768: Getting Intentional with Chris Bailey
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Hello everyone, David Sparks here for the mac power is Steven hackit isn't here. He still want to baths. But that doesn't mean we can still make great shows. I got one of my favorite people here today. Well, the show crispi body.

Are you good? good.

It's so nice to be catching up with you. You haven't been on the shown a long time. Um for people who don't know, Chris, according to the water street journal, al, he is the most productive man in the universe. Is that ever get something like that? Chis.

uh, I don't know a if universes, the h geographic boundary that they've defined, but something like that I don't really know. You know, these outlets, they give these blurbs every once in a while. And uh, somebody at the publishing house is, oh, that's a great snip. T, let's use that everywhere. And so then that follows you around.

Yes, IT is everywhere. yeah. Well, Chris row, an excEllent book years ago, called the productivity project. He tried out a bunch of productivity mits on himself and then read a book about IT.

Like, you know, what happens if I wake up every day at four him? And what happens every day if I I know you had a whole bunch of different ones, and it's one of my favorite books to give the people interested in productivity because there's a bunch of stuff in there, a bunch of little experiments. And for a lot of people trying to figure this stuff out, IT gives them ideas, you know, just like a kind of a nicest of them.

And in Chris and I have become friends of the years, which is a huge mac nerd. You've been on the makar uses before, but it's been years and um you've writing many books in the meantime, my favorite of which trank li is your most recent one called calm and I think calm is such a great book. And I guess we can get into that at some point because IT has causes the transformation in my journal. I don't think i've told you about this. Chis, but you have you've changed .

a couple of my workplace. Have I got ten into your head?

Yes, little Chris. Well, in my head saying analytic does .

look like a devil and Angel.

Absolutely an gel.

Good, long. I got that glow.

and he's got that like, cool thing with his hair that you do. So that works. That works. I love IT Chris a as a canadian friend of the show, so we can dispence with all the friendly canadian jokes. But you are a very friendly canadian.

Let's as good to here. yeah. That's good to here. Yeah, yeah.

And Chris is in the midst of working on a new book. Uh, he started doing a video course. He's got all this technology is right now, and it's really kind of developing. We are talking about IT on one of our friend calls and like you know like Chris, when SHE was out of town, you and I got to get on the horn and talk about everything you're APP to and how you're using all this this apple gear to pull IT off that the video course, by the way, is anything for you right?

Yeah and I thought I would be done by now but because I had no idea what was involved with the video course and I want to do one that you at a at a certain calibre stuff um but yes, it's essentially going to be called the art of prioritization um you know kind of productivity, bread and butter, tactical stuff.

So still in the works as I polish up this this latest book, book number four, which I I haven't shared the title anywhere but I feel a certain uh a affinity with with with uh you David, with the mac power users folks. Um i've been you know learning out like you're saying about max suffered since I can remember I remember being at the the gym uh, while I was doing the productivity project before we had talked before we had um listening to to mac power users back then. So I love I feel comfortable sharing this today.

So we're going to a have news on the show. Are you kidding?

But I guess anybody anybody wants a .

new dress belly book I mean that's like J K rolling says a new book of productivity .

roling but out all the controversial thinking and thinking well this will be like a back and fourth process um and so the tentative title though uh for this next book is follow through. Um so it's essentially about the science of goal attainment um where you been pouring through all the research because we all of these goals that and by the way, it's nice to be talking and not have something to promote because this booklet come out in like a year, maybe more than a year from now. So people will it'll be long forgotten in the minds of people by the time IT comes out, which is fine at least at least the people listening right now.

Um see I follow through the science of finishing what you start with all of these goals that are kind of you know that the equivalent of those pieces of exercise equipment that collect dust in the basement you know these forgotten goals um and you know I got curious why why do we drop certain goals while we follow through with other ones? What are the ingredients that actually lead us to action, lead us to goal tainting, lead us to accomplishment, is not all about accomplishment, right? That's not not everybody wants to be accomplishing things all the time, but we want to basically be accomplishing the things that we set out to do in the first place, the intentions that we said. So it's there's a lot of kind of topics to weave that I do all all of my mac to the ipad to a certain extent uh with intentionality, with goal attainment, with uh the science of human values, which they're actually is science behind human values. That sounds like a mushy topic, but IT isn't but yet ah it's exciting to be here and maybe not yet and not have anything to promote really what what a refreshing thing.

Well, Chris, what I love about your work and in product to these bases, you just don't spout off. You really do the research. I know you spend a lot of time reading you um the science on these things and finding the science, which I don't think is always that easy and it's interesting reading your books because IT IT always kind of lies up with the science.

And I think I can't wait to see you do with this. To me, intentionality is like such a difficult burden. I I my goal, if I had a goal every year, I think this is just to be more intentional with my life.

If I could just hold on to that, I feel like I could be so much Better at everything. And it's so it's a slip through your fingers. So easy yeah.

Well, the intention is great, but the the the old saying is the road to help us pave with the good intentions that yeah um and so there definitely is that disconnect and that you by the way, what I see productivity as personal productivity may maybe not to our fellow nerds listening and joining us right now.

But if you ask a and a person on the street, you know what is what is productivity mean to you um if they don't walk by and just shake their head at you for asking such a question um they'll probably think of something that feels like cold and and corporate and all about efficiency and and effectiveness and boiling our lives down down to a spread sha, but IT really does come back to that for me, it's it's really just about that core of intentionality. But the more intentional we become, the more deliberate we become, the more productive we become. And this is kind of the the uh approach that i've taken throughout this was kind of the main one of the main lessons from that original productivity project that you mentioned.

But then you think, okay, how do we apply this idea of intentionality to how we can focus more deeply um which LED to a second book that I wrote. How do we apply this idea of intentionality? We have a world that likes to to agitate our mind.

How do we calm our mind so that we can actually focus so that the noise in our mind doesn't obscure how we see the world, how we focus on on the world so that the world around us doesn't compromise on the mental resources that we have to focus as well. And this is really that idea of following through how do we become more intentional about the things that we um really want to accomplish. It's really zero in in on that idea of intentionality.

But it's been there all along, right? Is that every year um I feel a lot of people only set intentions at the start of yoga classes or something like it's really something we need to do more often. The more intentional we become, the more productively become. And so I really does come back to that deliberately.

I need to go a level deeper on. This is not just productive that you become with intention, but IT becomes productive on the right things. And that's why intentionality is my White whale. So I I can't wait to read the book, and i'm looking forward to this in a year.

One that's the thing I learned from you, is that like, you want a book in IT, like, then IT like, goes away for, like, what does IT do for a year? Does IT go to like the the book britain they have, like a book vacation? Did the words go to? Like hawaii happens for a year because you almost stand writing this, right?

