Tom Anderson (00:06)
This is Basic AF episode ninety. Show notes for this episode and all episodes can be found at basic AF Show dot com. Hey, how you doin? I'm Tom Anderson. Thanks for joining us today for another episode. And I am joined, as always, by the man, Jeff Battersby. Hello, Jeff. Good to see you again.

Jeff Battersby (00:23)
Tom

Anderson, fancy meeting you here. Right? We plan a recording and you show up. And it's gonna be trouble when you don't.

Tom Anderson (00:26)
That's amazing, isn't it? Like clockwork.

Yeah. Good thing we can adult a little bit. ⁓ yeah. So excited that our streak of guest appearances on this show continues. and we do have a I know, it's amazing. Love it. ⁓ we've said multiple times. I mean, the best part of actually doing this podcast is the people that we've met.

Jeff Battersby (00:38)
well, very little.

Yes. Yeah, this is gonna be three in a row.

Hundred percent. And not having to listen to us. That's the best part of the podcast. Fair. Totally fair. So speaking of that, we have a guest today, correct?

Tom Anderson (01:03)
Right. Actually some intelligence comes into the conversation.

We do. Hello, guest. Hi, Robin.

Robin Sanah Kai (01:16)
Hi. Hi. Hi guys. Thanks for having me.

Jeff Battersby (01:18)
Hey, nice to have you, Robin. ⁓ Robin, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? ⁓ actually, why don't you give us your first and last name and then ⁓ tell us why we might have you on the Begasic AF show.

Robin Sanah Kai (01:34)
Yes. Hello. So I'm Robin Kay, Sana Kaye. I'm husband, a father, basically a family guy. I live in Munich, Germany. ⁓ I am a regular Apple user. I have a full time job. And after hours I have a this small side hustle ⁓ which is called for Mac users, newsletter, medium, threads and so on. I like the creative stuff after hours. This is something where I

put my words online and share what I how I use actually ⁓ Apple devices, Apple apps, basically. Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Jeff Battersby (02:12)
Excellent.

Awesome. and ⁓ you ⁓ yeah, I I'm gonna point out that Tom and I are not very good at other languages. We've had a lot of accents on the show many times and we're grateful that ⁓ that ⁓ you're here with us today. So you said you have a website, that website is what's the what's the site that

Robin Sanah Kai (02:37)
For MacUsers.com.

Jeff Battersby (02:39)
⁓ and why don't you give ⁓ us a little background on you? You said you have a day job. Is that a tech job or is it some other kind of job?

Robin Sanah Kai (02:49)
It is like project management in IT, you know, big corporation. I used to do my own stuff years ago. I was doing my own business back then. And then ⁓ we moved to Germany with my wife. You know, it's a funny story because she promised me that ⁓ we'll move for two years and then we'll see what else what next. ⁓ we you know it sounded like boring Germany, Munich.

Jeff Battersby (02:52)
Okay. Yep.

No.

Robin Sanah Kai (03:19)
Why? Okay, let's try. And then you know, time flies, ⁓ life's gone. ⁓ our kid was born. ⁓ I got a job and ⁓ yeah, we're still here after nine years. but I really enjoy ⁓ building stuff, creating something online, some small projects, and for Mac users ⁓ something like that. I started as a kind of sidecaster, you

In Europe, side hustle is not a common thing. ⁓ I don't have any friends who has any side hustle. I know that US is a very common thing, you know, or some kind of project, which is you know you can mix somehow with ⁓ kind of business or something. But it's a hobby. ⁓ but I did a lot of projects. I published a book years ago about the stories of ⁓ about Ukraine stories of Ukraine.

Jeff Battersby (03:55)
Yeah.

Robin Sanah Kai (04:17)
⁓ so I I gathered the stories from real people from first year of invasion. This is kind of let's say off topic, but ⁓ just example of my off projects ⁓ after hours. And then I started talking online about ⁓ doing a side hustle actually, how to do such a thing as a father, as a husband, having the normal life. And ⁓ I started mixing different topics.

And one day I noticed that actually the Apple content is the most popular one from my audience. So now it's my thing, you know. people started asking me how I actually use the Apple apps, why I use only Apple MyDers Apple Nose, for example, nothing else. And then I started writing more about it. And ⁓ yeah, I really enjoy it.

Jeff Battersby (05:11)
Excellent. So you ⁓ obviously you're a Mac user, you've been using Mac products for how long?

