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Mac power tools: charge up your workflow
I recently bought a new Mac, and I decided not to migrate years of cruft over to a pristine Snow Leopard install. I also decided to shed years of stale workflow and adopt a new way of doing things. Enter the power tools: software that augments the power and performance of OS X to do things faster and smarter. I'll examine some general system enhancements and look at a couple of powerful Mac/iPhone app combos that really work well together. Step one was finding a replacement for my beloved QuickSilver. I had abandoned QS well over a year ago due to performance issues on most of my Macs, but after a nagging pain in my wrist surfaced, I realized I had to find more keyboard shortcuts. Enter LaunchBar, which fills in for 90% of what QuickSilver used to do for me. LaunchBar is one Ctrl-Space (configurable, of course) away from Spotlight searching, Google searching, application launching, math calculations and much, much more. LaunchBar is $25 around $35 per seat, and worth taking 15 minutes to learn the basics. Go ahead, hate me for giving up QS, but try LaunchBar before you hurl the insults. Next I needed a better way to juggle 3 Gmail accounts. But I also needed a way to track the metric ton of inbox items that flow through those email conduits. The solution was the combination of MailPlane and Things. I had really dedicated my heart to Toodledo, but there's one trick I couldn't replicate on any setup (The Hit List included): when I get an email in MailPlane, I can select some text and press Shift-Ctrl-Opt-Cmd-0 and the Things HUD pops up and autofills the notes section with a link to the email itself. It is awesome. Not perfect, mind you, but a huge thing for me. Read on for more power tools and tips.
Win a copy of Things for Mac
The productivity wars are heating up on the Mac, aren't they? iGTD is no more, but Cultured Code acquired some brains from that operation and now there's a shiny new version of Things (and another update today). If you've never tried Things, there's never been a better time. Plus, we're giving away two copies of the Mac desktop version to two lucky winners! Just leave us a comment about how you currently stay productive (and meet the other criteria, below). Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, and residents of Canada (excluding Quebec), who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment telling us how you stay productive on your Mac. The comment must be left before Friday, September 4, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. Two winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: One copy of Things for Mac (Value: US$49.95) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Help cure diabetes, win great Mac software
Developer Jim Whimpey is riding a bike to cure diabetes, and he's asking for your help (and promising a chance at some great Mac software). For every $10 you donate to his upcoming ride in southern Australia, he'll throw your name in a raffle to win one of two big Mac software bundles, both worth almost $190 each and both including Things, MarsEdit, Tweetie, and Wii Transfer. Any one of those apps is worth the donation, not to mention that your money will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, one of the biggest organizations around committed to fighting type 1 diabetes.You get a raffle entry for every $10 you donate, so put in $20 and you'll get two entries, and so on. He's asking for all the donations by September 14th, so you've got about two weeks to get over there and put some money in. Great cause and great way to pick up some sweet new apps for your brand new Snow Leopard install to run.
iGTD's Bartek Bargiel joins Cultured Code, Things 1.2 hits the streets
I have very fond memories of iGTD, and of its sole developer, Bartek Bargiel. The much-anticipated iGTD2 never really reached fruition, much to our dismay. There are a good number of people still using iGTD and iGTD2 today, even after development ceased quite some time ago, and I'd wager that anyone who used it probably has pretty nice things to say. I'd heard from Bartek a couple of times over the years, but I got caught by surprise when I heard the news today: he's joined up with Cultured Code, and worked some of my favorite features of good ol' iGTD into the latest release of Things for Mac (1.2). See what's new and brush up on your keyboard shortcuts at the Cultured Code blog. iGTD users and former users will probably recall the F-key trick; the one that grabbed whatever you had highlighted in most apps and popped it into the quick-entry window. While the OmniFocus clipper is quite capable, if this is as good as iGTD's was, it's going to be a killer feature. Bartek has also contributed Quicksilver, Launchbar and Google Quick Search Box plugins to the party. It's great to see Cultured Code catering to us keyboard geeks, and I personally just got way more into Things. If you did some donating to the development of iGTD back in the day, there's an additional surprise headed for your inbox. Cultured Code and Bartek have promised free licenses to everyone who donated to iGTD, and multiple licenses if the amount of your donations exceeds the value of a Things license. Things retails for $49.95US, so that's a pretty good return. Plus, they've set up data migration for current iGTD users to make the switch to Things. I'm checking out the latest version right now, so until I have a full review out, I'd just like to say congratulations to Bartek, and to Cultured Code!
