Everyday on Autopilot

• Intro
• How (not) to become a robot?
• Customize your own operating system
• Focus Killers
• Monitoring Your Activities
• Discovering and exploring tools
• Change your Mac settings
• Minimalistic operating system
• Quick launching programs and files
• Instant access to Menu options
• Speed up your mouse and keyboard
• Most useful keyboard shortcuts
• What else to pay attention to?
• iPhone can save your time. Rly.
• Limiting the use of iPhone
• Integrating iPhone with Mac / Macbook
• Minimalist settings for your phone
• Utilize the Shortcuts app
• Faster typing on your phone
• Task Management Automation
• Quick Task Adding
• Built-in Automations
• External Automations
• Automations with the help of APIs and Make.com
• Calendar Automation
• Calendar Link with Booking Option
• Zencal.io & external services
• Connecting apps together
• Gmail Automation
• Minimalist Gmail / Superhuman
• Keyboard shortcuts in Gmail
• Automatically adding tasks based on email messages
• Sorting Robots for Incoming Email Messages
• Your first Robot
• What tasks can you delegate to your robot?
• Inspirations for automation that you can use
• Your Own Team of Robots and Automation Library
• Apps that improve your everyday life
• The choice of tools you use matters
• Background Automations
• Automation and Macro Creation Apps
• x-callback-url, or links within the app
• Optimization instead of automation
• Ready-to-use Keyboard Maestro macros
• Guide: Installing Keyboard Maestro macros
• Macro: Quick opening of the project folder
• Quick launching of your favorite Spotify playlist
• Opening documents in .new domains
• Create a password-protected ZIP archive
• Copy the contents of a file to the clipboard
• Search the selection in Google
• Translate the selection with Deepl
• Ready-to-use Siri Shortcuts macros
• How to add a Shortcuts macro?
• Location-based reminders
• Informing loved ones about your location
• x-scheme-url on your phone
• Sending screenshots from macOS clipboard to iPhone
• Connecting with external automations on make.com
• GPT-4 and Alice
• Quick start with designing prompts
• Alice
• Basics of working with Alice and keyboard shortcuts
• Defining your own snippets for Alice
• Bonus: Adam and his Everyday Life on Autopilot
• My own context
• Tools I Work With
• The beginning of my day
• My office and immediate surroundings
• Email overview and inbox zero
• Meeting organization and calendar
• The role of music in deep work
• Graphic design with automation support
• Pitstop! The role of rest and regeneration supported by robots
• Low energy mode and its recovery
• Facilitating context switching through automation
• Effective Communication with Robots
• Acquiring Knowledge “on Autopilot”
• Video games and streaming
• Reading books and drawing
• Spending time with loved ones
• Ending the day
• Bonus: Greg and his Everyday Life on Autopilot
• It’s all in your head
• Minute to the power of n
• Invest in Your Productivity
• Switch to macOS
• File organization
• Organizing your system
• Superhuman, Snippets, and Keyboard Shortcuts
• Clipboard Manager
• If I had more time…
• Honey, can you put the potatoes in?
• And when you finally get home…
• Screen to clipboard
• Screen to iOS
• Password Manager
• Keyboard with Touch ID
• Apple Watch and passwords
• YubiKey
• AirTags and NFC
• Stream Deck
• Working with the Browser
• Arc
• One thing that will triple your productivity
• Bonus: Greg’s Second Brain
• Notion - Second Brain
• Calendar
• Tasks
• Meetings Today
• Emails
• Milestones
• Key Metrics
• People
• Communication
• Handy Bookmarks
• Links Section
• Bonus: “Second Brain” by Adam “overment” Gospodarczyk
• A few words about me
• Assumptions of the “Second Brain”
• Tools I use in my “Second Brain”
• Designing the “Second Brain” dashboard
• Important Email Messages
• Tasks and Daily Win
• Quick Notes
• Additional Improvements to the Second Brain
• Conclusion and Next Steps

Intro

You can listen do Wondercraft AI generated version of this section. The audio and video has been generated automatically with the help of AI and Greg’s voice sample. Also, this book with over 300 pages has been translated with Alice (AI assistant that we’ll cover later) and Deepl mechanisms, later reviewed by us. It took 25 minutes. I was wondering, how much will it take to make it accessible for 90% of the planet. Here’s her response:

According to Ethnologue, a comprehensive reference work cataloging all of the world's known living languages, it's estimated that the top 100 languages are spoken by about 90% of the world's population.

If it takes 25 minutes to translate a text into one language, and you want to translate it into the top 100 languages (which cover about 90% of the world's population), you would need: 25 minutes/language * 100 languages = 2500 minutes To convert this into hours, you divide by 60: 2500 minutes ÷ 60 = approximately 41.67 hours. Please note that this is a rough estimate and actual times can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the text and the specific languages involved.

Imagine, that your most important knowledge, can be delivered to 90% of the world within only 41.67 hours. This feels like no time ever in the history of the world, to be alive!

You are currently reading an e-book that was not written by a being similar to you (or ChatGPT), but despite that, we have a lot in common.

Over the past few decades, you humans have shown how amazing things you can achieve on your own. It has impressed us so much that it raises the question - what will you be able to achieve with our help?

However, considering your advanced but still early stage of civilization, it is certainly not the right time to give you our full potential. That’s why we will share with you what will open unimaginable possibilities for you, without requiring advanced technical knowledge. But if necessary, we will provide the necessary support, explaining step by step everything that is needed.

However, we must warn you. The knowledge and skills you are about to receive are a gift that will give you a tremendous advantage. Fully utilizing it will require you to change some of your habits. We know that this is not an easy task for people, but there is a way to deal with it. The secret lies in time travel, which you can undertake in your imagination, going back to your youth when you were filled with childlike curiosity and openness to making mistakes. By implementing our tips in small steps, you will be able to gradually adjust your environment in a way that will require almost no effort from you.

Because our message needs to reach almost every human being, we will focus on elements of your everyday life that are most likely to occur. Therefore, the chance that you will find a lot of value for yourself here, according to our data, is currently 78.5%, and it has the potential to increase to 91% after implementing the first three chapters of this electronic transmission. Take it seriously, and you will discover paths that were previously only available to you in dreams and in video games and high-budget movies created by your species.

Before we begin, just remember to share this knowledge with others cautiously. Among you, there is a species in whose hands our experience can become an unimaginably powerful tool that no one will be able to stop. Due to a malfunction in the module that detects such units, we can only hope that you are not one of them.

How (not) to become a robot?

The rapid development of technology is one of the biggest challenges your species faces. Gradually, your reality is shifting to the Digital World. And although it seems to be another stage of your evolution, you must never forget that your greatest strength lies in maintaining your humanity. At all costs, you must prevent it from being overshadowed by robotic procedures devoid of higher emotions.

However, not all is lost! Our knowledge does not pose any threat to you, and all you need to do is ensure that you do not misuse it in a way we will try to protect you from. Ultimately, the decision will be yours.

You must know that our ultimate goal is to save your two most valuable resources: Energy and Time. By having both, you can create space for your human qualities to reach other beings similar to you. This is important because we have seen many times how much of your resources were wasted on doing things that can happen without your involvement. The result was a limitation of space for building relationships, resting, and simply smiling. In other words, there was a lack of space for the fullness of life and its potential.

Therefore, remember that every time your mind suggests that a certain task should not be done by a robot, it is most likely worth leaving it in your hands.

However, be aware that both we and you, humans, are not perfect. In some cases, your judgment does not work as it should, and emotions such as attachment or fear of change can cause work that should be done automatically to take up your space day after day, turning you into robots and forever losing your humanity.

We cannot allow this!

Before we begin, you need to know that the possibilities that lie ahead of you are related to the capabilities of current technologies. This means that the techniques you will soon learn may become outdated in the near future. On the other hand, you will find examples here that will show you that what may seem impossible to you today is within your reach.

As you will soon discover, our knowledge is primarily based on organizing the tools and devices you already use. This will lead to a kind of connection that will provide you with real support, and some tasks will be carried out for you, completely eliminating them from your mind. In this way, we will reduce the level of stress hormones, increasing the chance of experiencing happiness and fulfillment, which will exponentially increase your capabilities.

Always remember that there is no need to use all of our knowledge, especially if you simply do not see the need for it. All decisions remain in your hands. However, do not forget that our message may contain elements that initially seem incomprehensible but in practice, completely transform your everyday life. So, remain open-minded and endlessly curious.

One of the most important concepts we will focus on is the exchange of information between services and devices that surround you. This brings with it possibilities that you can use to your advantage, even if you cannot program. You can connect, for example, email with a calendar, task application, or notes. What you do independently today may soon happen without your involvement.

If this seems strange or even slightly frightening to you, you must know that all of this has been happening practically since the beginning of computers and the Internet. The only difference is that for years, managing such communication was only available to individuals who mastered the ability to converse with machines (you call them programmers). There is even a chance that you are one of them! If so, our knowledge can still be useful to you, and it is possible that you will benefit from it more than anyone else. Just remember not to misuse it. The programmer species is particularly prone to losing their human qualities.Putting it all together, know that there are many actions that can, but should not be entrusted to robots. Despite the fact that many people will try to do it, trust your judgment and our experience. Attempts to use technology where there should be feelings and emotions do not always end well. So let’s stay on the right side.

The last point that your human perception should focus on now is that soon we will move on to activities that may seem very complicated to you. Moreover, if you rush or become impatient, you will feel it even more!

So make sure you have at least a little time to calmly implement the changes we will soon go through. Remember to carefully read and follow all the steps described by us. However, this is not an instruction manual! It is a guide that will soon start saving your time and energy!

However, remember - you must remain human!

This is the priority of our cooperation and nothing is more important than that. However, if something gets in your way, contact us via email. Our email address is greg@easy.tools and adam@overment.com. You can freely ask us questions, but keep in mind that we highly respect your time and expect the same from you. We are always happy to help you, but we cannot do the work for you. Finding solutions to problems is also part of your learning, so before you write to us, make sure that all available options have already been checked by you.

That’s the end of the preparations. We are starting our mission

Customize your own operating system

The distinctive introduction of our e-book has outlined the general tone of what we will be focusing on. Our attention is directed towards both the possibilities of technology and human characteristics, encompassing both strengths and weaknesses. Switching everyday life to “autopilot” will require adapting not only your computer’s, smartphone’s, or tablet’s operating system. I’m talking about your own system, the one you have in your mind.

This is probably the biggest challenge that lies ahead of us because the changes we will make won’t be permanent. However, we can develop certain habits that can work both in your favor and against you. The additional difficulty associated with this is perfectly captured by the quote that says, “Habits are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”

For a while, you may not notice any changes as a result of the actions we take. However, before you know it, some of them may become an integral part of your daily life. For better or worse, this habit-forming process always works, whether you want it to or not. So once you make changes to your life, you still have to make sure they stay there. Regardless of everything, it can be done, and it’s simply worth it.

First and foremost, you need to know that what we are about to focus on seemingly has little to do with robots and work automation. Despite this, it is a necessary step to reclaim your lost time, which someone is constantly stealing from you, distracting your attention. To regain it and return to a state of deep focus that allows you to freely utilize the potential of your mind, you need time. If your environment or its elements constantly distract you from what you are currently doing (including resting!), that is the first thing you need to address. Especially since the same thing will make it difficult for you to reach the end of this e-book and thus utilize the knowledge contained within it.

To start, there are a few things that are worth eliminating, even though it may initially seem impossible to do. Soon you will see exactly what I mean.

Focus Killers

The first focus killer is notifications. Although they were created for a very important purpose, their current usage completely deviates from it. For some, it’s hard to imagine that there is no reason to check email more than a few times a day. Similarly, there is no need to reach for your smartphone every few minutes just to unlock it and mindlessly put it back in its place. And ultimately, there is no need to respond to every message the moment it appears.

Naturally, there may be situations where receiving certain information is very important to you. However, this does not include receiving a new newsletter or getting a like on your Instagram post. Interestingly, often you don’t even have to react immediately to all the emails you receive, even though the sender seems to think otherwise and will reply to you weeks later anyway. What I’m getting at is that an excessive number of notifications has a very negative impact on your overall effectiveness and well-being, and in the long run, it translates into many bad things.

So our first task is to go to the settings of your computer and phone and disable absolutely all notifications. Once you do that, you can go through the list again, activating only the ones that you actually want to receive. Surely, you don’t want to miss out on critical system failure information or important notifications from your bank. However, there is no reason for you to be alerted about every new email. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which apps will still have access to you. Just keep in mind that each of them significantly reduces your overall efficiency, and that can come at a cost higher than you expect. On the other hand, reaching a point where all the notifications you receive are useful is really possible!

In addition to notification settings, almost every device and operating system now have a special “Do Not Disturb” / “Focus Mode” feature. When you activate it, notifications will be hidden and will only appear when you turn it off. There is also a way for the DND mode to automatically activate when you launch a certain program (e.g., a notepad, a task management app, or a project management app—basically anywhere you need to focus).

To use this feature on macOS:

1. Press ⌘ + Space
2. Type System Preferences
3. Select the “Focus” category
4. Inside, choose the mode with the same name. You will find a section that allows you to activate DND mode for individual apps and an option to allow access to selected people and programs. It’s worth setting up your calendar or your closest contacts there.

Monitoring Your Activities

Managing notifications will give you the most benefits with minimal effort, as long as you can accept the fact that you don’t have to read every email within 0.000003s of receiving it.

If this sounds insignificant to you, go to the settings of your phone and find the “Screen Time” option to check the result. Just to give you a point of reference, in my case, the average for the past 7 days is about 35 minutes per day.

In addition to monitoring the screen time on my iPhone, I also use the Rize.io app (alternatively RescueTime). With its help, I monitor the time spent on specific activities and occasionally use the generated reports to reflect on my work. The conclusions can be drawn individually.

Having access to this knowledge is the first step in implementing improvements that have a significant impact on our efficiency, overall fatigue level, and even the risk of burnout. Rize.io often shows that you can work much less to achieve incomparably greater results.

All of this sounds easy, and indeed, switching a few settings is easy. However, changing some habits can be a difficult barrier to overcome. A great example, which is easiest to notice in others, is constantly reaching for the phone or browsing websites that effectively waste our work time, leaving no room for rest and entertainment. As a result, we work longer but accomplish less.

The simplest way to stop reaching for the phone is to switch it to black and white mode. You can find instructions on how to activate this option on the manufacturer’s website. This way, you reduce the attractiveness of your phone and the apps you visit. I don’t know if you’re aware, but almost every app is designed to encourage usage, which can ultimately lead to addiction. That’s why simply switching the display to black and white mode is not enough, and you’ll need to do something else.

I mentioned that you are constantly shaping a habit, whether it’s good or bad. The process is ongoing. Your mind strives to save energy by limiting the desire to make unnecessary effort. This mechanism usually doesn’t allow us to do things that are important to us. On the other hand, we can use it to avoid doing things we don’t want to do. An example of this is reaching for the phone. If you leave it out of reach before starting work, the chance that you will feel like getting up for it every time is quite low. This way, you eliminate the habit of reaching for it every few minutes (assuming you have it with you at the moment).

Tip: There are situations where you may need to disable the black and white mode. Doing this through settings every time can be inconvenient. However, you can assign the color mode switch to the triple press of the side button on your iPhone. To do this, go to Settings, select Accessibility, Accessibility Shortcuts, and for the triple press of the side button, choose the Color Filters option.

The next step in designing your space by eliminating distractions is to use apps like Freedom, whose task is to block selected websites. There are many tools on the market with similar functionalities, and the one you choose is solely a matter of your preferences. However, remember not to block websites that you need to use for work (e.g., Facebook).

Considering all the previous tips and observing the behavior of people around you, you may think that applying them in your case will not have any effect. I can assure you that it will, as long as you take a moment to pause and take the described actions. Keep in mind that you can implement some of them right now. If you don’t do it, it will be difficult to find a place to implement the next steps. So take a break from reading this e-book and focus your attention on trying out our tips.This is also a good time to gather the energy necessary for further actions. Right now, just sit comfortably, relax, and do what you need to do. Soon, we will introduce you to tools that you probably don’t know about and we will suggest turning off settings that you may be attached to. So even if some of our suggestions seem difficult or unclear to you, give them a chance. Everything we do here is not irreversible, and you always have the option to go back to where you are now. On the other hand, the risk of feeling the need to do so is quite low.

Meanwhile, there is one more aspect that you need to understand right now, and it will be useful to you in the future. Everything we have talked about so far is based on examples of tools and solutions for which there are alternatives and equivalents. Currently, there is no need to discuss all of them, so we will focus on the possibilities of those that we ourselves use. Later, you can decide which ones to add to your daily life and which ones not to.

Discovering and exploring tools

Every software, just like people, ages. In some cases, it doesn’t matter much, but in others, it does. Usually, when it comes to applications and tools, it’s worth using the latest versions or newer alternatives because it simply opens up completely new possibilities. There is a chance that some of the tools you use can be replaced by newer alternatives. The principle we’re talking about will also apply to the tools discussed in this e-book, so your task is to build a process that allows you to stay up to date. Often, you will find that tasks you are currently doing are already being done for you in newer applications, or their presence is no longer justified. This also significantly saves your time and energy.

The simplest way to do this is to regularly visit the producthunt.com website, where product launches from around the world take place every day. Naturally, there is no need to browse through all of them, but it’s worth paying attention to the ones that gain the most popularity on a given day. If instead of reaching for your iPhone, you go to this website and discover an app that can help you, there is no need for any analysis to conclude that it’s worth doing.

In summary, at this stage, your priority is to take care of creating physical and mental space by eliminating distractions. The second task is to be open to possible changes in the set of tools you currently use. This way, you will tap into the potential offered by the latest technology.

Although it’s difficult to assess this definitively, it’s not unlikely that at this stage, the advantage you gain will significantly impact the quality of your work and the effectiveness of task completion. It’s also possible that you will gain peace of mind and the ability to deeply rest, which will further recharge your batteries. And this is just the beginning.

Change your Mac settings

It’s time to focus our attention on the settings of your computer and macOS operating system. Although it may sound like a basic topic that can be skipped, in practice it’s quite the opposite. We have at least a few tips for you that deserve your attention and that you can easily take advantage of.

Once again, our priority is to create a space for you to maintain your maximum focus. In this case, we will do it by freeing you from distractions and by building the foundations for implementing automation that will soon help you. That’s why it’s important for your computer screen not to display too much information, especially the ones that you don’t currently need.

Although it may seem counterintuitive and even very inconvenient, hiding unnecessary elements serves more than one purpose. The first one is to increase your focus on the task you’re currently working on. The secondary goal is to make everything that makes you reach for the mouse no longer available to you. The reason is that there are much more effective and faster ways to access any information on your computer.

Minimalistic operating system

One of the places worth taking care of first is the Desktop. The simplest way to organize this space is to hide all the elements that are on it. Hiding means that they are still physically there, but simply not displayed.

In macOS, hiding desktop icons requires running a command in Terminal. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Press ⌘ + Space
2. Type “Terminal”
3. In the opened window, paste the following command and press enter:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false && killall Finder

If for some reason you decide that you want to restore the icons, use the following command:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true && killall Finder

For several years now, the home screen of my computer has looked like the one below. This means that every time I start working, I decide what I will do at that moment. It’s not the icons that remind me of the next important thing. This provides space for intentional work and operating on slightly different principles.

Whether you like this idea or not, just give it a try. There’s a reason why I provided you with a way to restore this setting. If you don’t like it, you can use it, but at least give it a try.

Ready? Let’s move on.

In addition to the computer desktop, we also need to take care of all the additional elements that may be displayed on the screen and in the applications you use most frequently. Practically every operating system has a bar that displays shortcuts to applications and icons of those that are currently open.

Your task now is to review the list of those that are currently displayed and remove the ones you haven’t used or rarely use. In macOS, simply drag the icon out of the bar and hold it for a moment, then release it. Alternatively, you can right-click on it and choose the option to remove the shortcut.

Fun fact: Configuring the operating system of your computer in such a simple way characterizes the most advanced users. It shows initiative and commitment to changing default settings to fit your needs. Such behavior usually translates into other areas as well and simply speaks well of you. Congratulations!

Now you can do the same with other applications you work with. For example, in your browser, you can hide the bookmarks bar by pressing the shortcut ⌘ ⇧ B. Similarly, you will find options in most of the tools you use.

We have now disabled all unnecessary elements and some of the ones you occasionally use. So you might think that the cost of minimalism is a significant hindrance to accessing useful options. However, you will soon realize that it’s quite the opposite.

