Posts Tagged → field guide

The Upcoming Productivity Field Guide Update

I want to explain a project I’ve been working on all year: An update to the Productivity Field Guide, due for release in January 2025.

I have to admit that it makes me a little nervous. I’m in the process of releasing the new Shortcuts for iPhone & iPad Field Guide (later this month!), and I’ve never released a new edition of an existing guide in just one year. But in the case of the new Productivity Field Guide, I think it is merited.

Having taught the course materials to many people over the past year ranging in age from 15 to 90, I’ve learned much about where the system gets hard for people and where the friction points are. Moreover, I’ve spent a lot of time researching the underlying principles of the system, and I’ve got additional thoughts about it. Perhaps the most crucial reason for the update is the messages and emails I’ve received from people who’ve gone through the course explaining how the ideas in the course changed their lives.

I can tell you that I’m always happy to release a new Field Guide and teach people how to master some element of their technology. This Productivity Field Guide, however, is different. In this course, I’m teaching you how to master your life. And if I’m being honest, at the end of the day, this course is probably where I will make the most significant impact with my life. So I’ve put a lot of wood behind the arrow on this one with this upcoming update.

Again, we’ll be running an extended webinar series. (Last year, it ran for 12 weeks!) There’ll be a lot of new material. But I wanted to give you a heads-up that this is coming down the pipe. The price will go up to reflect all the work I’ve put into this, but there will be a healthy discount for returning customers.

I can tell you my own relationship with productivity-style literature has always been somewhat skeptical. I don’t believe there’s some magic cure that will make you double the amount of your output or suddenly make a million dollars. Indeed, the only reason this guide exists is that I had to answer some tough questions for myself. I do, however, believe that in the modern world, it’s harder than ever to figure out what’s important and find a way to focus on that. We’re all here for just a limited amount of time, and if we’re going to make a dent, we should at least put that dent exactly where we want it. That’s ultimately my goal with this course: to help you figure out those things for which you resoundingly say yes, so that saying no to the other nonsense becomes easy.

The OmniFocus 4 Field Guide Release

I am thrilled to announce the release of the OmniFocus 4 Field Guide.

  • An in-depth guide into one of the most powerful task managers on the market. 
  • 90+ Training Videos 
  • 7+ Hours of Content 
  • Advanced OmniFocus 6-part Webinar Series (Plus Edition Only)
  • Captioning in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese Simplified, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, Hebrew, and Arabic.

​The OmniFocus 4 Field Guide (Plus Edition)​

​The OmniFocus 4 Field Guide (Standard Edition)​

Get 10% Off for a limited time with the launch discount: OF4LAUNCH

The OmniFocus Field Guide is a video course that takes you, soup to nuts, through The Omni Group’s supremely bad-ass task manager. This course can turn an OmniFocus novice into a task-managing ninja. 

OmniFocus and Me Go Way Back

I started using OmniFocus in its earliest beta releases over 15 years ago. With OmniFocus, The Omni Group built a task manager that can grow and adjust to your needs. 

Over the years, I’ve used the application as a trial lawyer, a professional nerd, and a dad, all to great satisfaction and effect. In this extended Field Guide, I aim to drop all my OmniFocus wisdom on you so you can hit the ground running.

Plus Edition Content 

In addition to the video content, with the Plus Edition, you get a 6-part Webinar Series. (All webinars are recorded and added to the course once edited.)

Webinar Topics

  1. Modern Task Management Concepts
  2. Even More Perspectives
  3. Task Management Systems and Strategy
  4. Going Deeper with Automation
  5. Using OmniFocus with External Apps and Analog Tools
  6. Questions and Answers

Want to learn more? Check out these links…

​The OmniFocus 4 Field Guide (Plus Edition)​

​The OmniFocus 4 Field Guide (Standard Edition)​

Get 10% Off for a limited time with the launch discount: OF4LAUNCH

I’ve had a lot of fun making this course and developing my own thoughts and ideas about task management. I hope you dig it.

Also, here’s some early praise for the OmniFocus Field Guide.

​Want to add a testimonial?​

“As a long time user of Omnifocus, I was eagerly awaiting David’s OmniFocus 4 Field Guide. Boy, he didn’t disappoint. Not only does David do his usual high quality job of explaining how to use OmniFocus 4. He provides a wonderful overview of the systems you can implement to manage your daily tasks. Whether you are new to OmniFocus or a long-time user, David has you covered. Highly recommend. The OmniFocus Field Guide also complements other recent field guides of David’s the Productivity Field Guide and the Obsidian Field Guide. David is slowly but surely building out a suite of Field Guides to help us manage our digital lives.” – Brendan

“Sparky did it again. He took an app I barely understood and made me a power user.” – Grace L.