Where do butterflies go in the rain, David? I don't I don't know, nobody really knows. It's it's more of like A A book per .

gator a later comes out yeah is IT goes through .

this this massive rule gold berg machine that is the publishing industry yeah but the the truth is like a all hand. And so my many script, if people are interested in this inside baseball stuff, my manuscript is do at the end of november uh so handed in then and then it'll go through that that said contraption so it'll go to the main um editor that I have a penguin random house uh nina SHE probably is listening but if if my my old editor rick was a uh uh a big magnet ironically um I remember pitching the the book the first book that I did with him which was called hyper focus and I mentioned off handed dly that I had A A text expanders snipper for me high chicks at me hi who wrote the book flow yeah um and I think he he was more impressed by the text expanded a snap IT than anything else that I had done with with that book and so we've become with good friends iraq.

There is A A A an above zero chance that rick is listening but essentially goes to nina SHE added IT for taste and social say, oh, this, this section is great. Keep this, expand on this, but this section is absolute garbage. Why did you include that in the book? Nobody wants to hear so you shall sh'll be the the taste editor, you know, the standard for the reader um where I can be because that's what I try to do.

I I try to disseminate all the boil down all the research to the tactical bits that people might actually find helpful and interesting. And he added IT. Then IT goes through copy editing. Then there's the internal book design, which i'm really hoping to get us fc font from a specific up which we can talk about um as as the main font of the book.

And then IT goes to kind of translation so that that's another part of the process where books get certain books get translated um where are other publishers did so that makes sense why IT take so long? But if you're looking at IT from the outside in, you think, man, isn't the book done at this point, but it's really not a book yet. It's just uh, uh uh a document in in air.

It's a collections of ones and .

genes yeah exactly a couple .

of feedback things on okay. First of all, now that you make an video course is is you're gona get to learn the the lovely ess of finishing IT and pushing the publish button being down. It's just done kids out there.

I'm almost no editor taste editor yeah .

you have to be careful though with that like I could when I wrote, I wrote two books for a proper publishing. I did two books were widely press, one called mac at work and when called ipad at work. And I had an editor for those books and and he he was really good at telling me how my voice was too, was too personal.

And like, you know, you got ta like, take the highs and loads out of this. This is not the kind of book that burns and noble is interested. And so I did that.

And then I started writing field guys, and they started out as books. And I remember thinking, OK, I have an editor now I get to do whatever I want. But that was the case with George lucas in the prequel as well. So I have to be careful. Yeah and but yeah, so you'll get that.

The only thing I have to ask you just why we're on the topic when people give you feedback on on your book um what do you respond to? Do you like you want those people like you need them to say this terrible, you going to redo IT? Or do you do you like like kind of positive soft feed feedback? What works .

for h man, well, I ve I have a very fragile ego and very insecure. So the more positive now i'm just getting um I like hearing how people are actually doing this stuff in their everyday life, you know and that's ultimately my goal with any one of these books is it's not so somebody can say, oh oh I think um um I I agree with chapter what you know and this this I want people to act but I thought this part of the book was weak you that that's fine, but the book is already out like there's not much I can do about IT. I'm most curious about that ground level, right? This is ultimately why why I love doing this stuff is to give people the tools that they need, to just get more done every day， become more intentional every day, become column happier, focus more productive with whatever they want to do.

Um I I want to help them get there and do work on their behalf and and be this this person who can fill this role for them because nobody wants to read all these h all these academic uh pieces of of literature that have been published on topics, but I actually do and I don't mind doing that on behalf of of the reader and but I I love hearing about how things um are actioned on a data day basis and the situations where these different strategies work and where they are relevant in the situations where they're not relevant because I think that's kind of the art of productivity advice in awake because there is A A lot of different strategies out there for becoming more productive. If you I I haven't done this in a while. If if you google productivity advice, it'll be overwhelmed by the number of articles, by the number of podcast, by the number of books.

I'm not helping matters by creating more content of my own, but a another level I hope I am um by filtering through kind of what's out there and kind of the art of IT is knowing what pieces of advice to take and which to leave on the table and I think IT ultimately comes down to experimental right? You won't no until you try there, there will be some pieces of advice for you might think. K, that'll never, it'll never work in my life.

To wake up before I am every morning go to sleep at is just not realistic with the life I live there. There's that kind of advice. But then the rest of IT you can have to experiment with to see what sticks for your own situation.

So what sticks for me might not sticks for you, might stick great for somebody else, might not stick for us. So it's really that process of filtering and and finding what works. So uh with with advice or with kind of feedback, I I don't I don't want to say that i've heard IT all at this point, but the novelty has decreased a little bit with regard to the feedback.

Now that i'm uh four books in plus a auto thing that um that a bunch of people listen to called how to train your mind. I don't mind plugging IT because it's free um if you have an notable account, I believe um and so i'm curious like where the rubber meets the road, what's working? What's not? What didn't I think about a stuff like that?

Yeah, I recently had a son, old lawyer friend, who who was making fun of me. I think he thought i'm not sure if I was well intended or not, but it's like, yeah, I used to have a successful law practice and now you just sit around and tell people, you know how to use their max, you know and it's like, I think he kind of mitted to insulin and not really sure. I mean, you know, lawyers are weird but the but .

I got taken .

I got thinking, oh, you're right. And I am so happy with that equation because I feel like i'm doing more good for the world in this world and I wasn't the other one. So yeah, that's cool.

You know, yeah, yeah, somebody else can kind of fill in the role that you used to have. But in terms of becoming more intentional with technology, I personally think just a button you up a little bit. I personally think you you fill a good role like the productivity fuel guy comes to mind for me. I don't know. You know, people listening have dug into this, but if you pick up one field guard and you haven't pick up the productivity field guide, because IT IT really is that kind of bridge with technology to a to that intentional use of IT.

Thanks, curry. I stay. I'll get in the checks in the mill.

Thanks you. Thank you. Thank you. Can just pay for our next strip to disney.

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Well, we usually talk about our apple care in the first segment, but you know Stephen's not here. What's the same? The cats away. The mice will play something like that.

Cats out of the bag.

Yeah, that we had a lot of fun. The first thing I didn't talk about what you're using, ince, since you've last been on the show, apple has gone all in with an apple silicon and you know kind of transformed the mac yeah Chris, I don't know what kind of mac are .

using these days. I've remember complaining about my .

keyboard on the last epson for a time .

where everybody just came on and complained but now I have what I consider to be my like I have computers that I love from the past yeah um that I have this kind of nostalgic glow right um where I look back and I think of that hybrid g four is the first mac laptop that I had and I think, oh what what a beautiful piece of technology. They don't make that like like that anymore. And then I think, yeah, they don't.

It's it's Better like battery life on this. So i'm using a laptop that I hope to drive into the ground. Um the macbook pro, m one pro, uh, I got I think IT was the top of the line one because I thought, okay, i'm going all in on this thing. I hope to have A I don't know, i'll have a ten years might be A A A bit of a stretch um but so far it's been what these things came out in in twenty twenty one is IT yeah .

twenty twenty one. So you're three years in with IT?

yes. So so it's still going strong though. I need a battery replacement. I think some point soon, but three years and they know it's Normal.