Robin Sanah Kai (05:19)
I st my god. I remember my last not Apple device was Blackberry Q ten, I guess, you know, with this QRT ⁓ keyboard. And then yeah. And then I think I bought the first iPhone, it was five S

Tom Anderson (05:21)
Ha ha.

Jeff Battersby (05:29)
Okay. A hundred thousand years ago. Okay. Great.

Wow, okay.

Robin Sanah Kai (05:41)
I love

that. It was the ⁓ it was a great device. I mean. and then I've been using the the main mainly iPhones, and then I remember six or seven years, ⁓ years ago, I had this ⁓ famous blue screen error on my Windows machine, you know. And after you know, months of having this over and over again, I said enough.

Jeff Battersby (06:02)
Ha

Robin Sanah Kai (06:10)
So then I bought the Mac Mini. And then I noticed that the beauty and magic of Apple ecosystem. That was my first time. Because before that I've been using only iPhone, right? Once device. But the story begins when you really add the new device, ⁓ then iWatch, then iPad, ⁓ MacBook Pro and so on. So yeah, I'm very all in.

Jeff Battersby (06:38)
Yeah, clearly. So and it's funny how Mac Mini, which is still one of my favorite, and I would think Tom would say the same thing. Still one of my favorite Macs, ⁓ very much the ⁓ the gateway drug to the Mac universe. You know, I think for some people it was iPhones first, but then the ⁓ you know, you you've got everything you need. You've got your display, you got your mouse, you got your keyboard, you just need something to hook to it, and so you get a Mac mini and suddenly ⁓ the world changes for you. So that's ⁓ that's

Very, very interesting. So you you say in Germany not a lot of people with side hustles. ⁓ in the United States everybody has to have a side hustle to pay for health insurance. ⁓ You know, we we don't have anything, we don't have anything like that over here. So what made you think or decide that you wanted to have you know, a newsletter, a website, ⁓ you know, all the things that you do have that

Robin Sanah Kai (07:14)
Not ready.

Yeah.

Tom Anderson (07:20)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Sanah Kai (07:21)
Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (07:36)
that make you know, make your side hustle hustle for you.

Robin Sanah Kai (07:43)
How to say that, you know, the corporate life is quite boring, you know, doing the Excel stuff and project management. I really need creative things. I I like to study how to grow your audience, you know. how to play with social media. the newsletter is the way I can express myself, the way I want, right? So ⁓ it's small.

Tom Anderson (07:48)
Ha ha.

Jeff Battersby (07:49)
Yeah.

Robin Sanah Kai (08:11)
⁓ newsletter, it's nothing big, it's a once a week I send a few ⁓ resources that I want to share. One of them is my own writing, usually on Medium, and then two or three other resources that I would like to share that I found last week, right? So you can easily scan it within two minutes and click if you if something is for you. So that's the the structure of my newsletter. ⁓ but I also write

on medium. I think it's the best way to express myself. ⁓ English is my ⁓ second language, so I can really sit down, think ⁓ slower, and ⁓ put the words in the right direction and then ⁓ show how I use Apple apps for example, right? So it's not you know in and now you have such ⁓ possibilities. it's not a ⁓ big deal to have a newsletter.

Tom Anderson (09:00)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Sanah Kai (09:10)
You can go to Substack and you have your own newsletter for free, right? you can write online and the audience is already there. Medium, Substack again, or something else, right? The social media threats, for instance. Now it's a great thing, great place ⁓ to meet people like you. so it's not something complicated.

Right now. So

Tom Anderson (09:40)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Battersby (09:42)
Now, for most of us, again in the US, side hustle means it's a way that we're making money. Tom and I aren't making a dime. Yeah, we're is is this is this it's a hobby. Okay. So it's not it's not a way that you're making extra income. It's just ⁓ you love it and that's what

Robin Sanah Kai (09:48)
Yeah. yeah, I know. Okay. It's for me it's a hobby still. Yeah.

That would be the thing, but ⁓ as a still side hustle, you know. I published recently the ebook ⁓ which I'm selling on Gumroad ⁓ about the ⁓ Apple system. It's called the simple Apple system, about Apple reminders and notes, but you know, it just to cover the expense ⁓ of the domains and ⁓ costs and other things. nothing special. So

Jeff Battersby (10:14)
Uh-huh.

