The Importance of Having Purpose in Retirement
Reading Time: 4 minutesI live in a 55+ community in the Phoenix Arizona area. Almost all of our 26,000 residents are retired. The prevailing attitude is “I’m retired, and my reward for working is to not do anything but play.” This is reflected by declining participation in the service organizations in our community. Most of the people I know …
AI and Creativity: Finding the Balance Between Assistance and Replacement
Reading Time: 5 minutesAs I’ve used artificial intelligence (AI) more and more in my blog writing process, I’ve asked “At what point am I no longer the creator?” I don’t think it’s ethical for me to represent a computer’s work as my own, but I do want to take advantage of AI to do research, check my grammar …
Using AI to Improve Your Writing: Tips and Techniques
Reading Time: 5 minutesRecently, there’s been a lot of buzz surrounding AI in the productivity realm. Writing apps, such as Craft, have added AI to their list of features. From within Craft, you can request the AI to create a summary or outline of your document, write an article based on your outline, or write about a topic. …
The Benefits of Going on an Overnight Retreat: A Guide to Planning and Taking a Productive Retreat
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe word “retreat” is not a positive word for everyone. I can evoke memories of religious retreats they were required to attend, some kind of hippy-dippy, new-age spiritual experience, or boring corporate retreats where you were forced to do a lot of group exercises but nothing changed as a result. But there’s also a more …
How to Run Windows 11 on a Silicon Mac
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhy would someone want to run Windows software on a Mac? Running Windows 11 on a Mac can be beneficial for several reasons: In the Early Mac Days, PC Emulators Were Almost Unusable Back in the early 90s, I attempted to use a PC emulator for the Mac. I can’t remember what Mac model I …
Why I Switched From a Mechanical Keyboard to an Apple Extended Keyboard
Reading Time: 3 minutesFor the past two years, I’ve been using a Keychron mechanical keyboard. Before I started using a mechanical keyboard, for years I’d used the standard Apple Magic Keyboard that came with my iMac. A couple of months ago, I decided to experiment with using an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad for …
A Review of How To Calm Your Mind, by Chris Bailey
Reading Time: 7 minutesChris Bailey’s latest book, How to Calm Your Mind: Finding Presence and Productivity in Anxious Times is a mixture of many positives and, unfortunately, some negatives. Bailey has produced some excellent work in the area of productivity. My go-to book to recommend to someone interested in an introduction to productivity is Bailey’s The Productivity Project. I’ve also benefitted from his Hyperfocus: …
Staying in Focus — The Pomodoro Technique Revisited
Reading Time: 3 minutes1. What is the Pomodoro Technique? I first read about the Pomodoro Technique a few years ago in productivity books and articles. It’s a method developed in the 1980s by a university student, Francesco Cirillo, to help him focus on his work and also take regular breaks. Here is a step-by-step description of how the …
Susan Kare Mac Icon Prints
Reading Time: 2 minutesMy wife surprised me at Christmas with an original Happy Macintosh icon print by Susan Kare. Susan was the artist who created the icons for the original Mac interface. Her icons literally brought a smiling face to a computer. At a time with only bland PCs with no graphics, DOS interfaces, and in-line commands, her …