Why I Love - CleanShot X

I’ve been a big fan of the built-in screenshot capabilities of macOS for a while now and never really felt the need to look at any kind of third party utility. I then heard about an application called CleanShot X and after giving it a very brief trial, I was hooked and knew I couldn’t go back to the stock options. 

Have you ever had an application that comes with bells and whistles you just didn’t know you needed until you tried them?! That’s CleanShot X and I’ll run through some of my favourite features now. 

Scrolling Screenshots

There will be times where you need to capture information that requires an element of scrolling. In my past life, I would take one screenshot - then scroll some of the text before taking a second one. After a bit of stitching together, I’d have something resembling what I was originally after, usually with a fat line separating the two images though. CleanShot X allows you to take one, simple scrolling image. 

• Click on Scrolling Capture from the menu bar utility

Next, you need to highlight the area that contains the canvas that will be scrolled. This should not include the scroll bars, just the canvas

• You’ll be prompted to start the capture. Scroll slowly until you reach the bottom of the desired area.

• As if by magic, you have a clean capture of the scrolling window

Wallpaper 

When you capture a window, you can have your current wallpaper stitched in as a border around the window edge. Not only this, but you can elect to have a custom image, or indeed any plain colour instead. 

This makes it really simple to create images that fit in with the documentation, or web page, they will be used within. 

There are also options for creating a transparent border around the capture, adjusting the padding as well as the shadow. I didn’t know I needed those options, however, it appears I do.

Without Wallpaper

With Wallpaper

Hiding Desktop Icons

I don’t suffer as much as others with the habit of keeping icons on my desktop, however, I can occasionally be caught out if I have a dmg file that is still mapped when I come to screenshot. Clicking the option below in the General section of the preferences will hide your icons every time you take a screenshot.

You can also use the menu bar icon to quickly hide them irrespective of whether you are taking a screenshot or not. Nifty. 

Easy to use Annotation tools

CleanShot X includes a tool that I’ve missed since the days of Evernote Skitch - and that’s numbered annotations. 

If you look at the image below, you can see a screenshot that I took that clearly shows the annotation toolbar at the top and the options that are there and, thanks to the counter, I can place little numbers on the image which can be referred to in this text - so for example:

1 - Move

2 - Rectangle

3 - Filled Rectangle

And so we go on. Other great features here include Blur, Spotlight which I’ve demonstrated below. It’s just enough to avoid using a third-party tool to annotate images (unless you have some serious stuff you need to do - in which case more power to you)

Just some of the great tools available within CleanShot X and great news for you Setapp subscribers is that CleanShot X Is also available as part of the Setapp subscription. 

Happy screen-shotting!

Why I Love - Session

As a firm advocate of the Pomodoro Technique for allowing me to manage my focus and energy during the working day, it’s no surprise that I’m going to spend some time telling you about an application I use to help me utilise this great productivity system. 

Session is an application that forms part of the Setapp subscription and it’s actually one of my most used weapons. As I write this, I’m fairly surprised because it’s not one of your big hitters, like DEVONthink, Todoist, TextExpander and the like - in fact, many of you will be reading this and discovering it for the first time. However it’s always running, and if I’m having a successful day, it’s invariably because I’ve got Session guiding me in the background. 

How Does it Work?

When you’re ready to start some focused work, you can configure and start the Session timer. If you are using the Pomodoro Technique to the letter, then you’ll set the timer for twenty-five minutes. Session will then recommend you take a couple of deep breaths, and the countdown begins. 

You can elect to have this timer on the screen, in the menu bar or hidden - I like to have it hidden in all honesty as I find visible countdown timers distracting. I can then work solidly, knowing that in twenty-five minutes a timer will go off and I can take a short break. 

So what can you do when you configure this timer? Well, a key element is noting down an intention for the session. If you spend the first five minutes trying to work out what it is you will be doing, you’re not going to get the full benefit as twenty-five minutes is the optimum amount of time that the brain can concentrate on one task. 

You can also change the timer. Whilst twenty-five minutes is optimal, it’s not always practical and we are all different. Quite often, I’ll find myself feeling extremely sharp and if there is a task I know will take longer, then I’ll set a longer timer - although never longer than an hour. My mind and back would not forgive me for this.

When the main timer goes off, a window appears that allows you to carry on this particular focused period of work - which is very useful if you are almost at the end, just not quite and don’t want to lose momentum. You also have an option to start your break and if accepted, the countdown timer starts for this - by default, it’s five minutes.

You can also offer a review as to how the session went - were you distracted at all, or were you in the zone? This is great for self-reflection and ensuring you have the environment necessary to focus on your work. Or perhaps there is something on your mind that needs to be dealt with before you continue?

You rinse and repeat this process for each session of work. It’s recommended that after your fourth period of work, you take a much longer break - perhaps fifteen-thirty minutes. Again, everyone is different, every day is different so I find myself mixing and matching depending on my mood and priorities. 

Platforms

Session is available as both a macOS and iOS application which means that if I’m working on my iPad as opposed to being my Mac, I can still make use of it and my statistics sync between devices via iCloud - and as Session provides some great analytics, this is an important thing for me. 

Extra Configuration Options

I can’t lie, everything I’ve documented above is reason enough for me to use the app and I’m grateful for it being a part of the Setapp bundle. There is, however, a lot more under the hood that you can do

Keyboard Shortcuts - with shortcuts available for starting and stopping sessions and breaks, this offers some scope for using automation applications like Keyboard Maestro to activate some of these as part of longer macro-based workflows.