Things 1.1/Things Touch 1.3.5: Area Sync
Things Touch 1.3.5 has been released along with Things 1.1 and, among a heap of bug fixes and UI improvements, you'll find a new feature for syncing Areas of Responsibility from your Mac to your iPhone (it's not yet possible to create Areas in Things Touch). The feature requires Things 1.1 on the Mac side, which was officially released today, but has actually been available (sans release notes) for about a week (assumedly waiting for Things Touch to make it through App Store approval). Another new addition (which is more exciting, to me) is full AppleScript support in Things on the Mac. I haven't had a chance to dive into it yet, but it's a topic I discussed with Cultured Code at the last Macworld Expo and I'm excited to see it come to fruition. People using Things in any kind of group setting will appreciate the reconsidered approach to task delegation, as well. For those who aren't familiar with Things in general, I'll take a quick step back. Things for the Mac has been a staunch competitor in the Mac task-management colosseum. Battling it out with OmniFocus and newer gladiators like The Hit List, it's been recognized by many for its simplicity and elegance. Things is powerful and flexible, while remaining reliable and simple. Things Touch is its iPhone companion, usable on its own or synced with Things Mac. You may be asking, what's an "Area of Responsibility?" This is one of the features of Things which was hardest for me to grasp. It's not quite a GTD context, and it's not a folder for projects. Basically, Areas provide a flexible means of handling tasks which aren't part of a "project" and aren't necessarily sequential in nature. In the words of Cultured Code: With an Area of Responsibility (or simply "Area"), you don't ask yourself about the desired outcome, but what standards you would like to maintain. An Area corresponds to an ongoing activity. These could be, for example, job responsibilities, roles you have taken on in your family, or personal responsibilities like health. Things is available for download as a free trial, and can be purchased for $49.95US. Things Touch, the iPhone version, is available in the App Store for $9.99US.
Macworld Expo: Big things for Things
It was a heck of a coming-out party for Cultured Code's Things, the task organizer and GTD platform for Mac and iPhone. With a passel of awards for the product (including a Macworld Best in Show) and a shipping 1.0 version of the desktop app, the CC gang had plenty to celebrate.I stopped by the Cultured Code booth for a chat with Michael Simmons and a look at some of the late-breaking features in the desktop release. I don't have the evolved and tweaked GTD workflow that some of my colleagues bring to bear, but I can say that Things is one of the few task managers I've found myself "moving into" naturally and easily, and I'm still using it after a couple of months. Now, if it only synchronized with my favorite cloud-side task manager ... but hopefully that's just around the corner.Owners of the iPhone version of Things should check the new "gear" icon for a 20% discount off the US$49.95 cost of Things for Mac, good through 1/15/09.Video in the 2nd half of the post.
Things 1.0rc now available
Cultured Code has issued the 1.0 release candidate for Things, its popular GTD application, a little more than a week ahead of its official launch on January 6.Things 1.0rc has a huge list of changes including new icons, the ability to reorder to-dos in the Today list across project and area boundaries, the ability to edit titles and reorder projects in the sidebar (my biggest pet peeve prior to this), fixes to syncing and compatibility issues with the iPhone version of Things, and numerous big fixes. A complete list can be found here via MacUpdate due to site difficulties with Cultured Code. An official mirror detailing the release notes can also be found here.Things 1.0rc is available at the mirror of the Cultured Code website, since the main site is either being sluggish or not responding at all due to demand. An alternate download location can be found through MacUpdate, along with the complete list of changes. Full price for a Things license is $49USD, but a coupon for 20% off can be used until January 15 - even if you missed out signing up for the newsletter. That code is THINGSPRESALE20.Things requires OS X 10.4 or later. It is also recommended for those who own the iPhone version to update to version 1.3 once it becomes available through the App Store.
