this app helped me realize that just because I found something interesting to read doesn’t mean I need to read it immediately. It allowed me to recognize the two different modes related to reading and learning — finding new material and actually sitting down to read that material. They require different ways of thinking and benefit from being separate from each other. I don’t think I realized that until I started using this app.

Fantastical is an iOS and macOS calendar app. I use it instead of the default Apple Calendar app on all my devices.

Fantastical’s main selling point is how good it is at parsing natural language (“Lunch with Emily from 12–1 PM at Panera”) into actual calendar events with all the information filled out. Most other calendar apps have a pretty tedious process for filling in all the information for a typical event. Fantastical lets you do the vast majority of it by simply typing something out the way you would say it to another person.

A few other sparks of joy this app manages to pull out of me are due to it’s cross-platformness (I use it across all my devices), the ease for switching to different time scales (daily, weekly, monthly views), and the idea of having “calendar sets” (at least on the macOS version — hopefully iOS gets this feature someday, too). A calendar set is a group of calendars that always show up as visible together. Since I have visibility on all my colleagues calendars (for finding mutually available time easier) I like to be able to turn on and off certain sets of them very easily (like, my current project team vs. just me).

Bear is an iOS and macOS note taking/writing app.

Bear fills two important writing jobs for me. On the one hand, it’s the app I’ll quickly open when I need to take some notes in a meeting or any other situation where writing some text-based notes makes sense. On the other hand, Bear is also the app I open when I sit down and work on a longer piece of writing (I’m writing this article in it right now).

It has a really clean and simple design that let’s me use it for both purposes without feeling like I’m pushing against the limits of its functionality. It has a pretty robust library of themes to choose from. I use a dark-ish one that has a gray background and white text.

It also has an interesting tagging system (instead of folders) that I really like. This allows for some interesting ways of organizing and retrieving old notes that a more traditional folder system wouldn’t be able to do.

Finally, like any app that has cross-device functionality, it has an absolutely rock solid syncing engine. Something I write on one device shows up on the other one almost instantaneously. I never have to wonder if the device I’m holding has the most current library of notes. They all do, all the time.

Carrot Weather is a really weird app. It’s default settings involve the app being “hosted” by a malicious AI character that talks to you every time you open the app. It’s funny, but I’ve actually turned off all the whimsy and use it in the “Professional” mode (which basically means it doesn’t talk to me or emit any sound effects). I like it because I think it does a really great job of presenting a lot of information without being overwhelming. It also lets you use Weather Underground as the data source for the weather information so you can get hyper local forecasts, which is neat. Lastly, the latest update has given it a pretty incredible series of maps which you can turn on or off at will and layer them to perfectly suit the information you’re looking for.

You can also choose from lots of different app icon versions so you can find one that matches your own personal aesthetic instead of getting stuck with the default.

Airmail is an email client for iOS and macOS. You may be picking up on a theme here, but apps that are really cleanly designed give me a lot of joy. I really like Airmail’s design (although I’d love to have a dark mode). Where it really sparks joy for me, though, is in the swipe customizations. I only do a couple things with any given email: archive it, trash it, or send it to my task management software (Things). I can map all of these actions to various swipes (short left, long left, etc.) so I can very quickly triage an entire mailbox full of email very quickly. I love the way it integrates with Things so I can easily send an email over there and have it create a new task with the information from the email, including a link back to the original email, in the notes field.

Things is my task management software. Anything I need to do, or think I might want to do someday, is managed through this app.

I’m not even sure where to begin with this one. I’ve been using it for so long it has become synonymous with productivity for me. First, I love that it’s completely cross-device so I can use it on anything that happens to be nearby me (iMac, MacBook, iPhone, iPad) and know that everything will be synced across all my devices. When you’re putting thoughts, ideas, and reminders of things you need to do you have to trust that things won’t disappear. I don’t think I’ve ever had any data disappear from Things.