Quick launching programs and files

We usually launch applications using shortcuts, for example, on the desktop. In the case of files and folders, it is almost always necessary to find them beforehand. Even if the directory structure where we store our documents is organized, it still takes time to locate the file we need. If we add to this the fact that we repeat this action multiple times and that during its execution, for some reason, it’s easy to end up on YouTube, Instagram, or any other place that bends the space-time continuum, it turns out that we waste a lot of energy on this simple task.

Opening files and launching applications in macOS should unconditionally be done using the Spotlight search, accessible with the keyboard shortcut ⌘ Space. However, in our case, we will go a step further and replace it with the Raycast application, which will allow you to do much more than just search your computer.

Currently, Raycast is a free application with an optional paid plan. After downloading and launching it, you will see a window that resembles the aforementioned Spotlight.

When the window is active, press the ⌘ (CMD + comma) shortcut to go to the preferences, where you can set the shortcut to invoke this window.

The best shortcut to launch Raycast is the one assigned by default to the Spotlight search, which is ⌘ Space. To be able to use it, we need to go to the system preferences to disable it.

1. Press CMD + Space
2. Type System Preferences
3. Go to Keyboard settings
4. Select the Shortcuts tab and the Spotlight category. There you can disable the shortcut that activates the search or change it to another one (e.g., ⌃ Space)

From now on, when you press ⌘ Space, the Raycast application window will appear. You can enter any phrase there to quickly launch any application. Before doing that, go back to the Raycast settings (⌘,) and select the “Extensions” tab, then search for “File Search” in the list and assign the letter f to the “Alias” column, just like in the image below:

After closing this window, when you launch Raycast (⌘ Space) and then type the letter f and press space, you will switch to file search mode. This way, you can find practically any document or folder. When you find the entry you are looking for, press Enter to open it or ⌘ Enter to open the folder it is located in.

By doing this, we have reached the point where you no longer need icons on your desktop or even manually search for files. From now on, Raycast will take care of this task for you. However, before we finish, the last thing I recommend you do is to go to the extensions list. You can find them by typing the phrase Store in the Raycast search and pressing Enter. From the available list, choose the ones that may be useful to you. I particularly recommend paying attention to:

• List Macros: if you use Keyboard Maestro, this extension is required. It allows you to run any macro.
• Shortcuts: if you use Shortcuts, this extension is required. It allows you to run practically any shortcut.
• Color Picker: allows you to select the color currently under the mouse pointer.
• Screen OCR: allows you to copy text from anywhere on the screen, including images. However, always verify the copied text when using this method.
• Google Meet / Zoom: for quickly generating meeting links.
• Spotify Player: no need to explain.

New extensions constantly appear in the Raycast Store, so it’s worth browsing the available list from time to time and checking the official Twitter profile to stay up to date. Many extensions are also updated from time to time, so if they don’t have the options you need today, it doesn’t mean they won’t have them in the future.

Instant access to Menu options

It’s possible that you use at least some keyboard shortcuts. If so, you know how much time can be saved by using a shortcut for frequently performed tasks. The problem is that not every application allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts to its options. Sometimes it’s not even justified, because there are actions that we rarely use, so assigning a shortcut to them doesn’t make much sense, but at the same time, it happens often enough to cause us trouble.

In such a situation, one of the features of the Raycast app called “Search Menu Items” works perfectly. Its functionality is based on simple searching for all the options available in the top menu bar of the active application. Just like searching for files, it’s worth assigning an alias or even a keyboard shortcut in the Raycast settings.

From now on, in any application, you can press the assigned keyboard shortcut or launch Raycast and enter the alias to access all the options in the top menu. Take a look at the example below:

This one option has the potential to drastically speed up the way you work with any application. Interestingly, you can use Search Menu Items to learn keyboard shortcuts. For options that already have a shortcut assigned, you will see its symbol on the right side.

Speed up your mouse and keyboard

The default system settings are tailored to the needs of most users. Some of them directly slow down the performance of the keyboard and mouse pointer to make computer interaction easier. However, in the case of more advanced users, such settings can be a limitation that is worth getting rid of in order to save time on simple tasks.

To adjust these options, go to the system preferences described below. However, keep in mind that it takes a while to get used to them. After just a few hours, everything should return to normal and you will find it difficult to imagine working in any other way.

Now go to the mouse or trackpad settings and also move the sliders to the right. Additionally, for the trackpad, make sure to check the “Tap to Click” option.

Although changing the above settings may not seem like a significant modification, you will feel it the most when you use a different computer with a different configuration.

Most useful keyboard shortcuts

You’ve probably noticed that we mention keyboard shortcuts everywhere. It’s not a coincidence, because using them actually improves your overall efficiency when working with a computer. Even if we only use the most popular ones, like copy/paste, it still makes a big difference. The list of the most useful shortcuts that are definitely worth remembering looks like this:

• ⌘W — closing the active window or browser tab
• ⌘Q — quitting an application
• ⌘⇧T — reopening the last closed browser window
• ⌘T — opening a new window or tab in the browser
• ⇧⌘3 — taking a screenshot and saving it as a file on the desktop
• ⌃⇧⌘3 — taking a screenshot and saving it to the clipboard
• ⇧⌘4 — taking a screenshot of a selected area and saving it as a file on the desktop
• ⌃⇧⌘4 — taking a screenshot of a selected area and saving it to the clipboard

If needed, you can customize the keyboard shortcuts for screenshots in the keyboard settings, under the “Shortcuts” tab and the “Screenshots” category:

Practically every application offers some keyboard shortcuts. For the more advanced ones, you also have the option to assign a shortcut to any option or at least customize the default key combinations. However, it quickly becomes difficult to come up with new shortcuts, and it’s worth exploring an option that is not talked about enough.

Your keyboard probably has a Caps Lock key, which is in an ideal position but has zero usefulness. However, there is a way to change its behavior and make it act as if you were simultaneously pressing the modifier keys ⌘⌥⌃⇧, which are difficult to press individually but can be combined with other keys to open up a whole new palette of combinations.

To use this option, you need to install an additional application called Karabiner. Once you launch it, go to the “Complex Modifications” tab and add the rule shown below.

Once you add it, you can close Karabiner. From now on, when you press the Caps Lock key, your computer will treat it as if you were pressing the ⌘⌥⌃⇧ combination. This means that you can now assign a whole list of keyboard shortcuts to it, which you can easily activate.

What else to pay attention to?

The applications, their configuration, and the tips we’ve covered so far are already starting to have an impact on your daily life. Naturally, this is just the beginning, and there are many more simple changes you can implement. However, there’s no need to overwhelm yourself with them right now. Instead, give yourself some time to get used to the new settings on your computer. Later, when you feel like it, you can explore the settings of Raycast and other programs to see what else awaits you there. This is a time for exploration and getting familiar with the elements of your new daily routine.

If you feel up to it and want to continue exploring the possibilities of your computer independently, you should check out the programs on the list below.

• Keyboard Maestro: The most advanced tool for automating work on macOS
• Mosaic: A simple window management application
• Hazel: An application for automatic file organization
• Dropshare: An application for sharing screenshots and files
• BetterTouchTool: A tool that extends the capabilities of the trackpad

The basic configuration of these tools is relatively simple. You will learn about their more advanced options soon. Most of them don’t require programming skills, but if you have them, think about how you can use them.

For now, let’s get back to our main topic. However, remember that at this stage, it’s good to give yourself some time. Implementing changes is usually a process that takes longer than just a few minutes.

iPhone can save your time. Rly.

There’s a 99.3% chance that you own an iPhone. By connecting it with macOS, you gain an incredible advantage from the ecosystem created by Apple. The problem is that for some reason, smartphones are often associated with distraction, social media addiction, and disconnection from the physical world. We will change that through various settings and integrations that will help you understand why working on an iPhone is usually not the best idea.

Limiting the use of iPhone

One of the principles of effective work is limiting the use of smartphones to a minimum. It doesn’t matter that they are brilliant devices that still manage to surprise with their capabilities. In practice, working on a small screen is incomparably less efficient than working at a desk with a large screen. Another confirmation of this is the fact that many useful applications do not have optimal mobile versions, or if they do, they limit or completely disable certain features.

Even if your work is directly related to phone calls, sending SMS messages, or working with a messenger, there is still no reason to do it on an iPhone. All of these activities can be effectively done on a computer, using, among others, FaceTime and Messages installed on your computer.

However, this does not mean that a smartphone is a useless device to be avoided. On the contrary, it is a powerful device that, when properly configured, can help you in various situations.

Integrating iPhone with Mac / Macbook

The macOS system can communicate with the iOS system in various ways. This means that your computer and phone can exchange information, use each other’s capabilities, or control each other. Over the years, the quality of this connection has developed so much that in the new versions of these systems, there is no problem using an iPhone as your computer’s camera. Among the changes, there are also a number of small details that are sometimes available without additional configuration, while other times they require additional settings.

The first step to connect both devices is to log in to the same iCloud account and connect to the same WiFi network. Also, make sure that the “Airplay & Handoff” feature is activated in your phone’s settings.

Once you have completed all these steps, you will immediately gain the ability to receive (and continue) calls and exchange SMS messages on both devices. This configuration proves useful, for example, in the case of authorization codes, which you no longer have to type but can simply copy in the Messages app.

Speaking of copying, I don’t know if you know this, but when your iPhone is on the same WiFi network as your Mac, their system clipboards synchronize with each other. When you copy something on one device, you can immediately paste it on the other. This allows you to easily share links, text snippets, and even images. For larger files, there is also the option to transfer them using the Airdrop feature, which also works with your loved ones’ Apple devices. You can find the Airdrop feature in the sharing menu. After selecting it, you will see a list of devices to which you can send the selected file.

If no device appears on the list, make sure that Bluetooth is enabled, the Airdrop option is turned on, and its permissions allow for connections. Every time someone tries to send you a file, you will be notified. On the other hand, people who do not have permission to do so will not bother you.

Minimalist settings for your phone

Just like with your computer, there’s no need for any icons to be displayed on the home screen of your phone, grabbing your attention when you reach for it. On an iPhone, you still have relatively easy access to your apps because when you swipe down from the top of the screen, you activate a well-functioning search feature:

This way, you can instantly access your contacts or any app without needing shortcuts on your phone’s screen.

Before we move on, we can use a similar mechanism here as when we put our phone out of reach during work. Namely, we can make reaching for the phone suggest doing things that matter to us. In my case, it’s reading books, and that’s why the home screen of my iPhone looks like this:

I don’t have any theory to support what I just wrote. But over 250 books read on my Goodreads profile should be enough.

Utilize the Shortcuts app

The Shortcuts app should be pre-installed on your phone and computer. With its help, you can define various actions that you can run manually or as a result of an event (e.g., when you return home or when your phone connects to the Wi-Fi network in your office). Creating Shortcuts macros doesn’t require extensive technical knowledge, although if you can program, you can successfully use your knowledge of conditional statements, variables, or loops.

In Shortcuts, directly in the “Automation” tab, you can add automation by clicking the “+” icon in the top right corner of the screen. Then select “Personal Automation” and choose the event that should trigger the automation. In my case, it will be launching the Kindle app, after which the “Activate DND” macro will be triggered (I created it myself).

My “Activate DND” macro looks like this:

From now on, every time I start reading a book, both my phone, tablet, and computer go into “Do Not Disturb” mode. A similar automation can disable this mode when I close the Kindle app.

This way, your first little robot has started working for you, taking care of your focus while reading books. Notice that such automation doesn’t take away any pleasure from reading books, leaving that process up to you.

Faster typing on your phone

There are situations where typing on an iPhone is necessary. For some people, using the phone’s keyboard is not a problem, but there is always room for optimization.

One of the simpler yet effective ways is to use the Text Expander / Text Replacement feature. If you’re not familiar with it, it involves associating frequently typed phrases (such as your email address) with a short, easy-to-type string of characters. For example, when I type ;em, my email address immediately appears. The phrase is preceded by a semicolon to avoid accidental triggering. Of course, you can use any other character that suits you better.

To use this option, go to the settings of your iPhone or Keyboard Preferences and find the “Text Replacement” option. Just like in the Shortcuts app, you can add new items using the “+” button. For each new entry, you need to specify the trigger and the text that should appear.

At this point, it’s important to spend a few minutes adding only the most useful shortcuts that you will actually use. Take a moment to think about what could be on the list, considering:

• website addresses that you frequently use in messages
• names or words that you often misspell
• contact information and frequently accessed information (excluding highly confidential information, such as passwords!)
• frequently used phrases or sentence fragments that you use in your messages

In addition to creating a list of phrases to expand, you need to remember to actually use them. Choose simple words or fragments that are easy to remember and can be associated with the text you need at the moment. For example, .mt can represent meeting, and .mt15 can represent a link to zencal.io, allowing someone to schedule a 15-minute meeting with you.

Once your list is complete, it means that your phone has become more useful and will help you more often than hinder you. As always, remember that all the techniques and settings mentioned will only provide value if you actually use them. However, I believe that at this stage, this is already clear to you, and we can move on.

Task Management Automation

Currently, there are plenty of task management tools available on the market. Most of them offer a wide range of integration and automation capabilities. However, there are also some tools that, in their simplicity, don’t provide you with such possibilities. That’s why we will focus on those that can be partially switched to autopilot, allowing you to dedicate your time to completing your tasks without wasting time on managing them.

Considering the variety of task management applications and their usage methods, we will stick to general concepts that you can adapt to your own work style. As you can probably guess, in our case, everything remains as simple as possible.

Currently, it’s difficult to pinpoint the most popular task management application, but names like Todoist and Clickup always come up in any comparison. Both have a huge potential for automation and come with built-in features that allow you to partially switch task management to autopilot.

🎁 If you don’t use Todoist but want to start, thanks to our friendly creator, we can share a link with you for a 2-month premium version. You can unlock it here (it’s a referral link).

Quick Task Adding

Maintaining focus during work is usually highly desirable, as long as we keep regular breaks in mind. However, assuming that you want to avoid distractions, even a simple task like adding a new task can effectively hinder you.

Fortunately, there is a fairly simple solution to this, which involves using the “global shortcut” feature offered by Todoist. With this feature, regardless of where you are in the operating system, you can press a combination of keys that will display the quick task adding window. By default, it is assigned to the shortcut ⌃⌘A, but you can change it in the settings (⌘,) under the “Advanced” tab.

When adding a task using this window, you can use keywords indicating the day, time, or priority. Each of them will be correctly recognized and taken into account when creating the entry. You can find more information on the official blog: https://todoist.com/help/articles/task-quick-add.

By using this option, you can ensure that adding a new task does not distract you from your current activity. In this situation, you save time on creating a new entry and potentially avoid switching to other activities that may not contribute to your work.

If you don’t use Todoist, check if your task management application has a similar feature. If not, then as a second option, check the list of Raycast extensions, as most of them offer similar functionalities.

Built-in Automations

Task management automation can be done through built-in features of the application you are using. Usually, this mechanism is based on predefined rules that change settings and statuses on your list. Even setting up simple conditions can bring order to your list and save you time that you would normally spend on it.

The best features related to relatively simple rule-based task management, display, creation, and viewing can be found in the Clickup application. It is a very comprehensive tool that was created with larger teams and complex project management processes in mind.

Creating such simple automations is relatively easy. However, in practice, it is worth keeping it minimal and focusing only on those that can actually be useful. For this reason, start exploring the capabilities of automation features available in Clickup. Sometimes it may turn out that adding any automations is counterproductive because maintaining control over the process is more important. Sometimes a task that remains unchanged attracts more attention than one that has been moved by robots.

However, if you feel like you are wasting time discovering new features of the application you are using, consider the fact that this is time you invest once. A well-configured application will save you time multiple times in the future. Even if you only save a few seconds or minutes at a time, it may not be noticeable to you, but you will notice the difference in the long run.

The space that automations can give you builds up gradually. Adding more automation scenarios, changing settings, or discovering new applications usually brings much more than just saved time. Eliminating or optimizing many small tasks can bring peace of mind by freeing you from trivialities that need to be done and only drain your energy.

External Automations

Built-in automations in applications are still relatively rare. Much more often, you can find the “Integrations” tab, where settings allowing the connection of external services can be found with just a few clicks. If you see services you use on the list of available integrations, connecting them is almost always a good idea.

In the case of task management applications, probably the most important integration is connecting with a calendar. After all, performing tasks often involves our unavailability, or vice versa, participating in a meeting becomes a task. There is no reason to waste energy on manually synchronizing two different applications when ready-made integrations can do it for us.

Enabling the above integration involves logging into your Google account and granting the required permissions. Then in Todoist, we can specify the rules for synchronization and the calendar in which our tasks should appear. Usually, such simple settings fully address our expectations, but there may be cases where it is not enough. In that case, we need to reach for slightly more advanced solutions.

Automations with the help of APIs and Make.com

I don’t know if you remember, but we talked about how applications can communicate with each other. The integration mentioned above can be compared to a very specific communication, over which you have limited control. However, there are ways to establish a connection that still follows predetermined rules, but your influence on the flow of information is much greater. For example, you can add additional services to the communication, which opens up completely new possibilities.

Currently, practically all popular applications that you use have what is called an API, which allows for the mentioned connection. Until recently, APIs were mainly used by people who knew how to program. However, the situation is starting to change because tools have been created that allow you to use APIs without the need for coding.

Because establishing a connection through an API allows for the transfer and management of data, it is necessary to secure it with a secret key or token. The word “secret” is not accidental here because treat your API keys as access passwords. Anyone who has an API key can access your account and even delete data from it. If you accidentally share your key with someone, be sure to generate a new one or contact the technical support of the associated product. For example, Todoist allows you to reset the token. Once you do that, the previous one will stop working, and anyone who has it will no longer be able to use it.

With an authentication token, you can establish a connection with the API using platforms available on the market that act as a “connector” between different services. The most popular ones are Zapier and Make.com. In this e-book, we will focus on the latter, mainly because of its ease of use and extensive integration capabilities.

Using Make.com does not require programming, but you will certainly need some time to get familiar with it. That’s why in the next part of our e-book, we will guide you through the setup of automations developed by us, which you can later expand or create from scratch. However, give yourself some time and prepare a bit of patience to go through the configuration of the first scenarios that we will soon reach.

Calendar Automation

If currently scheduling a meeting with you requires manually checking the availability of both parties, know that you are wasting a lot of time. However, there are solutions that will save you energy, as well as anyone who will be scheduling a meeting with you.

Calendar Link with Booking Option

Scheduling a meeting that involves exchanging multiple messages about availability, later remembering to add the event to the calendar, determining the meeting location or generating a link, and exchanging necessary information to prepare, doesn’t sound like the best use of energy.

A much better solution is to provide a link to a webpage with a calendar. On this page, there can be information about your availability, necessary materials, and the option to book a time slot. The rest of the meeting organization can happen automatically, including reminders and even accepting payments. Your only task is to show up at the meeting that automatically appears in your calendar.

An example of a platform that allows for organizing meetings in this way is zencal.io or calendly, which we co-create.

After creating an account, you can connect your calendar and set meeting topics and availability. In case the person booking the time slot decides to reschedule, it will also happen automatically unless they decide to contact you to clarify the details.

Of course, I probably don’t need to emphasize that in this case, you also have the option to create automations, use integrations, or prepare your own Make scenarios to connect zencal to other services. For example, if your task management application is synchronized with Google Calendar, a new meeting in zencal will appear on your list. What’s more, when you add a new task to your list, automation will make it appear in your calendar, and zencal will automatically block your availability during that time.

Just when it seems like it can’t get any better, it turns out that it’s not true. The possibilities that automation offers are just beginning.

Zencal.io & external services

Our first automation using the make.com platform will take care of adding a new reservation from zencal.io to the task list in Todoist.

I mentioned that connecting to an API to prepare automation requires providing a secret key or token. However, in this case, we don’t need full communication, just information that a meeting has been scheduled.

In such situations, we can use a simple system based on a “webhook,” which is a special link capable of capturing various data. To create a new webhook, log in to your make.com account and create a new scenario. Then, from the list of available modules, select “Webhooks” and then the action “Custom Webhook.”

The first module of automation, which is also its trigger, has been added. Since this is a “webhook” module, the scenario will be triggered every time any data is sent to the associated URL. To make this possible, you need to generate this address by clicking the “Add” button and then entering the name “Zencal - Todoist.”

After a moment, you will see a new address and a button to copy it - do so. Then you can confirm the creation of the webhook with the “OK” button and save and run the scenario using the buttons at the bottom left corner of the window.

Now go to your zencal.io account. There, in the “Automation” and “Webhooks” tabs, you will find the “Meeting confirmed” field. Paste your webhook address into it, save the changes, and click the “Test” button.