That is a good thing. Battery replacements are not that expensive. And I hear from listeners all the time like, well, you know the battery is dead.

I think i'm seeing get a new one and you really don't have to get a new one. Apple has a great battery replacement program for almost everything sell and it's worth checking that out like how much what IT cost. Sometimes since in one hundred dollar range, they've got the gear there, they can do IT for you. And if you've got working apple tech and the battery, and that is not a reason to replace that, you can save a ton of money, just replace in the matter.

oh, one hundred percent like I think that will probably double the life of this thing yeah um no no exaggeration. Thirty two still have thirty two gigs of RAM. It'll be there. It's sought IT in thirty two gigs of ramp in the thing, which is way more then then I need or use so but I got this laptop so this is my laptop and this stop um I I wanted so I have A A new desk are installed in my office because we bought a home here in the lovely city of ottawa, canada. Uh and so my my goal with this set up was I just wanted one cable.

Uh, I can plug that in and unplugged IT whenever I wanted to to sit down and and use IT and kind of what I think of his cockpit mode where i've got the the studio display, i've got the keyboard and mouse. Um i've got, you know, all all my mikes looked up and and lighting and cameras h everything like that. So one cable for all that.

So i've got um the cow digit T S for dog uh, to accomplish that. I love this thing. Um I I don't know if this is still kind of the the the one that's recommended out there because I bought at a couple of years ago.

Maybe there is a new one that came along and and is taking its place. Uh I I did a quick little search before we hopped on the horn and IT seems to be a pretty high on recommendation lists, but it's got everything I need. It's got a ton of power, power in terms of electricity, power to things to charge the laptop when i'm using IT, it's got a huge and pulling back here a bit on the desk.

It's got this huge kind of power adapter um which is I pulled IT out of the box and I thought, oh thank god this thing is huge because the actual device itself is a bit small as worried about the void tage a little bit for charging a lot of things at once. But IT has um I think two or three thunder boat um connectors on IT. So the studio display goes right into that thing.

My ipad pro hooked up to IT as well a through another thunderbirds able which I don't only take advantage of. Its a charging cable honestly um but I love that thing is a perfect kind of cockpit set up and then grab and go your laptops always charge um there is a part of me that is a bit tempted by that desktop life. You know to have a mac mini ears, I can leave this laptop somewhere else, but I I like just having one computer is simple. It's kind of clean.

It's so much easier because in a lot of ways, because all your data is always with you, all your plugins are always plugged in, you know all all that stuff is just works. I I do have two max and occasion I do running into a problem like among the laptop and like I don't have the thing that does the thing on this thing you know yeah and that's frustrating um but know that that is a that is a long dispute between mausers. Do you get you know a test top in a laptop or you just get a really soup up laptop Stevens right now on the laptop side of that uh which size did you guess the fourteen or the sixteen?

I fourteen o cause I travel too much, have a big aircraft Carrier laptop .

and and that makes sense because you get a big screen, do you and do you use IT in climbing ell when .

you're on the? And i've tried setups where I do have a laptop as a second display but with this with the studio display, I don't know if I called IT A A cinema display yer but it's a studio display yeah um with that I can really stand the difference in the refresh rate .

yeah and they never like look quite the same having I can open lab time and and I do know Chris, that you you travel. I mean, you're like you were recently in poland, you like when you're a fancy author, you go and you do speaking stuff all over the world and and I would imagine the sixteen and could be a real a pain for you on those .

long flights yeah and there is the occasional long flight where I do long for for sixteen inches laptop um or when I met A A hotel room and I forgot my speaker something, i've got the little sonos, which I also love for travel. If you don't have a good travel speaker, I highly, highly recommend one. If you do a lot of traveling for just podcast, maybe people are listening to this podcast on their travel speaker if if that's the case, hello it's it's a mate just you know but our houses filled with with music all the time there there's always something playing here um and but there there are the times that I long for the the bigger laptop where um you know i'm on a long flight watching a movie or something or I want you know three windows open instead of two which I feel two windows is kind of the comfortable sweet spot for me one on the left, one on the right um where I do want a bit more space but ultimately at the end of the day, like it's it's the classic trade afraid its its size versus portability um and I think there is a reason that at the end of the day this one sells more than the teen if .

the tim cook very up now let's imagine them with a one and wings he said is Chris, i'm going to let you one time only I mean, let you swap this to an m one sixteenth if you say yes, I up wave my one and you'll have IT three years in would you do that?

Well it's tim cook so he probably would wanted charge me something.

But no, no, this is that not in charge?

O K, O K um oh, well, first of all, i'd say thank you tim cook ferry but no, i'm good OK and you know what? You know what, David, you know what? I don't even want a new one.

I want to drive this computer into the ground. I want to be struggling to do things on IT. By the time I I have to reluctantly say this laptop is is done.

I I think what saves you is the thirty two gig of I M because with apple intelligence, RAM is gonna come an issue. And uh, for the folks, I got the m one with the a pig of sam, those are going to have a harder time in a few years. But A A macbook pro with thirty two gig abm in one, I think you might be able to get ten years out of this if if you're willing to suffer a bit.

And then I can see the question is, when will they stop supporting IT? But but I have to stop beating this drama. A listened right means I stop saying this, but I just think this, these apple silicon max are gonna run forever. There's just not that much to break on them. So you may, 呃， you make IT your wish.

I hope so. You mention an ipad.

Do do you do a lot of ipad in verb?

I don't know. Oh the well let's make fetch happen, let's make I patting happen um or or not, I don't know. Um no, I don't.

And so the ipad and my wife makes one of me constantly because I am constantly buying a new ipad and then selling that ipad six months later. Um I I get this ipad prose, the previous generation, as if that matters with of what these things are capable. I've I guess the new ones a bit lighter, which would be nice.

But this once fine. It's kind of like that. I ve always wanted to be the person that reads comic books.

S um you know I ve always wanted to be that kind of comic book no gna guy where it's like, okay, I just I I I have that aspiration to to be that kind of person whenever I see a new ipad and I don't have one, and I see all these things that you can do with, oh, what is the computer look like? IT looks like an ipad. And so you can buy this this ipad and you can write with that on the goal.

And I got the cellular one so I can go the coffee if there's bad wifi. No wifi doesn't matter. You can still use the ipad.

Um I got like a lot of storage and sent to just the top of the line ipad pro um the big one two so I could use that as a computer replacement. But it's kind of the comic book thing all over again. I'd love to be somebody that reads comic books. I've tried um but they're just not for me. I I I can't connect with them.

