Focused 137: Managing Busy




Mike and I return to the insidious problem of “busy” on the latest episode of Focused. We are not beyond getting caught in this trap, and we share some ideas about how to avoid it.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

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Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide Update

I had really hoped to be announcing the Shortcuts for Mac Field Guide this week but, alas, between some unexpected legal work and the rough Shortcuts for Mac beta, it’s not done. When it comes to Field Guides, “Good” is always better than “Fast.” What I can tell you is that I’m deep into recording now and making good progress. Moreover, the software is at a state where (most) of my planned videos can be recorded. I’m hoping to release it in November. I’ll have more updates soon.

In the meantime, if you are playing with Shortcuts for Mac and have any particular issues or topics you’d like to see me cover in the new Field Guide, there is still time. Just drop me a note with “Shortcuts for Mac FG” in the title. I will read them all but no promises about what gets added. This one is already looking like it will be a long one.

Some Monterey Features of Note


Today marks the release of the latest iteration of macOS, Monterey. The usual disclaimers apply. If you have production software on your Mac that you use to pay for your shoes, you should seriously check all of that out before installing this update. That said, I’ve been running the beta for months, and it’s been largely stable (except for Shortcuts, explained further below). Once you get it installed, there are several features that I found delightful through the beta:

Focus Mode


Focus mode is my favorite feature this year. It lets you set contexts that control what apps show up on your iPhone and iPad, along with what apps and people can interrupt you. It’s more powerful than I could have expected, but there are limitations. With the release of Monterey, you can now have your Focus mode reflected in your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. This ability to launch a feature across the spectrum of Apple’s computing hardware is something new and a testament to their changes over the last few years to unify the experience across devices. This unification comes at a price, but also pays dividends like this. I’m putting together a free webinar on Focus mode in the next few weeks to explain how I use it. Stay tuned for an announcement in the next few days.

Mac as AirPlay Receiver


Red 5 = My Mac

I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about this. Still, now, in addition to transmitting your Mac’s screen and audio to a different AirPlay device (like an Apple TV), you can also turn your Mac into an AirPlay receiver, which allows you to share a screen from another Mac or transmit your iPad screen to your Mac. This also works for audio, so if you’ve got some nice speakers connected to your Mac, you can play your iPhone audio through your Mac’s speakers.

The Nuke Button

Deleting your data from your Mac has always involved multiple restarts and visits to the system recovery tools. Now you just go to the System Preferences menu and choose “Erase All Content and Settings…” to get started. Deleting your data from your Mac is now as easy as it is on your iPhone and iPad.


Improved Window Management

Window management on the Mac leaves a lot to be desired. Indeed this is one of those areas where I think Microsoft has done a better job than Apple has with macOS. There has been some improvement this year, however.

Menu Bar in Full-Screen Apps

If you go into the Dock & Menu Bar preference pane, there is now a Menu Bar section with a checkbox to “Automatically hide and show the menu bar in full screen.” This was always a sticking point for me with full-screen apps. If the apps take the full screen, I can certainly afford a few pixels at the top for the Menu bar. Now I can put it there by default by leaving this box unchecked.


Better Tiled Window Support

For several years now, the Mac has been able to tile two apps on the screen at once. But it has been garbage. Assembling the tiles takes a lot of dragging, and if you minimize either window, you break the tiled window set up. The feature has been unusable for me. It just felt like the guy doing window management went out for a pack of cigarettes and never returned.

With the new Monterey release, there is a new feature where you can have the opportunity to replace a window with another application if you click and hold onto the green button. I don’t think this is ultimately going to lead me to start using tiled windows. There are still too many other problems. It is, however, better. I just wish they did more with window management on the Mac.


Safari Improvements

There are lots of things that go on inside Apple that are pretty boring. The running battle over the latest iteration of Safari is not one of them. I would love to hear one day what happened over the summer of 2021. Safari’s visual design got turned on its head and then turned back to its original position again. That wasn’t the only change of note to Safari, however.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention

One particularly nefarious practice online marketers have been doing is building profiles of you based on your online activity and your IP address, and you don’t need to sign up for an online account for them to creep on you. Apple has been engaged in a running battle with these people. This year’s Safari update added intelligent tracking prevention, making it harder for marketing companies to profile you. You get this for free, and I like it.

Tab Groups

I like to think of the new tab groups feature as bookmarks 2.0. It’s a little more intuitive and makes it easier to group tabs based on the area of research. You could set, for example, a group of tabs based on your personal life, your scuba diving habit, or your work. A lot of nerds have dismissed this, but I can see plenty of uses for Tab Groups. Moreover, I think a lot of people that don’t dream in binary will find it helpful.

