Get Better at Managing your Time in 2018 with the Timing App (Sponsor)

Welcome to 2018! Want to get things better this year? A great way to start would be by discovering where you’re spending your time on your Mac.

This week’s sponsor, Timing, is a tool to help you get rolling. I realized several months ago I was increasingly under water with my own productivity. So I started drilling in on Timing, and it’s beautiful reports showing me where I was spending time. Timing is a timer app that doesn’t require you to manually start an stop timers. Instead, it pays super-close attention to everything you do on your Mac and then reports back to you.

Timings reports are always enlightening and sometimes brutally honest. Reading my own reports, I found that I was sinking a lot of time into some work-related tasks that could easily be off-loaded to someone else. So I did that and got back to work. After a few weeks, I had newer-fresher Timing data that helped me further get rid of unwanted work and identify my own personal time sucks.

The folks at Timing are serious about productivity. They even write about it on their blog with this post with some solid advice for New Year’s productivity and habits.

Timing doesn’t put your data in the cloud. Timing has been crucial for me, and I expect it can help you too. Don’t believe me? Download their free trial software and see for yourself.

Try the free 14-day trial and get 10% off until for a limited time using this link. Let Timing help you get 2018 started right.

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Get Focussed with Middle Davids Candles (Sponsor)

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.

OmniGraffle, My Secret Weapon for Graphics (Sponsor)

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This week MacSparky is sponsored by the app that I use as my own personal graphics toolbox, OmniGraffle. OmniGraffle was created as a diagramming tool but it is so much more. I don’t need to use a graphics app every day but I do have plenty of use for one. My early attempts at using graphics tools were always failures because so often the software was too obtuse. OmniGraffle, however, is not. Using OmniGraffle’s powerful, but easily understandable tools, I am able to not only make diagrams but also maps, flow charts, court exhibits, garden plans, countless school projects, and even the family Christmas card. If I’m doing something that involves moving pixels around the screen, OmniGraffle delivers.

OmniGraffle users range from artists to data mappers to (even) geeky lawyers. The tools are fast and easy to learn and there are versions of OmniGraffle for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. I frequently hear from readers that are OmniGraffle-curious. They are interested in the app but not sure whether it is something they need. My answer is always the same. If you have OmniGraffle, you will find uses for it. OmniGraffle makes the creation of graphics and diagrams manageable. Once you lower that bar of entry, you’ll find all sorts of uses for OmniGraffle.

OmniGraffle has recent updates on both the Mac and iOS. Everything is cleaner and easier to use and access to Stenciltown (where you can import and use other folks’ artwork in your diagrams) is easier than ever. They’ve got some great demonstration videos (although their choice in screencasting talent is questionable). Best of all, there’s a free trial so you can download and try it risk free. Up your diagram game today with OmniGraffle.