“An exceptionally well-thought-out course. It provides new insights for those already using OmniFocus, yet is simple enough for people who have not used it previously.” – Michael R.

“I was thrilled to find out that not only the MacSparky field guide’s website is accessible; the video guides are extremely well explained and voiced. All UI elements and paths were clear and understandable immediately. This field guide made me believe again into inclusive teaching via the web. I am happy to say that Omnifocus doesn’t feel intimidating anymore. :)” – Jakob

“I’m thrilled to have found the MacSparky Field Guides. David’s teaching style makes even complex software such as OmniFocus easy to understand and use. I’ve implemented many of the ideas I found in the OmniFocus Field Guide, and I’m already feeling more focused and productive as a result. I’m looking forward to learning more from MacSparky in the future.”
– Cindy

“[The Field Guide’s] clarity and precision impressed me. I checked further and noticed David’s Field Guides. I played the Digital Paper Trial guide and straight away I knew this was the business.

Maybe it’s David’s background as a lawyer that gives his Field Guide Courses clarity and precision. No waffle, just one step leading superbly to the next. In our overcrowded world, it’s pure delight to get something in the digital world actually worth paying for.” – Keith

Book Report: Slow Productivity

I recently read Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity. Cal Newport is one of the leading voices in productivity, particularly for knowledge workers. One of the things I like about him is that he covers a diverse array of topics, from planning your career in So Good They Can’t Ignore You to finding focus in Deep Work and now slowing down for the important stuff with Slow Productivity.

book cover from Cal Newport's book titled slow productivity. it shows a wooden cabin on a cliff in the background, with multiple pine trees in the foreground, with a winding path made of stone in the middle. Way in the background is snow-covered mountain.

There’s a movement afoot concerning productivity and slowing down, and it’s a good one. With the emergence of technology, we all came to the idea that we needed to do more faster, which led us into this current crisis where we’re all so busy doing the little things that we never have time to think about the big stuff. Even though this is normal to us, it is unusual in history.

In this book, Cal goes back through history and explains how, normally, people spend a lot of time thinking about important questions to come up with valuable and important answers. Sir Isaac Newton didn’t have to contend with an email inbox. In this book, Cal talks about ways to bring us back to those roots where we can focus on the big things and a lot less on the small things.

This has been an overall trend for me as well. So much so that one of the video lessons in the Productivity Field Guide is called You Have To Do Less. This is straightforward advice to give and hard advice to accept.

In this book, Cal gives some great examples of practical ways to turn slow productivity into a reality. The book is entirely digestible at 220 pages and full of good ideas for exploration. As a complete aside, I will note that of all of Cal’s books, this one has the best cover.

Announcing the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide 2024 Update and Discount

I am happy to announce an update to my Keyboard Maestro Field Guide. It includes 16 new videos covering many new features added with recent updates, including version 11.

To celebrate this update release, I’ve got a limited-time 20% discount on the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide. Use HOORAYKM11 at checkout for 20% off.

Moreover, I’ve spoken with the gang over at Keyboard Maestro and they are also offering a discount on Keyboard Maestro. For a limited time, you can get 10% off a Keyboard Maestro license with code “KMFG”.

Enjoy!

Your pal, David

P.S. Here’s what people are saying about the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide:

As a Mac nerd, Keyboard Maestro is an indispensable app. There are so many helpful, powerful, and fun things you can do with it. David, as usual, does an excellent job at showing you how to use this app to change your life.

— Shawn Blanc, Founder The Sweet Setup

The Keyboard Maestro Field Guide is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to take their Mac productivity up a notch. David Sparks does a fantastic job of making Keyboard Maestro highly accessible to new users while also providing clever use cases to delight even the most experienced users.

— Tim Stringer, Founder, Technically Simple

Keyboard Maestro is a popular automation tool for the Mac that has a long list of different functionalities, all based around automating different tasks. It takes a simple approach based on triggers and actions, which means you don’t need any scripting or programming knowledge to use it.

The new Keyboard Maestro Field Guide from David Sparks is designed to help you master the app…. The Field guide is completely self-paced, allowing you to follow along and learn at your own speed.

