Category Archive: Workflows

I'm a big believer in time-blocking. It's the best way I know of to make sure that you protect time for the things that are truly important. But as someone who manages their tasks primarily in Obsidian, there weren't many options for getting those tasks to show up alongside my meetings and appointments on my digital calendar. »

Ulysses has become the central spot for where I store all my notes, research, and other tidbits of inspiration. It's also where I toss all my writing ideas, and it’s where I actually do all my writing. Here's what it looks like... »

The Shortcuts app is full of hundreds of native actions with customizable parameters and advanced functionality — these are unique capabilities beyond what's possible with the Siri Shortcuts developed by third-party apps. »

I've been obsessed with crafting my own task management workflows in Obsidian. I decided several months ago I was going to go all in with managing tasks and projects in Obsidian, and in this post I'm going to show you how I set it all up using the Tasks plugin. »

Productivity systems are, and should be, unique to each person’s preference. I am not a fan of the “just try this one thing and it will revolutionize the way you do everything” faux-ductivity Twitter advice stuff. There is no productivity silver bullet. If you want to be truly productive, you need to know yourself and […] »

Having a super-detailed email folder structure used to be a big thing. But over the years, it seems like it has calmed down a bit. Some of you may have been taught that you should keep all your messages in individual, organized, folders. Such as storing all correspondence from your accountant in a specific folder, […] »

I’ve been a fan of Cal Newport’s for a long time. He’s been extolling the virtues of time blocking as a method for daily planning for over 15 years, and was the primary influence for creating my own daily time-blocked plans. So when I heard him bring up the topic of Multi-Scale planning on a […] »

I'm a big fan of digital journaling for personal growth, but I'm not a big fan of most journaling prompts that tend to focus on what you accomplished during the day. So for years, I've been using a different type of journaling in Obsidian called Daily Questions. In this post, I'll walk you through setting up the Shortcut I use to streamline my daily journaling process at the end of my day. »

Trying to use a single app for PKM is destined for failure. In this article, I'll explain why and share a simple framework for thinking about personal knowledge management that can help you get more out of the notes and ideas that you put into your PKM system. »

How to use an idea development system to prime the creative pump and set yourself up for success when it's time to create. »

In this article, I want to show you how to get all the benefits of weekly planning and reviews with the least amount of work possible. »

Over the past couple of months we have explored how to get the most out of the Apple stock apps. Apple has stepped up their game with the newest iterations of their stock apps (Notes, Calendar, Mail, Reminders…). In this article we are going to focus on the Apple Reminders app (with the updates from iOS 17). »

If you don’t believe personal knowledge management (PKM) isn’t in a hayday right now, go check out ToolFinder.co. You’re going to find the very best apps for note-taking, emailing, calendaring, to-doing, and producivitying across the wide internet. The list is long and the pocketbook requirements deep — you can spend a ton of money and a ton of time building out a system that works for you. »

I officially joined the Blanc Media team in September of 2021. When I joined, I had some understanding of productivity, habits, focus, and all of those exciting things. But when I first heard the term “PKM” I drew a blank. What the heck is PKM? Over the last two years, my understanding of what PKM is has grown quite a bit. I realized that PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) is not just for the super-nerd or the information hoarder. The concepts within personal knowledge management can be utilized by anyone, and at the end of the day it’s about doing more creative work. »

A few tips and tricks for improving the way you use the default email app on your iPhone and iPad. »

Let's dive into what makes Notes so good. We’ll provide a few simple quick tips of things that make any Notes experience that much better, as well as the latest features coming to Notes in iOS 17. »

Have you ever sat down to do some writing and you’re just staring at the blank page? You’re stuck trying to come up with the idea, or you're ready to do the work and you’re just lost. It’s the worst. »

If you’ve been around here at all, it’s no surprise to you that I am excited about Notion’s newest update to the button feature. As soon as it came out, I was already trying to figure out how to create Notion buttons to help automate my workflow and the workflow of my teammates. »

A couple of months ago, we were in a Blanc Media staff meeting and we were talking about one of our resources, an e-book called Procrastinator’s Guide to Progress. And I asked, “Do we have a central place to easily find all of our resources with source files and links?” Well, the answer was.... “um, I don’t think so”. So then I had the idea to track down all of our resources, PDFs, slide decks etc. and drop them into one place. So our Master Resource Database in Notion was born. »

There is no shortage of productivity software on the Mac, and we do our best job to cover as many of them as possible here. It's a rich and vibrant ecosystem unique to the Mac, and we're lucky to have it. But few apps elevate themselves to "all time great" status, to the point where they feel almost like they're a core part of macOS. »

When it comes to a lack of clarity, the solution is to take the time to get clear on what matters so you can stop spending valuable time spinning your wheels. One of the ways to help you get clarity is to understand how information flows into and out of your productivity system. So in this post, we're going talk about crafting your productivity workflow so that you can handle anything life throws at you. »

I've been spending time playing with infinite canvas apps lately, and there are a lot of great options available. In this article, we'll compare and contrast the features of each of these apps to help you choose the one that best fits your needs. »

How to stop the “just checks” and keep your bias toward action. »

While Notion is unquestionably powerful and customizable, it's not always the snappiest app, especially on mobile devices, so navigating from one project to another in Notion can be a little painful. Today, we're going to look at a few ways to navigate to the Notion board you want as quickly as possible. »

