The Next Labs Focus Session (MacSparky Labs)

Our first Focus Session was a big success, so we’re doing another one on December 29, 2022 at 9:00 AM Pacific. If you’re not familiar with these Focus Sessions, they are a time where a group of us commit to showing up and working on our independent projects but at the same time connected on a zoom call to give us some sense of accountability. Having done our first session last week, I can tell you it works…

This is a post for MacSparky Labs Tier 2 (Backstage) and Tier 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

Contextual Spaces and Window Management Tricks (MacSparky Labs)

Here’s a walkthrough on how I’m using Spaces these days. I like to keep different contexts in different spaces. For example, all of my communications apps are in one Space so I only see those when I actually want to work on communications. Either way, here are my thoughts on context-based spaces and a bunch of tricks to manipulate Spaces and window location using some clever BetterTouchTool scripts.


Chapter Markers
0:00 Introduction 
0:14 Sparky’s Spaces Strategy
1:13 Moving between spaces
2:14 Moving Apps Between Spaces with BTT
3:50 Jump to a Specific Space with BTT
5:22 Move window to a Specific Space with BTT
6:26 Advice and Conclusion

Geek Meter (1-3)
Level 2
This isn’t hard once you wrap your head around the idea of contextual spaces. The script writing bits are trivial in BetterTouchTool and this video shows you how to build them yourself.

Automators 117: Magic Online Automations with Make

In this episode of Automators, Rosemary and I dive into Make.com and get nerdy with a new online automation platform. And because it’s the holidays, we also touch on some of our holiday automations.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

  • MasterClass: This holiday, give one annual membership and get one free! Click this link now.
  • Electric: Unbury yourself from IT tasks. Get a free pair of Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones when you schedule a meeting.
  • LinkedIn Jobs: Post a job for free by visiting this link.

Home Screens – Ian Byrd

Ian Byrd (Website) is a friend, an educator of educators, and a charming human overall. He’s also incredibly thoughtful in the way he handles his technology. So I asked him to share his home screen with us. So Ian, show us your home screen.

What are some of your favorite apps?

I’ve been off-and-on studying Japanese since college but never thought I’d be able to tackle the writing system. For the past couple of years, I’ve been using the service WaniKani and it has really worked! It’s basically fancy flashcards with hilarious mnemonics. I use the third-party app Tsurukame on my phone. It adds some very nice features. Highly recommended for folks who want to learn kanji. 

The Eufy app is great for checking in on our 4-year-old when he’s in his room but suddenly goes quiet. We were using a Ring camera, but the Eufy camera feed loads much faster since everything is stored locally.

AutoSleep is a great sleep-tracking tool that works with the Apple Watch. 

Libby is wonderful for finding and playing audiobooks from the library. I also use it to send ebooks to my Kindle. 

And I have a tiny shortcut that locates my wife so I don’t have to constantly text her for updates.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Here on the Oregon coast, we don’t have any of the big food delivery services, so we use a local version called Slurpalicious! I always feel guilty having food delivered – but the app’s name makes it even worse. 😆

What app makes you most productive? 

I work with school districts, which means I get paid with paper checks. I signed and deposited them all by hand for a while, but that became untenable as my business grew. So I use a mail service called Earth Class Mail. All of the checks go there, and they scan and deposit them for me. Their app makes it easy to keep track of it all. 

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

I use Todoist for, well, to-dos. I’ve tried taking advantage of all of the features in the past, but can never keep up with all of that. So nowadays, I use it to surface must-do, time-sensitive tasks. 

What Today View widgets are you using and why?

I have a shortcut to Notes so I can easily update a shared note that my wife and I use to track funny things our kid says. We are also awaiting new insulation in our attic, and things are very cold upstairs. So I’ve got a Wyze smart plug hooked up to a space heater in my office. There’s a widget that lets me quickly access that plug.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

As a parent, I’ll say that it’s the many ways that the iPhone lets us easily document and share our kid’s life. There’s no way we would have saved all of these quotes otherwise. And it’s fantastic to revisit all of the videos we’ve shot and remember what he sounded like. I also love that the photo widget surfaces old vacations or Christmas over the years. 

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

So, half of my Home Screen is that Photos widget, which I mostly love, but I’m often annoyed by the videos that appear in there. I click it, thinking it’s a photo, but then it turns into a slideshow with music and I can’t figure out how to just get to the photo. Give me a photos-only setting, Apple! I’d also like more control over which photos go in there – just my favorites or just certain people, for example. I’d also like to be able to manually advance the widget if I’m ready for something new. So, yes, as CEO my priority would be the Photos widget. 😆

Do you have an Apple Watch?

I do! I mostly use my Watch for tracking my activity and sleep. I changed my diet up recently, and it was amazing to see how that impacted my heart rate and sleep quality. It’s so nice to have that data on hand. But I probably interact with the Watch the most as a remote control for podcasts in Overcast while I’m walking around town.

Thanks Ian!

Eating Crow on CleanShot X 4.5

For so long, I resisted CleanShot X, the screenshot replacement tool. I told myself that I was such a badass with the built-in screenshot tools that I didn’t need an app, even though everyone kept telling me how they loved CleanShot and it is fairly priced and available through Setapp, making it effectively free for me.

And yet, I still resisted.

About six months ago, I begrudgingly installed CleanShot X and now I can’t imagine life without it. The latest update (version 4.5) adds even more, with the ability to add background images to your screenshots, smart cropping, and capture history. What a great app. Here’s CleanShot’s video showing the latest updates.