Thoughts on the Apple Watch Ultra, Taking a Look at Raycast for Mac, and More
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The Apple Watch Ultra’s Impact on My Focus and Presence »
I’m lucky enough — or dumb enough — to have most of Apple’s technological lineup at my disposal each day. AirPods Max, Studio Display, iPhone, iPad… you get the drift.
But since 2018, I haven’t had an Apple Watch. I tried Series 1, Series 2, and Series 4, but all resulted in the same sense of superfluous extra. I ended up selling each of those Watches and have carried on blissfully Watch-free ever since.
Like so many others though, the Apple Watch Ultra offered a breath of fresh air to the Watch lineup, and provided me yet another chance to play with a new Watch.
This time has been a little different, at least to this point. This time, I have three children. This time, I take fitness more seriously. This time, I run a business. This time, my phone rings 15 to 20 times a day.
This time, the Watch is here to stay. I think, at least. I’m simply too happy with the impact the Watch has had on my focused periods each day.
Next Week: How to Plan Your Year (Free Webinar) »
2023 is just around the corner, and there are (really) only two ways to go about planning your upcoming year:
- Pick a random New Year’s resolution during that one week in December/January when there are a million articles about it.
- Purposefully plan what you want to achieve while there is still time to get a head start.
Which method do you think has a higher success rate?
That’s why we’ve established an annual tradition in November: the How to Plan Your Year live online workshop.
This is the most popular training we host all year, and it’s 100% free for you to join.
It’s happening on Thursday, Nov 17 at 3pm Eastern.
Save your spot!
Raycast for Mac. The Next-generation Alfred? »
We love Alfred here at The Sweet Setup. It’s been our go-to app launcher for the Mac for years, and it’s hard to believe, but it’s been 11 full years since Alfred 1.0 hit the scene and took over as the app launcher of choice for nerds like us.
Raycast is a newer entry into the space, and it’s turning more than a few heads, so we had to take a look at it.
I’ve fully switched to Raycast as my full time app launcher, but it’s worth noting that not everyone here at The Sweet Setup likes it as much as I do, so I’m not expecting everyone to make the move. Raycast is not “Alfred, but better” for me, it’s a whole different experience, and different people with different workflows will react differently to it.
That’s more than enough disclaimer, so let’s get into it!
How to Organize Your Writing in Ulysses »
In addition to giving you a distraction-free writing interface to help you get your words out onto the page, Ulysses also gives you several tools that will help you keep your writing organized.
A Quick Review of the Logitech MX Master 3S Mouse »
It may be the incremental upgrade of all incremental upgrades: The Logitech MX Master 3S — at least on paper — is one of the smallest gadget updates we’ve seen in recent memory. Put them side by side and you wouldn’t be able to see the difference (unless you were comparing to the newest “Pale Grey” Master 3S color), you probably wouldn’t physically feel the difference, and unless you have a trained eye, you probably wouldn’t notice an on-screen difference either.
But rest assured, you’d instantly be able to tell the two top-end mouses apart once you’ve clicked them.
Is your productivity busted?
If you feel like you could use a tuneup for how you manage your tasks and your time, get access to our Productivity Workshop.
Shawn Blanc (founder of The Sweet Setup) covers:
1. The four most common symptoms of a busted productivity workflow
2. What you can do to overcome them
3. How to improve your approach to managing and organizing your tasks.
You’ll also get the downloadable templates and cheatsheets.
Interesting Links From Our Friends and Around the Web »
- (Automators) #114: macOS Ventura: The Automated AppDate
- (Macworld) Even with record profits, Apple can’t buy our trust
- (Six Colors) Quick Tip: Replace albums with keywords in iCloud Shared Photos
- (MacStories) Apple Provides More Detail About Its Emergency SOS Service Coming Later this Month
- (Mac Power Users) #665: Covered in Paper Cuts
- (Christopher Lawley) The Best iPad Stand I’ve Ever Used: LAB22 Desk Accessories
Our Must-Have, Most Used Productivity Apps
We spend an inordinate amount of time sorting through hundreds of apps to find the very best. We put together a short list of our must-have, most-used apps for increasing productivity.