My system for shopping and figuring out what people want for Christmas has evolved over the years. I used to just have a running note on my iPhone, then a spreadsheet. Last year when I was just getting into Notion, I created a simple little setup. But this year I took it up a notch. »

The Apple Watch Ultra’s Action Button is one of the biggest departures from standard Apple Watch design in, well, ever. Ever since the introduction of the original Series 1 Apple Watch, we’ve only had access to the Digital Crown and the Watch’s side button. The Action Button increases the onboard physical buttons by a full 50%! »

When I first started using Obsidian, I expected it would help me make connections between my notes and inspire new ideas. But over the last 12 months I've been using the app, I have also fallen in love with it as a writing tool. »

A little over a year ago, I had the immense pleasure of meeting a lady named Crystal Schaefer. She’s a wife, mother of two, and a great friend. Oh, and she’s a phenomenal brand strategist. I’ve gotten to work with her on a few projects over the last year, and I’ve been blown away by her mad skills. »

Small actions taken over a long period add up to a significant amount of progress. This is no surprise, and it's something we hear time and time again. But it's normally mentioned when someone is trying to motivate you to add small, daily actions that will bring you great benefit later. »

One additional aspect of task management, which we have yet to talk about in Obsidian, is the ability to trigger system-wide notifications on your Mac, which can take you straight to the task that you need to complete. This works exactly like any other notification that you might get from a dedicated task management app like OmniFocus or Things. But it's pretty cool that you can set this up inside of Obsidian and combine it with the Obsidian Tasks plugin to create these notifications and even mark things as complete from Notification Center on your Mac. »

Another essential component of a lot of dedicated task management apps is some sort of review functionality that can help you facilitate a Getting Things Done (or GTD) style weekly review. And this is just where you look at a project like this Obsidian task management project where I have all of these different tasks associated with the different videos in this series, and make sure that everything is up to date and correct. »

In this video, we're going to expound on the foundation of task management basics and show you how to create queries that allow you to look through your entire Obsidian vault and return only the tasks that meet certain criteria. »

Obsidian ships with some basic support for task management, making it a great option for creating a digital bullet journal. But in this video, we're going to show you how to take those task management capabilities to the next level with a couple of additional plugins. »

Elgato's Stream Deck has really taken off in the past few years, and at it's core, it's simply a programmable keyboard that you can use to do whatever you want on your Mac or PC. Originally designed for streamers to do things like switch cameras, play sound effects, and bring up graphics on screen, it's drawn the eye of regular office workers as well. »

One of the things that makes Notion such an interesting tool is that it’s built to be whatever you want it to be for you. Some people use it for one thing and others will use it for completely different things, and that’s awesome! There’s a place for focused software that everyone uses the same way, but Notion is not in that category at all. »

I generate a lot of PDF documents every March and April. Some back of the envelope math would clock in around 3,200 documents generated or so. Each tax return would require between 3 and 6 documents, each with their own unique filename. Our naming convention is pretty simple, but requires each client’s name. And each […] »

When you develop a system, it helps you to create and enforce the habit you need to actually get stuff done. When I create a new system or habit, I want to automate as much as possible so I can spend more time actually doing stuff... In this case: writing. »

With the rise of PKM tools comes an interesting dilemma. If set up well, your PKM can house all the information you need to know about a project that you have committed to completing. However, what happens when you need to access the files that correspond to that project? »

We made the transition to Notion as a team in August 2020 and we've never looked back (mostly). We use it for all of our projects, dashboards, and most, importantly our editorial calendar. »

I've been reading news sites and blogs voraciously for as long as I've had the internet, and sadly, I've lost most of that reading to time since I never captured it properly. What really resonated with me back in 2013? I have no idea, but I sure would love to go back and see that today. »

While there are lots of apps doing lots of interesting things with notes right now, by far the two most popular options are Roam Research and Obsidian. In this article, we're going to compare these two connected note-takers and help you choose the right one. »

Daily Notes became a hallmark feature in Craft in short order. The quick and easy ability to create a note, specific to a calendar date, that could be linked and back-linked across your entire Craft database made the feature a perfect option for collecting digital paraphernalia. »

This post is a video lesson from the Workflows module of our Mastering Mindmaps course. In this video, Mike Schmitz shows you how how he takes notes from books that he reads in MindNode. »

I use Notion almost every day in some capacity. It is the main project management software we use here at Blanc Media, and I also use it for all my side hustles. I also use it as my predominant task list manager, and since it’s one of the apps I use the most, it made sense to start tracking my habits in my personal, customized dashboard. »

Matter is a Read-It-Later service that integrates really well into Obsidian. So if you like to collect your newsletters, RSS feeds, and even Twitter threads into Matter, you can sync your digital highlights and notes into Obsidian using the official Matter Obsidian plugin. »

Our resident full-time RVer shares how he gets his writing work done while traveling across the US. »

A while back, we surveyed hundreds of people about their biggest obstacles when it comes to creativity. The thing that we kept hearing over and over again was , "I don't know what to do with all these bits and pieces." »

Here's an inside look at my entire writing process: How I take things from idea to written draft to final published article. »