A new version was released a few months ago and it is just a beautifully elegant piece of software. Subtle things like the animations that happen as you interact with the app (my current favorite is the little “x” that kind of rolls/cartwheels into position when you swipe on a task to delete it) to large things like the overall organization to the app — it’s all really, really good. In an update a few weeks ago they introduced a much more robust approach to keyboard shortcuts on the iPad app and I’ve only just scratched the surface in learning these. It’s one of those apps that a pro can go really deep on while at the same time retaining a core level of simplicity and approachability where anybody with a spare thirty minutes could learn enough to have it make a huge impact in how they organize their work. It’s just so damn good.

I’m a fan of knowledge workers adopting a craftperson’s mindset to the way they approach their work. A key part of that mindset is giving a shit about the tools you use. Not in a persnickety if-only-my-tools-were-better-I’d-be-better-at-my-job way, but in the way that a master carpenter knows how his or her tools so well they become an extension of their body. These pieces of software are the extensions of my mind and body that allow me to focus on the work at hand while also getting little bursts of joy throughout the day.

That being said, I’m always on the lookout for new apps or tools that might be a better fit for how I work and think. Share the tools that spark joy for you in the responses below!

The power of choosing the right verb in living the life you want

I’ve always appreciated Merlin Mann’s careful use of language. I think he was the first person I ever heard explain the difference between “busy” and “time constrained.” Another one of his favorites is the difference between “expensive” and “costly.” I admire precision in language. In this same vein (and following yesterday’s article) I’ve discovered my own pet peeve when it comes to one verb in particular — find.

“Yeah I’d love to meet! Let me find some time in my schedule and I’ll get back to you.”

“10 Ways to Find More Meaning in Your Work!”

The word find is pervasive. Everyone is constantly searching for and sometimes finding the time to do things. Finding the time to go to a meeting. Finding time to setup a call. Finding time to work on that report. Looking for and often failing to find a time to work on that important but not urgent project. Busy, busy, busy. Finding, finding, finding.

Find insinuates that what you’re looking for is hiding from you and it’s simply a matter of discovering its location. At the same time, there’s a tinge of uncertainty. Something that must be found may end up being too well hidden. The excuse of not doing it is baked right into the verb — the time simply couldn’t be found! You tried! Who has ever heard of blaming someone for looking but failing to find? It’s not your fault!

The other context in which I see find inappropriately thrown around is when it comes to having a sense of meaning at work. Lifehack/personal development bloggers love to give advice about finding meaning at work. In their eyes, tips and tricks are what’s standing between you and the last rock you need to turn over to find the professional/personal meaning that has been hiding from you. Somehow meaning is some kind of discrete entity that is waiting for you to come get it if you just look hard enough.

It’s bullshit.

I’m trying to ban the word find from my vocabulary. When I say find what I should probably be saying is make. To find is passive. Finding has an excuse built into it. Finding absolves you from needing to make choices. Finding goes hand-in-hand with being too busy. Finding isn’t hard work.

Making, on the other hand, is active. It connotes making a choice. It’s deciding that something is important and doing what you need to do to make space for it. It’s being in charge of how you spend your time and attention and taking the vigorous action to do what needs to be done. It’s often difficult.

It even feels different when people use it in conversation with you. Which of these feels better as the recipient? “I’d love to hop on a call — let me make some time and get back to you,” vs. “I’d love to hop on a call — let me find some time and get back to you.” It’s subtle but the former feels like someone who is prioritizing our time together and not looking to slot it into an otherwise open part of their schedule.

Ultimately, I think the difference between find and make is the difference between feeling like you’re being buffeted about by the demands on your time and attention and feeling like you’re in control of where you direct your time and attention.

Active creators of their own reality make. Harried responders find.

Things I learned when I stopped writing every day

Awhile back, I used to write and publish something on Medium every day. The idea was to ideate, draft, edit, and publish in about 30 minutes. It was enough time to formulate some thoughts beyond the most surface layer of a topic, but not so long that sitting down and doing it felt too arduous to actually do (usually). I’m lucky to be a pretty quick writer so it usually meant I could crank out a couple hundred words without breaking much of a mental sweat.

