William does not simply work at AppleInsider, he additionally has a bunch of different writing assignments going continually. This is how William juggles not simply the calls for right here, however in all places else too.
I am Deputy Chair of the Writers’ Guild of Nice Britain and likewise do some work for a UK charity, so I are likely to have complete units of apps and paperwork that I swap between. No matter I have been doing earlier than AppleInsider, I run a Keyboard Maestro macro and all of these apps and paperwork are closed, then every little thing I would like for AppleInsider is opened.
Day by day — seven days every week — begins with the Fantastical calendar and OmniFocus To Do apps on my iPhone. The alarm goes off, these two apps go on, and I am checking what I need to do this day. Invariably the day means being at my workplace M1 Mac mini or on my M1 Max 14-inch MacBook Professional, and AppleInsider work all the time begins with Keyboard Maestro.
There are many methods to do that and I have been utilizing the free Bunch app, however Keyboard Maestro is ready to deal with a number of Areas. I’ve a really extensive monitor, however I additionally use Areas in order that apps I take advantage of solely often are a swipe away as an alternative of in my face, or lurking behind different home windows.
Keyboard Maestro macro for beginning AppleInsider work
Keyboard Maestro opens up about half a dozen apps, positions their home windows in a row throughout my monitor, then strikes to a brand new House earlier than launching the others and routinely logging in to numerous companies.
It then strikes me again to the primary House and I am off writing in Drafts 5, checking accounts in Apple Mail, making notes in Apple Notes, and eternally and all the time being out and in of Safari, Fantastical, and OmniFocus.
I am frequently shocked to say that I’m additionally out and in of OmniOutliner each single day. The shock is as a result of I am not a lot of an outliner, but this app lets me jot down a single concept after which add to it, increasing, shifting and rearranging till I’ve obtained a plan for an occasion, a workshop, an article, or so on.
Fairly often it will likely be that I simply observe down {that a} piece should cowl one specific factor, it is only a observe to myself to make certain to recollect it. Typically, although, that strikes on to my fascinated by how I can cowl it, so I make an extra observe, and that turns into a sentence.
Or two. I’ve inadvertently gone on to jot down complete articles in OmniOutliner. Mike does not like this a lot.
Switching roles inside a job
Whereas I am on AppleInsider, I do not see the rest, any apps or paperwork. I’ve experimented with utilizing Focus modes to even disable e mail accounts such because the Writers’ Guild one, however in that case I discovered I used to be all the time questioning if I had been lacking one thing.
You by no means realise how a lot you want a Stream Deck till you will have one.
Even inside one job, although, I might be switching between writing, analysis, picture work, and producing the AppleInsider podcast. And all through every of these, my Stream Deck XL is a boon.
If I swap to Safari, for example, I get a button on my Stream Deck that keys the brower’s nice translation characteristic. It’s a nice characteristic, I do use it rather a lot, however you must wait whereas Safari tells you a web site might be translated, after which places up a translate icon — that it strikes from left to proper on the deal with bar.
In apply, then, I will observe a result in a web site in French, say, await a beat, then press that Stream Deck button. It calls up Keyboard Maestro, which then seems for the translate icon and clicks the mouse on it.
Or for podcast manufacturing, half my Stream Deck modifications as a result of I’ve now an entire sequence of buttons to do with that. When the podcast session begins, I press a button and it opens a brand new Drafts doc with the date and time in, for example.
Then as we go, if I or my co-host Wesley Hilliard make any form of mistake like a cough, I press one other Stream Deck button. It appends “Edit Wanted” with the minutes and seconds into the recording.
Equally, I’ve obtained buttons for doable chapter begins, doable advert breaks, and so forth.
By the tip of the recording, I’ve a Drafts doc with a shot checklist. If I had been to make use of that checklist as written, although, every time I made an edit then the entire following occasions could be out by nonetheless lengthy that edit was.
So as an alternative I take my shot checklist and work backwards from the tip.
{Hardware} I depend on
The AppleInsider Podcast is recorded regionally by each hosts and any visitors. In my case, the recording is finished often in QuickTime Participant, however over the previous few months I’ve switched microphones.
Hollyland Lark M2 Wi-fi mic
I am now utilizing a Hollyland Lark M2 Wi-fi mic that I purchased to movie 58keys, a YouTube channel for writers that I produce. I’ve had peculiarly combined outcomes with tiny wi-fi mics earlier than, however this one has been flawless.
Lately I additionally changed my defective AirPods Professional 2, however I do not really like them for podcasting or particularly for enhancing. So as an alternative I put on Sony MDR-7506/1 over-the-ear headphones that had been beneficial to me by UK coaching for Piece of String Media again in 2021.
A way more current buy that is made a major enchancment for me is the Lexar Go transportable SSD with hub. I backed this on Kickstarter and acquired a 2TB model that I can plug into my iPhone for filming 58keys.
Currently I’ve discovered AirDropping video from my iPhone to my Mac has been problematic, and all the time after I’m on a deadline. So now whereas there are other ways to do that and I am nonetheless exploring, I can on the very least simply unplug the Lexar drive from my iPhone and plug it into the Mac.
Lexar’s 2TB transportable drive has been a boon for filming movies
As soon as it is there, I edit video in Last Lower Professional and even earlier than the brand new model 11, you’d have needed to prise it from my palms, I really like that app a lot. I do now additionally subscribe to the iPad model and whereas I am not utilizing it sufficient, or as a lot as I anticipated, I do like after I make a first-pass meeting edit on it.
I have a tendency to try this after I’m required to be away from my very own workplace due to household points. These points, because it occurs, have additionally led to the final of my new buys in 2024.
That 49-inch monitor is so extensive it will get distorted in pictures
Again in August, I purchased a Ugreen 100W charger and it is changed all of my numerous plugs. One charger, with three USB-C ports and one USB-A, it fees every little thing remarkably rapidly.
In 2025 I will be doing extra travelling, beginning with a go to to a faculty in Switzerland, and that charger will go along with me in all places. So, after all, will the iPhone 16 Professional Max I simply upgraded to — and which exhibits me OmniFocus and Fantastical each morning.