TextExpander is a handy little program that let’s you assign abbreviations to longer pieces of text. When you type the abbreviation, no matter what program you are in, it expands it out to the longer text.

The first time I saw TextExpander, it looked pretty doggone neat. But I couldn’t bring myself to spend $30 on it. I was so naive. Somewhere along the way, I got it at a discount — like the one at the bottom of this post! But after being reminded of what life without TextExpander was like, I wouldn’t hesitate to spend $30 on it now. (I say that only as a happy customer — I wasn’t asked to make that statement and I’m receiving nothing in return.)

As a celebration of recovering my TextExpander preferences, I thought I’d share my favorite uses for TextExpander with you:

• Email address: For one reason or another, I have to type my email address every day. A simple snippet like ‘eemail’ means that I can make sure I type it accurately and quickly everytime.
• Email signatures: I have a few different email signatures I use, depending on the context of the email. Each has a 5-6 letter snippet that will drop in my name and other appropriate information like an email address or URL.
• Amazon links: That Amazon associates program has helped provide a number of books for my library…and a few diapers for our changing table as well. All I need to do is copy the ASIN from an Amazon product, and then type a snippet, and as associates link is dropped in place in my blog post, email, etc.
• TinyURL: TextExpander can also activate an AppleScript. With the snippet describe here, I can copy a long URL and have TextExpander automatically convert it to a TinyURL for me.
• Footnotes/References: I don’t need this one so much anymore, but it was fantastic when writing papers in grad school. Because TextExpander can remember text styles, I had a default format for footnotes or reference pages with appropriate punctuation, etc. I could just type ffoot and it would drop the format in. I just then needed to place the author, title, etc in the appropriate place.

I have a number of others, but these are the snippets I’ve found most useful. For other TextExpander users out there, how have you put it to use?

If you are interested in purchasing TextExpander, here’s a coupon code you can use for 20% off a single license or family pack: CREATE0709. The code is good through the entire month of July. (And a special thanks to SmileOnMyMac who agreed to make this offer available after I told them I was going to run this post.)

Update: SmileOnMyMac also directed me to this post on their blog that shows how to sync TextExpander preferences using DropBox instead of MobileMe. Beautiful.

a

life without textexpander…oh the horror!

I’ve alluded to it before — I think I find as much inspiration in books written for children as I do in books written for ‘grown-ups’. Perhaps it is because the tone helps the reader, or at least me, put down our guard enough to open ourselves up to what the content might have to say to us.

The same holds true for Problem Solving 101. It was originally written for schoolchildren in Japan. Because of this, the examples might seem a little silly, and the illustrations are, well, whimsical. But all of this only helps to make the message more appealing. So appealing, in fact, that the book quickly became popular with adults in Japan as well.

The story behind the book that is as interesting to me as the book itself. Ken Watanabe was a consultant in a global firm. But as Japan felt the need to rework their educational system to move from memorization to developing more critical thinking skills, Ken wanted to do his part. This book is the result. It comes out of his hope, and desire, that he might be able to make a significant impact for the common good.

For some, this book will a big help. Even in schools in the USA, critical thinking skills aren’t fully developed, and this book will be of great value. For others, Problem Solving 101 might seem overly simple. That was my early impression, but as I continued to work through it, I was challenged to rethink how I approach some of the challenges I face in my own life.

a

problem solving 101

Since that time, Paul was gracious enough to invite me to participate in a Post2Post book tour. One year ago, I hosted Roger von Oech and A Whack on the Side of the Head. Next week, I’m excited to be able to do it again.

This time around, the Post2Post Book tour is featuring Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People, by Ken Watanabe. On Wednesday, I’ll be posting some thoughts from the book and a brief interview with the author. But I’m just one stop on the tour…take some time to see how each of the bloggers interacted with Ken and his ideas throughout next week:

Monday, June 21 — ThinkDifferently
Tuesday, June 22 — Get Fresh Minds
Wednesday, June 23 — Creativityist
Thursday, June 24 — The Center for Graphic Facilitation
Friday, June 25 — Idea Sandbox

See you next week!

a

post2post tour next week: problem solving 101

spotlight. I try to keep my apps down to about three screens just so I don’t have to scroll. Spotlight will change that. Assuming I get used to using it, this will be the most helpful update to the iPhone.