Way back in February 2021, I wrote about how I used the iPad to study for the biggest exam of my life. The iPad is the best educational tool in the world, and I had developed a bit of a process over the last 10 years to get as much out of the iPad as possible. Here’s how I’ve adapted the first two steps of Mike’s Creativity Flywheel (Capture and Curate) to my own personal workflows. »

Notion has fundamentally changed how I work with clients on freelance projects. Not only has it given me a way to track my progress and organize everything for myself, but it’s given me a way to share that progress with my clients in a way that always impresses and makes me look like a real pro. »

A few weeks ago, we looked at how to use Todoist filters to organize your projects and task lists. While filters can be as flexible and powerful as you need, you can take it even further with labels. »

This is how I’ve set up my Ulysses app to fit my various writing adventures. I’ve worked to keep it simple and dumbed-down. This ensures it doesn’t require a lot of mental overhead to keep organized, and it ensures my brain is on the writing rather than the meta. »

When it was announced during the September iPhone event, I immediately thought that the sixth-generation iPad mini was the star of the show. New iPhones are cool and all, but this iPad mini seemed like it was tailor-made for how I was (and wasn't) using my iPad Pro. I ordered one before the end of the event, and having used it for a month now, I have to say this is by far the most fun I've ever had with an iPad. »

One of my favorite uses for my new iPad mini is taking sketchnotes with my Apple Pencil. There are several options available, but GoodNotes is my preferred app for this. »

Obsidian has some basic support for tasks built in. But if you rely on notifications for when to do what, then you're going to need a dedicated task manager. Fortunately, there's a Todoist plugin for Obsidian that allows you to have the best of both worlds — you can capture tasks into Todoist directly and get notified on your devices when it's time to do a task, but you can also embed those tasks into an Obsidian document so you can associate them with a particular project. In this video, I'm going to show you how to use the Todoist Sync community plugin to embed tasks using Todoist's filters in Obsidian. »

Obsidian is great at a lot of things, but quick-capturing text is not one of them. I prefer to quick-capture my text in Drafts and then send it to Obsidian using Drafts Actions. »

The fourth core element of Craft — and one that sets it apart from most other note-taking apps available — is the ability to collaborate with others. »

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the intuitive natural language input feature that Todoist has, which makes it easy to add new tasks to your lists. But once you have a lot of tasks to organize, Todoist can help you sort and only show relevant work based on filters that you define. »

Once you understand the ins and outs of what makes a block a block and how to link blocks together to both create documents and link your notes, you can begin to dive further into Craft’s more specific features. This week, we’re going to discuss Craft’s new Daily Notes feature. »

Obsidian is a great place to do your digital journaling, thanks to the Daily Notes core plugin. But with the addition of the QuickAdd Community plugin, you can quickly capture journal entries into specific categories using the Command Palette. In this video, I walk you through how to set everything up and use it for daily journaling. »

We're big fans of Things, OmniFocus, and all sorts of task managers here at The Sweet Setup. While the task manager app is certainly an important choice and cornerstone of any healthy GTD practice, it's also less important when compared to the practice itself. While we've already written the proverbial book on using Things for managing your tasks, we're also keenly interested in how other task managers accomplish similar goals and meet the needs of millions of people across the globe. »

Blocks are the very core of Craft. They provide countless ways to format, structure, and build out your documents. They can take numerous forms, from text, audio, video, PDFs, sketches — there is very little Craft can’t handle thanks to its block-based system. »

There is a plethora of note-taking and research-tracking apps available for the iPhone, iPad, and the Mac. Currently popular ones, like Obsidian and Roam Research, are tremendous for storing research and making connections between your discoveries. Others, like Apple Notes and Bear, excel at collecting all sorts of media types, including text, photos, URLs, and handwritten snippets. And still others, like Drafts, whip text and automations together to form ultra-fast workflows on your devices. »

This post is a video lesson from the Time Tracking module of our Simplified Time Management course. In this video, Rosemary Orchard shows you how to set up lists of options in Shortcuts to start and stop specific timers in Timery. »

Here are my first impressions of time blocking, some app and workflow anecdotes, and how I think I can create a cool productivity cycle in my life. »

Obsidian is a great place to practice time blocking because you can link your time-blocked schedule to your daily note. In this video, we're going to walk you through how to set up time blocking in Obsidian using the Daily Notes Core plugin, and the Day Planner Community plugin. »

Obsidian is a great place to keep meeting notes. But there are a couple of best practices, which can make your meeting notes more effective. In this video, we walk you through setting up a meeting notes template and how to use it in Obsidian If you prefer the written version, read on. Setting Up […] »

I've been using Obsidian as my writing app for the past several months, and I absolutely love it. In addition to giving me a great Markdown writing environment, the community plugins allow me to craft my ideal system for tracking my writing tasks well. In this article, I walk through my system and the plugins I use to manage writing projects in Obsidian. »

One of the most powerful features of an app like Obsidian is the ability to make connections between the notes that are in your library. »

One of the key things you need to understand about Obsidian if you really want to make the most of it is the concept of atomic note-taking. The basic idea is to break down your notes into the smallest possible pieces, which allow them to be linked together and makes them visible inside the Local […] »