Yeah, and ⁓ I noticed ⁓ so on ⁓ on threads your ⁓ how do you it's Robinsana Kai, is that how you that's how you pronounce it? Yeah. So you have you have a link there and then also a link to your Gumroad site ⁓ that has Apple Notes starter guide is the first thing that at least I'm seeing when I come to that. so you ⁓ d clearly you enjoy writing. ⁓

B y you write in English, ⁓ on on all of these sites it looks like. Is that ⁓ d do you also have a an outlet in Germany? Do you are you writing in German as well? No.

Robin Sanah Kai (11:06)
No, no,

no, no, no, no. No, I don't want to be dependent on one country or one language. English is the the main language I I write online.

Jeff Battersby (11:15)
Okay.

Okay. Very interesting. ⁓ I wish I could do the same thing. I've got no capability of writing in any other language than English. Barely, barely possible in Spanish, you know, with a lot of with a lot of assistance. But that's that's very impressive. so

Side hustle, this is what you're doing, ⁓ just to kinda it's as a as you said, as a hobby, not as a means of making money, although, you know, maybe a book or two here is is what you're doing. And you've chosen to sell your book on Gum Road, or you no Amazon, no

Robin Sanah Kai (11:46)
Yes.

Yes.

So far Gumrote, because ⁓ my ebook is ⁓ still sixty something pages, but maybe too small to publish on ⁓ on Amazon. But Gumrote again, it's very ⁓ simple tool to use. ⁓ you just publish, add the content and that's it. ⁓ nothing special. So I like this kind of simplicity. ⁓ I think that we'll come back to this topic, but I choose the simple, reliable tools.

Jeff Battersby (12:11)
Okay.

Robin Sanah Kai (12:22)
that that ⁓ that are there and allow me to publish within the ⁓ few minutes.

Jeff Battersby (12:29)
Okay, great. So why don't you tell us no.

Tom Anderson (12:30)
Yep. Yeah. And Gumroad's a big one with

content creators. So Gumroad, Stan. ⁓ Beehive's gotten into digital products lately. So there's there's a bunch of them, but but Gumroad's one of the big ones.

Robin Sanah Kai (12:44)
Yes.

Jeff Battersby (12:45)
So tell me a little bit about this book, ⁓ Simple Apple Systems.

Robin Sanah Kai (12:50)
So I took everything that I published for ⁓ last several months, ⁓ reordered everything, rev ⁓ and ⁓ changed ⁓ a few words here and there, and took a lot of screenshots. That was the main ⁓ part of this this work. ⁓ why I've done it's because ⁓ I I think that most of the content you can find on Medium or Substacks for free.

But you in my book you have everything in right order, step by step, ⁓ from philosophy ⁓ to starting with upper reminders. Also, if you would like to move from other third party tools, then ⁓ I also do did some some ⁓ small research how to do so. So if someone is coming from yeah, tool this on that, ⁓ you can move to upper reminders or upper notes.

And basically I shared with my ⁓ full system how I work, how I use those ⁓ those apps. because Apple reminders and notes are very simple tools, but yet powerful enough to customize the way you work with them. But not everyone knows exactly what this these tools are can do for you. ⁓ but

Jeff Battersby (14:00)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Sanah Kai (14:16)
I would say one hour ⁓ within the week you can ⁓ organise the thing as you like.

Jeff Battersby (14:23)
So you use primarily the built in Apple apps. Do you any use any third party apps to do to do, you know, notes or anything like that? Our friend Bill has a tendency to ⁓ jump out to a number of other ⁓ notes and other apps ⁓ and and then finds his way back to ⁓ the Apple universe. I for a long time

Robin Sanah Kai (14:34)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (14:40)
⁓

Jeff Battersby (14:49)
was using Fantastic How for Calendar and I had a couple of other notes apps. I only use Apple apps now. ⁓ see no reason not to. I think they're all pretty solid. So I agree with you in that way that, you know, the the ⁓ Apple ⁓ Apple's own built in apps there certainly are some limitations. You know, not everybody loves mail, not everybody

⁓ loves the notes app. But honestly the notes app is really powerful. I use it for pretty much everything that I do. So do you find that to be the same or or are you using some third party apps as well?

Robin Sanah Kai (15:27)
I've been there years ago, but now I change everything. I again simplicity is the the ⁓ is the goal. it comes down to one thing again, ⁓ to narrow down the ⁓ tools I I use. So fewer tools, less friction, no subscriptions, no setup, everything sinks instantly across all your devices, and this is the the magic of it, right? of course there are great tools out there.