Quick Note

Quick Note was a banner feature for the iPad this year, but there is also support for the feature on your Mac. Just put the mouse cursor in the lower-right corner and click. A Quick Note will appear on the screen with a link to your current focus. This is a rudimentary but zero-effort way to get started with contextual computing. You can later jump between the website or source app and the note with a click. I’m not sold on Quick Notes. (I do something far more powerful with Obsidian.) That, however, doesn’t change the fact that this is an excellent way to get started with linking contexts.

And, of Course, Shortcuts

Shortcuts for the Mac was touch-and-go for much of the beta, but made a lot of improvement towards the end. There are still some broken pipes in there, but essentially you can start automating with Shortcuts right away.

You can download the Monterey update today from the App Store.

Automators 87: Email Rules Automation




Email automation is a thing, but email rules-based automation is another thing entirely. Join Rosemary and me on the latest episode of Automators to learn more.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

  • Stripe: Learn more about how Stripe and their products can support your business.

  • LinkedIn Jobs: Post a job for free by visiting this link.

  • Hunter Douglas: Take advantage of Hunter Douglas’ ‘Season of Style’ rebate savings event – until December 6, 2021.

  • The Intrazone, by Microsoft SharePoint: Your bi-weekly conversation and interview podcast about SharePoint, OneDrive and related tech within Microsoft 365.

Eating Max Crow

So a few days ago I posted my new MacBook Pro spec and explained why I didn’t see the upgrade from M1 Pro to M1 Max as worth the $1,200 price increase for me. Then MPU Forum member MereCivilian pointed out that with my spec the actual difference in price wasn’t $1,200, but $200. (It was actually $400.) I don’ know whether to thank him or curse him.

So I slept on it.

And I woke up realizing that: 1) this will be my primary machine for years; and 2) every time I render a video (which in my case is almost daily), I’ll be reminded of the fact that if I had spent an extra $400 in 2021, it would render twice as fast. I realized that this fact will drive me nuts.

I don’t buy the fanciest cars … but I do like fancy computers. So this morning I got on the phone with Apple support and paid a few extra bucks (and managed to push my ship date back to December) with my new MacBook Pro holding an M1 Max chip. All that stuff I wrote a few days ago about me not needing this particular chip? Never mind.

The Future of Mac Reliability

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Apple silicon and its implications for Macintosh reliability. Before the arrival of Apple silicon, a typical Mac logic board included a CPU, separate RAM, an Apple W2 or some other sort of secure enclave, chips to manage inputs and outputs, (often) a discrete video card, Apple’s separate machine-learning chips, and a bunch more bits and pieces that all now exist as the single System on a Chip (SoC) that is Apple silicon. So does combining everything in one SoC make the Mac more or less reliable? A case could be made for both points. Without all the digital tethers needed to tie all those separate pieces together, Apple silicon should have less that can go wrong with it and be more reliable. On the flip side, if something does go wrong on Apple silicon, the machine is probably dead.

When trying to predict whether these new Apple silicon Macs will be more or less reliable, it is important to remember this is not Apple’s first SoC rodeo. They’ve been making SoCs for the iPhone and the iPad for years.

A few days ago, I was on the telephone with an old friend, and he commented that his wife still loves the iPad I helped him set up about nine years ago. It is an iPad 2 and still working fine. I told him, “You should buy your wife an updated iPad. They have a good one for $329.” He had me on speaker because then his wife chimed in, “I don’t need a new iPad. This one still works like new.” Her nine-year-old iPad running on an Apple SoC still runs “like new” after nearly a decade. I realize this is anecdotal, but looking at iPads in particular that have a bit more cooling (even if it is just a big aluminum heat sync) and don’t get abused as hard as iPhones, I’m aware of a lot of very old iPads still in use.

Moreover, again anecdotally, I’m not aware of anyone I’ve spoken to who told me their iPad SoC failed. I know plenty of folks who broke the screen, but nobody who had the SoC fail them. Think about your friends and family circle. I suspect you’ve had the same experience.

I take this as a good sign for the new Mac SoC designs. The Mac SoC is a successor to those early iPad chips. Indeed, the new iPad Pros run on the current Mac SoC, the M1. If I were a betting man, I’d say that old running Macs are about to become much more common in the coming years. I sure hope so.

Assuming I’m right, the problem then becomes software. Even though my friend’s wife still loved her iPad 2, I’m sure her operating system has to be years old. Apple is generally good about supporting old hardware with new software updates, but what will they do if it becomes common for Macs to run reliably for 10 or 12 years? There is just so much to this Apple silicon Mac transition that seems to be rewriting the rule book. Exciting, right?

Mac Power Users 611: Unleashed, Indeed




The latest episode of Mac Power Users is out now. Stephen and I talk through Apple’s new batch of MacBook Pros, powered by the M1 Pro and M1 Max systems on a chip.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

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