You can technically write an entire novel inside of Apple Notes or compose your blog posts in Notepad on your Windows computer. The basic concept of letting users type text into an app is not special, and yet writing apps are one of those things that everyone is very particular about. It’s all about the little things, and what feels right for each person. »

Obsidian is great for Mac nerds like me who like to do everything from their keyboard. In this video, we’ll show you how to access commands from the Command Palette and set custom hotkeys for triggering commands using keyboard shortcuts. And if you prefer the step-by-step written version, read on. The Command Palette There are […] »

Dataview is an incredibly powerful plugin that allows you to filter data in your Obsidian vault in a lot of really cool ways. In this post, I’m going to show you how I use it to create a table of book ratings from YAML metadata. Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. Here’s […] »

Templates in Obsidian are a great way to jumpstart creating a new note. In this post, we’re going to show you how to set up and use a couple of different types of templates in Obsidian. If you’d like to see it in action, here’s a short video from our upcoming PKM course: If you […] »

Obsidian is a great application for storing all my notes and documentation about things in my life. One of the things I love about it is the ability to link to notes and even have those links do things when I click them. This means that I can easily jump to a project plan document […] »

Obsidian is a phenomenal notes app, but with a few free community plugins installed, it can become pretty much whatever you want it to be. In this article, we're going to show you how to install community plugins if you're not familiar with the process and share some of our favorites. »

Readwise is a (subscription-based) web service that lets you save highlighted text from digital books, web articles, and even Read-It-Later services like Instapaper and Pocket. You can review your notes and highlights inside of the Readwise service, but you can also connect your Readwise account to PKM apps like Roam and Obsidian. »

I've been thinking a lot about Personal Knowledge Management lately and the path information takes as it enters and exits my PKM system, and I've noticed that information tends to fall into one of three buckets »

Back in December, I outlined how I studied course material for a major exam using Craft Notes. There were many positives, a couple negatives, and a whole bunch of naivety at that time. Craft Notes is still one of my favorite new apps of the last four or five years, but it didn’t end up sticking as well as I thought when the real studying began. »

Capturing notes and ideas when you have them is important so that they don't fall through the cracks, but sometimes having to type out your note takes too long. You need something quick — a way to just offload what is currently on your mind so you can focus on what's in front of you. Voice memos are great for this, allowing you to speak your thoughts faster than you could ever type them. »

The promise of apps like Obsidian and Roam Research is to give you a tool for connected note-taking. With this approach, you can see the commonalities between your thoughts as your notes bump up against one another, allowing you to see connections and discover new insights. These connections are usually represented in some sort of Graph View, which can look like a complex spiderweb of notes and ideas. »

When I sit down at my desk in the morning, it’s time to write. I’ve had this writing habit for more than a decade. It has certainly taken various forms, locations, and devices over the years. (Last year, when quarantine life kicked in, I began a 6am iPad writing habit.) Sometimes I’m in my office, […] »

One of the things I love about Obsidian is that it offers support for callback URLs. For example, you could include a link to a specific note inside of a task in Things or a link to an email message from your Daily Notes in Obsidian. In this article, I'll show you a couple of ways you can connect things in Obsidian to other apps. »

In our productivity flywheel, the fourth stage is to celebrate your progress. But sometimes this feels counterintuitive or inconvenient. Because when we want to be super duper productive, we often think that speed and efficiency are what matter most. Thus we get stuck in a loop of doing, doing, doing... without ever pausing to celebrate. »

Drafts has long been the place that text starts on my iOS device. But lately I've been doing a lot more in Obsidian, and was looking for a way to get that text into Obsidian easily when I was done. While this is pretty straightforward using a cloud service like Dropbox to sync your vault, I then began wondering if I could do something more than just dump my text files into a synced folder. »

I'm a big fan of the mindfulness I gain from journaling, but have been searching for years for the perfect set of prompts that could completely eliminate the friction from my daily journaling workflow. I've tried many different prompts (and many different apps) over the years, but have settled on a practice called Daily Questions which has just clicked for me. In this post, I'm going to share how I implement my Daily Questions inside of Obsidian. »

This is a video lesson from the Time Blocking module in our Simple Time Management course. Downloads:Timeblocking Cheatsheet (PDF) »Daily planner template (PDF) » In this video, we’re going to dive in and create a time blocked plan for our day. I’ll walk you through it by planning my day so you can see how […] »

This is a video lesson from the new Time Tracking module in our Simple Time Management course. It’s 20% off during launch week. On iOS, we can easily create an automation that allows us to start a timer anytime we open an app. This is one of many tricks I use to help me track […] »

This is a video lesson from the new Time Tracking module in our Simple Time Management course. It’s 20% off during launch week. In this video, I’m going to show you how you can use Timery on iOS to set up a time tracking dashboard using widgets in iOS, which can not only make it […] »

A cool-looking physical object that can add a bit of whimsy to your time tracking workflow. »

Time tracking is something that yields really useful results, but it can be a pain to do accurately. I tried to do it manually for a long time, but after spending three consecutive days "reading" due to a stopped timer, and realizing how much of the rest of my data was completely inaccurate, I could see I needed a better approach. »

Here’s a roundup of a few apps, services, playlists, and products we recommend after a year of COVID working-from-home. »

TickTick is a great app for creating a great all-in-one timeblocking system. »