Jeff Battersby (15:51)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Robin Sanah Kai (15:56)
I've been using for years like to do is I tried them, I think all of them back then. ⁓ remember the milk Wunderlist. ⁓ I think now it's ⁓ owned by Microsoft. I started actually with the ⁓ physical notebook years ago, but then I used to forgot why ⁓ once or twice to take it with me to the mo to office and I did it.

Jeff Battersby (16:17)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (16:17)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Sanah Kai (16:24)
No, what actually I have to do today, that day, right?

Jeff Battersby (16:27)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (16:29)
Yeah. Done that.

Robin Sanah Kai (16:30)
At

that and that was the start of ⁓ going to being more digital in that way, right? And you know ⁓ I repeat myself because it's it's the thing of phys philosophy. I try to avoid the word productive, being productive, you know, do more you know, fast and be efficient. You know, I am family guy again. and my days are not perfect, you know. ⁓

I plan through the weeks because ⁓ day ⁓ days are different for me and I need this flexibility, you know, to do my stuff. And the most important thing is that I won't outsource my ⁓ the things I have to do. I don't want to remember them. Right? So I need the simple tool but reliable tool that is always there. So if you are Apple user.

actually it's the best choice for you. Of course, ⁓ again tools that maybe they can have a few features ⁓ more powerful because there's this is their business, right? ⁓ but if you customize up reminders in the way you like ⁓ that's enough I believe. Maybe you you have to ⁓ you you have to adapt ⁓ slightly to up reminders ⁓ functionalities

But that's okay, no? And ⁓ to me I like call it ⁓ reminder specifically, my assistant. You know, whenever I have new idea, I have something to do, whatever it is, my work, my side hustle, my family life, I just want to capture, capture the thing, s ⁓ write it down and forget because now I'm doing something else with my family and I don't want to think about it, right?

Jeff Battersby (18:04)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Sanah Kai (18:23)
So the storing things is the is the crucial part of my kind of system, you know how I approach the ⁓ the tools I use.

Jeff Battersby (18:34)
do you use the Apple products at work? It is that part of your workflow at work or are you ⁓ are you using Windows systems at work?

Robin Sanah Kai (18:42)
Unfortunately not, I'm using the Windows plus ⁓ Google workspace. ⁓ with Gmail and Jimina, which is it which is okay, you know. but ⁓ yeah it's not up.

Tom Anderson (18:45)
Yeah.

Jeff Battersby (18:48)
Okay. Yep.

Tom Anderson (18:48)
Yeah, that's what we use

at work too.

Jeff Battersby (18:57)
Okay.

Tom Anderson (18:58)
Yeah. And and you know, you touched on something there with simplicity and reliability. And I think that's all most people are really looking for. Like, you know, Jeff mentioned Bill McClain there and I fall into this group too where the and you specifically mentioned not wanting to use the term productivity, which is understandable. Bill and I think fall into that. I won't speak for him, obviously he's not here, but we've had enough conversations, I know. but you know, I've

Jeff Battersby (19:24)
Yeah.

Tom Anderson (19:28)
I don't get too deep into that. Not as much as I was. Like there was a period I went through, there was the like the super productivity hype era, probably two thousand and eight to fifteen or something like that. ⁓ and so I I did get into that, but ⁓ that's a nerdy type thing and maybe some type of ⁓ for me anyway, a personality disorder. Something not right. but I think just for for

Jeff Battersby (19:52)
Mm.

Tom Anderson (19:57)
you know, people who are just, you know, trying to have an enjoyable life or something. Like you say, they just need to remember something that they want to do or something a thought they have, they want to jot down, whether it's planning for a trip or highlights of the day with, you know, their kids or whatever that is. And and not too much into that. ⁓ but yeah, I have a similar path. Like I haven't jumped around a a ton, but I started with Evernote in two thousand eight. Stuck with that up until twenty twenty.

⁓ so that was my note-taking app. And then on kind of my task manager, ⁓ it was Omnifocus. I started with first, and that was like peak nerdiness for me because there's so many ways to customize that, tweak it, and you know, make it your own. and it just got to be too much. Like I was I was just working on the

the setup more than I was doing the work that was in the setup some days because like, if I just set it up this way, I'll never forget, you know, this will be so much more efficient. But it never ended up being that way. At the end of the day, you need to do what's on the list. Doesn't matter what the list looks like. not to say I didn't get things done. I did, but it it was a distraction and a procrastination tool probably for me there. ⁓ then I went to things ⁓ and I stuck with that up until the last six months and I've moved my tasks into

Jeff Battersby (20:54)
Yeah, yeah.

