How to Create an App-Based Morning Routine That Will Jump-Start Your Productive Day

Reading Time: 5 minutesI’ve been using an app-based morning routine for over a year now. I start out every day sitting comfortably on my living room sofa with my iPad Pro and a cup of coffee. Everything that I do in my morning routine is waiting for me in one place — the apps on my iPad. I’ve …

Read more

Great Customer Service with Hookmark

Reading Time: 2 minutesHookmark is an app that enables you to link together all kinds of documents with easily applied unidirectional and bidirectional links. Its real value is that it works with almost any app, even many without a linking feature. I frequently use it to link research material to a blog post idea template on a topic …

Read more

Using Artificial Intelligence — It’s A Question of Ethics As Well as Utility

Reading Time: 4 minutesArtificial Intelligence has taken the tech world by storm. Almost daily, more and more developers announce the implementation of AI as a part of their apps. The sudden availability and popularity of AI have raised important questions for writers. Am I free to use AI in any way I can, or are there ethical limits …

Read more

Working Smarter, Not Harder: Planning Your Day Around Your Biological Prime Time

Reading Time: 3 minutesDespite evidence to the contrary, we have a tendency to assume our levels of productivity, motivation, and focus will remain the same all day. As a result, we set ourselves up for frustration and failure by planning our work without considering our typical patterns of energy, focus, and productivity. We underestimate “how much our emotional …

Read more

Transforming Quarterly Reviews With Dictation: A Step-By-Step Process and Evaluation

Reading Time: 7 minutesLast week, I performed my regular quarterly review and reflection retreat. However, I used an entirely unique method than what I’ve used in the past. I used dictation to answer the questions on my Quarterly Review Template. Normally, I write out my answers on a copy of the Template. The day before I began my …

Read more

Digital vs. Analog — Is Analog Reading Less Distracting Than Digital Reading?

Reading Time: 8 minutesIn a recent blog post to MacSparky Labs members, David Sparks wrote about The Importance of Reading (you won’t be able to access this blog post if you’re not a member of MacSparky Labs). He notes that he is reading more books in recent years, which is what I have experienced as well. In this …

Read more

A Review of Deepstash: Pros, Cons, and Overall Value

Reading Time: 4 minutesDeepstash is a service that lets you read shortened versions of different media types. The App Store description states, “Learn something new in just 5 minutes, with daily bite-sized knowledge from books, articles, videos, podcasts & more.” I heard about this app during a MacSparky Labs member meetup earlier this month. One of the participants …

Read more

Incubating Ideas — How to Supercharge Your Creative Process

Reading Time: 7 minutesWhen I was a young man attending a religious junior college, I took a “preaching 101” class. The teacher suggested that the best way to prepare a weekly sermon was to research a topic early in the week, then do nothing with it for at least a day or two. He said that while you …

Read more