When the group at The Sweet Setup suggested we'd be talking about knowledge and idea workflows in the early part of 2021, I couldn't pass up the chance to talk about my analog adventures that live alongside all the apps I use each day. We can't do everything on our iPhones, after all. »

Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is all the rage. Here's what you need to know to make the most of your PKM and do your best creative work. »

The productivity space has been going through a bit of a revitalization recently, and maybe surprisingly, it’s note-taking apps that are causing the bulk of this excitement. Solutions are sprouting all over the place lately, with things like Roam Research, Notion, Obsidian, Bear, Craft, RemNote, Drafts, and oh yeah, Evernote, occupying a considerable amount of […] »

It’s my education experience that has led me to believe the iPad is the world’s greatest learning tool. Ever. In the history of humanity. The iPad is humankind’s greatest educational achievement. »

Routines are a funny thing. We all have them — even if they're not optimal they can be a great way to improve your day! My morning and evening routines are always evolving, as is how I track what it's in them. »

Whether or not you set New Years resolutions for yourself, keeping track of habits is something we could all stand to be a little bit better at. Streaks is our favourite app for this—available on all Apple platforms—so let’s take a quick look at how easy it is to get started. Creating a Basic Habit […] »

Time blocking is something that took a while to click for me. I understand the concept of dependent tasks, and time restrictions well, and once the pieces fell into place it really became a game changer for me. »

Systems, habits, and workflows are all inextricably linked. I have lots of systems (perhaps too many), and at some point you reach a place where things no longer feel like they flow — more that you're being bounced all over the place with poor suspension because review inertia has got you this far. »

In this post, we share how time blocking works, why you should consider using it to plan your day, and how my time blocking routine is supplemented by my use of Roam Research. »

Widgets can be a gateway into a more productive life, without the overhead of building new habits and routines. For me, they have significantly improved my life, and without much work beyond the setup and deciding where on my iPhone they should live. »

As a self-proclaimed productivity nut, I’ve been using some version of the Getting Things Done (or GTD) task management methodology for many years. I’ve also been experimenting recently with Roam Research, and am intrigued by the app’s ability to tie everything together. I’ve tried to do this before and it’s failed miserably, so I was […] »

Ulysses is one of the best writing and notes apps out there. And it keeps getting better and better. Watch the replay of our mini-masterclass webinar. »

When it comes building a daily writing habit — or any sort of endeavor for that matter — one of the biggest challenges is to keep showing up every day. »

Things makes it trivial to delete, move, and put off ideas that either don't excite me or don't make me a better writer/contributor. »

For the past few weeks I have been experimenting with a Productivity Dashboard inside of Ulysses. Here's a look at what is good, and what's not good, about this setup. »

This is a free sample video from our new course, Calm Inbox. The course will normally sell for $99, but right now you can save 20% during launch week (just $79). The full course has over 50 videos to help you get less email and more focus. It shows you how to handle any message […] »

The new and improved Universal Search in iPadOS 14 is possibly one of the biggest power user improvements for the iPad in recent memory. Coupled with an external keyboard, iPadOS 14's new Universal Search can open notes, documents, folders, and webpages; it can start a FaceTime call or send a text message; it can help you play music in a flash; and with the power of Shortcuts, Universal Search brings automation to the iPad's Command + Space keyboard shortcut. Command + Space on an iPad with iPadOS 14 has a whole new meaning. »

I moved from the Pacific Northwest to Texas a year ago, and due to the large amounts of swimming pools here, a whole new world of photography opened up to me. I wanted to learn to take photos underwater. »

This is part two from our Focused Writer webinar we hosted for The Sweet Setup community a while back. If you missed part one you'll want to go back and watch that first as the principles in this video build upon those laid out in the first part. »

My first impression of Roam Research was that it was a perfect solution for long-term research, providing a large, traceable solution for tracking thoughts, topics, and connections between topics. »

We recently hosted a Focused Writer webinar for our Sweet Setup community. It was an hour-long call and it was jam-packed golden nuggets of writing wisdom. So much so, we decided to split up the replay into a couple different segments and share them here on the TSS blog for everyone who wasn’t able to […] »

Writing is one of those things that many people wish they were better at — myself included! Writer’s block happens to everyone though, and building a writing habit can be challenging. There are lots of good ways to build and maintain habits, but adding some automation to simplify your workflow is a great way to […] »

When I am writing an article for my website or newsletter list, I try to focus on just that: writing. But the problem is that as I am writing, I am also thinking about what links, photos, or screenshots I want to add to the article. And there is usually at least a specific section that I know needs more writing or more research before it’s ready to go. »

In this video I show you the five most valuable features of Ulysses that really help improve my usage of this app every day. »

In this guide, we’ll show you how to get Ulysses set up for collaboration with others using a version control system known as Git, as well as a companion app for working with Git on iOS/iPadOS called Working Copy. »

There was a ton that was announced in the WWDC keynote presentation on Monday. iOS 14, iPadOS, watchOS 7, macOS Big Sur, a bunch of privacy and Home updates, and even a big upgrade for AirPods. But one of the sections that really caught my attention was the announced improvements to the iPad with Apple Pencil. »

