Fifthy percent of my posts are me inside my head trying to sort things out essentially. They are internal debates about whether I should do (X) vs (Y) and vs (Z). I set them out there, publish them and five minutes later I go, “Aha! I am going to go with (W)!” Writing/thinking out laud is my way to… “mindmap” my thoughts. If you will? Does that make any sense?

For the past few years, I have been centering all my different workflows around the Apple ecosystem. My writing tools, task managers, RSS readers, calendars, etc. Media consumption in general, in fact, almost any activity I do is mostly iOS/iPadOS/Mac centered. Now all my systems are, not broken but it looks like some need alterations or needs to be reassessed. With my new job I now spend at least 8 hours of my day in front of a PC, Windows OS (which I don’t love). Even though I do carry both my iPad Pro and my iPhone with me at all times, is not like I am using them to manage work (maybe I should?). Well, I do but is somewhat limited. I have a few examples.

Task Management

My Tasks management of choice for the past few years has been Omnifocus. As I have probably mentioned many times before it’s very underused but still effective for my needs. Sometimes when I am not using Omnifocus, I use Things 3, sometimes even Todoist but always end up back at Omni. My problem at the moment is managing my tasks on a PC, Things 3 doesn’t have either Windows app or a web app, OmniFocus, on the other hand, does have at least a Web app. Todoist has an iOS/iPadOS/Mac app(s), a web app and a Windows native app. Having the Windows app available makes it super convenient to quickly add tasks and manage them from my work computer without having to necessary use my phone or iPad. Here are my problems.

• Though OmniFocus would be my first choice, I am not a huge fan of the web app. I mean, it does help to have it there and it’s okay for entering tasks and review my forecast but for some reason, it doesn’t feel polished enough and it requires a subscription to use the web app.

• Things 3, I love Things 3' aesthetics, design and how less stressful is to use it is compared to Omnifocus. Love the upcoming tab, probably my most used tab and the one that looks the best to me. I like seeing all my tasks and calendar events there, so useful. But being and iOS only app (I say iOS only because I don’t bring my Mac with me) means that I will have to use either my phone or iPad for capturing and managing tasks. Which is a solution but, I don’t think is the most efficient.

• Todoist, so far it has been the best solution. Capturing and managing tasks it’s pretty straight forward. It is so easy to sometimes just copy a piece of text from an email and turn it into a task almost magically, like witchcraft. Sync it’s pretty much solid, I enter it in the Windows app and it shows up in all my other devices. I do like Todoist’s Next 7 Days view but no calendar events there like on Things or even Omnifocus. And Todoist would be another subscription. (Sidenote: I wonder if I could get the company to pay for that, hm?)

I think the bottom line is that I rather use what I already own and don’t have to pay a subscription for it if I can help it. I have way too many subscriptions in my life at the moment and if I can get away with using the tools I have already paid for then so be it. The reason why apps like Omnifocus and Things are the two options than I would rather pursue is, I own these apps on every platform I own, iOS. iPadOS and MAcOS.

Writing

Sometimes I get something in my mind while at work and need it to get it out before I forget. I do have some downtime here and there so I take the chance to put my thoughts down, just like with this post. My Text editor of choice is both Drafts 5 (where most of, if not all of, my text starts) and iA Writer. Drafts 5 is not on Windows so that’s a no go, I know iA Writer is but one, I would need to purchase it and two, I have I.T. restrictions and can not install anything that is not from the Windows store. So, so far my solution has been having a Chrome tab with the Grammarly website opened and type way in there, copy and paste it into Micro.blog web page. It’s just the formating part that kind of sucks. Or then again, I could just type on my iPhone or iPad but it’s more convenient this other way I guess.