Things (finally) adds global search
Things, one of the top contenders in the Mac GTD application lineup, has updated to 0.9.6 on their way to a planned 1.0 release at the Macworld Expo. The update includes some interface polish, but the biggest news is the addition of global search.It's been one of the most requested features, and I've seen plenty of comments here at TUAW bemoaning the absence of this capability. The newly added feature allows searching through all projects while still being able to confine the query to various scopes, including Title, Notes or Tags. This, of course, makes the tagging system in Things even more useful, allowing all tasks with a given tag or tag combination to be listed. Personally, I'd say this is the most important new feature added to (the desktop version of) Things since iCal sync. I'm betting we'll see more of these highly-requested features implemented as the development pace amps up to meet the Macworld deadline.A blog post at Cultured Code details all of the new features. You can download a free trial at the Cultured Code website, and a license can be had for $39USD ... if you sign up for the newsletter before the January 6th launch (after which the price will be $49USD).
GTD: Real-life experience with Things
I'll admit it -- I'm a notorious procrastinator.Give me something to do and no deadline, and I'll put it off until everyone forgets about it. Give me a deadline and I'll wait until the deadline is looming before I'll get things going. This not only happens in my professional life, but my personal life as well. For example, my wife is still patiently waiting for me to complete some painting in our newly renovated laundry room. Hey, it's only been a month since I started the work!If there's anyone who needs to follow the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, it's me. In the past, my To-Do list consisted of Post-It Notes scattered on my desk with lists of things to complete. A couple of months ago I thought it would work better if I organized my notes into one place, so I bought a hard-cover Moleskine and started writing listing things to do in that book. Nice, but I was out of luck when I didn't have the Moleskine with me. I always have my iPhone with me, so it made sense for me to start using it to help add some semblance of order to my life. That's where Things, the task manager from Cultured Code, helped me out.
Things brings the sync
If you love Things, you just got a whole lot more to love. The folks at Cultured Code have finally added iCal sync, and they've done a spectacular job with it (outdoing, in my opinion, OmniFocus' sync). In the preferences, you can sync just your "Today" tasks, or just your "Next Actions," or you can get crazy with it and assign calendars to different tags, projects or areas of responsibility. This allows for utterly amazing flexibility and an array of possibilities. The major benefits of having Things synced with iCal all revolve around the tight integration that iCal and Leopard's To Dos have with the rest of OS X. Being able to refine what is actually synced means you have complete control over what you see on an iCal printout or even what you put on a public or shared calendar. To Dos can be delegated, emailed, linked, prioritized and more, and Things is picking up every external change I throw at it. You can have a calendar that functions as an inbox and use whatever input method you like to get tasks there. The "@" symbol can be used to add tags as well. Moving a task from the inbox calendar to another calendar synchronized with Things will do exactly what you think it will ... move the task to the project or area of responsibility assigned to that calendar. This also solves my other major problem with Things, no easy way to turn Mail.app messages into tasks. Now, with a right click to make a new To Do you can create a new task in Things that contains a link to the original message. Unfortunately, Mail.app's handling of To Dos is a little buggy in some cases, but that problem is easily taken care of by using MailTags to create the tasks. The final reason I'm so excited about this new release is that Leopard To Dos are part of an API that all kinds of third-party programs can access, and can therefore integrate with Things now. Anxiety, Out of Mind, Today, MailTags and other little applications we've mentioned can all work in two directions with your task manager. I'm a little obsessed with Charilaos Skiadas' GTDAlt bundle for TextMate right now (along with piles of Ruby code to extend it), but the new sync feature in Things made it extremely easy to pull my tasks in and take it for another spin. Having sworn off the "pretty" task managers and pledged my allegiance once again to all things plain text, I don't have the heart to change my system again quite yet ... but it's becoming obvious that when Things comes to fruition, it will be a force to be reckoned with. If this was holding you back (like it was me), it might be time to take a look. Things is going to be $49 after release, but you can still get in on it for $39 right now.