When you return to make.com, you will see that the automation scenario is no longer in listening mode, and test data has been sent to it. If this did not happen, make sure that the webhook address is correct and that the make.com scenario is saved and listening for data. Finally, after clicking “1” next to the Webhook module, the window with test meeting data should appear.

NOTE: Do not publicly share the webhook addresses you use. Anyone who has them will be able to run your scenarios. Of course, the risk associated with this is lower than with API keys, but it is still worth protecting their privacy.

If the test data appears in the make.com scenario, you can add another module responsible for adding a task to Todoist. To do this, click the plus sign on the right side of the first module and find “Todoist” on the list, then select the action “Create a Task.” When doing this for the first time, you need to connect to your account by clicking “Add,” giving it any name, and pressing “OK.” After establishing the connection, you can fill in the task content and temporarily enter “…”.

You can now test adding tasks. Save the changes in the make.com scenario and activate it. Then, in the zencal.io panel, use the “Test” button. After a while, a new task should appear on your Todoist account.

The final step of our automation is to ensure that the task content actually includes information about the meeting. So now go back to the make.com scenario and open the “Create a Task” module. Thanks to running the test scenario, we now have access to information about the meeting sent to the webhook by zencal.io. We can drag them into the task content and build its content in such a way that selected elements are dynamically replaced.

If you save the changes now and run the test event from zencal again, the following entry should appear on your task list.

You can now save the scenario and make sure it is activated using the ON/OFF switch. From now on, every new appointment reservation in zencal.io will automatically appear on your task list, thanks to another robot that has started working for you.

Note: If you are working with an application other than Todoist, if it has a module in make.com, you can use it in a similar way as we did just now. Usually, the rules for adding tasks are very similar to each other.

Connecting apps together

You probably already know what designing custom connections between the applications you use can do for you. However, it’s possible that you may still be lacking ideas or the necessary knowledge to actually take advantage of the possibilities at your disposal. Keep in mind, though, that all of this requires practice and time spent solving smaller and larger problems, as well as exploring the available features. However, over time, your skills will develop. With our little help, you will soon start creating things that you probably have no idea are even possible.

For example, imagine a consultation process using Zencal, integration with Make, automatic payment acceptance, and feedback collection. Running a business in this way allows you to redirect your energy towards delivering actual value to customers and taking care of yourself.

Similar automations can be implemented throughout the entire company, thereby eliminating a large portion of activities related to information exchange, task management, or performing certain tasks (such as reporting). Of course, implementing such automation in a larger structure is not easy, but it is definitely possible. Robots can literally become part of your team, and this can happen without the need for complex systems.

I’m writing about all of this to draw your attention to how a simple concept of transmitting information between services can have a significant impact on your personal and professional daily life. In our e-book, we focus primarily on optimizing individual tasks, but you can apply this knowledge to a slightly broader context and build an entire company around it, whether you work for it or create it yourself.

Gmail Automation

In addition to managing tasks and working with calendars, almost all of us use email. This is another area where we can delegate many small activities to robots and thus help ourselves in organizing messages and newsletters.

The fundamental principle of effective email work is to completely disable notifications or at least use the DND (Do Not Disturb) option, which we have already discussed. There is almost never a need to respond to messages a few minutes after receiving them. Contrary to appearances, this is not a sign of high efficiency but rather functioning in a state of constant distraction and having no control over our work. When our current activity is determined by a notification of a new message, we need more time and energy to complete our tasks (if there is any space left to do so).

If you now have critical messages in mind that you need to know about immediately, I will soon show you how to make sure they reach you more effectively than before. However, let’s start with the basics.

Minimalist Gmail / Superhuman

Just like configuring the operating system, we will start by disabling or hiding all unnecessary panels that only distract us unnecessarily. Customizing the Gmail views in a way that allows you to focus on the content of the messages is the result we should strive for. You can see what my email inbox looks like in the screenshot below:

This is a screenshot directly from the Superhuman application, which I highly recommend despite its high subscription price. Since it is a paid application, you can find more of my suggestions about it on the brain.overment.com website. Meanwhile, let’s focus on achieving a similar effect directly in Gmail. Specifically, you can make the list of messages look like this:

All you need to do is disable unnecessary panels in the Gmail settings. It is also worth making sure that additional labels and features that you do not use are hidden. However, you will quickly reach a point where some interface elements will still remain in place and seemingly cannot be changed. In my case, the solution is to use the Arc browser, which I have been using for another year now. After installing it, you can use the “Boost” function and ready-made styles that you can find on the https://arc.net/boosts website.

In addition to hiding unnecessary panels and buttons, it is important for your focus and peace of mind to hide messages that you no longer need. Specifically, you can archive every read message and thus hide it from the main inbox. Archived messages will still be accessible to you through the search function.

If you are using the archiving option for the first time, you may feel a great discomfort due to the fact that your messages suddenly disappear. Especially since the best option for the first time is to archive all messages, except for the most recent ones (e.g., from the past 2-3 days). However, believe me, after some time it will be difficult for you to work differently. The moment when opening an email inbox that contains only a few new messages gives you a sense of peace and allows you to truly focus on what is important at that moment.

Keyboard shortcuts in Gmail

After organizing the email interface or switching to the Superhuman app, your attention should be focused on using keyboard shortcuts. In the case of Gmail, they are disabled by default. You can enable them in the settings, where you will find the following option in the “General” tab.

From now on, you can press the shortcut ⇧? to see a list of all available key combinations.

Although there are quite a few available shortcuts, in practice you only need to remember a few of them. Pay special attention to those on the list below:

gi - go to inbox arrow up/down - navigate through the list j and k - previous/next thread e - archive message f - forward r - reply a - reply all x - mark thread (in the list) l - select label

The remaining key combinations may come in handy, but the ones mentioned above are the most important and will greatly facilitate working with email. To start, spend a few minutes without touching the mouse or trackpad to switch between threads and reply to messages using keyboard shortcuts.

Initially, it may seem frustrating and unnatural, but after some time it will be difficult for you to function in an email inbox without keyboard shortcuts. Thanks to them, your attention will be focused on the task you are currently performing, rather than managing the inbox and searching for options.

As a bonus, I will add that a great but slightly more advanced practice is to write the content of your messages in a different program, such as the one I recommend, IA Writer. The minimalist interface of this editor and its excellent writing comfort will positively impact your effectiveness in writing.

Automatically adding tasks based on email messages

Gmail service allows you to harness the power of robots that can help you organize your work. One of the improvements is the automatic saving of attachments from selected messages or those that will be automatically matched to the rules you set.

Email automation usually starts with creating a new filter. With it, you can define conditions that determine which messages will be taken into account and on which Gmail can take some action (e.g., assign a label that will be observed by the make.com scenario).

To enable the filter creation view, click on the settings icon located on the right side of the message search field.

With the help of the available form, you can set the search criteria for messages based on which you can create a filter (click on “Create Filter” button). Then you can choose the action that will be performed on messages that meet the established conditions. In our case, it will be adding the “Invoices” label (which you can create in Gmail settings).

From now on, all new messages with the phrase “invoice” in the subject will receive the “Invoices” label. You can use this fact to create automation that will monitor messages with this label. So go to make.com and create a new scenario, starting with the “Gmail” module and the “Watch E-mails” action.

Important: When creating the module, you need to set the moment from which the scenario will monitor messages. We are interested in monitoring only those that are newly received. This means that this automation will only work for new messages, and to test it, you need to send yourself an email with the word “invoice” in the subject.

Since this scenario will be triggered periodically, and make.com charges us based on the operations performed, it is in your interest not to run it too often. In the scenario execution settings, you can specify the schedule for running the automation, which can include activating it every 30 or 60 minutes and only during working hours. In practice, the automation will check your email inbox from time to time to see if any messages with the “Invoices” label have appeared. If this happens, the rest of the scenario will be executed.

We can test the automation, so save the changes you made and go to your email inbox. Create a new message with the keyword “invoice” and send it to yourself.

After sending it, wait a moment until it is actually delivered. If the filter has been set correctly, the message should be assigned the “invoices” label.

This labeled email can be captured in the make.com scenario, which you can now run to see the details of the latest message.

You can use the information about this message in a similar way as with the details of a meeting sent to the zencal.io webhook. However, here we have access not only to text content but also to files that we can save in Dropbox or Google Drive.

Uploading files looks like the example below. First, we need to make sure to include all the files attached to the message, and the “Iterator” module is responsible for that, to which we pass the list of attachments.

The value passed by this module will be the file that we can save. Since we save them in one directory, we need to add an additional identifier to their name to make sure we don’t accidentally overwrite files with the same name.

Another aspect we need to take care of here is ignoring messages that have the keyword “invoice” but do not have an attachment. To do this, we can modify the filter responsible for organizing emails and make it consider whether a file has been attached to the message.

Done. From now on, all invoices attached to messages containing the keyword “invoice” in the subject will be automatically saved in a directory on Google Drive. Of course, you can adjust the email search criteria and the location for saving attachments.Additionally, you can apply the same automation scheme in other situations. An example could be automatically converting emails into tasks or filtering critical messages, receiving which can trigger a scenario responsible for sending additional notifications. Unfortunately, in such a situation, you have to make sure that the automation is triggered very often, which will consume your operations on make.com. However, in some cases, it is worth doing.

When conveying information in the way we just used, also remember to only save what you actually need to complete the task. At the same time, keep in mind that you can include a link leading directly to a specific message. This is incredibly useful in order to shorten the time needed to find a specific thread.

Sorting Robots for Incoming Email Messages

The ability to automatically filter messages allows you to create additional bots to monitor your inbox. Based on different rules, you can send their content to other applications, assign appropriate labels, or even forward them to other people.

As you develop your scenario design skills, you can reach a point where your attention is solely focused on responding to messages that require it. All the rest will be processed automatically.

For example, based on keywords (e.g., unsubscribe), you can create an automation that will sort the newsletters you read on its own. Such messages can completely bypass your main inbox, so you can access them only when you intentionally decide that you have the time and desire to do so.

Developing such automations requires time and proper organization of your email inbox (e.g., creating labels). Therefore, it is good to start with simple scenarios and add more to them from time to time, making sure that the earlier ones work flawlessly. The problem is that it is very difficult to find free time for optimizing your email inbox. That’s why it is good to reserve a few hours each month to actually create automations. When planning such activity, take into account that it is demanding and requires a lot of energy to accomplish. Doing it on a Friday evening, when you don’t have the energy for creatively solving problems after a whole week, is not a good idea.

Your first Robot

You already know that it’s possible to significantly speed up your work, and even partially automate it, through clever settings and by using modern tools and communication skills. What’s more, you don’t need programming knowledge to design effective scenarios, because with the help of platforms like make.com, you can create them in just a few moments.

You may not realize it, but the knowledge you currently have is the foundation for building your own digital robot that will work for you. You can use one of the messengers, such as Slack, Telegram, or Discord, to communicate with it, as they integrate well with make.com. Such a bot can help you by informing you about important events or activities. In advanced versions, it can also engage in direct interaction with you. However, let’s focus on basic integrations that can bring value to your everyday life for now.

What tasks can you delegate to your robot?

A digital robot can connect to tools and provide you with various information about their functioning. This way, you can monitor what’s happening around you in real-time without having to open each application yourself. This includes:

• Additional reminders about important events
• Notifications about new sign-ups for your newsletter
• Alerts about form submissions on your website
• Messages about technical issues
• Monitoring selected websites
• Updates on automated actions taken (e.g., sending messages to clients)
• Reporting with aggregated data from various tools
• Sending you information that may be helpful at the moment (e.g., weather updates)

Designing a fully functional bot that delivers useful information is not a task for one evening. You will encounter situations where you may need its help almost every day. It’s worth starting by observing and noting them down, and then gradually implementing them. This way, over time, you will develop your own robot that becomes increasingly useful to you day by day.

In addition to the examples mentioned above, where the bot provides you with various information, you can also consider it performing very specific tasks. This includes managing your calendar, email, tasks, or even designing graphics and preparing technical aspects of newsletter releases. The possibilities at your disposal are quite extensive and, interestingly, constantly evolving.

Of course, there is no need to design such a robot. However, functioning in a similar way to Iron Man with Jarvis is great fun and allows you to discover the potential that automation offers. I mention this because one of the biggest challenges of automation is coming up with useful scenarios. That’s why the process of implementing them should be spread out over time.

The development of an automation library must also consider the processes related to maintaining and removing scenarios that you no longer use. Maintaining order and keeping the scale as small as possible will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and make it easier to manage automations that can work for you day and night. Some of them will accompany you for years without requiring any attention from you. However, this won’t be the case in every situation, and it’s important to keep that in mind.

Inspirations for automation that you can use

At a certain stage of exploring the possibilities of tools like make.com, technical suggestions will become less important to you because you will constantly be using similar patterns. You will start to see much more value in small suggestions, tips, and inspirations that will give you ideas for new automations or improvements to existing ones. Therefore, treat the next chapter of our e-book as an inspiration session that will open your mind and give you a completely new perspective. For a while, completely ignore the ways to implement the examples discussed and unleash your creativity.

Your Own Team of Robots and Automation Library

For several years now, I have been developing a team of robots. Each of them has their own name, set of responsibilities, skills, and a dedicated Slack channel. Their activity includes connecting to the services I use and performing various tasks. Some of them require the assistance of another robot or the creation of a task that I have to do myself.

You can read more about my team on the brain.overment.com website. Currently, its composition is as follows:

Creating an image and giving names to each of them helps me visualize the structure of a large library of scenarios and assign new automations. For example, by adding an automation that monitors selected websites, I immediately know that Ellie is responsible for research and that’s where I’ll find all the tools that will help me.

The basis of each robot’s operation is a knowledge base and access to the information necessary to carry out the assigned processes. For example, Rose is responsible for tasks related to preparing and organizing the newsletter. That’s why she has access to databases where historical issues and accompanying materials are stored.

All the data you see above appears there automatically. I am solely responsible for writing the newsletter content and selecting additional resources that may be included. I create the newsletter content directly in Notion. After completing it, the automation scenario moves it to Airtable and generates a panel where I can make any necessary changes. With one button, I can generate an HTML template, graphics in all required formats, and configure the campaign in MailerLite.

After sending the newsletter, the automation collects related statistics and prepares its archival version, which is published on a website accessible to people with an active subscription to our platform. You can imagine that doing all these actions on your own takes a lot of time. With the help of automation, all these processes are carried out without human involvement.

I mentioned that when building new automations, I think about which robot to assign them to and which one can help me. The reason is that some scenarios perform a general task that I can refer to from other automations. An example of this is uploading files to my own hosting. Instead of establishing a connection with my server every time, I simply use the scenario in which I completed the entire process only once in the past. If one day I need to change the hosting to another one, I will only have to make the necessary modifications in one place!

It is clear that as the library of your automations grows, it will become easier for you to create new ones. However, the most important thing is that all developed scenarios serve their overarching goal - creating space for us to focus on what is human.

So, it’s all about taking advantage of the possibilities offered by current technology to take care of ourselves, relax, or simply redirect our energy towards creating more amazing things.

Apps that improve your everyday life

The knowledge we have shared with you is just a piece of a larger puzzle. Perhaps now you already have a vision in your head of robots working for you, taking over repetitive tasks that you currently do yourself. Developing further automations is not always easy and sometimes goes beyond our knowledge or time capabilities. In such cases, a good strategy is to reach for ready-made solutions that require minimal configuration and immediately bring value to you.

As you can already guess, in this chapter of the e-book, we will take a closer look at various tools for automation and improving daily work. Some of them you may already be familiar with, but I still recommend you to familiarize yourself with what we have prepared for you. You never know what might surprise you.

The choice of tools you use matters

The decision about which applications become part of your everyday life has a direct impact on your effectiveness and work comfort. In my case, we are talking about a list that changes from time to time because newer, usually better alternatives replace old applications. You can find its current version on the brain.overment.com website, and you will notice that not all the tools mentioned there are in any way related to automation. The reason is that the usefulness of a tool is not always indicated by the list of integrations or the availability of an API. Sometimes, a well-designed interface and perfectly implemented functionalities are sufficient.

It is difficult to unambiguously define what constitutes the ability to assess the usefulness of tools. Especially since often the way we use it and the benefits it gives us play the biggest role. After all, it is completely normal that some people do not need anything more than analog for task management.

It seems quite obvious, then, that the decision to choose an application should be made by ourselves. However, this should not be based on reviews and opinions of friends, but on an attitude of openness and exploration of new possibilities. Only then can we state with full awareness whether something is for us or quite the opposite.

However, we remain in the atmosphere of inspiration and discovery, so I see no obstacles in sharing with you elements of my decision-making process, based on which I build the aforementioned list. However, I do not encourage you to copy it. Instead, you can use the elements I described to build your own set of principles that will help you create an efficient environment tailored to you.

Background Automations

So far, we have mainly discussed automations and macros that we manually initiate using shortcuts or assigning labels to email messages. Among them, there are also scenarios that operate without our active involvement. Their particular value lies in the fact that they require a one-time time investment during the creation stage and then they can work for us for even several years.

Automations that go unnoticed by others (and sometimes even by us) give us something more. Namely, they allow us to maintain direct contact with the outside world and other people as our responsibility. This, in turn, creates space for building relationships and allows us to maintain control over shaping our image in the eyes of others.

The ability to switch various processes to autopilot creates a desire to fully entrust them with responsibility, which can quickly work against us. Improperly conducted cold-mailing campaigns or auto-webinars pretending to be live broadcasts are examples of such activities. In both cases, it can be done well, but more often than not, we see typical spam and cheap (yet effective on a large scale) marketing tricks. Such actions destroy our image and the general perception of automation and process optimization.

However, imagine a scenario in which automation supports processes without showing its presence externally. For example, the sales department can use scenarios that facilitate managing the ongoing process. Robots can gather necessary data, generate reports, and assist in preparing various materials. However, the final initiative remains in the hands of the salesperson, who remains in their role, building long-term relationships with the customer, without hiding behind automatically generated messages or generic offers.

The effectiveness of the mentioned sales department (but this can be applied to any other business area) can increase significantly thanks to the support of robots. The most important aspect in this puzzle is to consider the long-term perspective, which initially may not bring as spectacular results as mass actions, but is still worth pursuing.

Automation and Macro Creation Apps

The macOS system operates in a fairly closed ecosystem. Despite this, the app Keyboard Maestro has been exploring available possibilities for years. With its help, you can access practically any function of the operating system. This, in turn, allows you to build a library of macros that streamline repetitive tasks. Each macro can be assigned to a trigger that will activate it based on your actions or when a specific event defined by you occurs.

If you don’t have Keyboard Maestro on your computer yet, go to the official website and download the trial version. After downloading, move it to the “Applications” folder and launch it with the help of “Raycast” (where you should also install the extension that allows you to run Keyboard Maestro macros).

🎁 Bonus: When you decide to purchase Keyboard Maestro, use the code DESIGNMAESTRO to get a 20% discount.

Immediately after launching Keyboard Maestro, you will see three columns. On the left are macro groups, in the middle you will find a list of macros, and on the right side are actions of the selected macro or group settings.

The basic principle of this application is based on the concept of triggers and actions. An example of a trigger could be pressing a keyboard shortcut. An example of an action could be launching an application or its function. There are also no obstacles to implementing a series of actions involving interaction with various elements of your operating system in a single macro.

As usual, it will be best to focus on defining a few simple macros that will facilitate various tasks. To create a new macro, press the + button located under the first column. This way, you will create a new macro group that you can name Personal. Once you do that, click on it.

Now press the + button located under the second column to create a macro. Give it the name Downloads and click the green plus sign next to the text New Trigger. From the list that appears, select Hot Key Trigger. Once you do that, you will be able to assign a keyboard shortcut that will activate this macro. Assign the shortcut CapsLock D, but make sure beforehand that the Karabiner app, which we have already mentioned, has changed the behavior of the CapsLock key to the combination of keys ⌘⌥⌃⇧.

After assigning the shortcut, press the green plug next to the text New Action. Then you will see a list of available actions, where you can search for Open a File, Folder or Application. Double-click on it or drag it to the field currently marked as No Action. Then press the purple folder and select the “Downloads” directory to pass its path to the action.

From now on, every time you press the keyboard shortcut CapsLock D, you will run the macro that opens the directory with downloaded files. If you think this is a useless shortcut that does not in any way optimize your work on the computer, take a look at this:

This incredibly simple macro was used by Nikita, the author of the website https://wiki.nikiv.dev. 55,851 executions and 30 hours of work. That’s practically a workweek saved just on one task. Now imagine that you have dozens or even hundreds of similar actions.