It's fun for me to find new and better ways to do things - especially if it involves Apple-branded technology. I love trying new apps and making my devices dance. But with everything going on in the world the last couple of months, I've also found it to be especially difficult to navigate emotionally, which is a big reason why I’ve started doing a lot more with pen and paper. »

Once every couple years, I find myself doing a deep clean of the apps on my iPhone and iPad. 2020 drew the short straw — in so many ways — and I've spent the better part of the last three months questioning each app on my home screen. »

Things aren’t perfect yet, but depending on your tolerance for doing things differently, we’re finally at a place where the iPad is a viable companion for the working photographer. »

Using a second monitor can make computer-based tasks much easier and be a big boost to your productivity. But, if you find yourself having to work from home, that doesn’t mean you have to drop hundreds of dollars on new hardware. Here’s a short guide on how to set up your iPad as a second […] »

We recently hosted a live webinar for the TSS community. In it, we covered some productivity misconceptions as well as a handful of quick-wins and workflow ideas that you can use right now. Here is the full video replay. »

If your family is like ours, you have just been thrust into the world of managing your children’s education from home. When you normally work from home, this can make everything a little more challenging! »

A while ago when I was reading a post Mike wrote about how he manages his ideas, I spotted a tiny little thing in a screenshot, which sparked this whole post. Here's an automation to automatically add one tag to something when sending it to a task manager, with a choice of which other tag(s) to add as a bonus. »

If you're struggling to figure out how to effectively work from home, you're not alone. It can be difficult enough under normal circumstances when you've had time to prepare, but millions of people are having to figure this out on the fly. Fortunately, there's a lot of great advice out there that can help ease the transition. We've put together a collection of resources from around the web that can help you get off to a good start if you find yourself suddenly needing to figure out how to work from home. »

Shawn and Mike talk all things mind mapping in this webinar replay. There's even a live mind mapping example! »

One of my favorite things about Drafts is that it’s so easy to capture thoughts there, and with the assistance of the arrange mode (that even works on a line by line basis) you can really get your content organized. »

Recently, I shared with a couple of friends about the new mind mapping course we just released, and one of them (Brandon Wentland, who previously shared his sweet setup here started telling me about some of the cool ways he uses mind maps to run his digital marketing agency. »

Mind mapping has long been one of my favorite tools to help me get thoughts out of my head and onto paper (or screen) as well as give things a _semblence_ of order without enforcing a strict structure. I realized some time ago that there are particular areas for which I frequently turn to mind maps, and the benefit of this is tangible. »

Last fall I committed to give a webinar presentation. And that presentation was yesterday (Tuesday, Feb 11). And, believe it or not, I didn’t actually put the presentation together until yesterday morning — just a few hours before it was due. But! It was not my fault… On Monday of this week, I was finally […] »

If you've been following along, we've covered quite a bit when it comes to capturing and developing your ideas. In this post, we'll delve into why it's important to schedule thinking time for your work. »

The all new Fantastical 3 offers a huge number of new features and a whole host of new actions for Shortcuts. These make doing some actions that would otherwise require you to fine tune the native calendar shortcuts much easier, and easier to integrate into your workflows. »

How a mind map can save you time, energy, and anxiety when it comes to writing, creating, planning, and more. »

Nothing is more frustrating than having a great thought and losing it. »

Many people use Alfred to search for files on their Mac and to launch applications, but these functions barely scratch the surface of this great app! Today we show you how to make the most out of the files integration in Alfred. »

To take great holiday photos, it's all about mood. Here are eight tips to getting the most out of your holiday photos this year. »

iOS 13 brought many things — including automations in Shortcuts. These automations allow us to do lots of things, but they also added the ability to seriously enhance our home automations. »

A look at how Mike Schmitz uses hardware and software to play his guitar through an iPad Pro. »

Drafts is an excellent app for note taking and writing, and workspaces are a very powerful feature that can make it even easier to use. With the release of version 5, it became my preferred writing app for nearly everything. Workspaces are the key to that transformation. »

Aside from what you are actually going to write, the next question to answer is what tool will you use? »

Shortcuts is a wonderful app, but it can also be overwhelming. Today, I'm going to show you 15 one-action Shortcuts you can create, and let's be honest — with one action, there's not a lot of work for you to do! »

Prizmo Go is a powerful app that instantly converts pictures of physical book pages into digital text, and combined with a research app like Keep It creates a magical workflow for managing your notes and research. »

Microsoft PowerPoint is the well-known leader in the presentation industry, and the iOS version is every bit as powerful as its desktop counterpart. »

Right now, in your pocket (or perhaps in your hand), you have access to the best-kept secret on your iOS device: An app called Shortcuts. The iOS Shortcuts app originally began as a third-party app, Workflow. Then, Apple bought it and re-released it in 2018 as Shortcuts — headlining it as a significant part of […] »

On your Mac, when you right-click files in the Finder you may well have seen an entry on the shortcut menu called Services, which contain some helpful actions that you can perform on the file. But, did you know you can create your own Services that can show up in this menu? Today, I'm going to show you how to create four services that will help you get the most out of your Mac. »

TextExpander is a very popular application that helps you avoid typing repetitive bits of text, but most people I know don't take advantage of a few of its more powerful features: fill-ins and dates. »

