Productivity Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Productivity Tip: When and how to use paper vs software

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (May 14th, 2013)

One of the problems with giving people advice is that certain topics are so... personal. Our previous experiences, current technology and outside pressures inevitably corral us into a particular line of thinking or acting. So it is with the debate over paper vs. software solutions. Personally, ...

Productivity Tip: Using specialized lists for specific use cases

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (May 7th, 2013)

It's time for this week's Productivity Tips column. While I use OmniFocus for just about everything, there are times when I prefer other task managers to handle certain things. Many productivity gurus advise against using more than one tool to list tasks, but I don't like putting short-term list ...

Origin Stories: Index Card helps organize your notes like its real world namesake

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (May 3rd, 2013)

If you've ever used index cards to organize lots of notes or ideas, take a look at Index Card by Dennis Vogel. Available for iPad and iPhone, Index Card is ideal for researchers and fiction writers who need to put cards on a wall, but need that wall to go with them. A good example of skeumorphic ...

Macworld's Jason Snell on the failings of digital calendars

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 29th, 2013)

For most of us, calendars are the cornerstone of our work and personal schedules. Though we own "smart" phones, the apps we use to track our days are still relatively dumb, argues Jason Snell of Macworld. In a lengthy article, Snell asks why calendars aren't more like a personal assistant -- ...

Adding copy-to-clipboard rollovers in Contacts app via AppleScript

by Ben Waldie (Apr 29th, 2013)

Apple's Contacts app includes a lot of great shortcuts for initiating different forms of communication. Just click an email address, phone number or URL field label to display a list of available options. You can send an email, show a phone number in large type or start a FaceTime call, for example. ...

Mailbox is working on iPad app, desktop and other versions are in the future

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Apr 26th, 2013)

In what should be one of those no-brainer decisions, the developers behind Mailbox have plans to bring the app to iPad, with desktop and Android clients not far behind, TechCrunch reports. There is no ETA on a desktop version, Mailbox developers tweeted, but it did confirm that the iPad version is ...

Productivity Tip: Take a break

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 23rd, 2013)

In the past couple of installments of TUAW's productivity tips, I've discussed a number of ways to keep you focused on your tasks. Managing those tasks will be the next big-picture topic, but this week I wanted to keep it short and simple, just like your breaks should be. Yes, you should take ...

Daily iPhone App: ListBook: A list app with location based reminders and more

by Matt Tinsley (Apr 19th, 2013)

NoIdentity's ListBook (US$1.99) is a straightforward list compiler that looks great and has some well-implemented features to help you get on top of all those lists and things to get done. The list maker lets you compile numerous lists and add items (or to-dos / tasks) to those lists. To ...

Skitch update (iOS and Mac) includes PDF annotation, stamps

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 18th, 2013)

If you are already a Skitch user and happen to have an Evernote Premium account, a new update now allows you to annotate PDFs using the app. Once you open a PDF in Skitch you'll get a 30-day trial of the premium PDF annotation feature. All users see a new way to add graphics to documents in ...

Productivity Tip: Focus time

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 16th, 2013)

In order to stay productive, you must accomplish tasks. Unfortunately, as communications have sped up and become omnipresent, our focus has been sliced and diced to the paper-thin setting. How many times a day does a calendar invite, Facebook update, email or Tweet send you off your task and ...

AppleScripting OmniFocus > Send completed task report to Evernote 2

by Ben Waldie (Apr 15th, 2013)

In February, I provided instructions for using AppleScript to send completed task reports from OmniFocus to Evernote. The script was quite well-received by readers, and I've had numerous requests for enhancements. This post provides an updated version of the script, which includes a number of ...

Todoist, a web-based task manager available for iOS

by John-Michael Bond (Apr 12th, 2013)

With the staggering amount of task-management apps out on the market, we shouldn't think in terms of which one is "best," but rather which one is "best for you." Todoist is a web-based task-management app that offers all of the basics you expect via to-do lists. However it has one killer ...

Productivity Tip: Time for timers

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 9th, 2013)

Every day you have the same 24 hours as the rest of us to get what is likely a crushing amount of work done and out of your way so you can spend some time relaxing. Or, as one author has framed it, you have 168 hours in a week to accomplish what you want and move forward toward your goals. ...

Ulysses strives and seeks to be a better text editor for Mac

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Apr 8th, 2013)

Not long after I got my first personal Mac in 2004, I began looking for a robust writing program to replace Microsoft Word. There were a few good offerings that catered to what I wanted -- a word processor and a project manager. There was Circus Ponies' NoteBook, and I also used CopyWrite for a ...

Friday Favorite: Due

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 5th, 2013)

Yesterday around the TUAW water cooler a number of us expressed our love of Due, an app for Mac and iOS that is basically a simple timer/reminder application (my original review here). After trying dozens of timer apps, I think Due wins for a number of features that make it stand out from a ...