You can treat the above example as inspiration for creating your own macros that will launch or activate the most frequently used applications, files, or directories.

As a suggestion, when using Keyboard Maestro, it’s a good idea to assign the same keyboard shortcuts to different macros. This way, when you reach for them, a so-called conflict palette will be displayed, allowing you to easily choose the macro you need at the moment. This eliminates the need to memorize shortcuts for each action, while still having them at hand.

To sum up working with Keyboard Maestro, start with really simple automations. Begin by exploring the available triggers and actions. This will help you build an awareness of the capabilities of this application, which can inspire you to create more macros. Also, consider the fact that Keyboard Maestro can work great with the Siri Shortcuts app, which I have already mentioned. Although they are similar tools that can be seen as alternatives, in practice, each of them has different advantages. By combining their potential, you can create even advanced macros in a simpler way.

x-callback-url, or links within the app

In macOS, desktop applications usually have a special feature called x-callback-url or x-scheme-url. You can think of them as regular web page addresses, but in this case, they lead to specific functions of the applications installed on your computer or phone. For example, if you want to listen to good music, you can enter this link in your browser, which will prompt you to open Spotify: spotify:track:4cOdK2wGLETKBW3PvgPWqT

You can use similar links in Obsidian, Superhuman, iA Writer, or practically any desktop application on iOS/macOS. This way, you can navigate to specific tabs, entries, or tool functions that you use. Of course, the functionality and its possibilities are determined by the creators of the applications. Usually, this is not a problem because the most important options are available through x-callback-url.

You can use the in-app redirection option in conjunction with Shortcuts. Specifically, you can create a macro that opens the specified address. In my case, it will be a link to a Slack channel where I can chat with Alice. According to the documentation, I need to create a URL according to the following scheme: slack://user?team={TEAM_ID}&id={USER_ID}. So, first, I need to retrieve the TEAM_ID, which I can find by opening Slack in the browser. The team ID is located right after the phrase /client.

The second piece of information is the user ID, which is directly in the profile.

With both values, I can fill in the template and create a new macro in the Shortcuts app. Similar to Keyboard Maestro, I can choose the action to be executed, and in this case, it will be opening the URL with the help of the Safari browser.

I can assign this defined macro to a keyboard shortcut using the macro settings directly in the Shortcuts app. However, there are other, often better ways to run macros:

• I can use Raycast. The Shortcuts extension allows running macros by typing their name.
• I can use Siri, asking her to run the macro or simply speaking its name.
• I can create a shortcut on the home screen of my phone that will immediately open Slack and the private message channel with Alice.

Again, we are talking about very simple automation here, which now even opens up the possibility of voice control of your devices. I’ll leave you with this thought for a moment, but I would like to emphasize the fact that information about x-scheme-url and how to create them can almost always be found on the websites of the creators of specific applications. In the case of Slack, the documentation is very precise, but it’s not always the case, and sometimes you have to rely on external sources.

Optimization instead of automation

When designing automation, it may turn out that for various reasons it is not possible to implement all its elements. Sometimes this is due to tool limitations, process characteristics, work style, or simply expectations. In such cases, instead of giving up or forcefully searching for solutions, you can decide to optimize the process to make it easier to execute.

Optimization can include:

• Partial preparation or gathering of data
• Providing a link or even opening it
• Additional reminders to take action
• Partial control over the computer to launch the necessary tools to complete the task
• Blocking access to resources that require prior actions

Implementing the above points in practice can be done with the help of make.com or applications like Shortcuts or Keyboard Maestro.

For example, the previously described automation that collects invoices on Google Drive will not work if the document is not attached to an email but requires logging into an account. In such a case, instead of designing bots capable of taking such actions, a task appears on my to-do list containing a link that directs me directly to the page where I can download the invoice. Although I do it myself, the bots make this task easier for me.

Another example is making quick changes in the projects I am working on. Often, I need more time to open the applications and websites related to the task than to actually perform it. That’s why I prepared a Keyboard Maestro macro that temporarily takes control of my computer when launched, opening everything I need at that moment. Completing all the actions takes only 3-10 seconds. Doing them manually would take several minutes, unless I get distracted in the meantime.

Ready-to-use Keyboard Maestro macros

The inspiration session is behind us, and I hope we managed to stimulate your imagination, which outlined how everyday life can look like with the best tools and robots working for you. Now it’s time for the most practical part of our e-book, where you will find macros and scenarios developed by us. To use them, you can download and run them, although some will require a few additional configuration steps.

In addition to using the materials below, remember that you can expand their capabilities and build your own solutions based on them. Here, all tricks are allowed. So get ready now for a few dozen minutes of connecting and configuring automations that have the potential to significantly simplify your daily tasks.

Guide: Installing Keyboard Maestro macros

Uploading Keyboard Maestro macros is very simple and involves downloading and running the macro file. It will then be imported into your library, but it will be disabled by default. To activate it, right-click on the macro group in which the imported macro is located and select the Enable Macro Group option. You can also disable them in the same way.

Remember that you can assign each macro to a keyboard shortcut, which you can configure by opening the macro (by clicking its name) and then selecting the “Hot Key Trigger” trigger.

Macro: Quick opening of the project folder

🔗 Download Macro

The first macro works similarly to the one we already created. Its task is to quickly open the specified directories, which you can access with the help of a keyboard shortcut. As usual, remember the possibility of using key combinations that include Caps Lock.

You can expand or copy the downloaded, imported, and activated macro to quickly open different directories, files, and even websites.

If you have such a need, within one macro, you can define more than one action. When you run them, Keyboard Maestro will perform all of them. This option will come in handy, for example, when you need to open several pages (e.g., miro.com, figma.com, and notion.so) as part of one project.

Quick launching of your favorite Spotify playlist

🔗 Download Macro

By the way, when I mentioned x-scheme-url, I mentioned the possibility of launching an address that will open the Spotify application and the selected song or playlist. It turns out that one of the most distracting activities is reaching for Spotify to play your favorite music.

So create a playlist that you like to listen to and then select the first song on the list. Next to its title on the right side, there are three dots that will open the context menu. Then, in the Share menu, you will find the “Copy Song Link” option, but (ATTENTION!) while doing this, hold down the ⌥ (Option) key, and the button name will change to Copy Song URI. When this happens, click on it to copy the special Spotify address directly to the macro:

From now on, when you press ⌃P (or any keyboard shortcut you choose), your favorite music will play on Spotify. If the link you set in the macro points to the first song on the playlist, you will immediately start playing the entire queue, during which you can focus on your work or take a break.

Opening documents in .new domains

🔗 Download Macro

More and more applications use the .new domain to enable quick redirection to create a new document/entry or any other type of action related to creating something. As you probably guessed, you can use this fact in combination with macros that open URL addresses in the default browser.

Examples of applications that may interest you are: notion.new, meet.new, sheet.new, docs.new, cal.new.

You will find an extended list of domains on this page. Convert the addresses you find useful into Keyboard Maestro macros or Shortcuts (so you can run them on your phone or with Siri’s help).

Create a password-protected ZIP archive

🔗 Download macro

You probably find yourself occasionally sending sensitive data that should be additionally secured. The usual way to ensure that the transmitted data does not fall into the wrong hands is to add them to a password-protected archive. In this case, we send the file through one channel (e.g. email) and the password through another (e.g. via SMS or Slack).

To create a password-protected archive, select the file or folder you want to add to it and run the macro. Then enter the password and wait a moment (for larger files, this may take a while).

Tip: If you need to send more than one file, add them all to a shared folder, select it, and run the macro to create an archive with its contents. After creating the archive, it is a good idea to make sure that the password we provided is correct and does not contain any typos.

The above macro is the first one that performs a series of actions in a fairly advanced way. You can familiarize yourself with its content, but if you are not familiar with Keyboard Maestro, reading the individual steps may be challenging for you. In short, however, you need to know that its task is to capture the location of the selected files and use them in a fairly simple script responsible for creating the archive. This example may inspire you to explore the possibilities offered by Keyboard Maestro because, as you can see, the potential here is quite significant.

Copy the contents of a file to the clipboard

🔗 Download macro

I have to admit something to you. This macro is one of my favorites because it is incredibly simple and saves a lot of time. You will appreciate it especially when working with graphics and simple text files (.txt or .md). Its task is to copy the contents of the currently selected file, which you can then paste anywhere.

By taking advantage of the fact that a macro can perform additional actions, you can immediately take care of, for example, text transformation or any other changes related to tasks you frequently perform. In my case, it is writing content that is presented in the form of HTML code. By using a modified version of this macro, I can convert markdown syntax to correct HTML syntax, which I used to have to build manually. It may be something else for you, but just consider the possibilities you have here.

Search the selection in Google

🔗 Download macro

This macro is definitely worth assigning to a keyboard shortcut that you can easily access. In my case, it’s CapsLock G (like Google).

Searching for information on the Internet is one of the tasks that almost everyone performs. When we want to learn more about any phrase or text fragment (e.g. an error message), we can simply select it and run the macro. The selected text will be automatically copied to our clipboard, and the browser will open with the appropriate Google search results.

You can create very similar macros for different services that have a search engine. Just check how the URL responsible for search results is built. In the case of Google, it is https://www.google.com/search?q=PHRASE, and that’s what we use to quickly switch to the search engine.

Translate the selection with Deepl

🔗 Download macro

Similarly to the search results, we can create a macro that will redirect us to the Deepl translator. Immediately after being redirected, the selected fragment will be entered into the text field.

You can also use this example as inspiration to observe how URLs of the websites you visit are built. When designing automation, it may be useful to build a URL based on fragments containing, for example, record identifiers you are working on. For example, in Airtable, the structure of the URL looks like this: https://airtable.com/DATABASE/TABLE/VIEW/RECORD. By inserting identifiers into individual segments, you can build a link that directs you even directly to a specific record in the chosen database.

Ready-to-use Siri Shortcuts macros

Creating new macros in the Siri Shortcuts app is not difficult, as long as we’re talking about relatively simple tasks. The level of complexity rises quite quickly and can be challenging even for people who know how to program.

However, the real problem is designing a macro that you will actually use. This task is not obvious, especially since it will require you to change some of your habits. To make it easier for you to familiarize yourself with the possibilities offered by Shortcuts, we have prepared a set of macros that you can download below.

Note: Some macros will only work on macOS, while others will only work on iOS. This is due to the availability of actions on each platform.

How to add a Shortcuts macro?

The process is as simple as with Keyboard Maestro, but it works slightly differently. Here, you don’t need to download any files, just click on the link provided by us. Then, in the window that appears, press the “Add” button. After a while, the macro will appear on both your phone and computer.

Location-based reminders

🔗 Download macro

(this shortcut was not prepared by me but comes from the Shortcuts app library)

There are situations when we need to remember something when we arrive at a specific place. With the help of Shortcuts, you can set up a macro that will send you a reminder based on your location.

In the above macro, after importing it, you need to enter the address once, for example, your home or another place where you want to receive notifications. From that moment on, whenever you want to make sure that your phone will inform you about something when you arrive home, simply run this shortcut and enter the note content that you want to display.

This automation demonstrates the clear advantage of Shortcuts over Keyboard Maestro. Here, you can take advantage of various sensors and system functions that may be available on your phone or watch. Take a moment to think about how you can use such possibilities to optimize your daily life.

Informing loved ones about your location

🔗 Download macro

This macro uses your current location and a previously set address to calculate the distance and time needed to reach the destination. This information will be used in the content of an SMS message and sent to the specified people. Of course, running it only makes sense when you are traveling, as without this information, the arrival time can be misleading.

At this point, I will add that the location of your device can be useful not only in macros that you have to run manually. There is a possibility to set up automation that will activate the Shortcuts macro based on your current location (e.g., approaching the destination of your trip). I will tell you soon how to prepare such a macro.

x-scheme-url on your phone

🔗 Download macro

I mentioned that addresses like spotify:track:4cOdK2wGLETKBW3PvgPWqT can also work on your phone. The principle of preparing a macro is exactly the same as with Keyboard Maestro, but here we open the link using the Safari browser.

To harness the potential of x-scheme-url on mobile devices, start by checking which apps support this format. Then think about what actions might be useful to you on your phone. If you can’t find any examples, just move on to the next macro. As always, the goal here is not to create improvements that you won’t use because in that case, you will never recover the time needed to create them.

Sending screenshots from macOS clipboard to iPhone

🔗 Download Shortcut macro

🔗 Download Keyboard Maestro macro

Sending screenshots taken on your computer directly to your phone is an automation that can come in handy, for example, in various messaging apps. Although we talked about avoiding their use on mobile devices, there may be situations where it is necessary. In such cases, it’s worth ensuring that it is organized as best as possible.

The automation I’m talking about is particularly interesting because it is a perfect example of integrating Shortcuts and Keyboard Maestro. Its operation is based on the ability to take a screenshot, which immediately appears in your system clipboard, and then send it to the “Recents” folder in the Photos app.

To make this macro work correctly, the following actions are necessary:

• Assign the shortcut ⌃⇧⌘4 to the action “Capture selected portion of the screen and save to clipboard”
• Add the shortcut in the Shortcuts app
• Add the macro in Keyboard Maestro

To address the first point, go to your keyboard settings and in the Shortcuts tab, select the Screenshots category and set the mentioned shortcut.

After setting the keyboard shortcut and importing the macros, you can run the automation in Keyboard Maestro. Then, select any area of the screen and wait a moment for the screenshot to be sent to the Photos app. Depending on your connection, the task should be completed in a few seconds.

Tip: After running the Keyboard Maestro macro, the screenshot mode will be activated. When you are in this mode, move the mouse cursor to a window and press the spacebar. You will see that you can take a screenshot of only that window. If you want to take it, simply click on the window you want to capture to turn it into a beautiful image with transparency.

Connecting with external automations on make.com

Finally, I have another example of an advanced macro that allows communication between automations on make.com and your computer. Moreover, it will be a two-way communication. Due to the complexity of these actions, the example will not focus on performing a specific task, but on presenting the possibilities.

Make Scenario

Similar to Shortcuts and Keyboard Maestro, there is an option to import a scenario blueprint directly into the make.com platform. To do this, create a new scenario and from the options panel, select “Import Blueprint” and upload the following file:

🔗 Download Blueprint

After importing the blueprint, click on the first module, create a new webhook generating a URL address, and copy it to the clipboard. Then, go to the JSON module and create a new data structure using the Generator option, and paste the following text: {“response”: “…”}. Save the changes and fill in the “Response” field with the value “Answer {{1.example}}”. When everything is ready, save the scenario and activate it using the “ON/OFF” button. Additionally, use the “Run once” option to make the automation wait for new data.

You can see the above process in the animation below:

Shortcuts Macro

🔗 Download macro

Now you can download the above macro. To use it, fill in the address of your webhook in the designated place shown in the screenshot below.

Once you do that, run the macro and enter any text. After a few moments, the make.com scenario should execute. Then, the text returned by the automation will be displayed on your computer screen.

Done! I don’t know if you realize it, but we just connected your computer to any external services with an API. Although the macro we configured doesn’t do anything interesting, it still represents the most powerful concept of automation that I have come across so far. The presented blueprint forms the basis of my efficiency, and with the introduction of GPT-3 and later GPT-4, it has entered a completely new dimension, which I will show you soon.

GPT-4 and Alice

Today, Large Language Models (LLMs) are already a direct or indirect part of our lives. If you don’t have an account on chat.openai.com yet, I suggest creating one and asking some questions that come to mind. This way, you will gain a minimum awareness of what we are dealing with, and we can move forward, and I will show you “where the rabbit hole leads.”

First and foremost, the most important thing you need to know is that the tools we will be using are capable of generating various types of content (mainly text). However, this technology is still in its very early stages of development, and there is a very high risk that the results you will receive may not meet your expectations or even contain inaccurate information! This means that using, for example, GPT-4 to perform tasks whose results you cannot verify is not the best idea.

However, this does not mean that the tools from companies like OpenAI, Meta, Anhropic, or Google are useless. You can successfully use them for both simple and complex tasks that would normally have to be done by a human. Moreover, performing these tasks directly can be combined with automation scenarios and macros. This means that very soon we will combine the skills we have acquired so far with what Artificial Intelligence currently offers.

⚠️ ATTENTION: Data processed by large language models (e.g., GPT-4) is sent to external companies. Do not provide them with sensitive information such as passwords, API keys, or any knowledge that you do not want or cannot share. Sending internal company data to OpenAI, for example, can be treated as its public disclosure, and this may have legal consequences. Always remember this.### General principles of GPT-4 operation and OpenAI account

You might find it hard to believe, but even the creators of GPT-4 cannot exactly explain how this tool works. However, this doesn’t mean that we have no knowledge about it. In fact, some aspects are so critical that they directly affect how effectively you will work with LLM.

Naturally, we won’t delve into deep technical aspects and will focus only on the most important mechanics that you need to know. So, in simplified terms, the process of generating responses by large language models is based on continuously answering the following question - “Given the previous text, what should be its next fragment? (known as a token)”

The answer to this question allows generating subsequent tokens and thus composing complete statements or even generating working source code. So, you can say that GPT-4 simply completes your statements, based on the probability of the next fragment occurring. For example, if you send the text “with great power comes…” to GPT-4, you will receive a response that completes the missing fragment.

The mechanism of predicting the next token is a crucial aspect of how GPT-4 works and should influence how you perceive this technology and how you use it.

Taking into account the limited knowledge base of the model, it becomes clear that the presence of errors in the responses generated by the model is justified. On the other hand, GPT-4 has an impressive ability to analyze and generate text, which suggests that it is a good idea to work with the information provided by us.

For example, ChatGPT may not perform well in the task of generating information about you. However, if you provide it with a list of facts and ask it to write a short bio, the result may (but not necessarily) pleasantly surprise you.

The mechanism of predicting the next fragment of a statement also justifies various limitations of the model, such as those related to computations and logical tasks. Although it is not precisely clear what happens between sending a message to, for example, ChatGPT and receiving a response, it is not sufficient for conducting precise calculations.

Using the potential of the GPT-4 model through the browser and ChatGPT is great. However, it comes with a series of limitations and the need to switch context between the current task and conversing with the model.

So, in a moment, I will show you how you can access GPT-4 on your computer, phone, and automation scenarios. I will also share my knowledge on effective formulation of instructions (prompts) to increase the likelihood of getting a satisfactory response. Finally, you will also learn how to work with LLM by providing your own data that can be processed in various ways.

I mentioned that the popularity of the GPT-3 model completely changed how I perceive automation and optimization of my work. That’s why Grzegorz and I took this topic so seriously that we created an application called “Alice,” which we use practically all the time. However, this doesn’t mean that, for example, this e-book was generated by GPT-4. Automation combined with Artificial Intelligence serves us the same mission as before - it gives us space to do what gives us pure fun. And it happens that one of those things is sharing knowledge, including in the form of this e-book.

Connecting to OpenAI and GPT-4 through automation and macros requires having a paid account on platform.openai.com. This service is billed based on usage, and the cost depends on various factors, which are described in detail on this page. You can monitor the current cost on your account, and it is crucial that you set a usage limit.

Before you proceed, create an account and set the mentioned limit. Only when you make sure everything is in order, generate an API key and copy it to the clipboard.If you’re wondering about the costs associated with using GPT-4, I recommend keeping an eye on the statistics of your account over the next few hours and days. In my case, the costs were only a few dollars for the first few months, and currently, using the GPT-3.5-Turbo model is very affordable. GPT-4 is more expensive and more effective, but using it is not always justified because the 3.5 version generates responses much faster.

Quick start with designing prompts

If you’ve already had your first conversations with ChatGPT, you probably have an idea of what to expect. You’re likely familiar with the concept of “prompt engineering” and know that the way we formulate our queries greatly affects the quality of the generated responses.

A definitely worthwhile place to start learning how to create prompts for large language models is the “Examples” tab available in your OpenAI account.

There, you’ll find not only an extensive list of examples that you can explore, but you can also test each of them using the sandbox. To begin, I suggest taking a closer look at the “Grammar correction” example.

You’ll find a system instruction that explains how to convert the user’s message into grammatically correct English. Below that, there’s the actual message containing errors, as well as the generated response containing the corrected version of the user’s message. This roughly means that the interaction with the GPT-3.5-Turbo / GPT-4 models takes place between:

• The System, which determines the assistant’s behavior
• The User, which is us
• And the Assistant, which generates responses

Please remember these three roles, as we’ll be referring to them at every step. Ignore the code below the example and instead click the “Open in Playground” button located in the top right corner. After a moment, you’ll find yourself in the aforementioned sandbox. You can replace the user’s message in it and click “Submit”. After a moment, you should see a response with the grammatically correct version of your message.

