That green keyboard on the back is my newest and rather expensive toy, the Duolingo piano
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William doesn't just work at AppleInsider, he also has a ton of other writing assignments he juggles all the time. Here’s how William manages not just the demands here, but everywhere else.
I’m the vice-chairman of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and also work for a UK charity, so I usually have whole sets of apps and documents that I switch between. Whatever I’m doing before AppleInsider, I’ll run a Keyboard Maestro macro, which closes all those apps and documents, and then opens up whatever I need for AppleInsider.
Every day — seven days a week — starts with the Fantastical calendar and OmniFocus To Do apps on my iPhone. The alarm goes off, those two apps launch, and I check what I need to do that day. Invariably, the day means I'm in my office M1 Mac mini or on my 14-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max, and AppleInsider's work always starts with Keyboard Maestro.
There are lots of ways to do this, and I use the free app Bunch, but Keyboard Maestro can handle multiple Spaces. I have a very wide monitor, but I also use Spaces so that apps I only use occasionally are a swipe away, rather than in my face or hidden behind other windows.
A Keyboard Maestro macro to launch AppleInsider
Keyboard Maestro opens about a half-dozen apps, arranges their windows in a row on my monitor, then moves to a new Space before launching the rest and automatically signing me in to various services.
It then returns me to the main Space, where I write in Drafts 5, check accounts in Apple Mail, take notes in Apple Notes, and find myself in and out of Safari, Fantastical, and OmniFocus all the time.
I'm constantly surprised that I also log in and out of OmniOutliner every day. It's surprising because I'm not a great planner, but it allows me to write down one idea and then add to it, expand on it, move it around, and rearrange it until I have an outline for an event, a workshop, an article, or whatever.
Very often, I'll just write down that a piece needs to cover something specific, just a note to myself to make sure I remember it. Often, though, that leads me to think about how I can cover it, so I make another note and that becomes a sentence.
Or two. I've inadvertently started writing entire articles in OmniOutliner. Mike isn't too happy about it.
Switching Roles Within a Job
When I’m on AppleInsider, I don’t see anything else, no apps or documents. I’ve experimented with using Focus modes to even disable email accounts like Writers’ Guild, but in that case I found I was always wondering if I was missing something.
You never realize how much you need Stream Deck until you don’t have it.
But even within a single job, I can switch between writing, research, working with images, and producing the AppleInsider podcast. And through it all, my Stream Deck XL is a blessing.
If I switch to Safari, for example, I get a button on my Stream Deck that turns on the browser’s wonderful translate feature. This is a great feature and I use it a lot, but you have to wait for Safari to tell you that the site can be translated and then show the translation icon – it will move from left to right in the address bar.
In practice, I'll follow a link to a French website, say, wait for a beat, then click this Stream Deck button. It brings up Keyboard Maestro, which then looks for the translation icon and clicks on it with the mouse.
Or for podcast production, half of my Stream Deck changes because I now have a whole row of buttons for that. When a podcast session starts, I click a button and it opens a new Drafts document with the date and time, for example.
Then, if I or my co-host Wesley Hilliard make any kind of mistake, like coughing, I click another Stream Deck button. It adds “Editing Required” with minutes and seconds to the recording.
Likewise, I have buttons for possible chapter starts, possible commercial breaks, and so on.
By the end of the recording, I have a Drafts document with a shot list. However, if I used that list as written, every time I made an edit, all subsequent times would go beyond the times they were in.
So instead, I take my shot list and work backwards from the end.
The Gear I Rely On
The AppleInsider podcast is recorded locally by both hosts and guests. I usually record in QuickTime Player, but I've been changing mics over the past few months.
Hollyland Lark M2 Wireless Microphone
I'm now using the Hollyland Lark M2 wireless mic I bought to film 58keys, the YouTube channel for creators I produce. I've had mixed results with tiny wireless mics before, but this one has been flawless.
I recently replaced my faulty AirPods Pro 2 as well, but I don’t really like them for podcasting, much less editing. So instead, I’m wearing the Sony MDR-7506/1 headphones, which were recommended to me at a UK training session for Piece of String Media back in 2021.
A much more recent purchase that has given me a significant improvement is the Lexar Go Portable SSD Drive with Hub. I backed it on Kickstarter and bought the 2TB version, which I can plug into my iPhone for 58keys filming.
I’ve found lately that AirDropping video from my iPhone to my Mac has been problematic, and always when I have a deadline. So now, while there are different ways to do it and I'm still learning, I can at least just detach the Lexar drive from my iPhone and plug it into my Mac.
The Lexar 2TB portable drive has been a lifesaver for filming videos
Since it came out, I've been editing videos in Final Cut Pro, and even before the new version 11 you'd have to pry it out of my hands I love that app so much. I'm also now subscribed to the iPad version, and while I don't use it enough or as often as I expected, I love it when I'm doing a first pass of an edit on it.
I usually do this when I need to be away from my own office due to family issues, which also turned out to be the reason for my last new purchase in 2024.
This 49-inch monitor is so wide it distorts in photos
Back in August, I bought a 100W Ugreen charger, and it replaced all of my multiple plugs. One charger with three USB-C ports and one USB-A charges everything surprisingly quickly.
In 2025, I'm going to travel more, starting with attending school in Switzerland, and this charger will go with me everywhere. As will, of course, the iPhone 16 Pro Max that I just updated — and which shows me OmniFocus and Fantastical every morning.
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