It’s been a little over a year since I wrote about setting up iOS focus modes. At the time, it was a new feature in iOS15 and one that felt far from ready for release. The confusing UX and complicated options lead to my conclusion that hardly any people would use the feature. Now 13 months on, my feelings have changed very little. Improvements have been made, but the hoops you have to jump through, and the missing features, mean that Focus Modes on all Apple devices still suck.
Overall, the experience of trying to set up your Focus Modes feels like it was designed by an engineer. That the team designing this already expects you to understand how to use it, with little to no onboarding or instructions. This isn’t unique to Focus Modes, Apple still struggles to communicate the intricacies of its software and even the help guides online expect you to already have a large knowledge of the feature you need help with.
I did get a little too excited when iOS16 introduced a way for apps to tap into the new focus modes. Namely, Apple Mail can now make certain accounts show at certain times, but with there still being no “everything else” Focus Mode, you can’t make your work email only show in a work Focus Mode. It will still be displayed when there is no Focus mode active.
This wouldn’t be an issue, I could just create a focus mode that is active when not at work and hack around this. Except that an icon appears at the op of my screen constantly, and the sync between devices is still all or nothing. Apple really needs to spend some time thinking about how these modes work and how normal people might use them. I love the fact I can have my phone be different things at different times, but the designers haven’t thought about what happens the rest of the time.
Having Focus Modes is better than nothing. The improvements are moving in the right direction, but setting them up and understanding everything falls well short of the mark I expect.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it. Everyone who’s used the web knows what a blog is. They were the web for a very long time, before all this social media nonsense kicked off, and there’s a very real push for more people to start them. The belief is that you have to have something to write about, or you need a special set of skills, but in reality you don’t need anything.
Well, you require a way to do it, and thankfully there are loads of options out there, many of them free, but this post isn’t about that. The trouble comes with what to put on your blog, and that’s where it’s important to remember what a blog is. It’s a web log. It’s there for you to ‘log’ anything you want. From thoughts and ideas, to life lessons and photos from vacations. There should be no worry about the what or the why of what you put on your blog.
You don’t need to start a website. Nor do you need to moleskin the posts you put there. You just need to take all the output you would usually give to a social network for free and put it on your blog. That’s why services like micro.blog, Tumblr or WordPress plugins like social sharing are the best place to start. You can share your blog to wherever you want, but keep control of everything you do.
There’s a higher, more preachy post on owning your content in here somewhere, too. One that urges you to get to grips with blogging to make the web a better place, but all you need to worry about is having a blog. Using it for whatever you want to use it for, and making sure you carry on sharing with the web. What is a blog is a question with numerous unique answers, but the reality is that a blog is you.
I did not know this at the time of writing and will not be linking to this person again. For more infromation see here.
Jesse Singal urging us to Rediscover Wrongness
People can usually believe wrong things without being dangerous, and in fact billions of people do hold religious beliefs that make no logical sense without becoming violent zealots.
I am wrong, what feels like hundreds of times a day, some days. Occasionally, it’s small things that I didn’t think though correctly and guessed. Sporadically, it is matters I didn’t really understand or misinterpreted the information I had at hand. And every so often I just choose wrong, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this.
Don’t get me wrong I am right a lot of the time too, I’m not ready for life help yet, but I am not doing anyone any harm. There’s no malice in a lot of the things I believe in that could be wrong, I am just wrong and that should be OK. I’m fine with being wrong, finding out that I am wrong and then changing my world view, but many people seem to have forgotten this skill altogether.
The issue comes when someone that another thinks is incorrect is painted as a harmful, and often portrayed in an exaggerated way. The other side of a disagreement isn’t evil or trying to trick you, they just see the world differently to you and make decisions based on their experiences. As Jesse points out in the linked article, “If everything is dangerous or violent, then nothing is”.
The notion in the article of much of this constant state of angriness is due to the attention economy is correct. The more exaggerated the accusations and finger pointing, the more attention is gained. No-one believes that having a wrong idea about the way the Pyramids are built is harmful, as the author well knows, but that doesn’t get clicks, does it.