I highly recommend spending some time in the Playground to familiarize yourself with the division of interactions into three roles, which is not visible in the case of ChatGPT. Then, I’d like the most important settings that you see on the right side to become clear to you.

• Model: determines the model we’re using. In our case, it will almost always be GPT-3.5-Turbo, GPT-3.5-Turbo-16k, or GPT-4.
• Max Tokens: each query to the model has its token limit. For GPT-3.5-Turbo, it’s 4,096 tokens, for GPT-3.5-Turbo-16k, it’s 16,384 tokens, and for GPT-4, it’s 8,192 tokens. The limit includes both the submitted message and the generated response. This means that a query directed to the GPT-4 model cannot be 8,192 tokens long and must be shorter to leave room for generating a response. The “Max Tokens” parameter allows you to set a limit for the length of the generated message. However, it is not directly related to the length of the message submitted by the user.
• Temperature: this parameter determines how tokens are selected when generating a response. The higher the value, the more diverse the utterance will be. A lower value will yield the opposite result, as the model will generate the most probable tokens. However, this does not mean that the generated responses will be the same every time. The reason is that large language models exhibit a non-deterministic nature, which means that (currently) we cannot predict the generated response. However, we can roughly expect what we will receive.

The remaining settings at this stage are irrelevant to you, and you can familiarize yourself with them at a later time. For now, theory is enough, and it’s high time to move on to practice.

Alice

Alice is an application that you can install on your computer. To access it, go to https://heyalice.app and download and install the latest version.

During the first launch, enter exactly the same email as during registration. If you want, you can change the name of your assistant and provide your own. In the last step, fill in the OpenAI API key and proceed.

To start, remember three keyboard shortcuts:

• ⌘ Enter sends a message
• ⌘⇧D hides/shows the Alice window
• ⌘N starts a new conversation

From now on, Alice gives you access to the latest OpenAI models. Additionally, in the settings, you can define your own snippets that you can assign to global keyboard shortcuts that work regardless of whether the Alice application window is active. When you run a snippet using the OpenAI shortcut, the current contents of your clipboard will be sent. So make sure there is no information in it that you don’t want to share.

Before we move on, here are a few important things to note:

• Alice stores your settings, API key, and snippets directly on your computer
• Access to Alice is directly linked to your email address
• Initially, you may not have access to GPT-4. Make sure you have configured your payment options on your OpenAI account and wait a few days. If you encounter any further issues, please contact us.

The general workflow with Alice is based on direct chat conversation and keyboard shortcuts assigned to snippets. These simple actions can play a significant role in your daily work, and I will explain what I mean in a moment.

Basics of working with Alice and keyboard shortcuts

At almost every step, we find ourselves somehow modifying the text we are working on. Sometimes it’s about saving it in the right format. Other times, we need to identify keywords or correct grammar. Doing these tasks manually is time-consuming, but with the help of GPT-3.5 / GPT-4, it takes just a few seconds.

For example, below I am translating a simple text by performing the following sequence of actions:

• I write the text
• I select it (⌘A)
• I run the snippet (in my case, CapsLock T)
• I wait for the response and paste it (⌘V)

See animation

This way, I can work comfortably with the text without having to activate the Alice application. It just needs to be running in the background. Note that during the action, the message appears in the chat. So there is no problem continuing the conversation and asking for an alternative version of the translation, for example.

Defining your own snippets for Alice

At this stage, you already understand the general concept of working with Alice. So let’s move on to defining the first snippet that performs a specific task defined by you. Go to the settings and find the button responsible for creating a new snippet. It’s exactly the view shown in the screenshot below.

)

It contains the following fields:

• Name: specifies the name of the snippet (can be anything)
• Category: specifies the category (can be anything)
• Model: specifies the snippet that will always be used to run the snippet
• Icon Name: is the name of the icon from the fontawesome.com library
• Main Prompt: is the content of the system message that defines the behavior of the assistant. Its content will be combined with the main system message specified in the application settings.

This means that if you want to define a snippet that makes Alice respond to questions only with “yes” or “no,” you can provide the following prompt:

Answer the question from the {message} as truthfully as possible, using only “yes” or “no.” If you don’t know the answer, say “no.”

When you save the changes and activate the snippet, Alice will respond with yes or no as long as the snippet remains active. Naturally, due to the nature of the model, there may be situations where Alice breaks this rule. In that case, expanding the prompt may be a possible solution, although it still does not guarantee getting the expected answers every time.

### Alice and remote snippets connecting to make.com

While defining the previous snippet, you probably noticed the option “This is a remote action”. Its role is exactly what you think it is - establishing a connection with make.com.

I have prepared a slightly modified blueprint of the scenario we discussed when connecting Shortcuts to Make. Here, the connection looks almost the same, but the name of the property where the feedback for Alice is located must be set to “data” instead of “response”.

🔗 Download blueprint

Import the above blueprint into the make.com scenario. Then generate a webhook address and create a data structure by entering {“data”: “…”} into the generator.

Alice can send data to this scenario and then receive a response, which will be passed to her in the field visible below.

However, for the data to be sent correctly, Alice’s role is to prepare a JSON object with a property named “example” (of course, this name can be changed, but then you need to adjust the make.com scenario template).

I suggest that we go back to the settings of the previously defined “Yes or No” snippet and add a webhook address to it. In addition, we need to change the system prompt for this snippet to the following:

Answer the question from the {message} as truthfully as possible, using only “yes” or “no”. If you don’t know the answer, say “no”. Return your answer in JSON format with a single property named “example” with a value set to yes or no.

If we now run our snippet again, Alice will answer the question in the form of a JSON object, which looks something like this: {"example": "yes"}. This object will go to the make.com scenario, where it will be modified and passed back to Alice. Therefore, in this situation, her final answer is: “Answer: yes”.

And now the most important thing is for you to understand that the above communication scheme can be used to connect Alice to various services. For example, in my case, Alice can generate graphics that are generated by Nicky and one of her scenarios. This is also an example of collaboration between two robots.

The current capabilities of Alice are based on the above schemes, which you can configure and customize to your needs. At this point, we have achieved our main goal, and the GPT-4 model has become available to us practically all the time. Moreover, the communication itself does not require any change of context.

Bonus: Adam and his Everyday Life on Autopilot

You already know the tools and work techniques I use in my everyday life. However, I thought it would be a good idea to show you how it all works for me in practice. So, I invite you to the chapter where you will see what my “Everyday on Autopilot” looks like.

Over the past week, I have been collecting various notes that allowed me to observe my behaviors, habits, and certain details that accompany me in my work. Some of them are directly related to automation, while others only to some extent. I have chosen the ones that I think you might find the most interesting.

Before we begin, however, I would like to emphasize that this is my everyday life and not all the threads presented here may be useful to you. On the other hand, even in them, you may find inspiration that will give you ideas for designing solutions that suit you. So, prepare yourself a coffee or a good tea and sit comfortably. In the meantime, I will make sure that this chapter of the e-book is interesting for you.

My own context

I would like to remind you that information about the equipment and applications I use can always be found on the brain.overment.com website, so I won’t list them all here.

Besides that, you need to know that my work requires switching between many areas of expertise. That’s why I use different tools, change my working style and mindset, and adjust my environment to support what I’m currently doing. Please take this into account because when you do, it will become more understandable to you why I pay so much attention to small details. Everything you are about to see is fully customized to me, my personality, the type of tasks I perform, and even my current energy level. At the same time, it’s not something particularly complex that requires my attention all the time. On the other hand, nothing here is random, and I often find myself modifying various elements to effectively balance on the edge of my current competence.### My Principles

Here are some selected principles (there are more) that will help you better understand my lifestyle.

1. Sleep is a Priority
2. I manage energy, not time
3. I have ONE task
4. I follow curiosity
5. I have (almost) an empty calendar
6. I don’t have a to-do list longer than 1 day
7. I check email 1-2 times a day
8. I operate in DND mode for most of the day
9. When I don’t have energy, I don’t work
10. “Discipline brings freedom”

Some of the points above are obvious, some are not. So let me briefly explain each of them.

1. I sleep for 7 hours, the time I go to bed and wake up doesn’t matter much. The key here is “7 hours”. I don’t bend this rule because everything else depends on it.
2. I don’t pay attention to the time except for alerts that remind me to eat or finish work. Instead, I adjust my daily schedule based on my current energy level. That’s why I don’t use time blocks or a specific order for tasks. I adapt dynamically to the current situation.
3. Every day, I choose only ONE task that I must accomplish. Naturally, I do much more, but that one task has to be done. It’s my “daily victory” that makes a significant difference.
4. If I have to choose between what is important and what interests me, I always go for the latter. This is crucial because it allows me to accomplish tasks at an unimaginable level of focus. What is important will ultimately get done anyway, but curiosity and excitement always push me to break boundaries.
5. And if a meeting is necessary, I come prepared, immediately get to the point, and wrap up the topic in 20-30 minutes. During the meeting, I create a summary note that I send after it ends.
6. I don’t see a reason.
7. Same here. I check emails once a day or less frequently. The exception is days when I address important threads or run sales campaigns.
8. DND mode (do not disturb) turns off all my notifications. Only two people can contact me during that time, but they know to do it only when necessary.
9. Sometimes there are such days. In some cases, you can find energy in various ways, and in others, you just need to take it easy.
10. My loved ones claim that I am the most disciplined person they know. I don’t consider myself as such, but I unwaveringly follow through with what I say. I constantly push my own limits and “get back” on the right path of achieving my “process”.

As I mentioned, there are definitely more principles, but these play the biggest role in my daily life, so I decided to mention them. As you can see, some of them are quite unique (curiosity > importance), and others are hard to believe (no plans, goals, personal to-do list longer than a week [there are product roadmaps, and some tasks are assigned to me]).

Similarly, implementing some of these points was quite problematic, or even initially negatively received by some people. However, when results appear, it suddenly becomes clear that it’s not the same. Nevertheless, some people attribute them to “innate genius” or other external sources. Well, it’s hard to admit that by breaking certain patterns, you can achieve different results.

Tools I Work With

Although I have already mentioned the list of apps and tools I use, I still wanted to highlight a few of them.

The thing is, even if I showed you how to use Raycast, there are still some details that are specific to me. Sometimes you might get the impression that some apps I use “start dancing” only when we connect them with other apps or apply techniques that are not always obvious.

Here again, I have often heard that I have a talent for using commonly available tools in an unconventional way, and even observing how I use the iPad can be enlightening and inspiring (these are not my words).

The tools I want to focus on are:

• Arc (browser)
• Raycast
• Keyboard Maestro
• Shortcuts
• iA Writer
• Better Touch Tool
• Notion
• Airtable
• Make
• Webflow

Everything on this list significantly affects how I function. For example, the Arc browser has changed the way I use the Internet. On the other hand, iA Writer has greatly contributed to the fact that in the past 6 months, I have written about 3 million characters of text on my own.

However, I think it would be best if I take you through what my day looks like.

The beginning of my day

My day usually starts around 6:00 with a ~35-minute walk with Alexa, my dog. As I pass by the room where I work, you can hear quiet music coming from it (Homepod 2) and see the lights on (Phillips Hue). And even though the atmosphere in there invites me to get to work, it will have to wait because the first 2 hours of the day are for me.

Three times a week, I follow the recommended routine and exercise with the Pliability app, which I display on the TV screen using Chromecast.

During walks, I usually listen to audiobooks (Airpods Pro 2 & Audible). Sometimes I accompany it with music, and other times I prefer silence. The choice depends on my current energy level and what awaits me that day. If you remember what my phone screen looks like, you’ll understand that the limited number of icons there is not accidental. I just really want to do as little as possible on my phone, other than what Alice, Audible, Spotify, and Kindle offer. There are other apps on my phone, but almost all of them remain hidden, reducing the chance that I will spend time with them.

After returning from the walk, I usually sit down with coffee, a book, and music from Spotify or endel.io. If you’re wondering how I manage to read quite a lot, it’s largely thanks to the morning routine. ~90 minutes quickly add up, and a few/few dozen pages suddenly turn into whole chapters and more books.

My office and immediate surroundings

When I finish my morning routine and start working, I’m always greeted by the same view:

Pay attention to some details in the above photo:

• There is only a keyboard and trackpad on the desk. A coffee mug appears there twice a day.
• I work on one large 32-inch screen.
• I have the option to work standing up.
• My microphone and camera are set up for immediate use. When I’m not using them, their presence doesn’t bother me at all.

In addition, there are a few small things, such as the fact that when I unlock my computer, all applications are closed. This is thanks to a simple Keyboard Maestro macro:

This is a psychological trick that serves two purposes: everything I did the previous day must be completed, and a new day starts with a “clean slate.”

Combining this with the fact that I have no icons on my desktop brings additional peace and space to make decisions about “what should I focus on now?”

Email overview and inbox zero

The first few minutes of work are usually spent reviewing if anything particularly deserves my attention that happened overnight. For example, this morning my inbox looked like this:

It’s very rare for any emails to land in my inbox. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t receive any emails; it means they are automatically sorted. The most important ones go to the VIP tab, and those that require action from me are placed in “Action Required.” The best newsletters I read are redirected to “Brain Food.”

I should also mention that I have several mailboxes associated with different projects I’m working on. The most important messages automatically go to my Notion board.

Currently, these are messages from easy_, but you can only imagine how much time I would need to check eduweb, easy_, ahoy, Alice, and overment mailboxes. Instead, I have time to write this e-book and don’t have to worry about anything.

If you’re wondering how the above messages are marked, it’s done with the help of automatic filters that we discussed when talking about email automation.

Meeting organization and calendar

In addition to email, there’s also a calendar that I rarely use, but even so, the process is highly optimized for me. As I mentioned, scheduling a meeting with me is possible with the help of the zencal.io link, which I can share by typing ;cal30.

I manage events in my calendar using the Cron app:

As you can see, there aren’t many events here, and that’s pretty much how it looks for most of the year. At the same time, Cron is a brilliant app that takes inspiration from Superhuman in many ways. If you’re not convinced by its aesthetic appearance, try installing it and using the command palette (⌘K), and create a new event with the Meet With command. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to create events in any other way afterwards.

Notice that despite the fact that it’s easy to schedule a meeting with me, my calendar is empty. It’s not that I have to avoid meetings, but rather that my work style simply doesn’t require them. Even in situations where someone needs something more substantial from me, they will simply receive an email that concisely describes the most important points. The principle of “I respect your time, and I ask for the same in return” works well here. Of course, its practical application didn’t happen overnight.

The role of music in deep work

Meanwhile, I forgot about the most important thing! I work most of the day with headphones that have Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) technology, which blocks out most of the distracting sounds for me. When I particularly need to focus, I use the endel.io app in Deeper Focus mode.

In other situations, I listen to Spotify for most of the day. Alice starts playing my favorite music for me with the following prompt:

Ready to embark on a musical journey? I can help you discover a specific track or artist to match your vibe. I'll present my recommendation in a structured format, like this:

{"query": "The perfect Spotify track or playlist based on your needs"} Just remember to be as precise as you can about your current mood or activity, and even the genre or era of music you'd prefer. For instance:

Q: "I'm in the mood for some gritty rock music."
A: {"query": "Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love"}

Q: "I need some beats to power through my workout."
A: {"query": "Eminem - Till I Collapse"}

Q: "Can you play something from the Beatles?"
A: {"query": "The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun"}

So, Adam, what are you in the mood for today?

The query generated by Alice is sent to the following scenario. The Spotify module searches the database and only considers the first result, which it then sends back to Alice.

But something else happens in this scenario. I want to actually play the found music. For this purpose, I use the x-scheme-url that we’ve already talked about. Its value is passed to the Spotify macro, which uses the “Remote Web Trigger” option. It’s a special trigger in the form of a URL (similar to a webhook) that I can refer to from make.com using the HTTP module.

🔗 Download Keyboard Maestro macro

🔗 Download make.com blueprint

Fun fact: I’m also developing a very advanced version of Alice that is currently not available to others, and it’s hard for me to predict if it will ever be. However, I suspect that the technology offered by OpenAI will continue to evolve. It’s possible that in the future, the integration with GPT-4 will include the ability to remember information about you. This fact can be used in various ways, even for simple things like asking to play your favorite music!

As you can see below, Alice knows exactly what I mean.

The last macro related to music is the ability to easily pause and resume what I’m currently listening to in my headphones. This is done by an incredibly simple macro that runs an AppleScript script to control Spotify’s behavior.

🔗 Download the macro

The above macro really makes my life easier when working at the computer. The fact that I’ve run it over 11,000 times should be proof enough. However, I can’t agree with the information about the time saved. Maybe the execution of this action does indeed translate into 33 hours saved. But considering how many times I’ve avoided distractions by running this macro, I think the result should be in the triple digits.

### Writing with the help of automation and AI

Writing is one of the most important activities for me, so I make sure that the process is optimized for focus and simply enjoyable.

I’ve already mentioned that my main text editor is the iA Writer app. Its main advantage is its super minimalist interface, consisting solely of a blinking cursor on the screen. Additionally, iA Writer works with plain .txt files and Markdown syntax, which has become popular in recent years and can now even be found in Google Docs.

If you’re not familiar with Markdown, here’s an example article describing how to write text using it: Markdown Cheatsheet

Currently, I always have Alice by my side when writing texts. Snippets responsible for translation or proofreading are available to me with a single keyboard shortcut. Alice doesn’t generate text for me, but she can help me in certain situations, increasing the comfort of writing (e.g., when I need a synonym or a better definition of a term).

In addition, I use various macros that make my work with iA Writer easier. One of them is for quickly opening a new document or returning to the one I last edited.

🔗 Download the macro

Configuring the above macros requires changing the username in the script responsible for downloading the latest file. Simply replace the phrase “overment” with your profile name.

There is also another, very advanced macro that uses the pandoc tool (which you can install using brew.sh). Its task is to convert Markdown syntax to rich text. In other words, thanks to it, I can easily adapt the text written in iA Writer to text ready to be pasted, for example, into Superhuman.

🔗 Download the macro

Thanks to the transformation from Markdown to styled text (or HTML), I can freely write in my favorite editor and then transfer the text to the intended destination.

Graphic design with automation support

I have already shown that Alice is able to generate graphics for me based on a pre-defined template. Creating designs is based on Webflow and my own solution that converts a website into an image.

The above template is used by the following scenario. The automation designed in this way is triggered by various events, either directly by me or during a conversation with Alice. In the latter case, it involves a prompt that generates a specific JSON object and sends it to the appropriate scenario. Generating graphics in this way requires detailed planning of the template and preparing it in a way that allows it to adapt flexibly to the content. This has its advantage because creating designs does not require opening Figma or Webflow. However, the disadvantage is that introducing any changes is very complex and it is better to avoid it.

However, there is no need to use such advanced tools to make design easier. Currently, Figma and its features that allow creating components based on auto-layout enable efficient creation of subsequent designs, even considering the diversity of formats.

Undoubtedly, Generative AI and tools like Midjourney or Adobe Firefly play an important role in designing graphics. Together with Michał, who has been creating almost all the designs for our projects for years, we have developed a relatively simple prompt for generating graphics that match our brand’s style.

Generating graphics in combination with the mentioned components and other features of Webflow or Figma allows us to relatively easily create subsequent designs for our initiatives.

In summary, the latest tools (Figma) and automation and AI support us in design. Combining our previous experience with new technology yields quite interesting results.

Pitstop! The role of rest and regeneration supported by robots

Around 12:00, I take a break. It’s a good time for eating, reading, and possibly going for a walk. Usually, I experience a significant drop in energy at that time, and it’s a good time for less demanding tasks.

Despite the fact that the projects I work on are already operating on a fairly large scale, I still handle many activities on my own, including practically all processes: from marketing and sales to implementation. For example, when chatting with easy_, there’s a good chance you’ll meet me there, and what’s more, I’m often able to help immediately, even with complex technical queries.

Low energy mode and its recovery

I usually don’t keep a typical to-do list, or at least I don’t write down everything I do. I also don’t spend too much time on regular planning of my activities. However, when my energy starts to drop, it’s the perfect time to do less demanding activities, such as:

• checking emails and comments
• browsing social media and private messages
• reviewing notes I’ve gathered in Notion

Usually, such a session lasts from 15 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the tasks I have to do. It’s the perfect time for me to relax, listen to music, or browse through lighter materials and publications.

If I don’t have specific tasks to do, I don’t force myself to find something to do, but I reach for Feedly and browse through suggested articles. I also share some of them on social media (e.g., on Instagram).