— Chance Miller, writer, 9to5mac.com

Announcing The Productivity Field Guide

I’m thrilled to announce the release of my Productivity Field Guide. You can get it now with a special launch discount (code below).

Here are the Quick Details:

​Productivity Field Guide Plus Edition (or Standard Edition)

Limited Time 10% Launch Discount Code: PFGLAUNCH

Productivity Has Become A Dirty Word

We often associate productivity with life hacks and quick tricks to speed through our emails, but this approach doesn’t truly address the core issue. The real solution isn’t about doing more; it’s about doing less while focusing on what truly matters.

However, identifying what truly matters can be a complex and personal journey. Moreover, you ultimately have to draw your own map. This isn’t easy, but you’re not the first person on this journey and there is help in the recent and ancient past.

I’ve Been on a Quest

I went on a deep dive through modern productivity literature and theory. At the same time, I went back to people like Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius for advice.

I ended up with a productivity system that takes advantage of modern ideas, but is founded on ancient principles.

What I ended up with was a productivity system that let me ship my best work and enjoy life at the same time.

And I will share that with you in this Productivity Field Guide.

The Productivity Field Guide has a lot of pieces:

  • A five-hour video course including 50 instructional videos that will get you up and running.
  • There is also a 100+ page book in both ePub and PDF formats.

The videos and the book are there to get you going. I can’t draw the map for you. (Nobody can.) Instead, I give you the tools to draw the map for yourself.

Each tutorial includes closed captioning in multiple languages.
​

I’ve Been Busy

  • I’ve published 16 Field Guides (Now 17)
  • I’ve recorded some 1,500 hours of podcasts
  • I’ve written a blog since 2007
  • … and I practiced law for nearly 30 years.

Perhaps the most frequent question I’m asked is, “How do you do it all?”

This course answers that question.

​

The Productivity Field Guide Details:

  • 50 Video Tutorials
  • 5 Hours of Content
  • A 100-Page Book
  • An in-depth guide into a unique productivity system that combines the best parts of modern and ancient thoughts on the subject.
  • Captioning in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Tagalog

Plus Edition Content

In addition to the video content and the book, with the Plus Edition, you get:

A Twelve-Part Webinar Series

  1. Getting Started
  2. Roles and Arete
  3. Quarterly and Monthly Planning
  4. Weekly and Daily Planning
  5. Projects and Habits
  6. Maker, Manager, and Consumer
  7. Hyper-Scheduling
  8. Doing the Work
  9. Shutting Down
  10. The Best Tools for Productivity
  11. Questions and Answers
  12. Productivity Spotlights (Currently booked: Shawn Blanc and Chris Bailey.

All webinars are recorded, edited, and later added to the course.

Access to the Productivity Field Guide Private Community Message Board

You can get The Productivity Field Guide now with a Launch Discount:

​Productivity Field Guide Plus Edition (or Standard Edition)

Limited Time 10% Launch Discount Code: PFGLAUNCH

This course is very special to me and I hope you enjoy it.

– – –

The early testimonials for the Productivity Field Guide have been amazing. Here are a few:

Watching the Field Guide is like sitting down with a good friend and talking about your priorities in life. Compared to other productivity resources, this guide is not about figuring out how to do more things in less time; this field guide is about figuring out how to give more time to the important things.

– Philipp
​

MacSparky’s Productivity Field Guide is his best work ever! He teaches a productivity system that is unique to you: it grows out of your life roles and what is important to you. It’s comprehensive: it deals with all of your life, not just what you do at work. It’s practical: he gives you step-by-step instructions on how to set up your unique systems. And I can testify that after following his system for the past couple of years, it is transformative: it can change your life for the better and help you to become the best possible version of yourself. Amazing value for the price: buy it now!

– Jim E.

​
The chapter on roles and arete blew my mind.

– Irene K.

​

I’ve been playing with Productivity systems for nearly 20 years. I wouldn’t expect to have anything new to learn. Sparky proved me wrong. He just saved me from a painful annual review process and has me incorporating my varied roles into my process more.

– Mark L.

Keyboard Maestro 11 and a Field Guide Update

This week saw the release of Keyboard Maestro Version 11. Yes, it now goes to 11.

New features include a New Macro Wizard, a new Security preference pane, a command line tool, support for Apple Text Recognition, and new actions like Prompt for Snippet, Create Calendar Event, Send Pushover Notification, Select Menu by Name, and many more. (Read the full release notes.)

