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?