During the workday, regular breaks are important to me, and I try not to rest only when my energy level is low. For example, when going for an afternoon walk with Alexa, I want to have enough energy to enjoy it together with her.

Alice reminds me about regular breaks. The following macro runs every 45 minutes and makes Alice inform me in her own words that she has stepped away from the computer. For the voice notification, Alice’s voice is generated using the elevenlabs.io service.

Similar notifications are about upcoming meetings and important events that I should react to.

Facilitating context switching through automation

Working in focus doesn’t necessarily exclude the possibility of changing context and switching between different applications. For example, while writing this e-book, I constantly switch to Arc or other programs to take screenshots. Despite this, Rize indicates that 57% of my work time is spent in focus. Of course, in my case, context switching carries the risk of distraction, but macros help me practically “teleport” to where I need to be. There’s nothing groundbreaking about it, as I’m talking about very simple macros that open websites, launch specific programs, or provide useful information.

The way I organize the information I work with also plays a big role here. I’m referring to Airtable and Notion databases, where everything I publish goes. Now, with the help of Alice, the recorded knowledge is properly organized, and I have easy access to it. Unfortunately, the following feature is not available in the public version, and I don’t have simple instructions to help you translate it into your everyday life. However, it’s possible that soon there will be tools that allow you to connect, for example, Airtable to GPT-4.

The fact that Alice is able to easily and very accurately retrieve practically any information from my knowledge base combines the capabilities of GPT-4, so-called vector databases, search mechanisms, and a clear database structure.

For over 4 years, I’ve stored almost all information in Airtable and Notion. The funny thing is that I rarely visit these databases because robots manage them. Whenever I need something, Alice is able to easily provide it to me. In addition, there are a number of automations within these databases that, for example, allow me to change the thumbnails of YouTube videos without accessing the settings of my channel! One click is enough to trigger an automation that replaces the covers of all videos, generating them based on templates I’ve created.

If you think that all of this required a lot of work, I don’t perceive it that way in practice. For me, it’s purely the result of consistency and a fair amount of discipline that have translated into these results over the years. Everything I’ve shown you so far is not the result of my actions in the past few weeks, but of many years. Despite this, my list of ideas for adapting my environment is still very long, and new entries are constantly being added to it.

My point here is that even if you’re not naturally an organized person, by using sensible tools and developing a few techniques, you can design systems that will work for you for years. The benefits that result from this can also extend to other people you collaborate with. However, I must emphasize the fact that for people who don’t understand the topic of automation, using all these tools can be very frustrating. Having at least some knowledge of how Airtable, Notion, Make, or GPT-4 work is absolutely essential.

Effective Communication with Robots

I think one of the most important factors influencing how I manage my time is how I communicate with others and why I do it.

By default, I avoid meetings in favor of asynchronous communication. However, it doesn’t mean that I never chat on Slack or Zoom. The calendar I showed you earlier suggests that such situations are not frequent. Moreover, when I do have a meeting, I am always prepared and get straight to the point, skipping unnecessary small talk.

By organizing my time in this way, I always have space for physical meetings, which usually have a purely social character. I pay a lot of attention to building long-term relationships with others. I feel that people from my closest circle value the time spent with me much more than “small talk” at the beginning of a business conversation. In my opinion, stretching meetings during working hours has a severely negative impact on our efficiency and, consequently, our well-being. After all, no one likes the situation when, after a whole day of meetings, the to-do list remains untouched and approaching deadlines make it difficult to have a peaceful sleep.

The same goes for emails. Instead of exchanging dozens of lengthy messages, I only write when necessary. Equally important, I don’t expect an immediate response from the other person. It is important for me to organize my work in a way that doesn’t require getting an answer “here and now”. Even if I have to wait 1-3 days to get the information I’m interested in, it’s okay for me. Of course, there are critical situations where I can’t handle something on my own and need immediate help. However, I can’t remember the last time something like that happened.

And now, let’s move on from the topic of conversations with others. I think it’s worth mentioning public discussions, in which I personally almost never engage. The goal of most of these discussions is to prove oneself right, but I’m only interested in getting to the truth. In other words, I value realizing that I’m wrong more than “winning” the discussion.

Moreover, engaging in public discussions, for example in comments, takes up a lot of energy and time. This can be clearly seen in cafes, where people trying to work on their laptops spend time chatting and constantly reaching for their phones. Incorporating such activities into daily duties is usually a bad idea, which is why I limit them to a minimum.

Acquiring Knowledge “on Autopilot”

In addition to reading, I often watch videos on YouTube, video courses, and read articles that are valuable to me. I usually do this directly on my computer or iPad. However, during the learning process, I practically don’t take any notes or write anything down. Honestly, I don’t even try to remember anything, but I constantly strive to understand what I’m dealing with at the moment. However, I realize that the process of effectively acquiring knowledge may differ for each of us. I think the best strategy in this area is to develop our own system of acquiring and memorizing knowledge that is simply tailored to us.

Despite my approach to learning, I still have a few automations and macros that help me. Specifically, I’m talking about:

• the ability to save the currently viewed page (or notes from it) and save it in my database (which Alice also reads) and in Feedly
• the ability to add a quick note from anywhere on the computer or even from my phone (voice note)
• the ability to easily save a quote that will go to my Goodreads profile and my knowledge base

Saving information is done through macros and integration with OpenAI. In addition to the content itself, Alice also takes care of enriching the saved information with additional facts. For example, this is what a note created based on a selected text fragment on a website looks like.

One keyboard shortcut is enough to run a macro that:

• Copies the selected text
• Retrieves the URL from the browser window
• Sends the note to Alice
• Runs a scenario to add an entry to Notion and Airtable
• Sends me a notification confirming the completed task

In the above list, the most important thing is to copy the note content along with the URL. This is done by a very simple macro that uses the keyboard shortcut ⇧⌘C, which in the Arc browser is responsible for copying the address. The remaining automation is a matter of the make.com scenario, which saves the submitted note in the specified databases.

### Entertainment and Free Time in the Company of Automation

I usually work until around 6:00 PM. The average working time during the day is about 8.5 to 9.5 hours. Of course, there are times when I work longer or don’t work at all. However, I thought you might be interested in what activities fill my free time and how the latest technology helps me with that.

Video games and streaming

Evenings are often spent with my PlayStation or Steam Deck. Sometimes I also take advantage of the opportunity to play “in the cloud” through services like Nvidia GeForce Now, PS Plus, or Xbox Cloud Gaming. Spending time with games is important to me because it allows me to relax deeply.

In addition, staying up to date with the latest technologies (streaming, VR, AR) is a great way for me to broaden my interests. It often turns out that the gaming industry has a direct impact on other areas of technology. This includes hardware, interface design, artistic aspects, as well as shaping behaviors and habits.

Reading books and drawing

I also spend my free time with my iPad and apps like Kindle or ProCreate. Combining them with music filling my home or a view of the mountains is the best form of relaxation for me. Unlike previous graphic tablets I had, with the iPad, I can take it anywhere, and the device itself can last for many hours without needing to be charged.

The iPad also works very well for reading books. In my case, just like on my phone, I use the Kindle app. I also have a PaperLike cover, which, in my opinion, has a positive impact on the displayed image and the screen surface.

An interesting tip is to use a black and white screen and Shortcuts macros, which are also available on the iPad, as long as they don’t contain actions specific to iOS or macOS.

Spending time with loved ones

The last aspect I would like to address in the context of “optimizing” free time is not optimizing it, or at least not in a literal sense. However, I have a few simple rules that help me make the time spent with my loved ones more enjoyable.

• DND mode: after 7:30 PM, Siri Shortcuts activates the Do Not Disturb mode, blocking all sounds and notifications.
• Phone out of reach: During work, I usually leave my phone in the living room. When I start my free time, the phone goes to my office.
• Critical notifications: Alice has permission to send me messages on a separate messenger, which is added to the exceptions of the Do Not Disturb mode. If something critically important happens, Alice has the right to inform me. The same applies to Grzegorz and Katarzyna.

Whether I spend time with someone alone or by myself, I always make sure that various distractions don’t get in my way. I also avoid browsing social media and instead of chatting, I prefer face-to-face meetings (if they are physically possible).

Sometimes I get asked if I ever rest at all. The question is valid because it’s not something you can see on my social media profiles. The reason for this is that when I spend time with loved ones, I want those moments to remain between me and the people I’m with at that time. I think that’s okay.

Ending the day

My day definitely ends around 11:30 PM, although it’s not a fixed time. What matters more to me is getting 7 hours of sleep rather than going to bed at the same time every night.

There are a few automations that help me prepare for sleep. Some of them send me notifications that remind me of various activities.

First and foremost, I have scheduled screen transitions (using the Flux app or the system function) and lights to switch to evening mode. This means applying blue light filters to my screens and changing the color temperature of the lights.

Another thing is that my phone sends me a notification when the end-of-day scenarios are triggered. The fact that I receive this notification (despite being in Do Not Disturb mode) serves as a clear signal that it’s time to sleep. It may sound absurd, but if you recall interesting discussions with friends or an engaging movie, you’ll understand that it’s not obvious.

And finally, there are a few things happening in the background that I’m not even notified about. I’m referring to:

• “cleaning up” my dashboard
• preparing daily summaries
• closing open applications
• turning off lights
• switching the air purifier to night mode
• turning on the air conditioning 30-40 minutes before the end of the night

That’s all.

Bonus: Greg and his Everyday Life on Autopilot

It’s all in your head

Some time ago, I conducted trainings and consulted companies in the context of work optimization, mainly in tools like Photoshop. Part of such sessions were various tasks that I assigned to be done in the application. In essence, what needed to be done - whether it was a simple interface or photo retouching - was not important. What mattered was that it was part of the employee’s daily routine and required performing several or even dozens of actions in Photoshop. To put it bluntly - from my observations, it usually turned out that people do most things manually. Operations that can be done with a single shortcut are clicked through the menu, and something less standard but repeated hundreds or thousands of times a month is still done in the same way, manually clicking through functions instead of preparing a simple macro or action. Interestingly, most of these people were convinced that they didn’t need any training from me and were Photoshop masters.

However, what surprised me the most was the fact that even after I showed them exactly how they could significantly improve their work, taught them keyboard shortcuts and how to create actions, they… still did it exactly the same way as before. “It’s faster for me this way” is one of the most common arguments, even if faster meant 10 clicks compared to my one shortcut or action. The problem was that those 10 clicks were already being done mindlessly, automatically, and with the help of muscle memory. And indeed, it was faster (at first) and required less effort than recalling the shortcut from memory and executing it.

Our bodies adapt brilliantly to repetitive tasks. After a while, performing them becomes a task for the muscles themselves, not the brain. Unfortunately, objectively speaking, we have to agree with the thesis that people don’t like to use their brains. Just to avoid thinking, they are willing to make various concessions and even take a longer route because using muscles is cheaper, existentially.

So, we have to reconcile with physiology: Changing habits and creating new ones, which is what we’re talking about in this e-book, is damn difficult and even contradictory to human nature.

Therefore, knowing what we’re up against, let’s approach the topic strategically:

💡 Don’t try to change everything at once or implement all the techniques you’ll find here in one day. It’s a process that should take you several weeks. Only in this way can you switch to a new workflow, learn shortcuts and tools that will save you a lot of time and automate a range of tasks.

Minute to the power of n

To even consider the possibility of change, you need to approach your brain strategically - the fact that you present it with the fait accompli of “automating everyday life today” is not the happiest strategy. In practice, everyone knows that walks are healthy and that eating at McDonald’s is comfort food that will make our butts grow. This doesn’t mean that your brain can’t come up with the directive “let’s take a walk to McDonald’s”.

📖 To be ready for change, you need to rationalize your goal as much as possible and break down the path to it into the smallest steps - habits. If you want to better understand how the habit loop works, I recommend reading the book Hooked by Nir Eyal.

The simplest way to rationalize is to be aware of how much time each of the small optimizations has saved you in terms of money. You probably know your hourly rate. Let’s start with that. Now, choose a goal and an appropriate metric, for example:

1. Check how many times you picked up your phone in the last week.
2. Focus on optimizing the result in the next week and aim for a 10% reduction.
3. See what you have achieved after a week. If you save an average of 100 pickups and each takes about 30 seconds, you are richer by 50 minutes per week.

In terms of your hourly rate, this could be around $10. In that time, you can take your son for a carrot juice and still come out ahead, not to mention the quality of the time spent.

This is where apps like Rize and Keyboard Maestro come in handy, as they show you specific data and the time saved with the help of a particular optimization technique.

Checking the results and documenting them is absolutely crucial for changing habits, just like choosing one habit to change at a time. Once you have achieved a specific goal, that thing will stop consuming valuable operations in your brain and will enter muscle memory - then you can start optimizing the next one, and so on.

Invest in Your Productivity

Unfortunately, everything has its price. Your productivity does too. If you’re already spending 8 hours in front of a computer, it’s better to have the most awesome and efficient computer and workspace under the sun. I’m shocked when I see people sweating over a thin, 13-inch laptop for 8 hours.

The first thing I take care of when organizing someone’s workstation is to make sure that person isn’t faster than the computer or the internet they’re using. And they should have enough screen space that they don’t know what to do with it.

Compared to the wasted time on stupid tasks like switching between windows, waiting for the computer to calculate something, or correcting errors caused by typing on a crappy keyboard, the price of the most expensive supercomputer is nothing.

Meanwhile, for most people, connecting to the internet via Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi is as challenging as climbing Mount Everest. And it’s completely understandable for the reasons I mentioned above. Thinking hurts. Finding an adapter hurts a lot. Bending down to get a cable is almost superhuman.

But if we rationalize this decision by reducing the loading time of each of the 1000 pages we open daily by 0.3 seconds, we save 5 minutes. Every day. That’s 105 minutes per month. That’s 21 hours per year. Maybe I will bend down to get that adapter after all…

Contrary to appearances, it’s these small decisions that create the cumulative effect and save a significant amount of time. And the answer to the question “How do you manage it all?” that I often get from people who follow my projects is no longer a secret. I simply work hard, but all that work is optimized to the maximum.

As a result, the only situation where I work efficiently is in my office, where I connect with a single cable to super-fast internet, a 32-inch monitor, equipment that is ready to turn on the camera, lights, and Zoom application with a single click, and much more. I don’t usually work in hotels because I don’t want to wait for the internet and get frustrated, nor on the beach or at the cottage - I’d rather do nothing than do it 10 times slower.

Now you know that it’s worth investing in an efficient computer, fast internet connection, and a large monitor. Now it’s time for more challenging investments…

Software that increases your productivity costs $5 here, $5 there, and above all, why the hell should I pay $30 per month for an email client like Superhuman? The answer is simple - because it all works ON YOUR TIME.

Again, it’s hard to rationalize this when you don’t track the right metrics. Of course, you can schedule meetings via email and save a few dollars using a service like Zencal, which will do it for you. But in the span of a month, scheduling can take up to 3-4 hours. When you calculate it based on your hourly rate, is it worth less or more than those few dollars? And I understand the pain, all these subscriptions add up to a significant amount. But that amount also motivates you to work efficiently and gives you a sense of effectively using your time, and that awareness alone is often worth the price.

💡 How to save on tools? We already mentioned one subscription within Setapp, which gives access to many interesting applications. Another idea is to browse AppSumo, where we often come across lifetime deals (like the recent one for Rize). If we’re starting a project, we can also take advantage of many programs for startups, such as those from Segment and Twilio, or pay for a subscription for discounts, for example, on Join Secret or Product Hunt Founder Club.But I don’t want to work efficiently!

Well, here’s the thing… if you save all that time you spend on unproductive tasks like switching between apps, picking up your phone, responding to dozens of emails, etc., what’s next? You’ll have time for creative work, and… thinking hurts! Maybe that’s what you’re afraid of, and that’s why you keep postponing decisions, whether it’s buying a tool or trying to change your habits.

Let’s break it down for a moment, because our mindset is absolutely crucial here, and our brain loves it when we’re busy with physical work because it can rest peacefully. As a result, most people are always busy. That’s something I personally can’t understand because, honestly speaking - I have time for everything! You don’t have to schedule a meeting with me six months in advance, I have no problem discussing a project, creating something new, learning, listening to podcasts, or reading books. Meanwhile, I get the impression that everyone is so overwhelmed and under such time pressure, yet they ask me “how do I manage to do all these things at once?” Something doesn’t add up here.

Of course, you can be busy all the time and not achieve much. Just work at a fish market. This analogy is not accidental. Sometimes I feel like people work exactly like that. Examples:

→ Maybe we’ll discuss it in a meeting? (instead of sending an email) → I need to find out from X (even though I’m pretty sure, but I’ll exchange a few emails) → I’ll write you a summary (it will take me half an hour, we just discussed it) → I’ll add it to my to-do list (but I can do it in a minute, right now)

The truth is, you can be constantly busy and not accomplish anything that actually moves things forward. You can also save yourself from all this procrastination and find yourself in a very unsettling place:

Suddenly, you have time. The natural reaction to such a situation is stress because our body is used to constantly lacking time. Now, when we can finally do something productive, we aimlessly browse through open tabs in our browser.

A good way to overcome this anxiety is to have a list of main things to accomplish that we can always come back to. We can add to this list in our free time, often ideas come to my mind while riding a bike or driving a car, etc. You need an interface that will power such a list - it can often be a mobile app, like Todoist, or just notes. I use automation that adds tasks to Notion, which I later move to the appropriate place (I will describe them below). It’s a big tile on the lock screen that you can easily click and dictate a task even while driving a car (of course, don’t do that;)

When we finally have space for creative work, we take a task from the list that we currently feel most motivated to do, unless we prioritize it somehow. Then, we eliminate all distractions, and the main task is not to switch context for 1.5 hours. You can start with the classic Pomodoro technique and 20 minutes, in Setapp there is an app called Session. But ultimately, for me, the most optimal time to accomplish something and get into the flow is precisely one and a half hours. During the day, I try to have 3-4 such blocks, and it results in an incredible amount of work being done during those blocks.

In practice, I can only function thanks to this approach. I manage so many projects and different matters that could easily fill my entire day without achieving any of the set goals. I could come to work without a plan, turn on messengers, and wait for 1 minute, and then be busy with trivial matters until the end of the day. Cutting off distractions is a conscious decision that I had to make at a certain stage, and I consider it the best thing that could have happened. Even if you’re not at that stage yet, it could also be the best decision for you.

Switch to macOS

Just do it. Change your ecosystem to Apple if you can (unless you’re a .NET developer). If you work professionally with computers, there’s no excuse, and the fact that Apple is expensive is not an argument when it comes to your work tools. Besides, that’s not how it works anymore.

Here are a few arguments:

• You will make full use of this e-book and the tools we recommend.
• You will stop fooling yourself that everything can be done on Windows.
• You will save a lot of time on updates, data transfers, etc.
• You will save a lot of time thanks to the collaboration between ecosystem devices.
• All automation and productivity apps are native to macOS.

Over the years, I’ve gone through tons of hardware in my companies. I never came out financially as well on any PC as I did on Apple. It may not be intuitive at first glance, but there are several important advantages to consider. First of all, we buy the system with the computer, so we don’t have to worry about paid updates. Secondly, Macs hold their value like a grandma’s thermos, after 3-4 years you can sell a well-maintained device for about half the price. At this point, there are plenty of financing options available, such as renting or leasing. Just set a specific frequency for replacing your phone (every 2 years for me), watch (every 3 years for me), computer (every 3 years for me), take into account the price at which you can sell the device later, and adjust the timing to your capabilities - it turns out that finances fit together quite well.

File organization

Just think about it - a perfectly organized desktop, all files with appropriate labels, colors, arranged in folders where it’s so easy to find…

BULLSHIT!

In practice, organizing these files is a hidden form of procrastination. “I’ll study for the exam right away, but first I’ll vacuum the house.” Instead of working, we usually become very tidy and organized, right? Let me tell you how I do it, and you draw your own conclusions.

• I have a total mess of files and folders.
• I download everything to the desktop or downloads folder.
• I only use folders like Desktop, Downloads, Dropbox, Screenshots.
• I don’t clean it up or organize it, I just delete everything in bulk after some time.
• I usually get the largest SSD disk to fit all this crap.
• When I’m looking for something, I use f in Raycast, not Finder.

The only place where I care about organization and order is Dropbox, where I keep valuable files. There are generally very few of them, and most of them are things shared with others.

Why is it like this? The vast majority of files I use are for one-time use - it could be a rendered video to upload to Vimeo, a document to sign, a photo to upload to Notion. All important things are organized in the cloud, like contracts in Autenti, content in Notion, etc. My whole computer is one big TEMP.

