Lifehacker

Getting started (or reacquainted) with Quicksilver

Merlin — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:22:20 -0400

Hack Attack: A beginner's guide to Quicksilver - Lifehacker

Adam Pash has written a terrific introduction to Quicksilver that I recommend for folks who are still scratching their heads about what all the fuss is about.

Part of the challenge is the "layers of the onion" problem. There's no explanation of what Quicksilver does that's at once brief, accurate, exhaustive, and easy for new users to immediately grok; it really does reveal its delights over time, through repeated usage, and in proportion to your willingness to learn and experiment. Adam does a good job of acquainting new folks with the basic idea and the setup, then he walks through a few of the many bits of fu that have made this app the phenomenon that it is.

Quicksilver can be used to launch files and applications, manipulate data, and seamlessly plug into almost any application on your Mac so that you can perform actions as soon as you think of them in a few short keystrokes.

Also from our own archives, here are a few popular Quicksilver items from the extended 43 Folders family (including 4 video tutorials). And seriously: if you really still don't see why QS is different, do watch the videos; writing about Quicksilver is like singing about a magic trick.

Merlin's Quicksilver Video Tutorials

“...writing about Quicksilver is like singing about a magic trick.”

MacBreak 12: Quicksilver - "Leo Laporte and Merlin Mann show you how to turbocharge your interactions with your data and applications using Quicksilver."
MacBreak 17: Quicksilver Tips - "Merlin Mann's back sharing more productivity tips with Leo using Quicksilver." This segment focuses on how to control iTunes via Quicksilver.
006: HOWTO: Quicksilver: The Comma Trick - "Learn how to create a temporary stack in Quicksilver, so you can do stuff to (or with) a big pile of objects all at one time."
008: HOWTO: Quicksilver: Application Menus - "Learn how to access drop-down menus in every application via Quicksilver."

Our favorite Quicksilver resources from elsewhere

quicksilver:tutorials [docs] - This is the mother lode. The best Quicksilver meta-resource anywhere.
A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes - Dan's post is what got me to try Quicksilver
Howard Melman's 'Quicksilver User's Guide' - A wonderful piece of PDF documentation. As far as I know, this is the closest thing there is to an end-user Quicksilver manual, all in one place.
Howard Melman's 'Quicksilver Quick Reference' - An unbelievably useful PDF cheat sheet of most all the Quicksilver commands in one place. Print. Post. Refer. Learn.
Quicksilver Changes Everything at The Apple Blog - Another good entry point

”Getting started (or reacquainted) with Quicksilver” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on March 28, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Crossword-maker Merl Reagle on index cards

Merlin — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:27:30 -0500

YouTube - The Hipster PDA in Wordplay

In the Will Shortz crossword puzzle documentary, Wordplay, Merl Reagle discusses how he uses index cards to collect and track ideas on the go.

[ via: The Hipster PDA in Wordplay - Lifehacker ]

I love two things in particular about this.

First, I like how Merl Reagle has embraced ubiquitous capture as a way to systematically gather all the disparate drizzles of inspiration that constitute his job's research. Can you imagine how to wrangle the intellectual raw materials for a task like making crossword puzzles? Yikes.

So, just as much, I like how this illustrates the opportunity (and challenge) that more and more people face today: defining what your own job is_. While we're not all employed in a field that's as unique as puzzle-making, most of share Mr. Reagle's need to decide _how we do what we do. And one of the affordances for that process that a lot of folks are using is -- you guessed it -- portable paper.

Thus, crossword puzzle maker now joins my running list of "Black Box Careers."

”Crossword-maker Merl Reagle on index cards” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on December 19, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Gina on not checking your email first-thing

Merlin — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:36:48 -0400

Geek to Live: Control your workday - Lifehacker

Gina has a good post on ways to structure your work day and ensure you get your most important stuff accomplished, and she includes a piece of advice I've recently started practicing myself:

Get one thing done first - THEN check your email

Author of Never Check Email in the Morning Julie Morgenstern suggests spending the first hour of your workday email-free. Choose one task - even a small one - and tackle it first thing. Accomplishing something out of the gate sets the tone for the rest of your day and guarantees that no matter how many fires you're tasked with putting out the minute you open your email client, you still can say that you got something done...