There is also a real issue of the bubbles we all live in now. Social media algorithms creates a space where we see posts and updates that we agree with. YouTube and Netflix force content on us that we will like, and issues arise when we bump up against the edges. We, the people, need to learn how to disagree with someone but still appreciate them as a person. To smile and shake your head at the conspiracy theorist next door, but still stop and talk to them whenever you can.
The lines of politics have never been this rigid before, and it’s pathetic. I know we can get back to being OK with this. I was brought up with a friend group that was as diverse as it comes, and with an ingrained bullshit detector that was sharpened in a school without internet access. We learnt to fall out, make up again, argue and bicker but still get along together.
I know this ability is in all of us. One wish for 2023, now the walls of large social media are at least a bit broken, can we re-learn to disagree politely, please? To take criticism, embrace other view points and not worry about it. You might actually learn something too.
I really was. Despite not feeling very well, and not due to New Year’s Eve for once, I wanted to publish something today. Not because I had much to say, but because I am on a bit of a roll lately and have found that the act of wanting to write something usually pushes something into my mind.
This is in stark contrast to my thoughts a few months ago, where I chose to keep quiet unless I had something to say. However, I have found that my motivation needs a bit of a prod even now and again. Taking some advice from James Clear in Atomic Habits ( ) sometimes I have to want to be a writer and take on a writer’s identity to actually do some writing.
Instead, I just fixed loads of bugs in my blog, wrote an about me page and played around with my writing environment. I’ve been a long-time user of Ulysses and have been feeling the itch to move to something new. Doing the usual thing of downloading every app going, realising that Ulysses is the best one for me again, and instead messing with my theme to make it look new. A new lick of paint seems to have done the trick for now at least.
Hence, this post started out as a test to see whether I liked the new theme or not. So in a round about way I did what I set to do, just not in the way a ‘proper writer’ should do. Or maybe they do, fart about and do other things until inspiration hits them? I have no idea, but getting things done in your own way doesn’t really matter as long as the thing gets done — and I had fun doing it.
Following my link post talking about bullet journals, I received quite a few replies. Many from those that have, like me, tried and failed to use physical tools, but some from advocates. One , and was something I wanted to expand on.
I have come to terms with the fact that, despite my love of physical things, digital tools suit me better. I always have one
, in my pocket, or I am sat at my desk. This is not for want of trying. In January, each year, I buy a diary, accompanied by some new notebooks, and throw myself in again. Only to fail sometime in the next month and go back to Apple Reminders. I don’t have a super stressful job that requires me to project manage or anything in depth, but I have numerous tasks that fall onto my desk each day.What I have noticed from this cycle of trying is that without conscious thought, digital tools can be just as bad as physical ones. The expectation is that these intelligent apps will somehow make sure we get everything done, when in fact there is the same risk of a pile up of tasks that will never be checked off. There is no magic app that will get things done for you, and I’ve tried them all, you have to put the work in too.
One of the most beneficial practices from bullet journaling is having to copy tasks over to the new day. Keeping things in your mind and making sure they are completed on time. The best way to do this digitally is by scheduling in at least a weekly review of all your tasks. I do this as the first thing in my calendar every Monday. Reviewing each task in my lists, the steps I follow are:
This practice is easy to dismiss, but from experiences if you do not take time to address all the things expected of you, then things will be missed. Tasks will end up gathering digital dust without due dates. You will begin to struggle to remember when and if tasks need completing or if you have already done them. Without being mindful of the tasks you have, you will forget things and not get as much done.
Everything needs to go in one place, no exceptions, no excuses and no forgetting! If you have one book to write everything in, then you must have one app to do the same. There is no perfect app and to be honest, most people will suffice with whatever app is pre-installed on your phone. Apple Reminders is my favourite app to use because it works with Siri. I find it hugely beneficial to ask Siri to do it rather than tapping through options, or even having to pull out my phone.
This isn’t a pitch for a specific app, far from it. It’s more of a plea to pick something and stick with it. A
, but a better system will. I have to use currently, but this will be stopping in the new year thankfully. However, even if you want to use one app for work and one for home to separate things, this is still an easy way to work.There are many things that physical todo lists excel in and there is no getting around it. If you really want to get things done, you have to put in some effort too. Expecting an app to save you without putting in the work is a shortcut to failing.