If if somebody out there actually is a good comic book recommendation, I wouldn't mind Chris Chris bai dot com um and also if you're mAiling anything you want to see in that course that we are kind of mentioning, that'll be out in a while from now down to hear feedback about that to what you want to get out of IT. Um but i'm just not an ipad guy. I've tried using this thing every which way i'd love to be an ipad guy.

I'm just not and I think i'm come coming to terms with that slowly um I I await anxiously the the the touch screen mac that maybe goes against that. I was just saying that might be the mac that replaces this one if if uh if there is kind of affordable touch screen back at some point. But this this ipad IT just doesn't fit with the workflows that I have.

I do read a the occasional study on IT, but whenever ver i'm doing that, I think I I don't want to be looking at a screen right now. I want to have a piece of paper in my hand that I can highlight with an actual highlighter and actual pen that doesn't like, I think, a bit of clinkin ss in that workflow is OK for me. Because to get things into the digital realm from the analog, I have to process them again to get them into that place. So I I don't know, I feel like keep repeating this point, but i'd love to be an ipad guy, but I just can't fit IT in to the workflow that I have.

Yeah sometimes a little friction helps you know it's not yeah little .

friction in the right places.

Yeah you told me at one point you are doing an experiment and I never heard what you concluded, but you had decided to Carry an ipad mini with a cellular connection and no iphone.

Yes, I I never did write an article about that because I think right after the experiment I I launch raight into book rating mode. I'm i'm actually excited to have uh time to to write articles stuff again after this book comes out.

So tells what you did and how IT turned out.

yes. So for I think he was a month. I essentially got rid of my iphone and replaced IT with ipad mini phone is what I was affectionate referring to IT as and so instead of Carrying around my phone, I had my ipad mini phone in my backpack.

And that was actually a nice part of IT where if I you know wanted to to uh access the digital world, I had to grab my backpack from my back and you know swing IT around and pull this ipad out. And IT was kind of hand holders on some level um where you can just you know flip the case open and and score through a bunch of things that you're walking around. IT was great for reading.

So IT was great for a lot of things. But ultimately what IT came down to for me were the jobs that I hire these different devices to do for me. And I think this is actually something I think a lot when I welcome a new device into my life.

Well, I think what are the jobs that i'm hiring this thing to do for me? And the phone fills a lot of these jobs for us, right? It's a, it's a boarding pass. It's a pocket watch. It's a, it's a GPS navigator.

It's a um are you getting IT? It's all these things, it's the iphone um and so over time, you know this this phone which has essentially become most people's main personal computers and provin no nobody that listens to this show. But if you look at the general population, this devices people's main personal computer, and so it's slurping up all these different jobs.

And all of those jobs are designed for the form factor of the phone. And you know, in our case, in our ecosystem, for the iphone, boarding passes are the size and shape of an iphone. The digital ones.

Um you know the pocket watch that we have on this that is very easy to see can see IT when you're when your phone screen screen is off, even uh, when it's in stand by boat. And so what I found was that you if you're a big enough technology, you can make any device work for anything. Um I remember a another experiment to use my phone for r an hour a day for a month.

Um and I managed to to shift over a lot of those jobs to be done from the phone to the mac at the time and in A A lot of different productive ways. My my productivity went up by quite a bit, though it's a bit unrealistic to to use the phone in that way. And I found the same with ipad mini phone that the jobs to be done could shift over to that device.

But they were designed for the iphone in the first place. And so IT was pretty uh in elegant in a way every everything was a bit clincher. Um the refresh really bugged me much like the the dual display set up. Why why that didn't stick. And so ultimately I went back to the the iphone and which .

iphone are using these days.

Oh yes, it's the iphone fourteen pro. I've got the the purple one and I I don't have a reason upgrade, but I haven't .

found one. Yes.

little okay, just a little guy.

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calendar is fantastic call and I will resist the urge to complain about the subscription Price. Um but IT IT really is the best calendar APP. Um you know the the keyboard shortcuts, how data is presented, how data scales down to to the different devices that that use. Um have I ever mentioned for notes? David, have I ever mentioned simple, simple note to you.

a note I have, don't think you have ever talk to me.

No, I .

laughing, always think about.

yes, I am obsessed with this application. So IT IT is just it's a plain text collection of notes is so it's the word is simple, it's a simple no taking up um there is very few features but thinking on this is incredible. I have never had now I will, but I ve never had a thinking issue with this APP. Uh I use IT on the mac. I use IT up just on every device that I own. And this is actually how I man um and this is the thing when you do a lot of interviews about productivity, people ask like what what up to use for managing what you have to get done every day and in my head I kind of think, okay, now I have to explain my my weird system for managing what I have to get done but I use simple note I managed my day in plain text um and so when I when I wake up um I I you know I do my morning routines uh and then I opened simple no and I press caps lock zero uh and so caps lock are you you're probably familiar with them helper key yeah idea from I think he was bright turbo .

that and that big I think IT might have existed before then but but the idea is you remap the capture key to be shift control option command. So it's like a super .

modifier key. Yes, no. APP really uses those modifiers because there so many of them such A A weird contraction of the fingers. And so the ideas, you map those to the cap like key, and then you get this whole you know universe of of keyboard shortcuts available to you because you can press cap slog and just just you know anything. So like if I press caps lock p um keyboard, my strong window pops shop. And this is something that I use a quite often for for my different workflows um where at this opens a packing list generator that I programmed and so a little window will pop up in the Alice, how many days do you want to be away? I'll say six here.

Um what type of work are you doing is for or what type of travel are you doing? Is that for work or personal? Or are you doing domestic or international? And what city are you going to? And so what this will do is it'll pop open A A text that at window it'll populate IT with everything that I need that is calibrated for how many days i'll be away for where if if i'm going domestically or international, little popular uh h appropriately for that.

Uh it'll it'll name the file ah after the city that i'll be going to, it'll save the file. So this is like, this is like straight. So I have one of these shortcuts for my uh, daily schedule where press caps lock zero and it'll essentially generate a template based on what day of the week IT is for what I have to do that day.

So you know, there there is a certain day of the week that I water the plants in the house and then it'll put that in the template. There's a certain days of the week that I review my waiting for list. You know, we all of you to do list, we should also all keep a waiting for a list or nothing slips with the cracks, what we're waiting for, people on what we're waiting for with packages in all this stuff.

Um if it's a certain season, certain things will pop up like that. I should be um like that. I need to make sure to use my my happy light which is you know the sun therapy because I live in canada um you know little meditation reminder of vitamin d reminder depending on the season and so this I find to be invaluable because I I can customize in plain text what I could not get from an APP that isn't something custom.

Um I did use things as an APP um for managing what I had to get. If I had to use an APP that would be the APP that I would use. But plain text where IT sinks Gracefully, where I can just kind of uh, use whatever format I want for things, where I can capture things below IT, where I can categorize things however I want by contacts, work home um you know IT man versus important, all these different things. Um I love simple no in plain text for that so a fantastic simple no and I don't know what what else is interesting with with workflow.

