Hello, friends! Many words have been applied to me throughout my lifetime, but very rarely has the word “spontaneous” been used. I suspect that’s true for a lot of my subscribers. As I’ve gotten older, however, I lean into it more than I used to. A good example is my daughter’s play at Edinburgh Fringe Fest. My youngest daughter wrote a play that’s getting produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest this week. As soon as I realized she was going, there was a long debate about whether I should go....
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
It's Never the Tools As the Paris Olympics wrap up, my favorite meme from the games is the story of Yousef Dikeç, the Turkish sharpshooter. I had no idea how much gear is involved in Olympic-caliber shooting. Special heavy clothes limit your motion. Special glasses with special lenses allow you to see your sight and target perfectly. Eye patches that would make Blackbeard jealous prevent your brain from getting confused. The whole thing starts to give off a Locutus of Borg feel. And then...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Friend, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about artificial intelligence. There are a lot of good uses for it, but the one everyone talks about is writing. People are transfixed by its ability to write college-level essays. As AI technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, more and more people are turning to it for help with everything from drafting emails to generating content for the internet. This repels me. While the efficiency of these tools can’t be denied, I’ve decided to take a...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Friend, Earlier this year, I released the Productivity Field Guide. It was successful and helped many people find some center in a world full of distractions. This summer, I’m pleased to announce the Productivity Summer Camp. I’ll be providing the Productivity Field Guide and a four-week webinar series in August for a select number of young applicants. This course is for students in high school and college. Why is This Worth Your Time? When I was in school, there were a lot fewer...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hello friend, The Task Management Systems and Strategy session will get started in two hours. Call details are below. We hope to see you there. Your pal, David P.S. If you are unable to attend the live session, you can watch the video once it's been edited and added to the course. --- O4FG Webinar #5 - Task Management Systems and Strategy Monday July 15 at 10:00 Pacific Zoom Call Details Download calendar event
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Friend,There's been a lot of discussion about Apple Intelligence on the iPhone. Since last June’s WWDC one of the most frequent questions in the MacSparky Labs and from podcast listeners is why Apple Intelligence will only work on the iPhone 15 Pro and no other existing iPhone devices. Granted, it will likely work on both of the new iPhone 16 models, but I expect frustration from owners of older iPhones will get even more intense as the public wakes up to this fact. The technical reason...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Friend, Yesterday, Apple announced its new name for artificial intelligence tools on its platform: Apple Intelligence. If you watched the keynote carefully, it was almost humorous how they danced around the term "artificial intelligence" throughout. At the beginning, Tim made reference to "intelligence" without the word "artificial. Then, throughout the rest of the keynote, up until the announcement of Apple Intelligence, Apple relied on its old standby, “machine learning.” Nevertheless,...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Hi [FORMATTED_FIRST_NAME GOES HERE], I’m currently working hard on the new edition of the OmniFocus Field Guide for version 4 of the application. This is not my first rodeo for OmniFocus, yet it still takes a lot of work. Every time I make a new edition, I make the entire Field Guide from scratch again. It’s interesting to note how my thinking on task management has evolved over the years. When I first started making the OmniFocus Field Guide with version 1, I was all in with Getting Things...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Hi [FORMATTED_FIRST_NAME GOES HERE], One of the nice things about my position in the Apple community is that I get to hear about people's concerns. And one concern I've heard about a lot lately is Apple and AI. Specifically, Apple fans are worried that Apple is missing the boat on this important new step in technology, and they're going to get left out with the next big advances in artificial intelligence. I'm not worried about this. A thing you have to remember about Apple is that they don't...
6 months ago • 3 min read