One of the things I enjoy doing is writing books. Sometimes, I even start a blog post and realize after 20,000 words or so that it's really a book and a series of blog posts. This is the nature of creative writing, and I really enjoy the process of taking an idea to a fully fledged body of work. »

This excerpt from our Learn GoodNotes course explains the many ways you can efficiently organize your notes and ideas in GoodNotes. »

macOS Mail has built-in rules and filters that you can use to manage all of your accounts. These run whenever your Mac is awake and connected to the internet and allow you to do anything from set the background color of emails in the list to executing AppleScript! »

Sketchnoting is a powerful and visual way to take notes that helps you retain more of the information you hear. It’s an excellent way to capture ideas during meetings, workshops, conferences, and more. »

URL Schemes sound complex, but if you know how they work, you'll find they're not too hard to understand. »

Excel on the iPad is a competent spreadsheet application, and if your needs are simple or you just plan on making edits to spreadsheets you created on macOS or Windows, then you’ll likely really enjoy this app. »

On days where you don't have the energy or time to think big, operating from a template of project tasks allows you to focus and execute without having to spend energy on planning. »

One of the ways I like to use Keyboard Maestro is to start different parts of my day, such as making sure all of the applications I use every day are started and ready as soon as I get to work. »

It's easy to save things to your desktop on macOS for convenient access to files later, but it also clutters up your desktop. Luckily, Hazel can you declutter your desktop automatically. »

Here is how Day One helps you capture text, images, and audio snippets quickly and easily on all your devices. »

Shelf apps have evolved as a category over the past couple of years, and we look at how to use Gladys to quickly transfer files between iOS and macOS. »

Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with using GoodNotes on my iPad as a replacement for my physical notebook. »

Whether we like it or not, Microsoft's Office suite of apps is going to work its way into most of our lives at some point or another. Matt Birchler takes a look at how Word differs between the iOS and desktop platforms. »

While there are specific read-it-later services, DEVONthink can be a great alternative for cataloging research and comments for later. »

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through all the different ways you can export your text from Ulysses on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. »

A mini-guide to our favorite and most-used iPad keyboard shortcuts, to help you save time and be more productive. »

Drafts is a powerful text editor for macOS and iOS, and Rose takes us through her customized workflow to offer some insight on how to get the most from this great tool. »

There are a plethora of ways to create a task in the best GTD app for iPhone and iPad, and if you need to complete a task, you can bet there’s a quick and easy way to add the task to your Things inbox. »

A detailed look at how Shawn Blanc captures ideas and links and what the process looks like for moving those from the starting line of an idea to the finished product of a published article. »

With Ulysses at the center of your writing workflow, these example Shortcuts are sure to improve your efficiency and focus. »

These days I do just about everything from the iPad. iOS and the iPad have helped me to slow down, simplify, and focus more on the task at hand — especially when that task is writing. »

What appears to be a relatively simple workflow to capture ideas and publish blog posts is actually a super in-depth, super geeky way of using Shortcuts, Ulysses, and Working Copy — one that brings out the power of automation on iOS. »

We all visit Apple Stores, but many of us are unaware of the number of resources available. »

Erin Brooks takes a detailed look at the new Darkroom app for iPad and compares it to other leading photo editing apps. »

With only an iPad, a microphone, and Ferrite Recording Studio, you can produce a podcast from start to finish. »

Drag and drop on iOS is a much-appreciated feature, but it becomes increidly powerful on iPad when coupled with Shortcuts. »

A quick look at some great iPhone XS and XS Max cases. »

If you use your iOS devices to record and edit video, FiLMiC Pro provides some amazing tools and features for monitoring and controlling your recordings. »

Erin Brooks walks through the process of capturing steam in photographs in order to tell a story and communicate mood and atmosphere in an image. »

iPads and cameras — it seems to be the name of the game these days. With the Fuji and the profoundly capable iPad Pro in hand, there’s little that gets in the way of making wonderful photographs. »

I’ve gone all in with Apple Photos. And I’m going to tell you why... »

You can use Apple Configurator 2 to easily manage your iOS devices from your Mac. »

With this iOS-specific workflow, Curtis takes us through a detailed workflow for editing and publishing video with an iPad and an app called LumaFusion. »

The combination of Reminders and the Apple Watch is one of the easiest ways to capture text on almost any Apple device, and with the right shortcuts, you can send that information anywhere you want. »

If you’re looking for an inexpensive and portable web development platform, and iPad combined with some stellar apps and an account with Digital Ocean is a great place to start. »

This iOS Photo Management tutorial is just one of the lessons from our upcoming course on mobile photography. »

Regardless of if you use an iPhone or a fancy camera, here are a few tips to help you level up the quality of your photos starting today. »

How to use Halide and Darkroom together to make great photos. »

Using Apple's HomeKit and a compatible lightswitch device, you can automate the process of turning on lights whenever someone comes home. »

Here is an outline of the process I use to get images onto my iPad, how I edit them, and why there are a lot of best practices that I’m intentionally bypassing. »

A deeper look into the power of having 1Password on your wrist at all times. »

1Password is fantastic for storing login credentials and secure notes, but it's also well-suited for providing a digital will for you family and loved ones. »

1Password is an essential, must-have app. Here’s a quick look at what all I store in 1Password and why it’s so helpful. »