Eventually I decided to stop that practice because it felt like it was potentially keeping me from writing something more “worthwhile” or “substantial.” Most days my only writing would be that thirty minute article that was drafted, edited, and published in the same sitting. Part of me felt guilty for not using that time to work on articles that can’t be written in one session. That I wasn’t building the muscles necessary to grab ahold of a more difficult or obscure topic and run it to ground over several, or many, writing sessions.

I have several pages of notes and ideas for articles and writing projects that can’t be tackled in the span of a thirty minute writing session. I hoped that relaxing my daily writing schedule would provoke me toward making meaningful progress on these projects.

Nope.

The truth, is that I havne’t been working on any substantial piece of writing. The time that I freed up by not writing and publishing every day has gone everywhere except toward writing more substantial pieces.

I try to treat everything I do like an experiment but somehow this experience has felt more like a personal failing as an aspiring writer and intellectual. I’ve been embarrassed to not publish anything for this long. And the longer I went without writing the more important it became in my mind to write something worth the delay. Which only raised the stakes which only made me less likely to actually write. Hello, negative feedback loop.

But a slight shift in mindset helps me realized I’ve learned some things:

• Writing, like most things worth doing, benefits from momentum and momentum is more about frequency/consistency than quality. It’s impossible to write the best thing you’ve ever written every day, but even writing something so-so every day has residual effects that spill beyond the boundaries of that individual writing session. I stopped writing every day because I felt like I was “using up” time and words that could be better spent on tougher pieces of writing. Turns out when I stop doing that I tend to stop writing entirely.

• Writing is part of my identity and when I don’t do it I don’t feel like myself. I’m decidedly average at a lot of different things that are relevant to my professional life. Writing is one of the few things I can point to and say, “You are good at this.” So when I don’t do it I’m basically handicapping myself in my quest to make a positive impact in the world.

• Writing generates more ideas. Somebody who doesn’t write frequently might think that writing consumes ideas but my experience is the opposite. It’s a very rare writing session where I don’t add two or three topics to my “spark list.” Writing prepares my mind to have ideas and make connections. I start seeing creative ideas and concepts everywhere. When I’m writing and publishing everyday it’s like they know they have an avenue to being made real so they pop into existence easily and in high numbers.

• Much of my work requires wading through ambiguity and uncertainty. Working with clients on a day-to-day basis, often in highly emotional contexts, means that a lot of my work is amorphous and hard and its hard to feel a sense of progress. Writing is a process with a beginning, middle, and an end. It starts with nothing and results in something. When I’m not writing I don’t get to feel those I-made-something-feelings very often. Those feelings feel good. I need them.

I feel like I’ve written a version of this article before and I’m sure I’ll write another version of it at some point in the future. I don’t seem to be the type of person who can learn a lesson once and have it really locked into my psyche from then on. But that’s okay. I’m a slow learner.

These daily(ish) articles aren’t going to follow a specific format or theme any more than my mind and daily life seems to follow a specific format or theme. The barrier for inclusion will be low because I want to be able to successfully write about anything and make it interesting (as long as we’re comfortable with a very liberal definition of interesting).

Forgive me this self-indulgent foray back into being a writing person and I’ll do my best to prevent this little project from veering into such navel gazey territory in the future.

You gotta cut me some slack, though — it has been awhile.

Focusing on the how in the quest for great work

I think meaning exists at two very different scales. The more common and overarching “macro” meaning that lives at the organizational level and the equally important meaning that is derived on a moment-to-moment basis while doing almost anything the right way (let’s call it “micro” meaning for now).

Consultants and the organizations in which they consult spend a lot of time talking about the first one and a lot less talking about the second one. Macro meaning is generally pretty easy to identify and talk about. It’s about doing good in the world and creating a positive impact in your community. It’s the difference between a non-profit bringing clean drinking water to the people of the world and a company bottling clean water from Michigan while its residents continue to drink poison from their taps.