2x podcast playback. I was aware of most of these other features, but I stumbled on this one by accident. I find that most spoken word can be listened to at double speed with little effect on my comprehension.

landscape mode. I’ve always avoided typing more than a sentence or two on my iPhone. Being able to use landscape mode will probably change that.

cut/copy/paste. I’ve managed without cut/copy/paste just fine. But I suspect that in a few months, I will wonder how I ever lived without it.

send multiple images. This came in handy even as I sent these screengrabs from my iPhone to my laptop.

find my iphone. I don’t tend to misplace my iPhone, but I like knowing that I can track it down if I do.

tethering. Yes, I know…tethering isn’t available in the United States yet. But…it looks like some have found a workaround.

a

seven features i love in iphone 3.0

What’s troubling to me is how much effort that will take! Can you relate?

A few recent experiences have left me thinking about my email habits:

• This spring, I was at a conference where there was no wifi. I became aware of this compulsive need to pull out my iPhone and see if I had any email. It’s not that I was expecting anything important. How much, I wondered to myself, do I need to receive email as some kind of affirmation that I’m important?
• Recently, I was hard at work on a project and needed to send a quick, related email. I made my way to space four, where my Mail.app resides, and sent the email. And then proceeded to lose an hour reading, responding and fiddling with the other emails that had collected in my inbox.

Now I have long been an advocate of inbox zero — keeping my inbox empty — and I’m pretty good at it. But isn’t it something one can be too good at? The need to read and deal with what sits in your inbox can be more of a disruption than ten, or fifty, unread emails.

In the midst of the events described above have come a few timely conversations. One came from my friend Todd. Another came from David Sparks via the Mac Power Users podcast, and then in our Creative Practices interview last week. Both of these respectable gentleman have taken up the practice of only looking at their email two or three times a day.

And so, I’ve been trying a new thing. I still practice Inbox Zero, but it is now superseded by Inbox Off. I’m limiting when I open my inbox and read email. When I do, I still use my standard practices to reduce my inbox to zero by replying, filing, or making a task out of each. Or by deleting, of course!

I’ve been trying this for a few weeks. I’ve had some great results…and some miserable failures. (The second story mentioned above only happened yesterday!) I’ve not yet been so rigid as to schedule when I read email, but I might need to try that.

How about you? What practices do you have to be the master of your email?

a

inbox off

As with previous interviews, you can also find my conversation with David available through the Creativityist video or audio podcast. (Both links open in iTunes.) The audio version is available now, the video should be up tomorrow.

Creativityist.com Interview with David Sparks of MacSparky.com from John Chandler on Vimeo.

a

creative practices: david sparks

• The Accidental Creative (iTunes/website)
  This podcast was a recent recommendation by my friend Blaine Hogan. I’m only an episode or two into it and I already think it’s worth sharing with you.
• The Moth Podcast (iTunes/website)
  In their own words: The Moth features people telling true, engaging, funny, touching, and eye-opening stories from their lives.
• TEDTalks (iTunes audio/iTunes video/website)
  Short talks from the conference for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. Some of the world’s most unique and intriguing ideas expressed at a level that is accessible to anyone.
• iTunes: Meet the Author (iTunes)
  This one is only an occasional listen for me, but I always enjoy hearing writers talk about their experiences with the writing process.

I’m sure there are many others out there, though I can’t really keep up with these. (I’ll also follow up later with a list of Mac related podcasts I subscribe to.) If you have any other suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

a

podcasts: engaging ideas

At the time, I mentioned that it was not going to replace Yojimbo for me. Still true. But I found that it worked well as a means of storing information for the short-term. It became a place to drop information that I might want to use in the next few hours or days, but wouldn’t need for the longterm. (Though if I do decide I want to keep something longer, a note can be easily dragged into Yojimbo.)

Since that time, Shovebox has rolled out an iPhone version (iTunes link). Used in tandem with the Mac version, it offers a slick capture system for notes, photos, or bookmarks that offers a small footprint in your desktop and workflow. Here are a few examples of how seamlessly Shovebox captures information:

The unique appeal of Shovebox is the Quickjot feature. Triggered by a simple keystroke of your choosing (option-space in my case), Quickjot opens an entry box that reminds one of Quicksilver. It is visually appealing with large text on a dark background. As an idea comes to mind, it can be captured with a quick keystroke and shoved away for safekeeping.

I’m also happy with the relative ease of syncing. The data transfer is handled via WiFi. Assuming you always have Shovebox running on the Mac, syncing happens automatically when Shovebox is opened on your iPhone. Granted, my database is small, but I find that it syncs in only a few seconds.

