This post has been a long time coming. Covid hit people in a lot of different ways. I'm still dealing with some of the personal challenges that came out of the past 2+ years. The biggest effect this had on me was professionally. A lot the areas I focus on got put on hold because they are value add activities versus core function.² I'll be attending my first conference since 2019.¹ And through all of this I've had 3 different bosses. Change happened, both good and bad.

I grew up with a boomer father who grew up with depression area parents. To say "work comes first" in my family is an understatement. The professional set backs also felt like personal set backs, hence the absolute lack of focus on my little corner of the internet. But things are start to feel like their turning a corner.

So as my senses feel like they've started to awaken, so has my sense of productivity. Over the the past couple of years I've picked up a few new tools and dropped a couple of beloved favorites.

New tools in the toolbox: * GoodNotes - I've just about ditched the an ink pen for a digital one. * Agenda - Working on capturing and automating meeting minutes. * Shortcuts - Since they should work on Mac and iPad.

Tools I'm revisiting: * Drafts - Having this on Mac and iPad make it a must. * OmniFocus - New job has required new expectations of task tracking. * Scripting - This will be a never ending journey.

Old tools that have been retired: * Editorial - Not deleted, but not on the home screen anymore either. * Pythonista - Same as Editorial. ³

I'm going to be transitioning into a new role for the company I work for and that move has really snapped me out of the

The new tools have been a focus for the inevitable crash my 6y old MBP will have. Politics aside, getting another MBP will be a challenge for me at work due to current IT standards and Apple's move to Mx Silicon processor. The latter obstacle being the larger one because that's limiting the tools I have available on my MBP for Windows VM's. I have some hope of the Windows 11 ARM version, but since that's technically in beta, company IT won't touch it with a 10' pole.

My main focus of late has been bringing some parity of my toolbox on my iPad for what I have on my MBP. The biggest challenge has been migrating Keyboard Maestro actions into Drafts actions. The current success has been migrating my footnote shortcut. The shortcut will take a URL from the clipboard and transform highlighted text in your draft note and convert that into a Markdown link.