Hazel 5.1 Is Live

One of toy favourite automation tools on macOS is, without a doubt, Hazel by Noodlesoft. Having an application sit there, watching my core folders and then carry out actions on them is awesome because it allows me to spend my time creating things rather than carrying out housekeeping on my Mac. 

Last week, version 5.1 was released which helped tidy up a couple of issues on macOS Monterrey that were (understandably) encountered during the beta process with the main change being support for Shortcuts on Monterrey as well as the ability to now use AppleScript to control Hazel’s run status. 

A full list of release notes can be found here - check it out.

Xbox Live Game Pass on iOS is…amazing!!

Xbox Game Pass on iOS and macOS is Amazing

Recently, Microsoft made their Xbox Game Pass subscription accessible on iOS and macOS. Admittedly, this wasn’t via a dedicated app, as that’s not how Microsoft wanted to play. Instead, when using your iOS or macOS device, you need to navigate to a dedicated webpage to stream the game you want to play. 

When I read this, I was hesitant, and it’s taken me several months to decide this was something I wanted to try out. I was hesitant because:

  • it’s another expense that I could, probably, do without when I’ve got so many other games, on other platforms, still to play

  • How can the quality be any good if the content is streamed? Surely there would be lag, and the experience would be unplayable?

Well, last week, I signed up. 

Wow. 

I wish I’d tried it sooner. 

Let me walk you through my experience. 

iOS Streaming

Let me lay a bit of context here. So this is the hardware currently in use to support this feature

The last part about the fibre connection is vital because there is a lot of data coming down. Of course, internally, it’s essential to ensure you have a strong Wi-fi connection from your phone to the router/modem itself as you can still drop packets there. If your connection is poor, this may not be for you. 

The controller is essential as well, and there are several options out there. However, I love the Kishi and have used this one for around six months now. It’s straightforward to attach to the phone, with a clasp at the back that you click to extend the phone. There is a Lightning port in the case, so you can charge your phone as you play, and it’s incredibly comfortable, allowing for long sessions of play

Once in, you need to navigate to https://xbox.com/play and log in with your Xbox account credentials. 

Follow the instructions, tap the Share icon and add the Xbox Cloud Gaming service as an icon to your Home Screen.

Once done, you can tap to open the list of games available to stream, and away you go. 

Now I will say that the experience on the iPhone, whilst amazing for the size of the device, is the weakest of the platforms I’ve played it on - namely because of - the size of the device! When playing Forza Horizon 5, the response times were great; I had no issue with a lag; however, when you’re used to playing games like Forza on the big screen, it can’t help but feel condensed. That said, games like What Remains of Edith Finchplay superbly on the smaller form factor, and I’m sure that if I were to spend time going through the catalogue, I’d find more examples of titles that almost look as if they were made for the iPhone screen. 

iPadOS

Onto iPad now, the main difference here comes in the controller that I used. Now I had one of the original Steel Series Nimbus controllers that I purchased back when gaming on the Apple TV was introduced (RIP to that - at least in my eyes. We hardly knew yow). Sadly, the experience was less than optimal. There seemed to be a delay when pressing the A button, as an example. When playing Marvel Avengers (I know it’s been criticised, but I enjoy it), you can’t push down on the left analogue stick to Sprint because it’s not recognised - all in all, not great. 

So I purchased the official Xbox One Wireless Controller and connected that up. All other issues were resolved. 

The iPad I have is the 2018 3rd Gen 12.9 Pro, so not the latest or greatest as I essentially use it as a media consumption device. 

And now game streamer. Because the quality is fantastic, I have Marvel Avengers installed locally on the Xbox One in my utility room, and when I have my morning coffee, I will sit there for half an hour and play as I wake up. The load times can be annoying, whereas one advantage of streaming is within almost 5 seconds of me tapping the game button, I’m smashing people up as Hulk, and that feels good sometimes. 

MacOS

Finally, onto MacOS, and this is where, naturally, the best experience is. So I’ve got one of the new M1 Pro devices, and it’s hooked up to a couple of 28-inch 4K monitors in my office. Once I’ve mapped the Xbox Controller to it, it’s pretty much the same process as iOS; you don’t need to create any shortcut. Just go to https://xbox.com/play - and go to town. 