Media

For browsing and posting on Micro.blog, that’s easy, I just access the website and I don’t mind it at all, actually, it is more convenient for certain things. RSS reading, for the longest time I have been using either Reeder or Unread for my RSS reading with Newsblur as the backend. I have recently been trying (and paying) for Feedbin. If I am using Reeder, I can use it in both iOS (iPadOS ) and Mac, Unread on iOS. With Reeder I can access my feed in iOS with both Reeder and Unread (and now even Feedbin’s app) but on windows, I have to use Feedbin’s website, which is fine and it syncs to all my other apps. For music and podcasts, well, that was an interesting one. I have always used my phone for consuming both my music and podcasts. I am an Apple Music subscriber and my Podcast app of choice is Overcast. Normally I would just use my Airpods for this but I found myself using a good pair of headsets I got for my computer. At first, I was just listening to podcast thru Overcast’s web app and one day I thought, “maybe I should just get a Spotify subscription” since it has a Windows app. That day was when Apple released the web version of Apple Music beta, so no Spotify subscription.

It seems like a lot of the way I do some things might need some adjustments or alternatives. Is not like I want to do every single thing on Windows, I hate Windows, but it’s the tool I have been given and where I spend most of the time with. I’m sure I can find a way to make everything to workout swimmingly but for now, I am just trying to figure stuff out. Maybe the idea of using my personal iPad to manage work-related tasks isn’t a bad idea, maybe I should explore that.

Almost a week since I have played Gears of War 5. Like I posted before a monster scared me. Tonight I braved up, put in the game and battle the damn thing! It was scary I tell ya! They called it the Matriarch and I hope that this is the one and only encounter with this thing. I hate scary games, though, Gears had never been a scary game to me before, until now.

By Jeff Perry,

This was a great post by Jeff, there’s so much true in this. What really struck a cord for me was the part when he references,

If I had (x) then I could do (y).

I find myself in this dilema very often. In fact I’m going through it right now. For example I have been thinking about doing my own microcast of sorts. At first was, if I upgrade my Micro.blog plan (x) then I could do my microcast (y). Now that I have upgraded my plan — if I had a better software or microphone or a topic (x) then I could actually start and record (y).

It’s a never ending cycle. I had a familiar dilema for the longest time going in my head as well before I started blogging. Until the day I started and haven’t stopped since.

#JUSTSTART (they say)

This is some good advice right here,

One of the things I have done to combat this Toolbox Fallacy was to start this new photo everyday challenge for myself.

Maybe I should create a challenge for myself, maybe not about photography but maybe to record something every day. Just record it for myself and maybe one day I’ll start posting them. That’s how I started with blogging. I made a challenge of journaling, write something everyday even if it never saw the light of day. I TIL the day I started posting.

if you find yourself in a “Toolbox Fallacy” look at what you’re saying that you “need” and see if there’s a way for you to turn that limitation into innovation. It might not always work, but for me it has allowed me to turn a barrier into a doorway.

I’ll do my best Jeff.

Here’s my podcast pitch (which I’ve pitched to a super secret Slack channel not long ago). Remember the Inquisitive from Relay FM with Myke Hurley? At some point during the life of the show, it evolved into Myke interviewing other people about their favorite album. That was it, a simple conversation about music and their love for that specific album and what it meant to them. That was a good show that sadly got canned. I miss those types of conversations/shows, or shall I say those types of shows, the non-tech ones.There was nothing techie about it, it never felt like it was geared to a tech audience, like most of the shows I tend to listen nowadays. Or (Apple) news and rumors type shows. I’m a little over those.

Same reason I find myself listening to old episodes of Review, those were also fun conversations. I guess the equivalent of that would be easily the Incomparable. A random guest (or group of people) nerding out, whether is about music or movies. Someone needs to get on that! Pronto ! I’m sure there are other shows out there doing the same sort of thing. I know Joe Cieplinski has the Weekly Listen, which is fantastic and I love it but not quite the same format. So! Any takers, I’ll be your first guess if needed, send me a message on the ICQ’s.

Yesterday I had Marley run around the backyard, I wanted to sort of test the Olympus 75mm. I’m happy about its performance capturing a highly mobile toddler.

Sunday.

Luna

Rocking

A running wild Marley

Gnome 🌻

It’s a truck