There is a great deal more to Shovebox, including the ability to assign rules to notes to automatically sort them or perform AppleScript with them. It’s worth a look.

Start with the iPhone version (only $3.99) and the free trial of the Mac version. If your experience goes well, the iPhone app includes a note with a coupon code to purchase the Mac version at 40% off — which means that the iPhone version pays for itself.

a

hands on with shovebox

How do you get your ideas?

That was the question I posed a few weeks ago on my Facebook and Twitter pages. The answers that came in were vastly different yet surprisingly similar.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Walking on the beach, reading a book, flirting.
• Long hot showers (this was the most popular answer actually).
• Observing what’s around me trying to make odd connections between things as disparate as management theory, and how a grasshopper’s wings work.
• Cliff-hanging.
• Solitude.
• Stealing.
• Doing the dishes.
• Reading magazines written for people different than me.
• Random photographs, half-lit rooms, conversations with strangers.

Twyla Tharp puts most of these actions in a category she calls “scratching.” According to her, scratching is an act best done as a routine designed to gather and collect small ideas to be used at a later date. Personally it is one of my favorite things to do. Whether it is in my iTunes library or a museum, I love wandering, looking, hunting, and gathering. Here’s how it looks for me:

Because many of my ideas come from listening to music, I tend to start there. I’ll put about 5 or 6 new or old songs on repeat, crank the volume, and with pencil in hand, wait to see what comes. When I do this I’m not necessarily looking for big ideas (something Twyla really stresses) I’m just cataloging the things I see or how I feel. As thoughts come I write them down in my little Field Notes notebook. As songs inspire I put them in “mood playlists” or “scratching piles” in my iTunes library. I do this at least once or twice a week.

As you can see, it works many different ways for many different people. For me it might be listening to music, for you it might be simply stopping, sitting, and giving your head some space to be free for a spell. There is no right or wrong way to do it. And yet if you want ideas and you want to make things, it simply must be done.

Scratching can look like borrowing or appropriating, but it’s an essential part of creativity. It’s primal, and very private. It’s a way of saying to the gods, “Oh, don’t mind me, I’ll just wander around in these back hallways…” and then grabbing that piece of fire and running like hell.

While this wandering may seem like little more than daydreaming, I agree with Twyla that scratching is absolutely necessary if you are hoping to create. In fact, I am of the opinion that these small, routine moments of seemingly meaningless gathering when no one is looking has the potential to save you when everyone has their eyes on you.

For example, I recently opened my mouth in a creative meeting and shared a big idea. It required flexing muscles that I hadn’t used in a number of years and a lot of work I wasn’t sure I could bring myself to do. A few weeks later I was told the team had decided to go with my idea over a handful of others. Gulp. What had I done? I was given a due date and with that I was out the door.

Weeks later. Nothing came. And I mean nothing. I simply could not bring myself to sit down and attempt another draft of my idea, which now had to be made into something real. Every time I tried to write, the idea overwhelmed me. I didn’t know where to begin. I had a big idea but nothing to support it. Or so I thought…

The morning of the day I had to present my new draft (which I hadn’t written) I sat down and forced myself to write. I forgot about the bigness of the idea and instead looked for something manageable. I decided to start with a scratching pile in my iTunes that I had made a few months ago. Slowly I played one song after another, remembering the feelings and visions I had when I first heard them. As I let these small scratches wash over me the big idea began to take shape. The disconnected ideas began to connect all the little dots that made up the huge dots of my current project. Before I knew it I knew where I was headed.

Whew!

I had never been more thankful for my scratching pile than I was in that moment. It saved me. I could have never known that when I tagged those songs 7 months ago they would be used for this project. In fact, I shudder to think where I would be right now had I not been diligent enough to catalog those tiny little thoughts.

So, scratch when you don’t itch. Make it part of your weekly routine and stick to it. Then capture and catalog whatever comes.

I promise that consistent scratching will connect you to places you cannot yet see. And who doesn’t want that?

a

scratch when you don’t itch [the creative habit]

Creative Practices: Audio Edition
Creative Practices: Video Edition

If you’ve enjoyed the series, and would be kind enough to add a review in iTunes, I’d appreciate it! I guess if you don’t like the series, you could also review it, but my appreciation might not be as forthcoming.

The next two interviews are lined up, and I’m trying to coordinate times with a few others. But, if you have suggestions for people I might interview, please drop me a line.

a

the creative practices podcast