It’s @MacSparky’s fault. I recently purchased his KM and Shortcuts field guides. As usual, they are well done.
As a result, I have created eight modest shortcuts. I’d not seen the “need” (that is a relative term) for shortcuts but after watching the field guides I realized that there are indeed some shortcuts worth creating and using. I’m also learning a new “skill”.
One simple example is a shortcut to turn on DND, open Dark Noise and play the waterfall sound, and open my writing app or note app to the appropriate folder and document. Simple. Necessary? No. Convenient? Yes and kinda fun.
My guess is that I’ll end up relying more on Shortcuts than on KM once Shortcuts releases with Monterey.
Obviously, I’m WAY behind most on this forum but “better late than …”
So, I’ll keeping sipping until I’m more proficient at which point …
I’m the same. I love that Macs can do all this stuff, but I haven’t found a particular use case that serves me yet.
When Shortcuts was new on iOS, someone somewhere created a shortcut for a movie log to Day One. Based on the film title it went off and found the artwork, director, stars and other metadata by trolling the IMDB and then put all that into a Day One entry and then you could add your own notes. I loved that shortcut and I used it heavily for about two months and then something broke it and I didn’t have the know-how to fix it myself, even poking through the code in the shortcut.
So I guess the moral of the story is it’s best to know how to program your own shortcuts/KM scripts to keep them working. For me, it was too much overhead so I just started to use Letterboxd for my movie watching notes.
@machei That was pretty much my thinking as well but I have discovered that there are a few shortcuts that are simple enough even for me and they do save me a little time. I’m a Neanderthal with this stuff but slowly learning a little. Here are a few of my shortcuts. I’ve created a few more for writing projects as well, not shown. They save a few clicks.
I totally agree with you on this. I have also purchased the same field guides and have been slowly incorporating different shortcuts into my workflows and daily life. The shortcuts I use most often involve home automation. I have lights and plugs from 3 different systems (Fetr, Smart Life, Phillips) and I use shortcuts to run actions on all three apps to control lighting and other electronics. The Feit and Smartlife products are much less expensive than the HomeKit devices, hence I am now living in three different lighting worlds.
I can really empathize with you! So many times I feel like I have this “hammer of automation” that can’t wait to find a nail!
But doesn’t it feel really good when you press a button and ‘stuff’ happens?
For me it’s potato chips; can’t eat just one. And since they’re so salty, the Kool-Aid is really handy!
Toss a Stream Deck in and you’ll do the Homer Simpson forehead slap.
I need 9 apps open to “have what I need” to work.
I’ve built KM macros to kill all apps, hide all windows. I use Workspaces to open the 9 apps. I use Moom to organize the windows.
And I’ve thrown these commands over onto a Stream Deck. Starting from zero, my workspace is ready to go with the push of two buttons. I could combine the launch and arrange, but I kindof like the rhythm as is.
I recently purchased his KM and Shortcuts field guides. As usual, they are well done.