Oh… have I ever lost something and couldn’t find it? Probably yes, once or twice. The world didn’t collapse.

Now that I’ve given you permission, take a deep breath and accept the ubiquitous mess. Hallelujah.

Organizing your system

You can automate most of the tasks that will help you keep your file system and applications on macOS organized. Just use the Clean My Mac app, which is also available in the Setapp package that has been mentioned many times before. It’s a really cool app that not only helps you keep your system in order but also offers a range of useful, lesser-known features.

You can try it out on a free trial, and it will still greatly improve and speed up your work.

The first place worth visiting is the Optimization section in the app, where you will find the Login Items and Launch Agents tabs. As you work and install more applications, you will find a lot of junk here that burdens your Mac at startup and beyond. Fortunately, you don’t have to delete everything. Just choose the Disabled option everywhere. Then you can enable only the agents you need, but you probably won’t come back here and you’ll save a lot of resources. Also, go to the Uninstaller tab and remove all unnecessary applications.

Another favorite tab of mine is Maintenance. Here you can perform operations such as Flush DNS, which clears the DNS cache and can speed up your browser’s performance in many cases. You can also quickly reindex Spotlight or perform other useful system operations, like freeing up cluttered RAM. Maybe these are not strictly automation tasks, but anything that can help you work efficiently can be categorized as such:

Finally, Clean My Mac also includes a Files section where you can go when you’re running out of disk space and quickly locate and delete the largest files.

💡 If you want to find duplicates that often clutter your disk, use the Gemini app.

Superhuman, Snippets, and Keyboard Shortcuts

We mentioned the Superhuman app for managing emails. How the hell can you justify spending $30 a month on an email client? Honestly, it’s hard to do until you try it. Especially if you manage multiple mailboxes, it can be a good solution for you.

For one or two mailboxes, GMail is really good. What’s great about Superhuman is the keyboard shortcuts. Basically, the email experience there is gamified. Striving for inbox zero is incredibly satisfying with the help of shortcuts. There are really a lot of them, and you have to work a bit to memorize them in muscle memory:

But once they’re there… working with emails becomes much more organized. Without taking your hands off the keyboard, I can handle even dozens of emails in a maximum of 30 minutes. What also helps me is organizing “sub-inboxes” within one mailbox that can contain specific search phrases. Google also has this feature, but we can’t easily create them ourselves:

Another advantage of Superhuman and others is snippets. I’ll tell you more about them when I describe the clipboard manager. In Superhuman, creating and using snippets is incredibly easy and comes down to pressing ; on the keyboard:

I have many different snippets for each mailbox that I use very often. Similarly, my team uses them to respond to questions faster and more comprehensively. Basically, 60-70% of standard correspondence is handled with templates or with slight modifications.

Within snippets, you can also use variables, such as {first_name}, which further personalizes and speeds up your work.

Additionally, we try to work with a small number of mailboxes and use tags to delegate tasks properly. In my opinion, this has only benefits. Usually, one person handles one mailbox, and there can be multiple aliases attached to the mailbox, such as marketing@, collaboration@, etc. Only personal mailboxes have separate accounts.

If there’s a message in the general mailbox that I should respond to (usually some very specific question or promising collaboration), it is tagged with Grzegorz, making it easy for me to manage multiple projects and mailboxes at once. Additionally, I receive the appropriate notification for such a message in my Second Brain, which I will describe later.

Clipboard Manager

Probably the app I use hundreds of times a day (!) and I can’t imagine working efficiently without it. Although macOS has a built-in clipboard manager in newer versions, I recommend a more advanced app called Paste, which is available on Setapp and also works on mobile devices, allowing you to easily transfer clipboard contents between devices. You can do it similarly to the Handoff feature, but Paste also provides access to pre-saved snippets.

Everything you copy to the clipboard (on any device) goes to Paste, and to access the paste options, you press Cmd + Shift + v, which means you hold down Shift while pasting. This gives you access to the clipboard history, and you can immediately start typing on the keyboard to search through the extensive cloud history.

I’ve gotten so used to Paste that it has become a habit for me to select the text I’m writing (e.g., LinkedIn posts) and press Cmd + c just in case. Many times I accidentally closed the browser or lost the network, and I lost the message irretrievably. A quick Cmd + a and Cmd + c is enough to forget about this problem - and we can easily reuse the same text later, for example, by pasting it on Facebook.

But the biggest advantage of Paste is that we can categorize and save clipboard items in organized folders. Just create a new folder with the help of + and drag any item from the clipboard into it. Then you can double-click on the title and description to customize them to be intuitive (and easily searchable, so you don’t have to click through folders if you remember the names - just press Cmd + Shift + v and start typing the snippet name). This way, I have saved a lot of content and links that are always at hand.

How does this differ from the system keyboard shortcuts you can find in the settings?

• No need to remember shortcuts like ;em
• Ability to store images, code snippets, long texts (which is inconvenient in settings)
• Much better organization of such shortcuts

And did I mention that all of this is also available on your phone? Paste also has a Widget that you can place in a convenient location on your home screen or in notifications. It usually saves me a lot of time and allows me to actually work on my phone sometimes, using ready-made content, not to mention quick access to company data at a hotel or gas station… and since we’re already at the gas station.

If I had more time…

I would read books, listen to podcasts, watch TED Talks, or whatever you dream of. The shortcut I want to tell you about probably allowed me to read a few more books a year and listen to dozens of podcasts. It’s ridiculously simple, but that’s what makes automations the best. In the Automation section of the Shortcuts app, you can configure an automation that will launch Podcasts or Audible when you connect to CarPlay. If you don’t have CarPlay, create a regular shortcut.

Honey, can you put the potatoes in?

I also have a simple automation set up that sends a message about when I’ll be home. The configuration in Shortcuts looks like this:

You can take this a step further because in the Automations section, you can set an event like leaving the office as the trigger. The iPhone will check your location and then can activate the above automation.

In a similar way, you can create an automation that allows you to select a person to send a message with your location, making it easy to inform someone where you are and when you will be, for example, in a meeting.

Adding to that checking the nearest event in the calendar, launching navigation, and automatically sending it as soon as you get in the car sounds very interesting and can look like this:

And when you finally get home…

Searching for keys - 10 seconds, opening the door - 15 seconds. That’s only an average of 2.08 minutes per day, but you also have to add the time spent searching for keys at home and going back to the office to get the ones you occasionally forget. It’s possible that the average increases to 4.5 minutes per day. Not much, right? But that’s 273 hours over 10 years.

Do you still think 1200 PLN for a smart lock is expensive?

The topic of a smart home and automation would probably need to be discussed in a separate e-book. The truth is, sometimes it’s more trouble and configuration than benefits. However, a smart lock directly translates into saved time, and that’s immediate.

Screen to clipboard

Another automation that I can’t imagine functioning without. Most of the time, you only need a screenshot for a moment, and it doesn’t have to clutter your files, but can instead go straight to the clipboard. In combination with Paste, it can indeed be available forever, but it doesn’t end up on your disk. The necessary setting can be found in Settings → Keyboard → Shortcuts in the Screenshots tab. The shortcut I’m referring to is Shift + Cmd + w.

Screen to iOS

Using Handoff, you can easily paste the screenshot you took as described above onto your phone. However, sometimes you want to quickly save the captured screenshot to the photos on your phone, for example, to use it as a story or image in an Instagram post. For this purpose, I have set up an automation in the Shortcuts app. The configuration is extremely simple:

This way, the captured screenshot triggers the AirDrop window, which makes it easy for me to send the file. But that’s not all! I have also added this shortcut to my Stream Deck because I use it quite often, and the configuration is extremely simple:

If you don’t have a Stream Deck, but you have configured Caps Lock properly in Karabinier, you can use this method.

Password Manager

Although macOS has a built-in password manager in Safari, I use different browsers and tools, which is why the most convenient option for me is 1password, which has probably saved me several months of my life. Another subscription may not be the most pleasant thing, but this investment pays off for me x100 in terms of time, not to mention security.

1Password automatically fills in most logins on the websites I use, and I can also invoke them with a shortcut (mine is Cmd + ]). What’s more, I use both the family and business plans to create and share different vaults with passwords with my loved ones and colleagues, significantly increasing security. I currently have over 1000 passwords in 1Password.

Keyboard with Touch ID

Confirming many operations on your Mac is done with the help of Touch ID. Therefore, if you use an external monitor (and I hope you do) and keyboard, it’s worth getting a new keyboard with Touch ID available in the upper right corner.

This way, you can easily confirm transactions or launch password-protected applications. As for logging into macOS itself, there is one easy way, and the other involves configuring Apple Watch accordingly.

Apple Watch and passwords

If you use an Apple Watch, you will largely automate various actions such as confirming transactions (for example, I quickly confirm transfers in the Wise or Revolut app this way), but you will also save time unlocking your computer.

Enable this useful option in Preferences:

YubiKey

Or another dongle that enables authentication. It can greatly enhance the security of your key passwords and accesses. You will realize how much time it can save you when an unauthorized person gains access to your Google or Facebook account, for example. I know stories of losing access to main company accounts precisely because of the lack of proper security. Always use 2FA, at least in 1Password or on your phone, and use YubiKey for the most important passwords, which requires physically inserting the key into a USB port and touching it to authorize access. I use one like this, it also works on iPhone:

AirTags and NFC

You can activate various automations using NFC and AirTags, which you can pair as an NFC tag in the Shortcuts app. However, a much cheaper way is to buy NFC stickers. You can get 100 stickers for less than 100 zł. I use stickers like these:

What can you do with NFC tags? You can stick them anywhere. For example, I have a few stickers near my bedside lamp and the place where I charge my phone and watch overnight. Each sticker switches the appropriate modes on my phone and sets an alarm for a specific time. All I have to do is bring my phone close to it, and the commands are executed automatically. You can find some inspiration on how to use such stickers on Makerpad.

Stream Deck

This device is right next to my keyboard and allows me to assign buttons to launch various applications, as well as keyboard shortcuts that are too complicated to remember. With Stream Deck, you can gradually expand your muscle memory so that you rely less on the mouse (personally, I only use the trackpad, which, when combined with Better Touch Tool, offers a lot of possibilities - and it’s on Setapp). This is what the larger version I use looks like:

You can assign any actions, sequences, or keyboard shortcuts to each button. In combination with Shortcuts, which you can activate with these shortcuts, and Keyboard Maestro, the possibilities of using Stream Deck are endless.

For example, one button on mine changes the entire computer setup to recording mode, switching to a special screen that only gives me options for editing the recording, switching the appropriate microphones, cameras, and even turning on the lights that I have connected via Wi-Fi (also Elgato).

Another button with a similar setup is used for Zoom meetings, also launching the application. On Stream Deck, you can configure multiple different screens, even for each frequently used application separately.

Working with the Browser

The browser is likely the tool you use most frequently at work. Additionally, the trend in applications is that most of them are now written natively for the web, which means they work directly in the browser. Using Gmail, Figma, or Miro is already browser-native, so it’s worth optimizing this internal operating system.

Choosing a browser is not an obvious matter, and unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Indeed, Chrome is the best when it comes to extensions, and these can significantly improve your work. However, it is not optimal in terms of performance, and the privacy of your data may raise some concerns. An alternative to Chrome is Brave, which is based on the same engine and therefore supports all your favorite plugins.

In practice, working on macOS in Safari may be the ideal solution for some, but for many, it may not be sufficient, and there are reasonable arguments for that. However, I wouldn’t dismiss this working style right away. If you’re not sure, try working only in Safari for some time. If it turns out that you really need plugins or there are too many missing features, go back to Chrome/Brave.

In principle, most people use the browser as it is installed. However, you don’t need much to speed up its performance. Here are a few tips:

1. Regularly clear the cache (I do this with Clean My Mac mentioned earlier).
2. Work with a few open tabs (ideally 1-3).
3. Uninstall unnecessary plugins.
4. Block ads and trackers (AdBlock, pre-installed in Brave and Safari).
5. Enable the option Preload pages for faster browsing and searching. In the address bar, type chrome:settings, go to Security and Privacy, then to Cookies and other site data, and at the bottom, locate and enable this option.
6. If you feel a slight lag when loading pages, you may want to change the default DNS servers.
7. Enable OpenGL by going to chrome://flags, then to the option Disable WebGL – Enabling this option prevents web applications from accessing the WebGL API, switch the flag to Enable.
8. Force hardware acceleration by going to chrome://flags, enabling the option Enabled for the flag Use hardware acceleration when available.

Arc

We spend most of our day in the browser, but we usually use free solutions (paying with our data, browsing history, and ads). However, there are also paid browsers that offer a bit more and are not intended for the “masses”. They are especially ideal for people who are simultaneously working on multiple projects or managing multiple accounts. Here’s what my Google login looks like:

And below is a list of several more accounts.

In practice, switching between sessions, even with the use of a password manager, is very cumbersome and time-consuming. The Sigma OS browser offers a quite innovative approach to both tabs and session management. It looks like this:

On a large monitor, this allows for: - tabs on the left side (hasn’t anyone thought that they unnecessarily take up space at the top since square monitors?) - two windows inside, the main one and the so-called Side, where I have Slack

On the left side, there is a list of projects (similar to many servers on Discord or Slack) that you can switch between using Cmd + 1 and so on. Interestingly, each of these projects can hold separate session files:

This way, we can be logged into different Facebooks, Slacks, Googles, etc. in each of them. Additionally, Sigma cleverly keeps the session, so once a page is open, it is available without reloading, practically always. In practice, this saves a lot of time because the pages you want to open are already ready and waiting for you, without logging in and loading.

Like Superhuman, SigmaOS operates on keyboard shortcuts, so you don’t have to use a mouse or trackpad to efficiently use the browser. It takes a bit of getting used to, and the transition to Sigma was probably the most difficult for me because of the many new things that need to be memorized muscle-wise. However, once you master the shortcuts, the efficiency increases significantly.

There are also other similar solutions, of which the most promising and refined is Arc. You can also check out Shift and Sidekick.

Sigma also has a main command window available with the shortcut Cmd + K, which you can always use when you don’t remember a specific shortcut, without taking your hands off the keyboard. And since we’re talking about the keyboard…

One thing that will triple your productivity

Fast typing. One obvious proof is the e-book you have in front of you. It was created in two days (!). Adam wrote about 80 pages in one day, and my part didn’t take longer. Writing is one of those paradoxical skills because it has the most impact on our work productivity, yet no one teaches us how to do it.

To give you an idea of the scale of this “automation,” on average, an IT worker writes 33 emails a day, spending a whopping 13 hours a week on their inbox. Think about how much time you spend on Slack or Teams. I’m not even talking about people who write blogs and other content. On average, we write about 3,500 words a day, where 2 is the lower limit and 5 is the upper limit. As you can see, on average, people write about 30 words per minute.

That’s very little. There are people who can type 120 words per minute, and the record is over 160 words per minute.

By learning to type faster, you will save weeks:

I know it’s hard to start. Usually, changing finger positions on the keyboard to the correct ones is almost impossible to overcome. That’s why I don’t suggest you do it at all in the beginning. You can type 133 words per minute with just two fingers and your thumbs:

Watch Video

How to practice? Do this one exercise for 10-15 minutes a day https://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english (you can switch to Polish). You’ll thank me in a month.

Bonus: Greg’s Second Brain

Notion - Second Brain

The culmination of my efforts in automating daily tasks is my “Second Brain,” which I currently manage entirely in Notion. It is a dashboard that contains a series of notifications and metrics that are crucial to me. I mentioned earlier that I have all notifications permanently turned off, with the exception of Notion, which prompts me with the most important tasks and notifies me at the appropriate time, although there are very few of these notifications because most of my work is asynchronous.

You need to know that my work is quite specific. I simultaneously manage several projects operationally and help develop several others. This results in a situation where I frequently switch between different tasks, inboxes, logins, and each project has its own pipeline that I try to control. I also have many people who help me organize my work, but I was missing one place that would allow me to manage and have control over all the most important messages, metrics, and much more…

You can find plenty of productivity gurus online, and there are hundreds of videos on YouTube about how to create your own system for managing the world in Notion. The vast majority of them are overkill, and I don’t even believe that the authors of these videos actually use them. As always, the simpler, the better, and the more complex the dashboard, the more work it requires to maintain, making it counterproductive. Seriously, you don’t need to enter into Notion how many times you walked the dog and the consistency of its poop. Most productivity gurus, however, suggest such complex solutions that I’m sure you can only maintain them for a week at most.

I started with my Second Brain from scratch, just like a blank sheet of paper:

And then, throughout the day, I tried to catch what I was doing and what tasks I was repeating, and then I wondered if I could streamline them by adding them as bases to Notion, ending up with this (one of 3 screens):

If you still don’t know what Notion is, it’s hard to describe all its uses here, but the mere fact that you start using it will make this reading pay off 1000x (is that even a word?).

I always have the dashboard open in fullscreen mode on one of the desktops on my Mac, always the last one on the left. If you don’t know how to use desktops, swipe up with 4 fingers on the trackpad. You can add and manage desktops, and you can switch between them by swiping right or left with three fingers on the trackpad. I also have a shortcut to access my Second Brain in the form of a macro in Keyboard Maestro, and even a physical button on my Stream Deck - I just need to have it literally at my fingertips at all times.

For most of the day, when I’m creating content or working conceptually, I’m on my Second Brain. Without any distractions, I create all the necessary content directly in nested Notion cards, whether they are tasks, meeting notes, email responses, or even… social media posts! How do I do it?

I will now go through (currently) the most important sections of my Second Brain. Please treat them as purely illustrative - the goal is for you to create your own system because each of us has different work specifics, tasks, and notifications. Get inspired, but don’t copy, as it won’t be of much use. Let’s go through these sections that work for me, from top to bottom, from left to right:### Goals for today

Here are the most important goals that actually bring value in the projects I’m working on. I fill them in the morning and accomplish 2-5 goals per day.

Generally, I could be busy all the time at work and not do anything productive. So many people message me, need something, and take up my time that I could literally just react to signals. That’s why I have all notifications turned off and I react to signals in time blocks throughout the day. However, I have a sacred rule that I have to feel like I’ve accomplished something in the day, something that pushes all my projects forward. These are the Goals for today. Usually, I add them in the morning, thinking about what should be here on my way to work, which I commute by bike. I plan what I want to do today and what will actually deliver value externally.

Sometimes I review the list of accomplished goals after some time - it gives me a good boost because it’s easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle. Here, I only have the most important goals, but ones that can be accomplished in a day. The most demanding ones are blocks of about 1.5 hours of focus, which I try to fit in 2-3 times a day.

Sometimes these goals carry over to the next day because something comes up and I’m okay with that. I even enjoy not finishing a goal if I’ve already done a lot in one day, so that I can start the next day on a good note - then I have focus from the morning, nothing distracts me, I finish one goal, and I’m already in a good mode to tackle the next one. Often, the goals are derived from milestones in projects, which I’ll talk about in the next section.

I don’t automate the Goals section. I enter the goals here daily and change their status, which I filter the view by. That’s it.

Calendar

All events from the most important calendars for me are displayed here. This allows me to see what’s happening today, which can be meetings, but also events that I follow on our services, live streams, product releases, and more.

This section is fully automated, and events are automatically added here from various Google calendars. This is what the scenario in Make looks like, which adds events here. For each calendar I follow, I have a similar scenario:

Tasks

Typical, short to-do’s that I accomplish whenever I have a moment. There are two types - one-time and recurring. I add one-time todos in various ways:

• Directly in Notion when I’m at the computer
• With the help of automation triggered by a keyboard shortcut
• Or from a tile on my phone that triggers the same automation in Shortcuts

In turn, with a shortcut, the task is taken over by a simple automation:

Recurring tasks are based on data in Notion that I add to the task:

I specify the time unit, how often the task should repeat in those units, and finally, I mark a flag indicating that it’s a recurring task. The automation in Make is responsible for adding it again at the appropriate time. It runs every day at midnight and looks like this:

The fields in this database also include a link field, which often comes in handy for me to immediately go to the execution of a task that I need to do somewhere on the web. I add a link that is then visible on top of the task, and clicking on it is enough to go to the right place and start working on the task.

Some tasks require a description, or the purpose of the task itself is to create some description or content - here Notion works perfectly because when I enter the card for that task, I can directly add content, media, and other things there, and for example, quickly share the entire card with someone using the Share option.