Tom Anderson (21:20)
craft, which I've talked about a little bit before on the show. ⁓ they've just added tasks within the last eight months and it's still a little too simplistic, but they're building onto it. I'm giving them to the end of the year. And the real reason I want to wanted to do that is I like the ability to have the task open and then note what I'm working on with the task right there in the same place.

find it keeps me from jumping back over to say reminders or things or something like that and be like, ⁓ I should work on that. But no, I'm supposed to be working on this. and so it's nice to have that all in the same place. But ⁓ so why don't we talk a little bit about how you've kind of structured reminders and how you've recommended or how you might recommend for listeners if they're looking for a little more structure. Like again, we're not talking about going

too crazy with it. I think that's the beauty of it. But just to give it enough structure to to help them maybe feel a little less overwhelmed, like they've got a little more kind of, you know, control or at least schedule around their days so they can anticipate it a little bit better.

Robin Sanah Kai (22:32)
Yeah, sure. Happy happy to do so. So first let's say the main thing in my entire setup is my inbox list and the way how I capture things, you know. because I again I want to write down things and forget it, right? and there are a few ways that you can add the new entries to Apple Reminders to your inbox. You can do this with Siri, of course.

⁓ with ⁓ iPhone fifteen Pro Max and and ⁓ sixteen and seventeen, you have this action button as well. So we can also customize it to add the ⁓ new reminder. You have to go to settings, action button, controls, new reminder. So it just I think this is the the main way I use the ⁓ inbox new reminders.

⁓ once a week I sit down, usually on Friday evening. I sit down and I try to clean my inbox. This is the main thing. I try to keep my inbox empty and I organize those tasks between the other lists, right? So this is the let's say the first ⁓ idea of the of my system. The second is that ⁓ organize organization of ⁓ everything I store in APRO Reminders.

So I'm not trying to build a complex ⁓ system. I try to have everything organized ⁓ in the way that I know where things are, right? So this is how I use ⁓ folders. It's called in app reminders groups actually. So basically on map on Mac you can add the new group by clicking on file and new group or

drag and drop the lists ⁓ into each other and then there is a small pop-up window that you can ⁓ name your group, right? The one thing so inside the ⁓ folder or group, I have several lists. Why I organize them by folders is that I folders means the different areas of my life. So I have work or side hustle folder, I have family life.

And I have a private thing. So the free areas I keep ⁓ inside this group. But if you open this folder or group, you I have a several lists. They can be anything. ⁓ and I like to keep them not visible in the main view of UpperMiders. They are hidden, right? But you can click on group.

And you can see all the lists in one view. You can scroll down and see lists one by one, right? So in one view you have everything you need. So this is the thing. So organization, this is the next step how I approach ⁓ upper minus system.

then I like to plan my upcoming month and week. So I have ⁓ actually ⁓ three lists in my system. ⁓ this is the ⁓ list called month, ⁓ week and weeks priority. And why I have separated weeks tasks because you know if you look at the normal

⁓ tasks list, to-do list, even in the today custom view in Upper Reminders, this is just a ⁓ the long list of tasks, right? There are no organized, you don't know what is the priority, what is more important rather than other tasks, right? And I need this organization. I need to have a ⁓ clear structure, what is really important, right? So even if ⁓ so every month I move some things

from my folders, my ⁓ say category folders, let's say from my work, side hustle, life and so on, two months. So I decide, okay, this month I would like to tackle this and that thing. And every yeah, Sunday or weekend I prepare myself for the week ahead and I move things to week's list and the priorities list, right? And usually there are like ⁓ a few things I want to do ⁓ within the week and two, three

topics I want to take care of ⁓ next seven days. And they are separated again in this list. Yeah, that's that's important thing for for me. And this is basically it. ⁓ maybe I can also say something about this ⁓ custom today view in Apple Reminders because that was this is also the part of my ⁓ Apple reminder system.