Using the Shortcuts beta, you can keep a master playlist of all the Apple Music recommendations in your curated Music Mixes. This will give you a wider range of music you're almost certainly more likely to enjoy. »

We take a look at a few Alfred workflows that we use, from weather info, movie reviews, and iTunes controls. »

With Shortcuts coming in iOS 12, we've taken a look at the various iOS apps we've recommended over the years to determine how compatible they are with Shortcuts. »

Ulysses is great for keeping track of notes, thoughts, quotes, and other bits of text as you embark on a long-term research project. »

Day One has powerful automation capabilities that can improve your journals, thanks to other apps like Drafts, Workflow, and Launch Center Pro. »

Starting a journaling habit can be overwhelming, but starting with small steps is one way to tackle it. »

Workflow can gather contextual information from your devices, which you can then use in your workflows. »

How to use third-party apps to manage your workspace and resize windows on macOS. »

Here at The Sweet Setup, we love using Workflow to improve our efficiency and showcase the power of iOS to tackle mundane, repetitive tasks. »

Whereby we take a look at how to better process email and take a look at a workflow to move necessary emails into your GTD system. »

I find when I use my calendar to plan my weeks, I’m improving in two areas. One, I’m more honest with myself. Second, I’m better at recognizing the importance of rest and play. »

The purpose of GTD and other tools like it is twofold: to help you do your work well and to give you peace of mind. If your current ways of working are not providing both, something is amiss. »

An effective way to ensure that any time you hit your hotkey to bring up the Quick Entry pane, you are guaranteed to get it even if Things is not running. (Also works with OmniFocus and Todoist.) »

There is a sort of inefficiency that comes with using both digital and analog tools for managing your tasks and your day. And that inefficiency is a feature, not a bug. »

Use these three workflows using Workflow to add a list of tasks to Things 3, use project templates for Things 3, and to create packing lists in Things 3. »

Collection is a crucial part of the GTD process, but one that we easily overlook when life gets hectic. »

The best way to get a better start to your day is to make sure you end the prior day with a clear, concise, and consistent shutdown routine. »

How to use physical books alongside Day One as a central commonplace book for all your ideas, quotes, thoughts, and highlights from your favorite eBooks. »

How to use Day One as a central commonplace book for all your ideas, things to read, quotes, thoughts, and highlights from your favorite eBooks. »

Today, the folks at Cultured Code released an update to Things that allows you to send emails to your Inbox. »

Rather than subscribe to your apps one at a time, Setapp is designed to allow you to pay one subscription price that gives you access to many different apps. Like Netflix, Apple Music, or Spotify, but for Mac apps. »

How and why to keep a commonplace book and with which tools to do the job. »

In 2009, I went on an unexpected digital detox. My wife and I had booked a cabin for a week and when we arrived, I discovered there was no wifi or cell service… »

This year I have been experimenting with a completely different work schedule. And it has given me roughly 10x more time off than I used to take while simultaneously getting more accomplished at work. »

Siri is the way of the future, and Chris has some tips to expand your workflows with voice automation. »

The operating system is what sets Apple products apart from others. macOS (aka OS X) is what drew me to make the switch from the world of Windows, with its sleek look and brushed metal. It was not only better looking, but the form and function were both far better than what I was used to. »

With Pinboard and a few other tools, you can make sure you never lose something you've read before. »

This short Ulysses workflow video shows how I have my Ulysses set up and how I use it on a day-to-day basis. »

Using Hazel, you can automatically copy your new photos from your computer to an offsite storage service like Amazon S3 every day. »

By stringing together a couple apps and the ever-powerful IFTTT, filing paperwork is easier then ever. »

The more you use Ulysses, the better it gets. Here are my seven favorite Ulysses superpowers. »

There are two ways to overcome writer’s procrastination, and one of them is knowing what to write next. Jeff Goins writing system helps with that. »

Since I frequently highlight passages in Instapaper, I wanted a way to automatically add those highlights directly into a folder within Ulysses for easier searching, tagging, and referencing. Good news… this is extremely easy to set up. »

Ease of input and powerful search are two important factors in a good notes / research app. While many apps excel at one or the other, few excel at both. »

Creating a slideshow for family and friends is a piece of cake with the Photos app. »

Setting up a shared photo album through iCloud is a great way to share photos and stay connected, and we show you to set one up. »

When writing for the web, Byword and Ulysses make it easy to copy or export your text as HTML for publishing. »

Sometimes it can be handy to see where a picture was taken by looking at the location metadata, but there are many other times you might not the entire internet to know where you took a particular photo. »

Todoist is a productivity app makes managing your tasks and projects easy. And because it’s web-based, it also allows you to access your to-do list from just about anywhere. »

Saving email messages as PDFs is a convenient way to create copies of messages that you want to keep. »

Day One makes logging important conversations, milestones, and special moments incredibly easy by allowing you to automatically create journal entries by connecting various services via IFTTT. »

One of the most powerful features a task manager like OmniFocus offers is the ability to filter your tasks and projects to show you only what you want to see at any given moment. »

Mail and Airmail both offer methods of copying individual message URLs so you can easily create references in action items, notes, and more. »

Digitizing and organizing your receipts using Scanbot and macOS make it easier to prepare your taxes so you have more time for more important things. »