I’m thrilled to announce the release of my Productivity Field Guide. You can get it now with a special launch discount (code below).

Here are the Quick Details:

​Productivity Field Guide Plus Edition (or Standard Edition)

Limited Time 10% Launch Discount Code: PFGLAUNCH

Productivity Has Become A Dirty Word

We often associate productivity with life hacks and quick tricks to speed through our emails, but this approach doesn’t truly address the core issue. The real solution isn’t about doing more; it’s about doing less while focusing on what truly matters.

However, identifying what truly matters can be a complex and personal journey. Moreover, you ultimately have to draw your own map. This isn’t easy, but you’re not the first person on this journey and there is help in the recent and ancient past.

I’ve Been on a Quest

I went on a deep dive through modern productivity literature and theory. At the same time, I went back to people like Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius for advice.

I ended up with a productivity system that takes advantage of modern ideas, but is founded on ancient principles.

What I ended up with was a productivity system that let me ship my best work and enjoy life at the same time.

And I will share that with you in this Productivity Field Guide.

The Productivity Field Guide has a lot of pieces:

• A five-hour video course including 50 instructional videos that will get you up and running.
• There is also a 100+ page book in both ePub and PDF formats.

The videos and the book are there to get you going. I can’t draw the map for you. (Nobody can.) Instead, I give you the tools to draw the map for yourself.

Each tutorial includes closed captioning in multiple languages.
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I’ve Been Busy

• I’ve published 16 Field Guides (Now 17)
• I’ve recorded some 1,500 hours of podcasts
• I’ve written a blog since 2007
• … and I practiced law for nearly 30 years.

Perhaps the most frequent question I’m asked is, “How do you do it all?”

This course answers that question.

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The Productivity Field Guide Details:

• 50 Video Tutorials
• 5 Hours of Content
• A 100-Page Book
• An in-depth guide into a unique productivity system that combines the best parts of modern and ancient thoughts on the subject.
• Captioning in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Tagalog

Plus Edition Content

In addition to the video content and the book, with the Plus Edition, you get:

A Twelve-Part Webinar Series

1. Getting Started
2. Roles and Arete
3. Quarterly and Monthly Planning
4. Weekly and Daily Planning
5. Projects and Habits
6. Maker, Manager, and Consumer
7. Hyper-Scheduling
8. Doing the Work
9. Shutting Down
10. The Best Tools for Productivity
11. Questions and Answers
12. Productivity Spotlights (Currently booked: Shawn Blanc and Chris Bailey.

All webinars are recorded, edited, and later added to the course.

Access to the Productivity Field Guide Private Community Message Board

You can get The Productivity Field Guide now with a Launch Discount:

​Productivity Field Guide Plus Edition (or Standard Edition)

Limited Time 10% Launch Discount Code: PFGLAUNCH

This course is very special to me and I hope you enjoy it.

– – –

The early testimonials for the Productivity Field Guide have been amazing. Here are a few:

Watching the Field Guide is like sitting down with a good friend and talking about your priorities in life. Compared to other productivity resources, this guide is not about figuring out how to do more things in less time; this field guide is about figuring out how to give more time to the important things.

– Philipp
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MacSparky’s Productivity Field Guide is his best work ever! He teaches a productivity system that is unique to you: it grows out of your life roles and what is important to you. It’s comprehensive: it deals with all of your life, not just what you do at work. It’s practical: he gives you step-by-step instructions on how to set up your unique systems. And I can testify that after following his system for the past couple of years, it is transformative: it can change your life for the better and help you to become the best possible version of yourself. Amazing value for the price: buy it now!

– Jim E.

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The chapter on roles and arete blew my mind.

– Irene K.

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I’ve been playing with Productivity systems for nearly 20 years. I wouldn’t expect to have anything new to learn. Sparky proved me wrong. He just saved me from a painful annual review process and has me incorporating my varied roles into my process more.

– Mark L.

The post Announcing The Productivity Field Guide appeared first on MacSparky.

New features include a New Macro Wizard, a new Security preference pane, a command line tool, support for Apple Text Recognition, and new actions like Prompt for Snippet, Create Calendar Event, Send Pushover Notification, Select Menu by Name, and many more. (Read the full release notes.)

I’m enjoying the new version and am working on a free update to the course with a series of videos showing off the new features. I don’t want to give a release date just yet, but it will be a little while as I’m in the middle of another project, but there is a free update is on its way for the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide.