I don’t need to say much more. It works amazingly.

I tried it with a Windows 10 VM, using Parallels as well, and the experience was excellent - added to by the fact there are more games available on Game Pass for the PC than elsewhere. Titles like Age Of Empires, Fallout 1 and 2 and more mean it’s just another outlet I’ve got if I need it. 

I know my site generally focuses on Productivity, so you may be wondering why I’m writing about the above? Well - we all need downtime. We all need to do the things that bring us joy without feeling guilt, at not working on something that brings in an income. Gaming has, forever, been my outlet and where I go to switch off. There are times when I’m in a repetitive race on Forza where my brain drifts off, and I find myself having some of my best ideas. 

Game Pass iOS/iPadOS and MacOS is, in my eyes, a triumph, and I’m so surprised to find myself saying that.

Why I Now Use Todoist

It really doesn’t seem that long ago that I was a workflow guest at Tim Stringer’s awesome Learn OmniFocus. I remember the planning beforehand, the worry, wanting to ensure that I was able to convey exactly how I used OmniFocus. 

Turns out, that was in late 2017 - and here I am, in October 2021, using a different task manager. And to such an extent, that I’ve released a video course on how to use it. That’s quite a change. 

Do I have a problem with OmniFocus? Let me go on record by saying absolutely not. It’s a great task manager and if you are 100% solidly in the Mac eco-system, I would never turn around and say you should use Todoist instead of it. That’s not because one is any better than the other, it’s just because I find these task managers have to be suited to the way you work as an individual. There are also elements of OmniFocus that I wish were present in Todoist - defer dates being one. You cannot defer a task into the future to make it disappear from view in the same way you can with OmniFocus. It is of course, possible with Filters to a degree but there is a lot of messing around you have to carry out to get to that point. 

Also, the Focus and Review modes in OmniFocus are worth their weight in gold. I love being able to key in a shortcut and just see one project in a new tab and hide everything else - and being able to Review projects at individual intervals with a simple keystroke really fits in with the Getting Things Done methodology. 

That said, there are elements of Todoist that fit in better with my own personal workflow and way of working. 

Interface on Mobile - I’m finding myself grabbing for my phone or iPad more often to check off tasks that need to be done around the house and the Todoist interface on these platforms is, in my opinion at any rate, easier to navigate. The syncing is instantaneous which I put down to Todoist being a web service at heart. Quite often with OmniFocus I’d pick up my phone, wait for thirty seconds for the syncing to complete before I see the actual list of actions that I can crack on with. 

Todoist also has great swipe actions on mobile, making it easy to postpone actions for a later date - not quite the same as deferring, but when you get into how Todoist works with Due dates, it works well. 

Cross-platform support - In my Project Management world, I can find myself having to use a client device to ensure I can connect to their shared services. One benefit of the pandemic means this doesn’t have to happen as often with remote teams and collaboration being ubiquitous. However it does happen and whilst I could add information to OmniFocus on my iPad or through the web browser, that’s not how I like to work. If I’m on a Windows machine, I need to access a fully functional task manager because if I’m going to use something, I want to use it to its full potential. With Todoist having a solid Windows application as well as an awesome web service, this was a no-brainer. I started using it for a particular client and eventually threw everything into it. 

With hooks into Amazon Alexa, Fantastical, Zapier, Momentum and more, there is a clear advantage to having a web service fulfil this function. Yes, I know there are disadvantages to that as well - but they are outweighed by the good stuff for me. 

My Output - I hate myself for saying this because when I deliver Productivity Coaching, I always use the mantra ‘It’s about the Approach, not the App’

And I stand by that. An application is not going to make you more productive. The approach to using it will. Put the right information in, touch it regularly, ensure you review what’s in there, break tasks down, yada yada yada. If you’re reading this, you know all this. So why is it when I use Todoist, I find myself ticking off lots more tasks? It’s not the Karma functionality that’s built-in to it which rewards you for checking off tasks and using Todoist. I’d rather check off two really important, lengthy pieces of work than ten smaller ones. Fact is, I don’t know and I’m still reviewing this. 

