Why I Switched From a Mechanical Keyboard to an Apple Extended Keyboard

Reading Time: 3 minutesFor the past two years, I’ve been using a Keychron mechanical keyboard. Before I started using a mechanical keyboard, for years I’d used the standard Apple Magic Keyboard that came with my iMac. A couple of months ago, I decided to experiment with using an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad for …

Read more

A Review of How To Calm Your Mind, by Chris Bailey

Reading Time: 7 minutesChris Bailey’s latest book, How to Calm Your Mind: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times is a mixture of many positives and, unfortunately, some negatives.  Bailey has produced some excellent work in the area of productivity. My go-to book to recommend to someone interested in an introduction to productivity is Bailey’s The Productivity Project. I’ve also benefitted from his Hyperfocus: …

Read more

Staying in Focus — The Pomodoro Technique Revisited

Reading Time: 3 minutes1. What is the Pomodoro Technique? I first read about the Pomodoro Technique a few years ago in productivity books and articles. It’s a method developed in the 1980s by a university student, Francesco Cirillo, to help him focus on his work and also take regular breaks. Here is a step-by-step description of how the …

Read more

Susan Kare Mac Icon Prints

Reading Time: 2 minutesMy wife surprised me at Christmas with an original Happy Macintosh icon print by Susan Kare. Susan was the artist who created the icons for the original Mac interface. Her icons literally brought a smiling face to a computer. At a time with only bland PCs with no graphics, DOS interfaces, and in-line commands, her …

Read more

What Nerd Tech Introverts (Like Me) Need To Stay Happy

Reading Time: 4 minutesI don’t see much written in tech circles about introversion. I think that’s strange because it appears to me most tech nerds are introverts. 1. Are You an Introvert? There is a lot of misunderstanding about what introversion is. In our culture, extroversion is held up as the ideal personality. Many introverts grow up thinking …

Read more

Discovering the Power of Automation with Keyboard Maestro

Reading Time: 4 minutesI’ve known about Keyboard Maestro (KM) for years, but I always thought it was too complicated and advanced to fit my needs. I was wrong. My Misconceptions About Keyboard Maestro Recently, in MacSparky Labs, David Sparks did a program on “Mac Launcher Deep Dive.” In this video, Sparks showed how he uses KM to automate …

Read more

Realizing My Role as a Guide — Applying the StoryBrand Framework to Uncover My Mission

Reading Time: 4 minutesSometimes great insights come from the least expected sources. Who would guess that a book about business marketing would help me to better understand and articulate what my role is in writing this blog and doing presentations? Building a Story Brand My friend Joe Moyer (who writes the excellent blog 24Letters) recently told me about …

Read more