Well before we get into that, I want to go back to that on your your text generation for packing and for your daily list. So that's a keyboard my descript that you're running, yes.

Or so then it's .

I would assume just grabbing what day of the week IT is and it's got you know and if statement or tell us a little bit about the what's under the hood and keyboard, my story to make .

yeah let me help and do IT here so the hot key is the the one that I mentioned, the the caps like pee, but I don't I never know what the little upward pointing area is. Is that control?

Ah yeah yes. So control .

option shift command p and then IT executes the action. And by the way, and I feel like keep plugging your stuff, but I I genuinely love this stuff you you create David, you have a great keyboard, my strong, uh, field god for this as well. The way I say David did not ask .

me to play .

anything in the shy no OK no good, always a good day. Um when you blush so h the then IT generates A A prompt. And so IT asks for, you know there's a prompt tax.

There's the different variables. Um the buttons are create and cancel, then activate text data, select so select new uh in the menu file in text added. So yeah so then that goes down. And so then then it's a bunch of conditional variables. Um and so if you know certain conditions are met, insert a certain amount of text. And so if the type of for example, if the type of traveling that i'm doing, if the type field equals work, then it'll paste the the items that I would need uh for for a work trip that are related to speaking.

And so maybe this is boring, but confirmation of travel arrangements, the clickers that I travel with uh some c to a adapters force said clickers um A U S B key with a talk on IT in the contract for the talk if I am traveling international is essentially IT pays a bunch of text um based on those conditional variables IT pauses for two seconds because they sometimes needs a little second to catch its breath ah um then it's select file save IT pauses for point five seconds which is essential for the thing to animate or and then IT IT paces the text that is the city and then the word's pack list simulates the keystroke return and then got the file I just delete what I don't need to pack and and the pack list is has done like that can you tell? Can you tell I travel a lot? This this actually saves me time.

I'm sure he does. And and that's really is not that difficult to put up this type of automation um and keep a rico's an excEllent ford if you're going to do IT just on the mac shortcuts can also do this if you wanted to do IT on both platforms. But IT doesn't really matter these days. We have great options in whichever one like I know that you you bonded with keyboard, my sho so you build these things there. I love that you added math in IT to figure out like company socks to bring um yeah because like my packing list IT just as socks and I I just you know like, well, I think about what i'm packing and like, well, four days I guess I need for paris socks but but yours does IT for you. I love that you took .

that extra that well, you just all all you do is you take the number of days you'll be away and put that before socks yeah because the thing is like for a while, and this is if if anybody's coding this, this will be relevant for you for a while. I was adding one a to all these numbers, but you just have to add one to the number of days that you'll be away and you can compensate for that. We actually don't need an extra pair of socks into whatever um because what you don't count is what you're wearing on the day that you're actually doing the traveling to the place that you're going to. And so the .

math does work out that show up for the with .

a yeah or or you like a midday sock change.

You know i'm not gonna gue with that. Sometimes that makes sense.

Have a sock sponsor today?

No, I don't say.

Well, one pair I to do then.

but that sometimes I do need a new paradox. Ks, like IT IT when IT rains since south in california, because none of us own waterproof shoes like we think we do, but we don't. And then when IT rains, we discover that I learned about rainproof jackets. When I went to scotland, I thought I had a rainproof jacket. And one afternoon scotland IT proved that IT was thoroughly not rainproof feel the same about socks and shoes.

This, this is very informative, David.

So then, Chris, get this, this task list, this playing text and simple note. By the way, i'm sure a lot of folks will remember IT because I was like IT was the hotness in the early days of the iphone. Everybody is simple, not because IT IT was the first APP that really did a good job of thinking plain text and and then you know that there was a million new upset came on but I love that you're still using simple note that makes me think there's hope .

for you in your ten year macbook honestly yeah yeah um I I want to be the john Sarah sa of this macbook .

pro o is drive into the full of yeah .

go full eric on IT .

a email do you like you must get so much email. How do you deal with that?

Oh, email, the answer is honestly as little as I possibly can cause when you're in and where you're talking about this um I think before we hit record when when you're in this kind of work that you do that I do we're the C E O of what we do, but we're also the the chief broom pusher of what we do. We we have kind of every woman and I, A couple of people that helped me out with different tasks like administration of stuff and stuff like that.

But email, if you're the CEO of whatever IT, is still very, very difficult to tame. Um I think I heard merlin man at one point to scribe taming email is kind of like trying to solve details, like trying to solve rain. You know you can't really stop rain from falling, but the best you can do uh is try to contain IT and and and channel IT after IT does so.

So that's what I try to do. I try to channel IT in in kind of the the uh the rain gutters of of my workflows, if that makes sense. So um the first thing I do are spirits um checking email all day long is just a recipe for uh in my view, a destruction, misery, just being responsive to to what have to come our way and it's the enemy of .

that intentionality we were talking about at the beginning .

IT really is because whatever comes in, that's what you focus on when there is a new email, your attention goes to that and then that kind of guides you through what you do next instead of actually intentionally determining what you will do, instead of being told what you'll do.

Um you know if if you are sitting at a desk in every, I don't know, three to five minutes, somebody just dropped a new stack on IT and ask for your attention for you to look at that thing um at some point you would probably get fed up and leave that workplace or you would say, just no put IT in in this box over here. Let's call IT in in box and and I can deal with the later and just that at a more convenient time and let a bunch of things stack up. So I can, I can, I do at all at once.

This is what I do. I I do email springs. I don't do constant email track. So maybe two or three times a day i'll set a timer for, uh, twenty minutes or so that usually how long the sprints are and in that time i'll blow through as many messages as I possibly humanly can.

I just use apple mail um and I disabled the accounts when i'm not doing a sprint. And so I all throughout the day um my wife and I we have a joint email address that used for for personal things, which I also highly recommend. Sometimes something will come in. It's a slow trickle in that um but for some reason, whatever this does in my mind, because I have a high impulsivity in low self control, this tells my brain on some level that i'm doing email still i'm still responding to what comes in and so I that part of what I have to do that day is checked but then a sprints will come along.

I'll enable the accounts I use fast mail on the back end, which if you run your own or if you roll your own email I highly recommend um and just enable them blow through as many messages as I can in the sprint um at the end of the spring, i'll be left with a few that are probably less important and I I don't know if I want to admit this publicly but um all often just archive what's left because I have a book to write, I have a course to create. I have um I have traveled to do, i've speaking things to prepare for. And so marginally past that twenty minute point is still an hour a day on email if if there's three springs that out to be enough.

Um in past that point, i'm really taking time away from other things. Um if something that requires a longer reply or copy and pace the original message in a new text that at file and i'll keep kind of running a series of drafts on my desktop that will delete at the end of the day or at the end of the week depending on how long these things take to take take to think through uh because I feel some email responses actually deserve more thought beyond that just responsive uh reply uh and so for that all kind of channel those off differently. Um but what's left after that point, it's usually like that, that kind of the point of diminishing marginal returns for me.