Most people want to feel like their work has meaning (even if there is a significant dose of cognitive dissonance that must be managed). When you spend as much time at work as most of us do, the idea that what we do doesn’t matter is a quick recipe for disengagement and apathy. Macro meaning tends to live at the organizational level and when we talk about it we are mostly talking about organizational purpose. It’s all about what the organization exists to do and whether we believe that is worthwhile.

I’m more interested in the other kind of meaning, though. The smaller one. The one that exists at an individual level and is built and re-built hundreds of times throughout the day. Moment-to-moment, activity-to-activity, thought-to-thought.

This kind of meaning is what’s built when the way in which you are working and interacting aligns with your values. It’s the decisions you make about how to tackle a piece of work or how to have a conversation with your boss or how to show up in a meeting. I’m having trouble defining this feeling with words, so instead I’ll share a couple examples from my own work life.

I know how dangerous distractions can be when trying to do something that requires concentration and focus. When I take action to limit distractions during an activity (like writing this article) I feel like I’m doing it right. It’s easier not to turn on Do Not Disturb or put my devices in Airplane Mode or not switch over to Twitter the second I get stuck with what I’m trying to write. But every time I setup my environment in a way that allows me to do what I need to do well and I avoid the temptations to break concentration I feel like what I’m doing is more meaningful. If it’s worth the extra effort to do well then it must be worth doing.

Another example from a typical day; when I show up to meetings on time, or ideally, a little bit early. Not every meeting is one that I look forward to (shocker, I know) and the temptation is to stroll into those just as it’s starting or even a little bit afterward. Every time that happens, though, I can feel the cracks forming in my meaning foundation. I think it taps into a feeling that I don’t have any volitional control over my time and attention so showing up a little bit late is the (lamest) act of subconscious rebellion. Showing up early, ready to go, and fully focused for a meeting isn’t always the easiest thing, but when I do it I feel like my work has more meaning and that I’m showing up the right way.

One last example. On any given day there is almost always a mix of actions I could take but the overall order of operations is completely up to me. Very few things must be finished today. Things could get moved to tomorrow, later in the week, and truthfully, could probably never get done and the world wouldn’t stop spinning. When I’m not feeling connected to my work and it’s not feeling meaningful in any way, the way I tackle those tasks is often dumb. I’ll look at everything I need to do and I’ll do the easiest thing first. Then I’ll do the next easiest thing. I essentially take everything I need to do and reverse sort on Difficulty. That wouldn’t be a huge deal if nothing new was being added to my list but because I work in a company (kind of two, actually — The Ready and my client) there are always new tasks (e.g. emails and Slack messages) that are entering my consciousness and getting kicked to the top of my reverse sorted Difficulty list. The next thing I know, I’ve spent 8 hours doing easy (and mostly unimportant) stuff while surfing along the top of my email inbox and Slack notifications. The clean inboxes at the end of the day come at the cost of having to actually do anything difficult or worthwhile or meaningful.

In all three of these examples the common theme is having control over my attention. When I make deliberate choices about how to spend my attention I generally feel like my work has more meaning. When I let my attention be buffeted by things outside my control it feels like nothing I do matters. That’s why having a conversation, responding to an email, and writing this article could all be opportunities to build a sense of meaning in my work, or they could all be opportunities to destroy a sense of meaning in my work. It’s not the what but the how that matters.

I think a surprising amount of the organizational dysfunctions we see in our consulting and you probably live on a day-to-day basis can be tracked back to that sense of moment-to-moment meaning that happens at an individual level. When you multiply that feeling, or lack of feeling, across hundreds or thousands of people in an organization you get some effects that are far more than the sum of their parts and why extremely minor shifts in how we all approach our work may be more of a solution than it first appears.

I have a lot more to say about this but let’s end it here for now.

What do you think? When do you feel like your work has the most meaning? When do you feel like what you’re doing doesn’t matter at all? What am I missing from my description?