Things gets recurring tasks
The GTD app scene has been pretty quiet for a while now. Only OmniFocus seems to be regularly showing signs of development at a pace that offers some real hope for the new generation of task managers. But Things has updated to version 0.9, and offers a couple of new features that fill some major holes. Most notably, the addition of recurring tasks is an answer to a primary criticism of the software. A lot of people love the simplicity of the Things philosophy. I count myself among those people from a conceptual standpoint, but the "simplicity" approach only goes so far when I find myself in need of some heavy-duty organization. I still find the lack of integration with applications like Mail and the lack of scriptability to be major impediments to incorporating Things into my workflow. In my time testing Things, I was able to create some AppleScripts for adding Mail messages and importing from OmniFocus using some brute-force "System Events" tactics. It's certainly not ideal, though. I'm hoping the development pace of Things picks back up as it has the potential to be an ideal system, at least for users like myself. In the meantime, you can download the trial and/or get in on the pre-release discount of 20% off the $49 price. For more information on the 0.9 release, check out the release notes.
Things public preview released
Things, the up-and-coming darling of the über-productive, due-date-defying, thing-doing GTD crowd has released a public preview today. And I, as your hyphen-wielding blogger, am duly excited. A few of us here at TUAW have been playing with the private alpha of Things for a while. Things provides a unique and flexible way to handle tasks that can be refreshing for those who didn't quite get the whole GTD thing the first time around. Of course, you can adhere to strict GTD principles with it, but you can also forge a system that works for you using its tagging system and flexible project management tools. It even has some delegation capabilities that other GTD apps are lacking right now. Plus, it's downright pretty. What Things is noticeably lacking at this point is a really great means of integrating with Mail and AppleScript support. Of course, if there were AppleScript support, Mail support would be a cinch. You can pop up the quick entry window with a hotkey and drag a Mail 3.1 message onto the notes section to create a link to that email; I'd just like to be able to incorporate Mail-Act-On or any faster means of getting my email-based tasks into my task manager. Overall, this release from Cultured Code is very buzzworthy, both in the GTD community and for those on the periphery. If you're feeling like being productive, take it for a spin.
Beta Beat: Actiontastic 0.8.2, Quicksilver Integration
Actiontastic, one of the contenders to be the go-to application for Mac using GTD-ers, has just been updated to version 0.8.2, and brings with it some spiffy upgrades including interface tweaks, a complete back-end database re-coding, and various bug fixes. But obviously those things alone don't warrant a TUAW post do they? Of course not. The real reason I'm pointing out this update to you, dear reader, is the addition of a feature that I've long come to rely on in my GTD workflow: Quicksilver integration. One of the most basic tenets of GTD is brain dumping; getting all those projects and thoughts out of your head and into a trusted system so you spend less energy worrying about them, and more energy doing things that are actually productive. Having to switch away from the application I'm currently using in order to create a new item in my inbox totally trashes my train of thought, and being able to simple hit a hot-key to brain dump makes it easier to keep up with the GTD methodology. Actiontastic includes Quicksilver functionality as a QS action bundled with the app, which is much more elegant than the unfortunately clumsy Quicksilver Action Kinkless GTD uses to accomplish the same thing.
50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod
Ok, so the list only hits 44, but still, who couldn't use a few more things to do with their little white gadget? I mean, only playing music on an iPod is so... 2001.Anyway, kottke.org has put together quite the creative list of *other* things you can do with your iPod. Notable alternatives include cooking a nice dinner (# 24), listening to text (# 14) and making free phone calls (# 37). Check out the full list of Fun Things To Do With Your iPod if you've been looking for that *special something* to spice up your iPod's usefulness.[via digg]