Calendar - it may be in beta mode at the time of writing, but as well as showing your calendar within the Session application, you can also send Session information back out to your Calendar, giving you a ready view from your calendar application of the sessions completed in a given day. 

Website and App Blocker - to help maintain focus, Session can block specified websites and applications whenever a session is running. I used to use third-party apps to carry out this functionality and whilst they may be more detailed than the built-in abilities with Session, I find Session to be more than enough for 

AppleScript Automation - Session automation will allow you to use AppleScript to execute some cool things. You may want to have Do Not Disturb enabled whenever you start your session and then stop when you’re complete. 

Perhaps you want to kick off a particular playlist in Apple Music or Spotify that plays some calming tunes whilst you work? This can be done with Session. 

Finally, you can look at statistical data that tracks your historic sessions. This is great if you want to look for any kind of patterns that may help you improve your focus. Are there days in the week where you perform better than others? I tend to check these out as part of my Weekly Review so that I can look for any potential improvements that can be made. Marginal gains. 

If you are a Setapp subscriber then I strongly recommend you take Session for a spin. You may just find that you achieve more, in a shorter space of time because you work smarter as opposed to harder and longer.

Review - Sofa 3.0

Productivity is a thing that takes many forms and angles. There is a common misconception that it’s all about getting things done and smashing things off of your to-do list. Not the case. Whilst it’s important of course to work and work efficiently, you need to create the space in yourself to do that. 

Sofa is an awesome iOS application that allows you to create lists of media (and other) resources for you to consume when you slip away from work mode and into that chill zone, we all need. With version 3.0 recently released, it seems to be going from strength to strength and is creating a large following in the Apple community. I don’t need much of an excuse to make a list so this application fits in with the way I function perfectly. 

How Does It Work?

Sofa has a gorgeous front end that houses lists and whilst you can create your own, you will mainly use the default lists that are there. We have books, audiobooks, music, podcasts, video games, board games, TV shows, movies and finally Apps. You add items to these individual lists by tapping the plus button and searching - and if there is a result (which invariably there is), then the item is added. If you cannot find the media title you would like to add, then there is a Custom Add feature that allows you to type in the name instead, thus still allowing you to track. This does come up occasionally - there are some books that haven’t shown up and I’ve found myself torn between using this and Book Track for tracking my reading titles which is, of course, dedicated to that function and always seems to find the titles I need.

If you need more organisation that you can create new lists - I create lists to track books that I have read so I’m not tempted to re-purchase one that I’ve already enjoyed (it’s happened in the past, trust me - I’m that dumb). Taking this premise further, you can organise your lists into groups to ensure that however your brain works, Sofa can list the titles to suit. It doesn’t discriminate, you can add any list to any group and be as flexible as you like.

When you look at the front page of the application, there are several distinct sections. At the top you can search for anything contained within your lists - so as you add more lists and titles, this becomes more of a key feature. Then below that, you have The Pile. This is almost like your Inbox if we’re going to come at things from a productivity standpoint. If you don’t have time to organise an item into a list straight away, it sits in the pile ready for you to tidy up at a time of your choosing. 

Below The Pile, we have Activity. Whenever you click on an item in your Sofa library, you have the option to log this to your Activity Log and then, when you tap Activity, you can see a monthly overview of what media you gave consumed in that time. It usually takes a few minutes of meeting with my friends before the question is asked - “So what have you been watching then?”. A quick check of Sofa and this question is answered and this wows them. They think I’m super-organised when the truth is I just know how to use an app. 

The Shelf is a feature that forms part of Sofa’s new subscription model and I’ll get to the details of that in summary below. The Shelf is a new feature that is similar to The Pile in that it doesn’t need any advanced decision making. It’s almost like a hot list of things that you are going to be looking at next- you’re figuratively putting items on the shelf for consumption later. I generally only have about three items per category on the shelf at any one time and, using the example of Video Games, these are the titles I’m currently actively playing. The Shelf cuts across all lists, so rather than having individual shelves per category, you’ve got one shelf and as soon as you have any downtime you can look at this shelf and ask yourself ‘What do I fancy doing?”

I did say earlier that there is a new subscription model for Sofa which may, understandably, automatically turn some of you away from the application as times are hard for everyone. I’ll cover the extra features that the subscription covers below but I have to say, if you just want to track your media, the free version of the application is more than enough to suit your needs. There is some great functionality that comes with the subscription model but it is in no way a prerequisite to use the app. The cost of the subscription (known as Super Sofa is £3.49 per month, or £31.99 annually and includes the below:

• The Shelf - as described earlier

• Themes - at the time of writing there are 70+ themes available to apply.

• Sticky Notes - you can add simple notes to any item that is on your list which is useful if you need to just make some kind of reference.

• Activity Stats and Filters - this allows you to understand the things you’ve logged to Activity in some more detail. When you tap on the ellipses in the top right-hand corner, you can Show Stats which presents a summary of how many titles have been consumed over a given year.

Enhanced Details - here you can get links to different music services and podcast players for any audio titles you have in your list. To date, there is no ability to link to video services.

Sofa, for me, is one of those rare apps that is a must-have in my arsenal but doesn’t fulfil any of the ‘core’ productivity techniques that may come to mind. It’s all about making sure that when I finally get to enjoy my downtime, I don’t stress myself with trying to find something to watch/play/read, based on remembering recommendations from people. It’s all in the app and helps me avoid that unwanted friction.