First of all — I love Spirited Away movie! Don’t you? I guess it’s time to watch it again.
But that’s not what I want to talk about today.
Just recently I found this app that would do things for me for free. Free is awesome so I’ve decided to try it.
It’s called Spirited Away and, as the developer says, it’s purpose is to

check each running application’s activity, and if an application isn’t active for a certain fixed time, Spirited Away hides the application automatically. It is, in effect, Spirited Away

Watch the video below to see it in action and make sure to try it yourself.
And btw, if you’re not convinced yet, but you still don’t know how to hide inactive apps in Mac, your favorite shortcut should be :

Command + H

Syncing iCal calendars between computers with Dropbox is so easy I can hardly keep myself from jumping right into the tutorial.
Let me, though, introduce you to why I’ve decided to look for solution in the first place.

Before we’ll get happy and comfortable with iCloud, we can figure out the way to sync calendars between devices.
Personally, I use three machines that let me work remotely ; iMac (for work at home), MacbookPro 15 (for working at coffe shops & while traveling), iPad (for various productivity apps and general browsing).
After trying MobileMe, I’ve decided not to sign up, because it didn’t give me enough features for $99/year.

As of now, apps for keeping track of what’s happening are :

• Dropbox
• iCal (on every device)
• 2Do on iPad (synced with my iCal using free sync helper)
• Things for iPad (still loving it, but, hey dudes — it’s time to get going with some syncing power!)
• Pen + paper + highlighters

For making sure syncing your iCals between computer works properly you need two lines of code, open Terminal (in your Applications –> Utilities –> Terminal) and Dropbox account.
My only advice before following the tutorial is to do a little clean up. Make sure you have only the calendars that you’re actually using.

The code lines are below the video in the Notes section.
Between minute 6:50 and 7:02 there is a little fun overlap, when I talk about two things at the same time. I’m just repeating the process again, so you’re not missing any important info.

Enjoy and let me know, what’s your approach to syncing calendars and all sorts of productivity apps/tasks.

Notes :

1. Move your iCal File into the Dropbox Folder. Copy the code below, paste it in Terminal, hit Enter:mv ~/Library/Calendars ~/Dropbox/

 

2. Tell iCal to look in the dropbox folder for the calendar files. Copy the code below, paste it in Terminal, hit Enter:ln -s ~/Dropbox/Calendars/ ~/Library/Calendars

Many people have no idea where to start with converting videos to mp4 for making sure they are smaller and of high quality. If you are one of them, this tutorial will help you tremendously.
 
There are few ways for converting movies to mp4 for online viewing and quite an ocean of tools. Today I’d like to share with you one tool, that will take care of this problem for you. It’s called HandBrake and it’s totally free.
Watch the video below (7 minutes), take a look at my settings on the screenshots, and download the correct version of HandBrake  (Mac, Windows, Linux).
I hope it rocks your world, takes away all the worries, and improves the quality and the size of your precious movies.

Notes :

• Download it from HandBrake website.
• Copy my settings from the screenshots above.
• Read about HandBrake on Macworld.
• Have fun!

I confess, I’m a terrible app junkie. With apps I can usually accomplish whatever I want faster, easier and maybe even better.

Apps that help with productivity and workflow are my biggest friends. I’ve tried.. too many (sorry Hubby!).

I found the perfect solution for myself and I want to share it with you.

(I’m working on iOS, so my advice is mostly for Mac users, but not all of it is based on computer, so stay atuned)

IDEA GENERATORS

First and foremost, I shuffled away my notebook that would lie next to my computer with some to-dos in it.

To open it, find the latest important scribble was simply too time consuming.

Some time ago, I’m not sure when I’ve heard this advice exactly, Dyana Valentine was talking about index cards.

As I recall correctly her way of working with them was very similar to what I’m doing with mine :

INDEX CARDS STRATEGY :

• On your Index Cards scribble ideas through the day (freely, with no particular order, just go with it)
• By the end of the week, throw away the ones that aren’t good enough to keep them near you.
• Put your weekly Index Cards somewhere is a display (illustration board for example)
• By the end of the month, go through the accumulated Index Cards and — again  — strip the bad ones (the ones that are just hokey-pockey or don’t make your heart sing)
• Either start working on implementing the ones that are ripe and ready to act upon or put them in the manila envelope or any kind of folder.
• After 3 months go through them again and decide, which ones are worth keeping.