The State of the Apps & Tools: 2018

A craftsman has a paradoxical relationship with his or her tools. On the one hand, tools are the primary conduit through which their skill and passion are made manifest in the world. From this perspective, tools are incredibly important and the careful consideration of them makes perfect sense. On the other hand, a true craftsman knows that their skill and ability isn’t contingent upon the quality of their tools. They know they can take supbar tools and still create beautiful work.

All of this is to say that I think about the tools and apps I use to do my work a lot. I use the former perspective when I’m trying to feel okay about trying my third email app in three months and the latter perspective when I need to berate myself to focus on what actually matters (i.e. my actual work).

To indulge my “tools are important!” side for a little bit I thought I’d write a summary of the key pieces of software and hardware I’m using as I go into 2018. It’s always interesting to see what stays the same from year-to-year and when I’m successful in introducing a new tool that actually sticks around for the long haul.

So, let’s get to it.

Hardware

MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015, 8 GB RAM, 250 GB storage)

This computer is entering what is probably going to be it’s last year of service. In the fall I’ll start looking for a replacement as this one will have reached the three-year mark. All-in-all, I love this computer. I’ve had a few of the well documented keyboard problems earlier in the year but am currently riding a nine month wave of keyboard bliss (knock on wood). It’s getting a little long in the tooth when it comes to anything computationally challenging at all but I’m either becoming more patient in my old age or its pokeyness just feels normal now. When it’s time to upgrade I’ll have to decide whether I want to keep rocking the lightweight MacBook or go with something a little bit more powerful. I think it’ll partly depend what my reliance on iOS/iPad is at that time.

iPad Pro 12.9" (first generation, Wi-Fi & Cellular, 256 GB) with Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard

I went through long swaths of 2017 using this as my primary computing device. If the Google suite of apps weren’t unecessarily neutered (why are the advanced sharing settings different on iOS?!) I’d be able to use it almost 100% of the time. Whenever I use my iPad exclusively for a long period of time I start to feel like I’m living in the future. However, every time I come back to using my MacBook I feel like I can work smoother and quicker. Basically, I shift back and forth between using my iPad and my MacBook as my primary device on a pretty regular basis. The Apple Pencil is great and some of the best client reactions I’ve gotten in awhile were in response to the hand drawn slides I pulled together and the real time drawing/note-taking done during a meeting while connected to a projector.

Unfortunately, this iPad is currently having some issues that prevent it from staying reliably connected to its Smart Keyboard. I’ve taken it to an Apple Store and swapped out the keyboard several times, all to no avail. So, if I want to keep running this iPad experiment I think I’m going to have to make a new purchase fairly soon. I’m thinking about downgrading to the smaller Pro size as 12.9“ has felt slightly unwieldly at times. I think the 10.9” might be perfect.

iPhone 7 Plus (256 GB)

In many ways, my phone is the cornerstone of my work and personal life. I really enjoy the Plus size and have been impressed with its overall resilience. I like to use my iPhones without a case (or more specifically, I consider Apple Care+ my case) and so far I’ve only needed to seek assistance with a cracked screen once over the nearly 2 years I’ve owned this phone. I think I’m going to skip this most recent generation of iPhones and take a hard look at what’s released this fall with an upgrade likely to happen around then.

Apple Watch (first generation)

I love my Apple Watch. I use it all the time, including while I sleep. It makes me a more active person and while it may feed my unhealthy connection to notifications, I do feel like it adds more value to my life than it does detract. I’m very anxious to update to one of the newer models (not sure if I’ll get the LTE version or not) since I’m still rocking one of the original slow ones. Considering how much I like this version I’m a little afraid of how much I might like one with better battery life and quicker response times.

Kindle Paperwhite

The minimalist in me likes to do all his reading in iBooks on my phone or iPad. The reader in me likes my Paperwhite. I’ve decided to lean back into my “use the best tool for the job” mentality and that means my Kindle has re-entered my life with a vengeance.