I think it’s because there is more of a reliance on assigning due dates for repeating tasks. In OmniFocus, they would have defer dates that would repeat every day, week, whatever is needed. Todoist doesn’t understand defer dates - instead, I have to provide them with due dates and they scream at me in my Today view, even if they are not ACTUALLY due on that date. I don’t HAVE to carry out my Clean My Mac maintenance on my Mac mini today for example - but if I don’t have it set up with a due date, it cannot repeat. This is a big shift for me because I always used to put in due dates for tasks when they absolutely, positively, had to be done on that date. Now, I’m a little freer with them. The downside is it can dilute other more important tasks. The upside is that with four priority levels in Todoist, you can mitigate this by assigning varying levels of priority to these - and I do ensure they get done. With just a defer date in OmniFocus, I didn’t have the onus to do it. Again, that’s all about the approach. I could have used due dates in OmniFocus - I just didn’t because I thought it was wrong. 

Perhaps I was

So there we are. In a nutshell, that’s why I’ve moved across. It started as an experiment and has now stuck. 

If you would like to try Todoist to see how it is, then check it here. 

To purchase the Todoist Course, click here

I'm Back With You!

What a time. It’s been a whirlwind in all of our lives throughout the last couple of years, not just mine. My previous post on here of any significance is bordering on almost three years old. A constant thread, in the back of my head that I’ve been itching to pull in all that time! 

Life has been one of those things that have gotten in the way of my passion projects, and this site is undoubtedly one. I started it in 2014 (just after I got my first Mac and realised the new world of opportunities out there) and found myself able to update it on a semi-regular basis and made some great friends amongst my readers. 

Then I took a corporate contract, delivering a series of multi-million-pound projects in Central London and that free-time I had started to dwindle. Some of you will know I’m also a regular screencaster at ScreenCastsOnline, and try as I might, that was the only passion project I could find myself able to fulfil without compromise. 

And that’s the thing - when you’re busy, as I’m sure each and every one of you reading this is, it’s more often than not a case of you wanting to work on, and enjoy so many things. However, the danger of this is that you spread yourself so thin to the point that the quality of the items delivered isn’t up to par. I couldn’t afford to do this on the corporate contract, and I didn’t want to have this occur at ScreenCastsOnline or here. So something had to give, and it was this site. 

Times are different now. 

With that contract successfully completed, I’m back in the world that I want to inhabit. 

I”m back coaching with Think Productive in the UK, helping businesses and individuals get to grips with their workloads, calendars and inboxes - and with the pandemic leaving its mark on the business world, we’ve developed new courses on remote/hybrid working. I’ve delivered some virtual workshops already, and it’s such a great job. 

Also, there has been lots more screencasting with ScreenCastsOnline. I’ve got a larger office now, fully kitted with what I need to provide these professional screencasts, covering apps that I may not have otherwise discovered. Using my tech to deliver training to people on how to use tech - is there anything better for me to do? 

I’ve also started building a small portfolio of clients for independent screencasts on using their products. One of the most used applications on macOS currently is called Hook, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with Luc Beaudoin at CogSciApps on creating a series of videos on how to make the most of this application. The team at Apptorium are also a great set of customers, with videos created for two of their apps - Sidenotes and Workspaces, which are also solid additions to my Mac app arsenal. I’m available for more private work, by the way - nudge nudge, hint hint !

And so we come to this site, and I”m excited that I’m finally implementing the relaunch plan to bring the posts that many of you have enjoyed in the past back regularly. Over the coming months, there will be 

  • Workflow posts each Monday that will show hints and tips on a specific application or piece of technology.

  • Weekly Guideposts, each Wednesday. Starting with Hook, I’ll be deep-diving into applications and services and delivering some in-depth guides on how to get the best of them.

  • Review/Why I Use Posts, every Friday. Here, I will either look at a recently released or updated application or look at my toolkit, pull out an app and go into detail as to why I couldn’t work without it.

I’ve also started developing my first video guide that is going to be released mid-late September. I’m super excited and scared about this in equal measure. 

The monthly newsletter is in production, and I’ll be inviting sign-ups for this in the coming weeks - this will include offer codes for any products I release as well. 

So lots of movement, lots of change, and I’m hoping for lots of cool stuff to look forward to as I close off 2021 in a better way than I started. 

I hope - but who knows what’s around the corner, right?