And you know there's this whole thing in economics of diminishing marginal utility where past a certain point it's not worth you know doing that thing again. Um and I find the same within there there there is that point of diminishing returns after about an hour a day for me. And so there is a lot of rain that falls um but there is also a lot of gutters in place to get things to the right places.

Ah I want to follow up in a couple of those, but the first one is disabling the email account. So you you just go into the settings and you turn IT off.

oh, muscle memory for me. So I just open mail, I press accounts, i've select the account and uncheck enable this account IT takes takes like ten seconds easy yeah I bet you could .

probably automate that with ah yeah maybe that's a friction point .

I want yeah ah yeah I .

get that I get IT but it's an interesting step to like say, well, i'm not even capable of receiving email right now yeah ah and here that kind of nice IT might like like there's a bit of probably cognitive load offloaded at that point, right. It's like email isn't even a thing in my life right now.

Um yeah and I will say on that point of cognitive load, there is a bit of new load that comes because you're thinking i'm not online right now, i'm not accessible, but then you kind of think IT through and so you have an eight hour day. You have three sprints. People have to wait like two or three hours tops for you to reply to something that's reasonable. We shouldn't ask uh uh uh a for more from ourselves or for other people than that.

Yeah i'll tell you a chAllenge I have is that it's kind of them my inability to make IT a daily practice when I get into something like right now finishing a new field guide in like it's it's a tremendous amount of work and so i'm doing that and all go two or three days without checking email and that is like the world trying not supposed to do that.

It's bad. Did you not have guilt?

And you know jack, not certainly not enough. Yeah so much so that i'm like i'm really thinking about because jf helps me out with the backgrounds of i'm really thinking about just like pointing my email at him so he can like see stuff like if something comes in like then things coming and like, uh, I look like a flake. I should have responded to this two days ago, but I get into the zone and I just don't do IT, you know.

So that's that's that's a weird problem. The other thing I would says, I I wanted double the recommended for fast mail. I also signed up for fast mall two or three years ago and IT since I did, I wish i'd done IT much earlier.

It's so good. And you can go into their website and you can add a lot of automation filtering right in right at the source with fast mail. Like if like you have a folder called vendors, you can be, well, automatic, send anything from this this person to the vendors folder, whatever.

So you can do a lot of really good automation. I know. Have you applied with that at all?

Not not really. No, I don't want to spend like more time on email than I, than I have to. And maybe I do h recked as that with automation, you know there is return that you get the there is like you you don't reach that point of diminishing returns at the very beginning.

You know there are there are these low hanging fruit automation that you can set up. My biggest automation though, and this comes from, you know a point of running this business is I have an auto responder for my public email address where IT says I I check email you know every uh, monday, wednesday and friday. And if you need something quicker, you can email these people depending on what you need.

And that it's like that's like a freedom generator because he, because he can just turn that on. You can not worry about set IT and forget IT as they say. But I do love fast mile.

I will say like it's kind of like simple note where you know the uh the deferential or is in the name IT really is fast. You go to the website is fast year, you get it's fast. It's simple and it's very, very secure and private, which I love as well.

I even inspired me. I'm going to make some max lamps videos on automating festive because IT IT is they turn around on the war. You get the time invested versus the time save. That happens very fast because also setting automation in fast meal is is fast.

So I have a question for you with with automated. So you know there's there's the thing with productivity advice where not all of IT is created equal if you have to experiment with with what works to find what actually allows you to make back time, but you make back so much time that it's worthwhile to find those things. I feel automation is kind of similar to that and that there's this low hanging fruit um that's available to people where you get so much time back if you do X Y R Z but don't bother spending all your time on this stuff ah um do you a do you think that's true? And b, how do you actually identify that stuff?

Well, I mean, for me the math is different because, uh, first of all, I like to teach people about the easy stuff like text expansion and simple shortcuts like you can generate those on your own. You'll get the time back very quickly um for the more complex stuff. My one of my goals has Spark is just to give IT to you you know i'll go down the rabid al.

So even though i'll never get the time back that I spent making a complex automation, if I save IT and share IT with fifty thousand people and you know some of them use IT, I think in the universe that baLance is out. And so I kind of a different math on IT because of what I do. But I think if I was just not you know making podcast and screen cast about all this stuff.

Then I would have to make kind of what I call a hobby calculation for some people that just like doing a jigs up puzzle, like figuring out this little problem is kind of fun. And that's great. But you have to schedule for IT, just like you would for doing fun things like making a big cup puzzle, right? You just you don't stop what you're doing when you're in production to say, okay, i'm going to spend the next four hours automating this thing but maybe over the weekend, you know rather than you know plane in a woodland p or watching a movie, you sit down and figure out our main cause that's fun to you .

then is okay you know what other area I find this similar I don't know if ah what you want like a dichotomy of useful this and is home automation yeah. So in the past I spent hours more time than I want to admit automating one thing that saves me, like point five seconds once or twice a week ah.

Whether there are other times where you programmed something that saves you, like motion lighting is is kind of low hanging fruit, I think for a lot of a whole automatic stuff. IT doesn't work for every uh every situation. But stairwell lighting IT works incredibly well for ah um we have kind of a closet area that we have motion lighting for which IT also works remarkably well for. But you stuff like that is kind of the low hanging fit, but then you have the stuff where it's like, okay, on my weather station, when the pressure goes from this, you know you can you can go into the weeds pretty quickly as it's kind of I feel you can kind of feel out um like what will actually save you time and what will add not only convenience but kind of this daily delight as you use your home. Maybe automation is is similar to that, I don't know.

Yeah and and everybody has a different tipping point. I mean, there is certainly a case and for more advances, automation that you'll never get the time back. But if you enjoy IT, if that gives you the light, when that triggers you, go for IT a something on home automation tion, Chris, have to tell you is there's a new technology called the human presence sensor.

And that was the answer because so many people have been using these infrared sensors. But there's just not that great. Like if you have an inference sensor and you say still in the room, IT forgets you there are human presence sensors.

I don't even know what dark side is involved with the little box, but I put one in my studio. And now reliably, when I walk in, the lights turn on. When I walk out, the lights turn off and they don't go out while i'm in here.

And like it's like suddenly the you know the biggest question people have about home motivation, can I just make a thing IT turns the lights on when I come in and goes out, turns them off and I go out, that's now a thing and it's using the human presence that there's a car, a max one in there. I think that will start seeing them flood the market soon. But it's a great bit of technology for you.

So now i'm 的 兴趣。 Yeah, yeah, i've got you good and it's nice. nice. Does the just what I love .

about that and I don't have one yet so you'll have to tell me if this checks out but how you can maybe this isn't as reliable as the present itself, but how you can zone a room so yeah um I was thinking one thing for for my office here.