Software

One thing I’ve learned about myself is that I have two primary “modes” that I seem to alternate between every couple weeks. One mode I already mentioned above — the “use the best tool for the job” mode. When I’m in this mentality it means I’m using primarily third party apps (often extensively customized to meet my preferences). I probably spend about 70% of my time in this mode.

My other mode is what I call “default” mode. When I’m in this mentality I’m all about keeping my needs as simple and minimal as possible. I’ll use the default apps and settings and try to minimize my reliance on third party apps or fancy workflows of any kind. I’ll often find myself switching to this mode when everything feels overwhelming and I feel the need to get back to basics. I probably spend about 30% of my time in this mode.

I used to berate myself for switching between modes because there’s always some switching costs in doing so. In some ways, it can become a distraction and a crutch (often it’s a sign that I’m avoiding real work) but I’ve decided to become a little bit kinder toward myself. I think having these two modes helps me stay fresh and aware of both a.) what my actual needs are and b.) new developments that might make my work better or easier to do. Therefore, in the section below I’m going to share both categories of apps when appropriate (Default Mode first, then Best Tool for the Job Mode second).

Web Browsing (Safari)

I use Safari everywhere because I’ve never been annoyed enough by it to seek out something else. I like the design and I like that it seems to sip battery power across all my devices as compared to Chrome. I keep Chrome around for emergencies but it never feels as good to use as Safari so I rarely let it come out to play. I’m thinking I may give it another whirl, especially when I’m in Best Tool for the Job Mode but for now I’m a Safari man across macOS and iOS.

Email (Apple Mail/Airmail)

Airmail has lots of great preferences that allow me to really craft an email experience that works with my productivity workflows and the way my brain works. I like being able to kick emails over to Things extremely easily — something Apple Mail doesn’t make as easy. I also appreciate that Airmail has versions for iPhone, iPad, and my MacBook that all look and work about the same.

Maps (Apple Maps/Google Maps)

I want to use Apple Maps more and more, but articles like this make it tough to not use Google Maps. I do think Apple Maps has gotten significantly better since iOS 11 (the turn-by-turn driving directions especially) but it’s hard to beat how much more information is easily reached via Google Maps.

Notes (Apple Notes/Bear)

Gosh, I love Bear. I’m not 100% sure why, either. I’m not a huge fan of tagging systems (I tend to prefer folders-based systems) and I don’t even really use Bear’s all that much but for whatever reason I happily pay for a yearly subscription to this app. I think it’s just really well designed and incredibly stable. As with all my key software, it has great versions for all my devices, too.

Music (Apple Music/Spotify)

Last year I spent most of my time in the Apple Music ecosystem before switching back to Spotify in the last few months of the year. I like the design of Apple Music better but I can’t deny that Spotify’s recommendations are much, much better. This year I’m going to try to stay as completely within Spotify as possible so my end-of-year report is actually accurate (what can I say, I’m a sucker for automatically generated year-in-review reports).

Twitter (Official Twitter app/Tweetbot)

Every time I get all excited to use default apps I’m always really excited and motivated until I get to Twitter. God I hate the algorithmic timeline that the default app pushes on you. It fundamentally changes how I view and use Twitter (for the worse). I can’t help but think that there will come a day when this is the only option I have for Twitter but until then you’ll find me using Tweetbot (and more or less being a timeline completionist) the vast majority of the time.

Calendars (Apple Calendar/Fantastical)

Nothing beats Fantastical when it comes to easily adding events with natural language. On the other hand, the default Calendar app has some nice integration with Siri (pulling information out of my email and other apps) and features like Travel Time that I find myself longing for when I use Fantastical for too long.

Task Management (Things)

There is no default app that replaces Things. I’ve tried using Reminders as a simple task management system but I always seem to come back to Things within a few days. Things drives nearly all of my productivity and it’s in the place of honor (far right position in the dock) on all my devices.

Shared Lists (Apple Reminders/AnyList)

Until recently I used Reminders for all shared lists but on the advice of The Sweet Setup I decided to give AnyList a try. So far, I like it quite a bit and it has taken over the shared list job in my life.