The post Keyboard Maestro 11 and a Field Guide Update appeared first on MacSparky.

I’m so pleased to announce the release of the Obsidian Field Guide. Hooray!

Want the Short Version? Sure:

• 78 video tutorials 
• 6 hours of content in the Standard edition​
• An additional 6 hours of content coming for the Plus Edition​
• Access to the Obsidian Field Guide Public Vault 
• Workflows and Usage Samples 
• Buckets of Obsidian Goodness 
• Time-Limited Launch Discount Code gets you 10% Off.
  • ​Plus Edition $89 (with code OBSIDIANLAUNCH) 
  • ​Standard Edition $44 (with code OBSIDIANLAUNCH)

Obsidian is a remarkable app, and the new Field Guide came out great. You can even get a 40-minute free sample at the above links. Check it out.

Want the Details? Here you go:

Obsidian brings new tools and paradigms to working with our thoughts on computers. Obsidian can be a game changer, and I’ve been using it since its early beta release. You can turn Obsidian into any sort of notes and data management tool you need: research, client work, PKM, or whatever. I use it primarily to document my own personal operating system, but there is more on that in the course. However, before you can make Obsidian truly race, you need to get some time behind the wheel and figure out how it works.

Build Your Own Mind Palace

Obsidian allows linking to and from notes throughout your Obsidian “vault”, making connections of thoughts easier and more illuminating. It’s built on a plugin-style architecture that gives the app an ever-increasing feature set with plugins built by Obsidian’s developers and the Obsidian community. It’s based on a folder full of Markdown text files, so you always own and control your data. It can be end-to-end encrypted to protect your privacy. People use Obsidian to gather their thoughts, write their dissertations, plan their projects, and even track visits to the veterinarian. The app is powerful and flexible.

However…

The Obsidian on-ramp is steep. It takes a while to wrap your arms around exactly what you can do with this app and unlock its full potential. You need a guide. That’s me, MacSparky, your Obsidian pal. Once you master Obsidian, you’ll also need help picking plugins and figuring out exactly how far down that rabbit hole you want to go. I’ve got you covered there, too.

The Obsidian Field Guide is a 6-hour course including 78 instructional videos that will get you up and running. The course starts with the basics and goes straight through to the advanced. It is carefully paced so anyone can take advantage of Obsidian. Each tutorial includes a full transcript and closed captioning. The transcripts are even bundled into ePub and PDF documents you can download.

Your purchase will also get you access to the Obsidian Field Guide Private Vault, where you’ll get additional resources, links, and access to the samples used throughout the course.

Want More? Get the Plus Edition

In addition to the above, with the Obsidian Field Guide Plus Edition, you’ll get an additional webinar series going deeper into Obsidian with additional materials, guest speakers, questions and answers, and even more Obsidian goodness. All webinar sessions will be recorded and added to downloadable content for plus edition customers.

There’s a lot more, along with a free 40-minute sample, at the below Obsidian Field Guide links. If you’ve ever wondered why so many people love Obsidian, now’s your chance to learn.

Don’t forget, the code OBSIDIANLAUNCH gets you 10% off.

Want a 40-minute sample? Here you go.

The post Announcing the Obsidian Field Guide appeared first on MacSparky.

I’m thrilled to announce my newest book, The MacSparky Field Guide to going Paperless.
The book is a deep dive on paperless workflows for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It takes full advantage of iBooks Author and includes picture galleries, interactive images, movies, 32 screencasts, and nearly 27,000 words. There is over an hour and a half of video. Not only does this book tell you how to go paperless, it also shows you.

I’ve been cooking this idea of the MacSparky Field Guides for years. I wanted to make a series of books that go into excruciating detail on technology and iBooks Author is the perfect tool. I spent a lot of time getting the layout and video just right and I’m really pleased with the final product.

These Field Guides are a big deal to me. I had tons of great advice on how to price this book ranging from really expensive to $2. There is no existing model for this kind of book but, ultimately, I decided upon $5. I want a lot of people to see this book. I’m really proud of it. If you buy and dig it, please write a review. I want the word to get out about Paperless.

This book is unlike anything I’ve ever done before and I hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed producing it. Because of its interactive nature, the book is iPad only. I don’t plan on releasing a Kindle version. I may create a PDF + Video version if there is demand but this book really begs to be read on an iPad.

The book is currently available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Austria, Germany, and France. More countries are coming.

The post My New Book: The MacSparky Paperless Field Guide appeared first on MacSparky.