Our Focus Digest for August, Tips on Using Ulysses, and More

August 9, 2024

Here are the things we published this week and last. You can also stay up-to-date by following us on Twitter and RSS.

Also, we have a weekly email newsletter that sums up all the new and cool things published to the site. If you like to stay up-to-date via email, then you should sign up here.

Solitude Deprivation (August Focus Digest) »

Welcome to the monthly Focus Digest!

This is for creative professionals and entrepreneurs looking to create a more ideal schedule, get organized, and stay in control of the things that matter.

If you are new to the digest… here’s what to look forward to every month:

A short article on a single concept around focus
A couple quotes that we’ve enjoyed thinking on
Links to interesting or related articles from our corner of the internet
Upcoming events and resource spotlights for our Club Members

If this sparks any ideas, I’d love to hear from you!

The Best Pro Writing App for Mac (and iOS) »

There are a lot of great options available in this golden age of writing applications for the Mac and iOS, but we believe that Ulysses is the cream of the crop. In our opinion, it’s the perfect combination of power and grace, giving you both the writing tools to help you be productive and a beautiful, distraction-free writing environment to keep you focused, making it the best writing app.

Shawn Blanc’s Ulysses Setup »

This video is from our Learn Ulysses course, which is on sale for 50% off right now.

I’ve been using Ulysses as pretty much my one and only writing app since about 2017. In some of the other videos in the Learn Ulysses course, I share with you how Ulysses compares to other apps and why I use Ulysses versus different notes apps and things like that.

In this video, I want to take you through a complete walkthrough of my whole Ulysses setup and workflow. I’ll show you what’s in the app, all the different things that I’ve done in the app. I used to have my writing scattered all over the place. Several years ago, I consolidated all of it within Ulysses, and it’s been a huge game changer for me.

How Ulysses Can Help You Achieve Your Writing Goals »

Ulysses, one of our favorite apps, has several features that make it ideal for writing and organizing short and long projects.

The app has several features that make it a great tool for accomplishing your writing goals. Let’s start by examining the toolbar options above the editor.

The Ulysses URL Scheme and Siri Shortcuts »

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.

But what preceded Siri Shortcuts entirely was a framework called URL schemes, which were what originally enabled the pre-Shortcuts app Workflow to do advanced iOS automation.

Interesting Links From Our Friends and Around the Web »