Longform Writing (Apple Notes/Byword)

I debated whether this was still a category worth having as Bear has seemed to cannibalize a lot of the writing that I used to do in Byword. However, considering I’m writing this article in Byword right now I figured it was worth keeping, for now. I like that I can publish to my Medium account directly from the app and I think that’s what has helped keep it around instead of just using Bear for all writing. When I’m in Default Mode, Apple Notes becomes the place where I do all writing, including longform.

Other Software I Use A Lot (Slack, Trello, MindNode, Day One, Reeder, Deliveries, Dark Sky, Instapaper, Apple Files, AutoSleep, Moment, Exist.io, Keynote, Google Docs, Insight Timer)

MindNode, Day One, Dark Sky and Instapaper have all been in active use for years. I’ve tried alternatives in most of those categories but always come back to these apps. I’ve gone pretty deep into the iCloud Drive world, hence the use of Files. In fact, I don’t even have Dropbox on any of my devices anymore.

A Word on Notifications and Other General Setttings

• Do Not Disturb: I have DND set to turn on from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM on all my devices. I would love, love, love Apple to introduce DND by app at some point in the future. For example, being able to set all my communication-centric notifications to start appearing around lunch time while allowing utility-centric or system-centric notifications to appear earlier.

• Notifications, in general: Like with my software preferences, I seem to have two modes when it comes to notifications on all my devices. When I’m deep under the influence of Deep Work and Flow and feeling like I need to focus intently, I’ll adopt a notification strategy where I basically eliminate all of them. At other times, I like keeping all my notifications on because it helps me feel connected to the rest of the world. With as much travel as I’ve been doing and with the fact that my family and my girlfriend all lived far, far away I tended to keep notifications on. However, even in this mode I will feel no compunction about manually flipping on Do Not Disturb when I need to sit down and really focus on something (like writing this article, for example).

• “Military time”/24 hour time: I use a 24 hour clock on all my devices because I think it’s simpler than the AM/PM system. There’s never any ambiguity and I appreciate the simplicity.

• Tap to click: I’m all about settings that allow me to make things happen with less effort. Therefore, my trackpad settings on my MacBook are set to tap to click. Unfortunately, I’ve seemed to have built impossible to remove muscle memory that always makes me do a “for real” click. I’m trying to re-learn!

• Highest sensitivity settings on trackpad and mouse: Keeping in line with my preferences for settings that allow me to do more with less movement, I have the sensitivity settings for my trackpad and mouse setup to be as responsive as possible. Apparently that isn’t super common because it’s the #1 thing people comment on if they use my computer at all.

• Camera privacy slider: In the past year I got skeeved out enough about the possibility of hackers doing nefarious things with cameras to buy a privacy cover for my MacBook. I got this one and it looks good and works well.

2018 Intentions

In general, I hope to do less fiddling with my setup this year. When I do feel the urge to switch modes, I want to do so mindfully and as swiftly as possible. I’ve done things like collect all the apps I like to use in each mode into a single folder so that when I decide to switch into that mode it’s easy to update my homescreen and get myself arranged (as opposed to hunting for each app each time I want to switch modes). Hardware-wise, it’s likely that every major component of my setup will get upgraded this year. That really won’t change much other than making it more enjoyable to use the software I’m already using. There is a small part of me that keeps getting tickled by the idea of getting an iMac for my home office but so far I’ve been doing a good job of tamping that thought down.

Curious about anything I didn’t go into enough detail about here? Leave a question below and I’ll collect them all into a Part 2!

My 2017 in Books

2017 was a strange year of reading for me. I re-read more books this year than I ever have before while also reading the fewest number of books and pages since 2014. At the same time, while this was still a “down” year for me, I still managed to get through 60 books — which taken at face value is a decent amount of reading to get through in 365 days.

