This week MacSparky is sponsored by Middle Davids Artisan Candles. Middle Davids understand the use of rituals to help with productivity. Have you considered using the scent of a candle? It works.

I burn candles while I work and I always feel that the ritual of lighting the candle is a way to help me focus in on my project. After I’ve worked a few hours, I blow out the candle and take a break. When I come back and light the candle again, the focus comes back. It’s kind of magical and don’t worry about using up matches, Middle Davids gives you those too. 

You’ll be surprised how well this works. This month I’m burning through my favorite Green Tea candle from Middle Davids while I work on my next book. The vast majority of people who try a Middle Davids subscription stick with it. In a world full of technology, this provides a fantastic analog motivational tool. You can literally see the progress of my current side project as the candle burns down in this photo.

With the holidays approaching, you may not just want a candle subscription for yourself. You can gift a subscription so your friends or family get a reminder in the mail every month or two that you care. (They have gift options for one, two, three, four, six and twelve months so every budget is covered.) I love they way they send a hand-written note with something inspirational to all subscription customers.

Dan, the proprietor, is a candle geek (and also a Mac Geek!) and obsesses on candles like I do productivity apps. The candles are 100% botanical soy wax, not paraffin (which is a petrochemical) and the wicks are cotton woven (no metals).

Middle Davids has a subscription plan that gets you two candles a month with 40 hours of burn time. You also get a box of wooden matches, and a sample of the next month’s scent. Give it a try. Best of all, they are giving their biggest discount ever to MacSparky readers. Use the offer code “SPARKY10” (in recognition of 10 years of MacSparky) and get $10 for any new customer or gift subscription. Whether you purchasing for yourself or as a gift, you can’t go wrong.