Author: Joshua

One thing I want to add to my previous post is my method for capturing screenshots. Since December 2017 I’ve used Droplr for taking screenshots. I haven’t seen anyone else use this method so I want to share it here. When I’m writing down todos in Things 3, or Apple Notes, I often need to include…

The only thing that’s worked reliably for me for more than a decade has been simple tools and habits. I add items to a handful of bulleted lists, and pick a few to do that day. After a lot of tweaking and testing of every productivity system around I’ve landed on something similar. I use…

Over the last year and a half I’ve been growing out my hair. As I’ve learned there are a lot of ways to deal with messy longer hair. The simplest is to wear a hat. I’ve tried a number of different hats and don’t like how they fit and look.  I recently picked up the…

Since Double Dap was announced I’ve wanted to use it on all my Apple Watch apps. Though it has some problems, namely that it has a lag and doesn’t respond as soon as I think it will, it’s a cool feature that I want to build a habit around.  Because Apple is sometimes a bit…

I’ve struggled to figure out how to take things I like—such as great articles written by others—and how to save them. When I read something that stands out to me, speaks to me, I often look for a way to do something with that.  Over the years this has led to me taking thousands of…

If, like me, you’ve been working in technology for a while, you’ve likely felt that tightening in your chest as ore and more news of layoffs and AI breakthroughs piles up. This feels different than before. I’ve been at this line of work for 17 years now.  Shifts in tech have come and gone. I’ve…

I’ve been away from work the last week, so I’ve been catching up on little bits and pieces of Config 2024. The biggest thing to come out of it, and the most impactful to designers, is the AI elements. I haven’t had a chance to test things yet; I fired up Figma and updated, but…

At least I have my integrity. The machine may grind on, but I’m glad to have stepped off the treadmill. Joan’s openness on the topic of being involved in tech’s greater whole is so refreshing. To feel hampered, unable to share the words you actually feel, to couch everything in a specific language catered to…

Nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish somebody had told this to me — is that all of us who do creative work … we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there’s a gap, that for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re…

Things 3 is my main to-do list. Its design is simple, elegant, and fits well with how my brain works. The funny thing (ha) is, Things 3 is not too dissimilar from Apple’s built-in Reminders app. The app’s layouts are strikingly similar; there are two columns: one for lists, one for tasks. The features are…

There are no ads, no engagement-thirsty UI patterns, no invasive interference. Just pure, uncut, personally-chosen content delivered in a calm, orderly environment. It’s the Marie Kondo method of information consumption – only content that sparks joy, delivered in a way that itself sparks joy. I’ve wrestled with how to share and consume media, separate from…

Something changed in me today with my password habits. After over a decade of using 1Password as my default for account login management, I finally had a break in my habits. I went to create a new account for a piece of software, saw Apple’s suggestion for a new password, and chose to use it.…

There will forever be a struggle between the simplicity of a thing and how useful it is. I deal with this in software every day. I want something to be easy and I want it to do all the things I could dream of. Those two are, of course, complete opposites and generally impossible. Great…

Productivity methods, no matter which you turn to, revolve around intentionality. It’s applying a system, a tool, or a practice to a thing that could be made better. More efficient. But if applied without intention, none of that will help a bit. I’ve found that my ability to get something done is tied to more…

As a followup on the previous post, I’m feeling so disconnected from WordPress these days in terms of my ability to tinker. Back in the day I worked very closely with my templates and files; editing things directly via Transmit in SFTP. Now with the new WordPress page editor I struggle to find where to…

For the past year or so I’ve been on a journey to look at other options for publishing my writing. I’ve poked around with Ghost, Medium, and others.  I am currently working on checking and adapting the Kirby CMS system to my needs. It is very possible that I will migrate in the near future,…

I’m excited about the passwords app from Apple. As a 1Password user for years, I’ve love great password management and, controversies aside, feel like 1P has nailed it.  I keep hundreds of logins locked away in my 1Password vault, protected by TouchID and a long safe password, known to my wife and I. I’ve been…