I definitely went through stretches this year where I wasn’t reading consistently. When I’m on top of my reading game, I’m usually reading for anywhere between 30 and 90 minutes a day with intermittent audiobook listening throughout. I worked through the backlogs of a couple podcasts this year and that cut into my audiobook time (looking at you The Adventure Zone). I also had a hard time focusing on anything, especially books, when I was working through some post-concussion symptoms last spring. Luckily, I picked up the pace in the second half of the year and was able to get back to my usual pace.

I know it’s not all about the sheer number of books or pages read. However, I think it’s important for me to be reading as much as possible. Instead of slowing down and taking copious notes or really trying to digest every little part of the books I read I treat it more like a waterfall that I choose to stand under. I let it wash over me knowing some of it will stick and some of it won’t. When it comes to great ideas I think it’s more important to expose myself to as many as possible. It’s a numbers game — therefore, I read as much as possible.

The Best Thing I Read This Year

• Grant by Ron Chernow: Chernow is a master biographer. Every single one of his books I’ve read (Alexander Hamilton, Washington, Titan, and now Grant) has been excellent. I read this immediately after having read Walter Isaacson’s new book on Leonardo Da Vinci and it was fascinating to juxtapose these two authors. Chernow is such a better biographer. It’s not even close. Isaacson writes like a journalist and his biographies feel like long magazine articles. Chernow is a goddamn biographer and his books feel exhaustive and complete.

The Most Challenging Things I Read This Year

• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy: McCarthy holds the honor of writing the book that has emotionally affected me the most, The Road. I’ve never read anything that has been anywhere close to as successful at making me feel uncomfortable. Blood Meridian may be a close second, though. The violence and depravity described in this book gave me visceral reactions of revulsion. I’m pretty sure I’ve never muttered, “Jesus…” or “What the…” under my breath so many times for a single book. It was good as hell, though.

• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer: Incredibly long, utterly depressing in many ways, and showing its age in places (i.e. treatment of homosexuality). Oh, and there’s something about reading about the rise of Nazi Germany in today’s political climate that is very eerie.

The Most Fun Things I Read This Year

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by JK Rowling: I’m only what, 10 years, late on this one? Better late than never, right?

• The Ghost Brigades & The Last Colony by John Scalzi: This series is like candy in book form.

• Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey: Same as above. Pretty fun sci-fi that doesn’t require me to think too hard. I think the TV show is pretty okay, too.

Most Likely to Re-Read

• Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Enlightenment by Robert Wright: My meditation practice continues to be a source of joy and frustration. When I read this book I was pretty far away from my ideal meditation routine and I’d love to read this book again when I’m deep into a regular practice. I think I will get a lot more out of it when I’m not reading it simply as an intellectual exercise.

Things I Re-Read This Year

The only new additions to this list are The Phoenix Project(which I actually read for the first and second time this year) and Team of Teams. Everything else I’ve read three or more times, at least. I think Essentialism and Deep Work will continue to be yearly reads.

• The Phoenix Projectby Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford

• Essentialismby Greg McKeown

• Team of Teamsby Stanley McChrystal

• The Way of Zenby Alan Watts

• Flowby Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

• Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

• Deep Workby Cal Newport

The Most Underwhelming Stuff I Read This Year

• Zen in the Art of Archeryby Eugen Herrigel: I don’t know if underwhelming is the right word, but in the afterword you find out the author was a Nazi. That soured me a bit on this otherwise interesting book.

• The Art of Learningby Josh Waitzkin: Tedious and shallow, in my opinion.

Looking to 2018

At the very least I’m committed to reading at least 52 books/18,000 pages this year. My stretch goal is to hit 70 books/24,000 pages. There are a few ongoing series that I’d like to finish out before starting anything truly epic. I also think I’m also going to stay away from doing a bunch of re-reading this year. Other than that, we’ll see where the year takes me. I generally don’t make long lists of highly detailed reading plans. I just throw books into my To Read list any time I stumble across anything interesting and when it’s time to start something new I just scroll through the list until something catches my eye. Do you have any suggestions for me? What are you going to read this year?