If I in the office the lights are on depending on the time of the day there a certain percentage but if I sit on my meditation on which is in a kind of area in my office by the bookshelves um then the lights dim, then, uh, uh, that's actually really all I need. Maybe the blinds closed as well. So there's fewer external distractions or maybe half way or something. Have you played around with that, uh, segmentation of areas of the room or to use the general presence?

So and I hadn't explained IT earlier, but you can do that, you can segment the room with a human presence sensor. So not only doesn't know if someone's in the room, IT generally knows what area of the room they're in. So then you can make that a trigger, like Chris saying, like if I go to the meditation cushion, turn the light down to twenty five percent in ba ba, blah.

If i'm in the chair by the lap, yeah, turn, turn the lamp .

yeah that is more if he, in my experience but this is kind of the first go at this but yeah, to me, i'm just so happy that the lights turn on when I walking and the lights turn off when I go out. I'm going to take that win right now. And I feel like the segmentation is is promised, not fully delivered, but I feel like that will get here that will get here soon.

And then the question is like home kit, is home kit gonna have enough support for that? Or we're going to have to grab to a whole different like like home assistant type, uh, home automation technology that is a Better job of addressing those different triggers. But yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot going on there. You just opened up a rabbit hole.

Yeah, this is a whole other episode. You know, it's funny. I just went to the the page on amazon for the a ara uh sensor yeah and IT says purchased december twenty twenty three so this this device exists somewhere yeah but I don't know where that is.

I probably told you on one of our friend calls to get one. You probably ordered one yeah, let's switch over to your book. I I know where we have been having a good time but um you are an accomplish author. All street journal says you the most productive man in the galaxy. I think what's bigger the universe of .

galaxy at this point I I .

kind of him to be perfectly onest but yeah but um when you go to write a book, I mean something i've always like about crisis. You do have like simple workflows but you get so much done with them I mean, i'm imagining you do something similar with your book but but i'm not sure what how do you go about writing .

the text in your book yeah so this is something that I think i've internalized with workflows, which is that workflows exist to eliminate friction from what I have to do um and so yeah in the past i've thought quite a bit about workflows and set up these complicated things.

But uh then at some point I hit a snag with something and then the whole system was built like a house of cards and so I I don't want that in my life and hate more the maybe the older I get or something. The the I realize that I just don't want friction. I don't want friction for writing. Um I want to to be deliberate with where the friction exists. So like for example, that is simple, like on checking the accounts in that male dialogue thing, like you can set up A A A keyboard, my strong script pretty easily, you know check this box.

So like it's it's great that the kind of stuff you can do with that but deliberate friction points is so I just want no friction with with the writing that I do so for looking at the past um I wrote all three of my books the productivity project hyper focus out to call your mind uh in text static I love text that that I would get a text that IT tattoo um if if if if if that were actually maybe I should um but I don't know if people, if I could find a tattoo artist that would be the equivalent to the kind of person that carves words out on on grains of rice that could really encapsulate all of the beautiful words on that I on I think what what is IT like it's an old um uh IT was the think different ad copy that's on the textor icon is that right? Yeah um I I just love everything about this APP I use IT constantly but I I really wanted less friction uh I think last time as I was on this by cast, I was just praying for uh for a text that IT uh version on the mac or or on the ipad rather or on the iphone. I would love this kind of application.

It's so weird to me the in the files up when you tap uh uh N R T F document um that there isn't an APP that opens that allows you to edit IT um it's plain text text that IT is simple. It's probably built an apple silicon now. It's IT probably be um made for the ipad relatively easily. Apple, um please, tim cook ferry, please make this happen. Um so because of that friction point where IT was only available on the mac, I put up with that for a very.

very long time. Yeah I say longer than anybody else you put up with that.

You yeah yes um but i'm still using simple notes so i'm very much an end of one that is not generalizable to a to a more broad population um so I returned back to the APP bear. Um are you familiar with this APP?

Yeah it's an excEllent markdown text. Sea.

oh I I love so somebody wants to markdown version. Something is very easy to ping pace. I can tell you in the publishing world, nobody wants a markdown version of anything.

But that's okay if you can do other a lot of other stuff to um bear is on every single platform. It's the simple note of writing um IT it's simple and it's very elegant. Um I kay I I love the fund in this APP.

I I think I eluded to this a little bit earlier. Um the fact is called bar sans. So it's a sense there if it's a customized version of I think uh clara, if I remember um I don't know who who made Clark.

I apologize if um if if they're out there in the either but I kind of want to use this front for my next book guy you know that thing you can do where you can right? Like on an application, you can show package contents. You can kind of root around a little bit.

Uh, I was able to do that and found this font file. And now IT is my default font and text that IT as well. So I can I can experience bar sand and in all of its glory. But I just love the friction free um aspect of is.

So there there really are sometimes when i'll be typing on my mac, whether it's in cockpit mode or or out in a coffee shop somewhere, and then i'll be in line somewhere, i'll be in an uber or a cab, going to an airport, waiting in that, whatever. And so i'll put out my iphone and IT sinks almost immediately. The entire book is text, and so it's not that big. Um and I can write on my iphone with this up and I I I know this is IT might not sound remarkable yeah i'm laughing because .

this this is what a textile I would say when he gets in up that sort .

yeah I I know I I realized this. I realized like what people will be like, oh, 没有， who is who is this full? But when it's so elegant and when it's so beautiful and when it's so reliable, it's a different experience than just some APP that sinks across platforms. IT IT really is like an experience that sinks across so I love bear but yeah i'm an end of one. Keep that in mind .

yeah well and you um but you're write in a whole book in IT and that's that's kind of cool, right? I mean, how are you organizing? I mean, what is your book like hundred and fifty thousand words and look to know how long is IT.

It's seventy thousand OK so .

I don't even know anymore, right?

Yes, that's like seventy thousand words is like like a two hundred fifty page, two hundred seventy page book.

Yeah alright, so five hundred page productive book would be a bad idea. So I I was off on that one. But obviously you don't have like one page with seventy thousand words in IT. How are you putting IT together most structurally in the APP?

yeah. So it's not just yes, it's not just one document here. Let me open IT here. Um so I have um the the note sorted by alphabetical order and so if any but there is a chapter zero which I think i'll actually keep in the finished book because I kind of like the idea of having a chapter zero. I think I had that in one of the previous books um and so they're alphabetic lord by chapter and at at the very top I just have A A little note called underscore editing notes with with all the different kind of structural changes I want to make to the main scrip but this is just just numbers order after that point and so each chapter is maybe like seven to ten thousand words depending on the chapter uh broken down into the the different sub heads and yeah .

simple yeah and in once you get to the point that you bring editors in, you just send them the barfly right?