I've discovered that a lot of my most unpalatable, low-priority email arrives overnight; it's when most cron jobs and mailing digests run, plus, I suspect, it's when a lot of garden-variety crazies get their second wind (or 12th beer).

Waiting an hour or so to collect the overnight haul buys me time to wake up, get some work done, and generally orient myself. By the the time I raise the electronic flood gate, I'm already feeling on top of things and have no problem blowing through all my mail in a few short minutes. Even the crazy ones.

The larger issue is a pillar of Inbox Zero: it's your mailbox, and you get to decide when and for how long it draws your attention. I recommend affecting that decision while awake, cogent, and adequately caffeinated.

”Gina on not checking your email first-thing” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on July 18, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Gina: Action-based email setup

Merlin — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 07:19:06 -0400

Empty your inbox with the Trusted Trio

Gina's written up a post on her modified version of the email setup I laid out in my MacWorld Inbox Makeover article. She's stripping down to three email folders (besides the inbox), and seems to be having good results with the action-oriented results:

Action
These messages represent tasks you must complete; whether that's a response that will take more than two minutes (anything less than that, just respond on the spot!) or some sort of an action. All these messages represent an item on your to do list...

Archive
The Archive folder is your long-term email reference library. Place all the messages that contain information you may want to retrieve at some point in the long term future in Archive. Any completed threads, completed requests, memo's you've read, questions you had answered, and completed project email goes into Archive. Basically, whenever an email is "closed" but you may find it useful at some point in the future place it in Archive...

Hold
The Hold folder is a temporary holding pen for important messages you'll need quick access to within the next few days. If you're waiting on someone else to get back to you with crucial information, or you're maintaining a thread about a time-sensitive topic, keep it in the Hold folder. For you GTDers, items in the Hold folder might correspond with items in the next few weeks in your tickler file.

She also includes some tips for staying up to date that are a nice complement to the Inbox Zero series.

Great work as always, Gina! Rock on.

”Gina: Action-based email setup” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 22, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Gina: "There is no perfect personal organization system"

Merlin — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 11:41:21 -0500

Geek to Live: How to find the perfect productivity tools - Lifehacker

Gina nails it in her overview of how she evaluates and chooses tools:

While you evaluate your choices - Palm Pilot? Hipster PDA? EssentialPIM? A Moleskine? - instead of considering the features of one approach over another, turn your focus inward. What must your calendar do for you? How will you use it? Will it fit into your life? Be honest. Don’t let the features dictate how you use the tool, let your needs dictate what features you require...

Taste-testing is easy. Committing to a tool is more difficult. With the daily onslaught of new and sexy apps out to help you get organized, it’s hard to settle on just one. Don’t get stuck in continual evaluation analysis paralysis, hopping from one solution or software package to another, relentlessly re-working your process for the sake of finding the perfect system. Don’t let Shiny New Thing seduce you. Stick to what works.

Speaking of work, remember: No personal organizer is going to do the work for you. You’ve got to work your system to keep your life in order - period, end of story.

Nicely put, G.

Related: I've always felt there was precisely one person who should feel compelled to try every squirrely system mentioned on 43 Folders: me. I doubt anyone at Bon Appetit expects you to prepare and consume every recipe they publish; likewise, Gina, me, and the world's other productivity pr0nographers would never wish non-stop life refactoring upon any of you.

For the love of God, please take Gina's advice -- read broadly, choose mindfully, and rebuild from scratch really infrequently.

”Gina: "There is no perfect personal organization system"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 09, 2005. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Applescript to "sync" iCal to your Hipster PDA

Merlin — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 07:41:41 -0400

mccamon.org

Mike McCamon offers a clever way to get just his task list from iCal printed onto index cards for his Hipster PDA. Applescript to the rescue:

Then I went to print. Crap. I can't print just the Task list - I have to take the Calendar too. Enter AppleScript. With a little copy and pasting from code I found around the web I came up with a script to print only the Tasks of a selected Calendar. I also modified that script to print me all my Next Actions from all my Calendars.

Haven't tried it yet (not an iCal user, myself), but given the number of folks linking to Mike, I suspect it must work.

Also, +1 for the excellent disclaimer, Mike; I can see we share a personal liability.

[ via Sync Your HipsterPDA to Your Mac - Lifehacker ]

”Applescript to "sync" iCal to your Hipster PDA” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 27, 2005. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"