It’s good to have a separate folder for bigger goals and dreams. You can put those index cards inside of them and check up after 6 months or so, to see if the ideas are still valuable.

WORKFLOW + PRODUCTIVITY

So, as you see, I must have my Index Cards on my desk at all times. I will write on them my ideas, super-thoughts, but also upcoming webinars (if there is no way to save the date automatically in my iCal). At the end of the day, I’ll put the dates in the iCal, but not during my work hours.

Let’s talk apps.

2 apps + 1 software I can’t live without.

THINGS

It’s a paid app. It costs some mulla. But it’s worth every penny.
I’ve been deciding on using it for far too long. A year maybe. In the meantime, I spent an insane amount of time finding the perfect solution for my to-dos. Remember the Milk (too clunky), TeuxDeux (too small, hard to categorize), pen+paper (I would end up with lists in 3 of my notebooks, simply, because I’d forgot to take it with me somewhere, where I’d need to update it).

I needed an app, that would allow me to categorize everything I want, create separate projects, make my to-does easy to update, warm me about the due dates, show me, what’s upcoming, visually minimal.

Now, there is additional rule I follow. Unfortunately, this one will only work for those of you, who own iPad.

I bought THINGS for iPad. The WHY comes in a sec. If I wouldn’t have an iPad, I’d still buy it for my iMac ight away.

The WHY (STRATEGY)

A bonus advice for the iPad lovers.

I’ve decided to check my emails, to-does only on my iPad, only during my brake time, and only if I feel it’s time to see what’s pilling up in the gmail (just recently switched from macmail — Thanks Ethan!).

My iMac is for work related stuff only, until 6pm. Period.

Same happens with Things. They only exist on iPad. With one touch I mark what’s been done and scan through what’s next. It’s also much cheaper to buy. Things for iPad cost 20 bucks. It’s like 5 times at Starucks people!

DEJAL (TIME OUT)

This app blew me away.

Dejal will alarm you when it’s time to take a brake, which basically means that you’ve worked for certain amount of time.

You are the one who sets up your brakes. After you decide you want to have a time out every hour, you are going to see a tinted screen for certain amount of time.

On top of that you can set up which song should start playing, when the brake starts. My choice ? Lisztomania of course! Additionally you can create mini brakes for your stretch ups and to just rest your eyes on the tree above your desk.

Some of you might be feeling anxiety right now. Tinted screen? While I work? No way! I need to save that sucker! Well, you can, scardy kitty, you can. Take a look at  this tinted screen attack on my monitor right below. Neat, huh?

Sorry for the noise in the 2nd part of the video, but as I said — I unplugged my mic for some demonstration time

Those 2 apps, 1 strategy and 1 stock of Index Cards get me organized and on top of the world.

I’d love to see, what helps you with staying on track with workload and what kind of fun I might be missing by not using what you’re using.

Btw, I’m writing this post in Journler. But that’s another story..

When you’re about to edit your post on your WordPress blog, you are probably going to your Dashboard, then Posts, then Edit Posts, and finally you choose the post that needs to be modified.

Did you know you can speed up this workflow and get rid of all unnecessary steps to edit your posts, pages, and comments?

It’s really easy, requires just a snippet of a code, super simple actions like copy + paste, and after accomplishing this task, you’re going to have much more easier access to editing.

Watch the tutorial below, share it with others, and, as I say in the video, if you have trouble with implementing this strategy, make a comment below and I’ll answer that for you.

Notes are posted below this tutorial.

Notes :

• Copy and paste this code  into single.php : <?php edit_post_link(__(‘{Quick Edit}’), ”); ?>
• Look for something like :  <div class=”entry”> or <div id=”content”> or look at the structure of your posts and paste the snippet somewhere close to the top content (in my case : “Posted by Marta Spendowska”)
• Post questions in the comments below
• Have fun!

Ever wonder how you can customize short url into something more memorable?

Well, I’m here to show you!
Read more →

Wondering How To Back Up Facebook?

This video will show you how to back up your personal facebook information.

Since March 31st facebook allows to convert your personal profile into the facebook business page, but you need to make sure you’ll back up your facebook data. You can read about switching from profile to the facebook page on the insidefacebook and watch my video below.

How To Back Up Facebook Data