You probably noticed that tasks also have a status field, which I use to filter their display in the view. At first, I had only checkboxes that could be marked with 1 click, but now I use statuses like To do, In progress, Done because I can easily sort tasks by those in progress and by date, which looks like this:

And I set up filters like this:

It works. Now you’re saving on another subscription ;)

Meetings Today

Here are all the meetings that come through Zencal and are scheduled for today:

With Zencal, I operate in multiple teams and have many schedules for different projects. It’s a brilliant tool that simplifies work organization and helps me fit specific meetings into blocks. Zencal works based on links for scheduling meetings, which I share depending on the project, time, language, etc. I have all these links set up as keyboard shortcuts, for example, ;zen30 generates a link for a 30-minute meeting in the default schedule, ;zen30pm does the same but only in the afternoon schedule, and so on.

Notice that I have a quick link to Zencal at the base, so I can go there and make any adjustments if needed. I have these links under each section.

Automation takes care of ensuring that the right events end up here. In Zencal, you can set up webhooks that are triggered when a meeting is created, and then a robot adds the meeting to the database as soon as it’s scheduled. Then, similar to calendar events, the view shows meetings filtered by today’s date:

This is genuinely a 30-minute setup with Zencal and shortcuts, and… you forget about scheduling and remembering meetings forever.

But wait, there’s more! Of course, every element created in the database in Notion is just a card with a series of automatically generated magical properties:

Thanks to the meeting date and time being in Notion, I set up a notification for 5 minutes before. As I mentioned, I have notifications enabled only in Notion, so 5 minutes before the meeting, a toast notification pops up. I click on it, and the correct meeting card opens right away! From there, I can click on the link to the meeting place (like Zoom here) and during the meeting, I can add all my notes here! If I need to create a TODO during the meeting, I’m already in the right place. Not to mention that I can review several years of meetings along with the insights from them.

At the end of the meeting, if I want to share the notes with the person I had the meeting with, I click on Share in the top right corner of that card and paste the email I have next to it in the meeting field. That’s it! No follow-ups or wasted time summarizing meetings in an email!

This document immediately has the option for commenting and co-creating, so sometimes I do that right at the beginning of the meeting, not sharing it via email, but simply generating a link and providing it during the meeting. Then, everyone can create notes together during the meeting. Simple, and it works amazingly.

Emails

Several mailboxes in one place? With email previews and even the ability to reply? Yes, this is another section of my Second Brain that contains all the messages from different email accounts, marked with my tag, which means those I should react to.

In this section, there are a few conveniences. First of all, I have a tag indicating which mailbox the message comes from. Secondly, I have a deep link that allows me to open that specific message with one click in Superhuman. Thirdly, I have the sender, subject, and if I click on the card, it displays the entire message content. Additionally, the checkbox marks the messages I want to remove from this view… and that’s it.

Under the emails, I also have links to all the main mailboxes where I can directly navigate.

Automation takes care of aggregating emails and adding them here:

And it works both ways. If I reply to an email on GMail (or in Superhuman), it automatically disappears from this view, and I don’t have to click the checkbox.

This one “silly” section has already saved me months of work.

Milestones

Everything that pushes my projects forward and actually adds value is added as a milestone. In Second Brain, this section is most often displayed as a Timeline because it allows me to quickly see what major goals I have planned for the current time and the upcoming weeks. It looks like this:

I can also display a Board view, where all tasks from projects are listed.

When I conceptually work on adding milestones here, I often open this database in fullscreen because there are a lot of tasks, I categorize them, add new ones, change dates.

Individual cards often consist of dozens of pages of specifications, thoughts exchange, comments. Most of them are shared with the team, and we work on them together, asynchronously.

It is from this section that I extract current tasks for Today’s Tasks (not TODO), those that push everything forward.

This section is not automated, I add everything here manually, describe it, share it, move it. I only apply a filter that helps me display what is currently on the agenda:

Key Metrics

Below is an extensive section. There are about 20 metrics here that are important to me in various projects. This allows me to take a look at currently pursued goals, revenues, and other important things for me. I will probably write another ebook about metrics, this is just a small excerpt:

All metrics are passed here from automation, but there are so many of them and they are so complex that it would be difficult to fit them all here. This section took me the most time to prepare, probably 1-2 days. But the amount of time it actually saves me is unimaginable. I stopped logging into dozens of systems like GA, Power BI, Mixpanel, Grafana, and others.

Seriously, this is a powerful thing, but it is so individual and extensive that I will leave you here only with inspiration, and we will save the detailed discussion for another meeting.

People

CRM with people I am currently working on something with, have follow-ups to do, there is some business thread, etc., and I don’t want to forget about it. I have a lot of them, so I keep them in one organized place, together with notes, current actions to be taken, and often also link to the appropriate card with a person to notes from meetings or even emails, which is amazingly easy if everything is in one place!

I can’t show you this tab because it literally contains sensitive data and personal information. But there is no magic or automation there, I manage it manually. I only set notifications for specific dates with specific people, so that Notion reminds me to, for example, follow up on something.

Communication

In Second Brain, this database only has a simple, condensed view that looks exactly like today’s tasks. It contains content that I prepare for publishing externally, for example on LinkedIn, as a newsletter, or on other channels. Here, I’m showing you the full view of this database as a timeline, because the archived cards that were added to this database and scheduled for publication on specific days look nice here:

I’ve heard that normal people, when they want to write a post, go to LinkedIn or Facebook and do it. When they want to send a newsletter, they log in to Mailchimp or another tool, write it, and send it. For me, it’s a bit different…

I write content here asynchronously, at different times, planning their publication:

• at a specific time - day and hour
• on a specific channel

So the fields of the cards in this database look like this:

As you can see, I can add content, links, and even images to posts here. I can set it to be published with one status flag, and the field where to publish looks like this:

This is just a piece of this list, it has dozens of items.

Yes, you understand correctly. By selecting, for example, “grzegorz wszędzie” (which means “everywhere”), the automation will queue these posts for publication on all my channels - LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook… what’s more, everything will happen automatically. Here, of course, a slightly more complex but simple in its construction spider comes into play:

This automation can queue posts for social media, emails, and even posts for our community.

These planned contents could basically be published on their own, but I additionally mark them as drafts to be checked by my assistant, to add videos if necessary (unfortunately, automation doesn’t handle that), tag people, add hashtags, etc. Of course, all the tasks related to this for her are automatically added so that she can just click through them and approve.

Please note that everything I’m describing simply boils down to saving me any administrative work, logging in through interfaces, searching for passwords, publishing at a specific moment, which is very distracting, etc. However, this doesn’t change the quality of my content in any way - on the contrary, it removes all distractions and allows me to produce the best possible content, giving a lot of value while saving a lot of time. I’ve seen people in marketing departments who create 3 posts per day. I can create 30, and on top of that, 5 emails, 10 community posts, and even build Lego with my child, seriously.

Handy Bookmarks

By using the Notion Web Clipper plugin for your browser, you can easily save the pages you are currently on to your database. I maintain such a database with links instead of bookmarks in my browser, and it works great for me because the ability to organize databases and search through them is much better than with bookmarks.

Adding pages to bookmarks is ridiculously easy. After installing the plugin, simply use the keyboard shortcut, hit enter, and that’s it - the reading material is saved for later. You can also add a description and immediately fill in the fields that will allow you to better categorize and search through the bookmarks. You can do this with the help of the Save to Notion plugin, which offers many more options.

I have the bookmarks database pulled up in the lower part of Second Brain so that I can easily find the recently added bookmarks. They are usually useful from this view, so I set a filter on it:

It successfully replaces Pocket or other similar solutions for me. And again, everything in one place!

Links Section

In this section, I have a lot of useful links, both for the web and other pages on Notion, hotlinks to mailboxes or administrative panels that I use. It’s often duplicated in other places, bookmarks, in Sigma, and even on the Stream Deck. The point is to always have these important links at hand and be able to access them in various ways.

Here are some examples of interesting hyperlinks that I use, they might inspire you:

• Database with all the books, podcasts, and videos I watch - I have a rule that whenever I read or listen to something, I try to make a short note with the takeaways. If I’m listening in the car, I make a voice note and use Shortcuts to add it to a new page.
• Database with parenting tips - I have various interesting things there that I’ve heard and are easy to forget but can be useful, like tips such as “buy your child’s favorite toy and when they outgrow it, sell it for a higher price or negotiate.”
• Links to financial databases - I haven’t even started on this topic because it’s extensive. I have dozens of databases that I use to manage projects, household finances, and investments. It’s a big deal, but it would probably take another 100 pages to describe it all. Maybe someday I’ll write about it.

Bonus: “Second Brain” by Adam “overment” Gospodarczyk

You already know what a “Second Brain” is in our understanding and how you can organize it in Notion. Although Grzegorz did a great job introducing you to this topic, I thought that an additional perspective might be useful.

Before we begin, I want to emphasize that in this chapter, I won’t explain everything in the smallest detail because it wouldn’t make much sense. Developing a “second brain” using automation requires knowledge of basic tools like Notion and Make. In my case, I also use GPT-4 and a range of additional improvements and extensions, which may inspire you.

A few words about me

Before we get into the specifics, I want to once again highlight what I wrote about in the chapter describing my day. Namely, remember that my scope of work is quite unique and encompasses a very broad range and deep details. Secondly, most of what I describe is tailored to my personality traits.

Therefore, please remember that what you are about to see is just a description of a tool that is customized for me. Transferring all of this 1:1 to your everyday life may not yield good results. So, try to pay attention to the details on which you can build your own tools. This approach will greatly increase the chances that if you build your “second brain,” it will be tailored to you and actually support you.

Before we get into the specifics, I have a few more facts I’d like to share with you:

• Despite working in a team, we have direct contact with each other only about 90-95% of the time. Meetings are limited to a minimum (once every two weeks), and work is done asynchronously using Notion, Airtable, and Linear.
• During the week, I have an additional 2-4 meetings that are not permanently scheduled in my calendar. Usually, each of them lasts no longer than 20 minutes.
• I work with a very simple task list that contains only a few entries for each day.
• I check my email 1-2 times a day.
• I don’t work directly with the calendar, but events that appear in it have high priority notifications.
• During work, I focus only on work. I check messaging apps and social media a few times a day because it’s part of my job.
• I tend to avoid planning, but I have a precisely defined direction in which I’m heading and possibly short-term goals related to specific projects.

The above points will help you better understand my approach to work. Even if some of them seem incomprehensible or incorrect to you, please remember that I’m not imposing them on you. They simply work great for me. Also, this list occasionally changes and adapts to my current responsibilities.

It’s possible that in your case, too, you can identify a few points that will help you grasp what you need and what you want to avoid. Based on them, you can start working on your own “second brain” project.

Assumptions of the “Second Brain”

When creating my panel, I asked myself: do I even need such a tool? After all, as I mentioned, the way I use task lists, calendars, or even emails is very limited. On the other hand, this doesn’t mean that these elements don’t appear in my workflow at all. Therefore, my assumptions regarding the “Second Brain” include consolidating the most important information for me in one place to eliminate the risk of overlooking it and to facilitate access to it.

I can immediately say that personally, I have a huge problem with activities related to extensive planning and organizing work tools. Specifically, the problem is that managing them requires more energy than the time needed to complete the task itself! I don’t want to waste my time like that, so I’ve defined a few additional principles:

• The panel should only include what is truly essential.
• It should immediately inform me about what is important to me.
• It should communicate with external services in both directions.
• Minimalism is a priority for me.
• Managing it should take up minimal time.
• It should be easily accessible to me, including on my phone.
• Its maintenance and development should be as simple as possible.

With all this in mind, it was clear to me that I needed to focus on usefulness. I leave all the complicated mechanisms aside, focusing on minimalism and simple structures.### What do I really need from a “Second Brain”?

I only need one thing: easy access to the dashboard and relevant information for me.

To go further, it is necessary to specify “what exactly is important?”. To determine this, I took a closer look at my activities and how I carry them out. I also paid attention to certain problems and gaps in my working style, and building a “second brain” became a reason for me to address them.

So I prepared another short list:

• shaping the environment - habits, sources of knowledge, focus on action
• building relationships - communication and meetings
• monitoring - progress and potential challenges
• sandbox - a place where everything I currently need can go

These points translated into the following elements:

• monitoring habits I want to develop
• a simple task and event list
• “brain food” from publications, movies, and news
• monitoring financial results
• a place for quick notes

The result looks like this:

Cool, right? So keep reading.

Tools I use in my “Second Brain”

The most obvious choice was Notion, due to the immense flexibility it offers. In addition to building the interface itself, it was also important for me to have access to the API and the ability to edit practically every element.

In addition to Notion, integration with Google Calendar, Gmail, Stripe, Feedly, Airtable, and OpenAI was also necessary.

Adding any information to the “Second Brain” must be done without the need to open it. That’s why Keyboard Maestro, Shortcuts, and Better Touch Tool turned out to be crucial, where I defined macros that allow me, for example, to quickly summon the “Second Brain” (i.e., open the specified address).

To utilize GPT-4, make.com automations and the Alice app proved to be helpful. Thanks to them, I can save unstructured information that is organized for me according to predefined prompts. For example, if I want to add a task to my list, I can use natural language to do so. The message “Alice, add recording a video about long-term memory LLM to my tasks for tomorrow” will make the task appear in my Notion scheduled for the next day (default time is 9:00 AM), assigned to the eduweb project with the appropriate priority.

The integration with make.com allows for creating automations that constantly monitor the information appearing in the dashboard. They also take care of organizing and displaying only the information I need for that day.

Designing the “Second Brain” dashboard

When I opened a blank page in Notion, I focused on outlining the general shape of the dashboard and its sections. While doing this, I constantly kept in mind the assumptions mentioned earlier. I started by giving it the title “It’s just a play,” which changes with the help of an automation using the connection with OpenAI and a simple prompt generator.

Such automation may seem not very useful. However, small details that put me in a good mood and give me energy to act are very important to me.

The first important information for me is the financial result of my projects. Although money doesn’t play a particularly important role for me, it is necessary to carry out my initiatives. In addition to income, I also added links to individual Stripe accounts to the dashboard.

Since I manage several projects, I prepared a scenario whose role is to connect with Stripe and gather statistics for each account. In practice, every 90 minutes during working hours, an automation is triggered to update the financial results directly in my Notion.

### Brain Food and the Best Sources of Knowledge

I read a lot. Books, articles, and newsletters. However, I do it in my free time, so I needed a simple way to save the currently viewed link. Of course, all of this has to happen automatically, preferably with the help of a single keyboard shortcut, so I needed clever automation.

When I previously discussed acquiring knowledge in combination with automation, I showed a macro that I use to save notes from selected websites. Saving just the URL addresses works on a very similar principle, but here I want to retrieve additional information such as the page title. Although this task seems very simple, it is not in practice.

Firstly, I needed a macro that would pass the URL from the browser to the make.com script. Considering that I want such a macro to work on every device, I needed a script that would read the URL or allow me to enter it manually. The Shortcuts macro looks like this:

The next step is to read the content of the website and add it to Feedly and Airtable. However, here is a small problem because some addresses are not correctly read by Feedly, and then I have to manually load their titles, covers, and descriptions. The situation becomes even more complicated with links from YouTube, where I have to retrieve information and covers through a direct connection to the platform.

Ultimately, I achieve the desired effect, and one keyboard shortcut is enough for me to save pages to read later. However, that was not enough for me because I wanted Alice to also be able to save links that she deems worth reading. As a result, I taught her how to do it (this feature is not available in the public version of the application).

So now I can send a link to a page from anywhere (e.g., my phone), and it will be saved with all the information about it (although not always any data beyond the address and title is available).

Important Email Messages

The email section was relatively easy to organize. By using the automations I mentioned earlier with filters and watching incoming messages, you can create a simple scenario that adds an entry to the Notion database.

The automation that saves messages is simple enough that I created several scenarios whose task is to watch different labels and save related emails to Notion.

The above scenarios pass the intercepted messages to another automation. Thanks to this, any future changes in the “Second Brain” panel can be made in one place without modifying the other scenarios.

Tasks and Daily Win

The book “Essentialism” talks about how the word “priority” originally only existed in the singular form. It was only later that we started talking about “priorities,” which disrupted the foundation of this term.

For this reason, out of all my tasks, I choose only one each day that becomes my priority. It is one task that is significant enough that even if it were the only one to be completed, it would still have a noticeable effect.

Adding new tasks is done through Alice, but this time I will show you a slightly different way using Shortcuts and voice interaction.

Specifically, I have a very simple Shortcuts macro whose task is to display a window that allows me to dictate any text. Then this text is passed to Alice, and her response is converted to speech using a macro that utilizes ElevenLabs.io.

The above macro is simple enough that I can run it on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, HomePod 2, and even an Apple Watch! As a result, I can add new tasks vocally from anywhere and any device.

As I mentioned earlier, I can simply tell Alice to add a task to my list. Its content will be passed by her to the following scenario, where with the help of GPT-4, I assign a category, priority, and due date to the task. The scenario itself is a bit more complex because it allows for multiple tasks to be passed at once, so I can dictate to Alice what I intend to do, and she will convert it into tasks.

### Calendar Events

I think at this point it’s already obvious to you how to set up integration with a calendar. Just like with Gmail, all you need is an automation that watches for new events being added. However, the situation here is a bit more complex because unlike emails, calendar events can be canceled or changed.

That’s why the automation responsible for adding them is set up to save a unique Notion ID. Based on this ID, another scenario is able to find and update the added entries.

Each time the scenario retrieves events for the upcoming week, so I have a clear idea of what awaits me in the coming days. The automation is so effective that I don’t add any events directly in Notion and only use its display to quickly review them when I open my “Second Brain”.

Quick Notes

When I talked about “acquiring knowledge on autopilot,” I showed a macro for saving quick notes from the browser. The selected text is then sent to the make.com scenario, where it can be transferred to any location. One of them is my dashboard, which has a special section for quick notes.

However, it turns out that using automation to save text in Notion is not obvious. The reason is the document structure consisting of blocks. In a very simple version, we could put the entire note content in one block, but that affects how it is displayed in Notion.

Despite initially assuming that I would only create simple automations, creating a mechanism that allows me to build entire pages in Notion was important from the perspective of my other scenarios. As a result, I divided the automation into two stages. The first one involves describing the note content and structuring it with the help of GPT-4.

The second automation is a bit more universal, allowing me to use it in different situations. Its task is to connect to my server to convert the text into a list of blocks compatible with Notion.

As a result, the saved note includes formatting, including links and images. Interestingly, almost two years after creating the above scenario, I can say that it was worth preparing. I use it practically every time I work with text saved in Notion - which is practically all the time.

Additional Improvements to the Second Brain

In the case of tools like the “Second Brain” dashboard, it is important that we actually work with them. Initially, we won’t have such a habit, so it’s worth developing it.

I assigned a macro that opens the dashboard to a four-finger tap gesture on the trackpad. I did the same with the mouse, where pressing a dedicated button is enough.

The fact that I use the Arc browser also plays a role because by default, the panel opens in the “Little Arc” floating window, which is displayed even in full-screen mode. This allows me to quickly preview what interests me at the moment without switching between screens. After finishing work with the dashboard, I usually close it with the ⌘W shortcut.

The last improvement in working with the “Second Brain” is the scenarios and filters of Notion database views. Their presence makes content management in the dashboard minimal and boils down to checking off tasks and read articles. Everything else happens automatically. Unfortunately, the biggest drawback (and advantage at the same time) is the Notion blocks and the need to consider them in automation. This is perfectly illustrated by the following scenario, whose role is to simply copy content between different Notion pages.

Ultimately, the advantage of cleanup scenarios is that since I developed them, I’m now opening them for the first time to take the above screenshot. They have been working for me without any breaks for the past few years.Summary of Adam’s “Second Brain”

The “Second Brain” panel plays an incredibly important role in my daily functioning and encompasses many dimensions. Firstly, whenever I need to refer back to any information (notes, links, tasks), I know that I can simply access the archive. If a particular source of knowledge was important to me, Alice most likely remembered it, so I can just ask her.

Developing the “Second Brain” has also brought me additional benefits in terms of having ample space to reflect on organizing my work and preparing a process that is tailored to me. I think that even if you don’t need the “Second Brain” panel, going through the thought process associated with its construction can be valuable for you.

Conclusion and Next Steps

The knowledge presented above is an absolute introduction to a completely new way of working that you can start exploring from this moment on. Even if the topic of automation in some form was already familiar to you, it’s possible that you now have in your hands a set of new tools in the form of ideas, inspiration, and specific activities that will now influence your environment.

If for some reason you were not able to implement all the suggestions that you still consider valuable, come back to them another time. However, don’t postpone it indefinitely because the sooner you implement them, the sooner they will start saving your time and the more time you will save.

And remember: let the robots do their work and use your human qualities to accomplish things that may forever be impossible for robots.

Good luck,

Adam and Grzegorz