I’m enjoying the new version and am working on a free update to the course with a series of videos showing off the new features. I don’t want to give a release date just yet, but it will be a little while as I’m in the middle of another project, but there is a free update is on its way for the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide.

Announcing the Obsidian Field Guide

I’m so pleased to announce the release of the Obsidian Field Guide. Hooray!

Obsidian Field Guide – Plus
Obsidian Field Guide – Standard

Want the Short Version? Sure:

  • 78 video tutorials 
  • 6 hours of content in the Standard edition​
  • An additional 6 hours of content coming for the Plus Edition​
  • Access to the Obsidian Field Guide Public Vault 
  • Workflows and Usage Samples 
  • Buckets of Obsidian Goodness 
  • Time-Limited Launch Discount Code gets you 10% Off.

Obsidian is a remarkable app, and the new Field Guide came out great. You can even get a 40-minute free sample at the above links. Check it out.

Want the Details? Here you go:

Obsidian brings new tools and paradigms to working with our thoughts on computers. Obsidian can be a game changer, and I’ve been using it since its early beta release. You can turn Obsidian into any sort of notes and data management tool you need: research, client work, PKM, or whatever. I use it primarily to document my own personal operating system, but there is more on that in the course. However, before you can make Obsidian truly race, you need to get some time behind the wheel and figure out how it works.

Build Your Own Mind Palace

Obsidian allows linking to and from notes throughout your Obsidian “vault”, making connections of thoughts easier and more illuminating. It’s built on a plugin-style architecture that gives the app an ever-increasing feature set with plugins built by Obsidian’s developers and the Obsidian community. It’s based on a folder full of Markdown text files, so you always own and control your data. It can be end-to-end encrypted to protect your privacy. People use Obsidian to gather their thoughts, write their dissertations, plan their projects, and even track visits to the veterinarian. The app is powerful and flexible.

However…

The Obsidian on-ramp is steep. It takes a while to wrap your arms around exactly what you can do with this app and unlock its full potential. You need a guide. That’s me, MacSparky, your Obsidian pal. Once you master Obsidian, you’ll also need help picking plugins and figuring out exactly how far down that rabbit hole you want to go. I’ve got you covered there, too.

The Obsidian Field Guide is a 6-hour course including 78 instructional videos that will get you up and running. The course starts with the basics and goes straight through to the advanced. It is carefully paced so anyone can take advantage of Obsidian. Each tutorial includes a full transcript and closed captioning. The transcripts are even bundled into ePub and PDF documents you can download.

Your purchase will also get you access to the Obsidian Field Guide Private Vault, where you’ll get additional resources, links, and access to the samples used throughout the course.

Want More? Get the Plus Edition

In addition to the above, with the Obsidian Field Guide Plus Edition, you’ll get an additional webinar series going deeper into Obsidian with additional materials, guest speakers, questions and answers, and even more Obsidian goodness. All webinar sessions will be recorded and added to downloadable content for plus edition customers.

There’s a lot more, along with a free 40-minute sample, at the below Obsidian Field Guide links. If you’ve ever wondered why so many people love Obsidian, now’s your chance to learn.

Obsidian Field Guide – Plus
Obsidian Field Guide – Standard

Don’t forget, the code OBSIDIANLAUNCH gets you 10% off.

Want a 40-minute sample? Here you go.

My New Book: The MacSparky Paperless Field Guide

I’m thrilled to announce my newest book, The MacSparky Field Guide to going Paperless.
The book is a deep dive on paperless workflows for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It takes full advantage of iBooks Author and includes picture galleries, interactive images, movies, 32 screencasts, and nearly 27,000 words. There is over an hour and a half of video. Not only does this book tell you how to go paperless, it also shows you.

I’ve been cooking this idea of the MacSparky Field Guides for years. I wanted to make a series of books that go into excruciating detail on technology and iBooks Author is the perfect tool. I spent a lot of time getting the layout and video just right and I’m really pleased with the final product.

These Field Guides are a big deal to me. I had tons of great advice on how to price this book ranging from really expensive to $2. There is no existing model for this kind of book but, ultimately, I decided upon $5. I want a lot of people to see this book. I’m really proud of it. If you buy and dig it, please write a review. I want the word to get out about Paperless.

This book is unlike anything I’ve ever done before and I hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed producing it. Because of its interactive nature, the book is iPad only. I don’t plan on releasing a Kindle version. I may create a PDF + Video version if there is demand but this book really begs to be read on an iPad.

The book is currently available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Austria, Germany, and France. More countries are coming.