MPU 091: Workflows with Merlin Mann III

June 25, 2012

MPU Logo Merlin Mann joins Katie and David to talk about some of his favorite iOS and Mac apps.

Please support our exclusive sponsor for this episode: Smile:

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Links of note

Merlin Mann.com
Back to Work
You Look Nice Today
Roderick on the Line
Inbox Zero
iThoughts
ifttt
CheatSheet
TextExpander touch
OmniFocus for iPhone
OmniFocus for iPad
OmniFocus for Mac
Textastic
Gmail
Simplenote
Elements
Nebulous Notes
Marked
Textastic
iTextEditors
A Fresh Take on Contexts
nvALT 2.1
OtherInbox
AwayFind
Back to Work #70: Expectation Zero
Pipes: Rewire the web
ifttt
Downcast
Instacast

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22 thoughts on “MPU 091: Workflows with Merlin Mann III”

  1. Jessica

    Do you guys ever use a service transcribe your podcasts? I would absolutely love that, especially for shows like the Workflows. It’d be great to be able to go back and scan a transcript for something I remembered hearing without having to re-listen or try to remember what part of the podcast it was in. Just a suggestion…keep up the great work! :-)

    1. Katie

      We’ve considered it. To really do it right and have reasonable turnaround would be quite expensive and add significant additional time for editing. It’s still on the radar though.

  2. Bobby McGraw

    Great show! Just wanted to point out that Sparrow for the Mac supports GMAIL mail shortcuts. So you can get some the same speed Merlin talks about without having to use the GMAIL web interface. I like it!

    Thanks for the show!

  4. Crispin Morton

    Great show! Thanks. Finally I “get” Merlin Mann – he gets praise so often, from so many people whose judgement I respect (obviously including you two!), but until today I have always found him impossible to listen to; clearly a hugely clever bloke, but his mind (and therefore what he says) seems to flit from subject to subject in almost a stream of consciousness. Not easy to listen to in the car on the way to work… But this time it was different; I really got into what he was saying about expectations and managing time – so much so that I have re-subscribed to Back to Work and will give him another chance. Thanks – as always, you guys rock!

  6. David

    Thanks for the combined MPU and After Dark feed. Great idea to be able to combine them.

  7. Andre

    I second Ethan’s question. I’ve created a null label in Gmail, but I can’t change the default label displayed from Inbox. I tried editing the url of my Gmail bookmark from ~/?shva=1#inbox to /?shva=1#null with no luck. I’ve read some threads implying that enabling Multiple Inboxes in labs lets you change the default label, but I’m not seeing that option.

    Any ideas?

  8. Richard Heldmann

    Bookmark “https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#label/null”

    Then type “mail” in the address bar.

    1. Andre

      Perfect. Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for. I’m going to have to see if I can do something similar for Google Docs, which I stopped using because I hate looking at a pile of files on the home screen.

    2. Rheinard Korf

      Merlin Mann just saved my sanity. His tip on creating a “null” label in GMail is gold! Had to listen to the bit on the show (1hr8min mark) a couple of times before I got it. In Google Chrome open up your settings… create a new “Search Engine” and set the address to the “null label”.

      Here is my setup:
      “Mail” “mail” “https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#label/null”

      Now if I type “mail” into the address bar and hit enter I land straight on the “null label” page. Blank slate. Life saver!

  9. Duncan Baines

    I really like mail.app and use it heavily with my work email (a live@edu account).
    As a designer it is great how it shows images and PDF attachments at the right resolution on the retina display. I never use flags and have many server side rules set up. I like mail.app more since the more iPad like new version in 10.7

  10. Rheinard Korf

    Thank you guys so much for reminding me about IFTTT. I saw it a few weeks ago, but didn’t capture it and thus forgot about it. Now it is seriously helping me with redirecting some information flow to appropriate places.

    My personal favorite use is to grab my Google+ stream as an RSS and scanning the feed for keywords. This then determines what happens with the posts. Thus, each time I post on G+, I can cause a specific action for that post. (E.g. “If RSS item contains [insert keyword] append it to my [insert name] note on Evernote”… or post to FB or share with colleagues on Yammer)

    This is gold to me. I explained it a bit more on G+ here: http://j.mp/Ph61ED

  11. Paul

    Around the 22-minute mark, David mentions that he uses the Reminders app for his location-based shopping lists. He gives an example of having a Home Depot list and having that list linked to the location of his local Home Depot; when he wants nuts and bolts, he merely tells Siri to add “nut and bolts” to his Home Depot list and he then gets reminded when he’s near the store. Does anyone know how this is done? I can only seem to link an individual item from a list to a location, and not a list itself. Adding an item to a list with Siri works great, but I need to edit the item later to add the location. Much thanks for anyone who can help me do what David says he does.

    2. Dana

      Paul,
      Ironically, I was having a discussion with my daughter last evening about this podcast I listened to that discussed using Reminders for location-based
      shopping lists. I haven’t been able to figure it out either.

      I am interested in looking into Omnifocus but still would like to understand how David uses with Reminders.

      Thanks for posing the question!

  12. Ben

    I’m looking for the name of the blog/site that Merlin mentioned that he does actually read. It was a time management/GTD related site. He was saying he doesn’t read many anymore, but there was one that he DID still like. Anyone?

  13. lamike

    Apple’s iCloud gives me the willies. It’s truly a work in progress at this point; however, as David points out, it really has some cool functionality (listen to his dialogue about Byword cloud syncing in his Apple eco system [Macs and IOS devices]. Let’s call one of these Docs David is working on in Byword via the iCloud “BywordDoc.”
    One of iCloud’s problems is that BywordDoc is “piped.” By this I mean, it’s locked in the cloud and can’t be accessed by another program. At one point, Merlin even asks where is David’s BywordDoc.
    There is an answer to Merlin’s question and in it lies the answer to the other app accessibility question.
    BywordDoc is stored in a folder located at ~/Library/Mobile Documents. Only after that file or a new version of it is saved to that location does the file or a new portion of it after the initial cloud save go off to the cloud.
    So if I have Hazel monitor the folders in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ and copy their contents to designated Dropbox folders, I think I have solved the accessibility problem. I also think I have all versions of the document stored up in Dropbox. Of course for this to work my Mac needs to be on 24/7

  15. Steve

    I listened to a big chunk of this today. A few thoughts. Merlin is very entertaining. But I’m always left with this sense that he should and could be doing so much more with his mind. That’s a bit of a back handed compliment. All of this fussing about contexts and omnifocus. I just think it’s fetishizing, and smacks of OCD. I like his no bull approach to gmail. I agree with the prevailing worry about the crappy direction Apple’s going in with sandboxing and the app store. But many knew this was coming as soon as it was announced. Hopefully a backlash will bring them to their senses. Personally, I’m into Apple because their stuff is great. This sandboxing crap is so big brother. I also concur that the whole iCloud thing is a big black hole. I’ll check out his backtowork podcast. I still think he’s stuck in that world of productivity porn, albeit reluctantly. It’s a living I guess. I’m enjoying the shows mostly. The evernote one sucked IMO. Nothing really interesting. I liked the Keyboard Maestro show, but I worry about being obsessed with macros at the expense of something more useful. Life is fleeting after all.

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