I'm sure nina would love that. No, the publishing industry is on the the word bandwagon ah uh my my previous editor, he was OK with google dogs but man, that's a long google dock file um if you want to see safari choke on something, put seventy thousand words in in a google .

duck yeah yeah so you put so you export to mark down to rich text, drop IT into microsoft word and kind of at that point it's transition to the new platform .

yeah exactly. And so then then I have to decide, uh, if I want to move everything back into bear after I get the edits back, which probably won't be worth doing, but I i'll make a lot of different changes to the word documents to make IT readable. The the the typography really kind of bugged me.

Um right. So this fight, just to turn this into more of a love fast for bear. No, this thought bear sons is the the honestly the most beautiful fund that I have ever encountered IT. It's called bar sense U I. It's like so it's the version that they use for the use the user interface of IT so that I most actually I only see this on to on a screen. I don't know what that is like printed or or anything like that um but it's it's changing how I write um because it's a very um it's a smart looking fun it's a very uh it's elegant, it's smart um it's clean um probably this this sense nature sense of nature helps with with that but uh I find that the the contrast between the the different weights of the front is absolutely beautiful um the the way that is presented in the APP with the spacing between uh paragraphs is beautiful the the telex is A A really nice compliment to the to the way the fight usually appears the the I I could go on David but um uh I will stop. Well, I mean.

i'll tell you because you keep talking about so much, I installed IT in draft so I use IT with drafts which might be so i'm not sure using embarrass .

drafts and finally.

not sure anybody would be happy with that.

But yes, no, nobody.

This is a very nice thought. I will agree .

that is beautiful.

But you know, I do like the simplicity. Now, when you like, for me writing long things like this, because my brain is so like modelled, I do a lot of outlining in like thinking. Before I start writing words, do you just sit down and start writing? Or do you have like an outline or a mind map or something?

Nobody want what I would create if I just SAT down and started writing. Yeah um I think that works great for for little articles and stuff where you have an idea that you want to think through with A A A nonfiction book something that I found um I I never know what I whether account my audible original thing as a book I was never published as a hard back book so I I personally hesitant by my age and does and so this will be my what facebook I don't I lost count um but something that I ve found with like organizing ideas is that when you have seventy thousand words of ideas, they need uh uh and overarching architecture to them um and so I am sure there are a lot of books out there, especially in the productivity space.

Maybe that somebody just sits down and rights um but when something is is research based, when there a lot of information to gather and in shape and and mold into something that is helpful and ultimately um worthwhile um to read and worth somebody's valuable time um there needs to be A A lot of forth thought and so I would say that so let if if the point at which I I began writing a book is kind of on a timeline somewhere that's the middle of the timeline of creating the book and setting aside all the editing that happens after finishing the main descript, the the amount of forth at that goes into creating the architecture of the book um creating how the ideas are not only uh a part of that architecture but also uh interrelated to one another inside of the book itself um that's kind of the first half, maybe sometimes uh, a third of the process and then the the other fifty to sixty six percent of the equation is the actual writing part but something that I found from you know definitely from the beginning um IT is that having that overarching architecture is coming invaluable for creating a product that deserves to to live in the world because this will this book IT has to be deserving of uh of being this this beautiful bound uh a hard cover book that's published by paying when random house that the previous books are are are published and I think over forty languages now so there is that that reach that that I want to you know the seth goldin who is also A A writer, he's in a different league than I am in my opinion um but he has this whole fule where if you want to do Better work, you get Better clients. Um because if you're working for nike instead of the shoot shut ed down the street, you're going to you're gonna be more likely to deliver nike level work. You're you're gonna more likely to deliver that nike level collateral.

And I I think writing is the same, right? If your client is penguin random house, if you're publishing for A A large audience, um you're gonna create a different product than if you're doing a uh a self published ebo kind of thing, which I have nothing again. St i've i've done self published e book before I I started writing these these um um these kind of more general market books um but I really think the level of your client matters and doing all that you can to to increase that level is um is uh important. And so maybe on some level, you know I want my workflows to include that like I I want to be I want this this text to be worthy of the fund that they're written and I want them to be worthy of the hard cover that theyll be published in um and i'll do all I can to create the conditions where I have no choice but to step up.

I can have the same thing. But for me, if I call IT moving the needle, but I I want the stuff I make to make an impact on the world. I want people to actually use IT. And I want to help somebody's life that i've never met. And that that to me drives the quality demand on myself quite a bit.

Yeah and like it's a book, there's there's not a ton of money and writing books um even at a huge scale. I think the amount that I would make her book is like a dollar. It's not a lot for how much somebody pays.

So I don't know if that's exactly right, but I can make more money consulting, right? But like this is this is like what actually makes A A difference for people and that's that's what the part of IT that I love that I wouldn't give up for anything like Frankly every day um I I I wake up and I think met i'm the lucky person that that I just get to explore this stuff and learn out about this stuff and for the benefit of other people. So that is actually helps them now, which which helps me out because they buy future boxing and stuff like that.

But that's ultimately the reason is like it's making that that difference in how somebody works. It's it's exciting. It's what an opportunity I have .

the same feeling, great. I mean, my life has taken a lot of turns, and at this point I wake up and want to pinch myself. It's like, how how did I get here? Because this was not none of this wasn't. But i'm yeah happy.

Where is that so grateful?

Yeah, exactly. Well, Chris, if people are interested um where do they go and and find out what you're up to well.

I got nothing to plug, baby. Um my guess I have I think I right.

i'm going to plug for you and me OK everybody .

should go sign .

up for Christ's in his letter. It's excEllent and that is great place because you've sure you're gonna show video course and you will get news of IT through that and you and you will get more information on the new books. But it's also just I was really great newsletter and I enjoy reading IT every time you publish. So where do they go to sign up for your newsletter?

H Chris baley dot com is is where you can find that. And I do have a link to my books that are on there as well. Um my first one is I guess I I guess I do have stuff to plug.

Um the productivity project is the first one, a hyper focus is the second one how to how to manage your attention. And the third one is how to call your mind, which is my personal favorite. Od lets is sold the least.

People want productivity more than they want calm. But that is my favor. I am.

I love that. That's in the world. And the next one will come out. Ions from now. So, tony, to worry about IT.

alright, we are the mac power users. Steven, only back soon. In the meantime, I want to thank Chris for comment on this week.

H, the behind the scenes drama king is, I am called for jury duty this week. But the way we do in california, I never know when they're actually going to want me. So i'm like on call for jury duty.

Chris has been very generous at this time in my movie schedule, but we still pull that off. Um so thanks for that, Chris. Um I want to thank our friends at next week in one password for response or in the show for more power users.

We're going to be talking about A A little bit of a analog signal is based on crisis book because he got in my head. I want to explain that rather and because Steven is not here, we're also going to talk about life sharping ing so sick around. If you would like to join more about the add extended version, the show otherwise will see you next time.