So I'm not a fan of the default today view in App Reminders because again you have just a long list of tasks without any proper ⁓ structure. So I created ⁓ my own tool lists ⁓ that I called ⁓ your day. and this is the main list with the tasks and growth. Growth are my routines or ⁓ things I do regularly. You know, I want to

build a new habit, you know, do the daily push ups, ⁓ that I I keep them in the ⁓ in the growth list, right? They are completely separated, you know, from actually things I have to do. For example, send out the newsletter or prepare for the podcast show, right? This is like things I need to do. but the growth is something that I want to do daily, but it's like ⁓ do for my own health

Jeff Battersby (28:10)
Yeah.

Robin Sanah Kai (28:35)
for all my mindset and so on. So this is how I called it growth and you know added the icon of the green leaf and it's green everything inside. So and there are those smart lists. So they are all automated. So I don't need to drag and drop through the list. So your day is actually ⁓ filter by date today, includes past you, and plus I exclude

⁓ my routines list. And this is important because ⁓ all my routines, so what appears in the growth, I keep in one big list inside my folder private. There is a routines list of reminders, let's say. so this your day thing will not ⁓ show you ⁓ this routines ⁓ tasks because I want to again separate them right

Tom Anderson (29:34)
Uh-huh.

Robin Sanah Kai (29:34)
There are

something else. And then I have this growth smart list with also filter by date today. And plus include your routines list. And this is how I structure or I have my own customized ⁓ today view. And again, you can move them both to one folder. In similar way, you have the structure of the ⁓ category list.

And if so, you have in one click the view of and your entire day, so your day with the priorities and normal tasks and routines. ⁓ nicely structured, organized, different colors, ⁓ yeah, easy to capture everything what is important.

Tom Anderson (30:24)
Nice. Yeah, that sounds good. So we've got ⁓ a weekly review process. That was Fridays. which of course if you want to do a weekly review that you could do that any day that you want. but yeah, Fridays is a pretty good day to do it. especially ⁓ like I like to do Fridays for planning the next week of work stuff. side hustle stuff I usually look at Saturday ⁓ to do that. And then a little bit of multi-scale planning there. So you've got your day, week and month.

And a month is about as far as you like to go out.

Robin Sanah Kai (30:58)
Yes. Yes. ⁓ planning based on month. This is ⁓ my focus, let's say. I don't want to go farther because it's ⁓ it's too much. I I like planning based on month and then weeks.

Tom Anderson (31:11)
Yeah, and it's

it's so who knows? Like a month is you know, you start going out like I think if you go out to a quarter, that's about as far as I will go. That's usually just at work though, for like, okay, this quarter we wanna try to do this. But I think in like day to day life, a quarter is too far for me because ⁓ it things just change too quickly and like especially when our kids were younger, like yours is young. ⁓ and so, you know, there could be a you know, a trip or you wanna do something. It it

Just changes a lot. So I think that's a a good cadence to do those on.

Robin Sanah Kai (31:45)
Yes, yes, exactly. And ⁓ again, I'm not sort of perfect in this in the system. This system helps me to stay organized, to remember things and organize them through the ⁓ the app I use, so app reminders the things, but ⁓ category-based folders, then time-based lists. This is how I work. And with the little automations you don't need to know organize them ⁓ every day. And

Tom Anderson (32:02)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Sanah Kai (32:14)
I keep forgetting still things, but it's fine, you know. It's not that I click every th every single task, you know. It can be a difficult day at work or at in my family life, and then I realize at eleven PM that ⁓ there is something that I forgot, right? Because I didn't look at the I didn't have time, you know. ⁓ so I I f I try to stay flexible and

Jeff Battersby (32:17)
Ha ha

Tom Anderson (32:18)
Ha ha ha.

Robin Sanah Kai (32:42)
know, I try try to then tackle this thing ⁓ next morning. That's it, you know. But again, I like to think about my assistant and I that I outsource rem ⁓ remembering ⁓ the things that I have to do.

Tom Anderson (32:47)
Uh-huh.

Right.

Yeah, and I think that having the system there actually helps when you do forget something or when, you know, the day or the week, you know, life kinda goes a little off schedule. ⁓ because you've kind of already got a plan, so you just have to kind of figure out, okay, what do I want to adjust to accommodate for what happened unexpectedly. So I think it definitely helps with that. ⁓

If you have some I I know you've put a lot of this on threads, so recommend ⁓ if if you're listening, go follow Robin on threads, post routinely, like really simple but effective tips and techniques on things to do. and I know on Medium you've got a good bit published there too. So anything that ⁓ that you want us to include in the show notes, let us know and we'll drop links in if people want to like see some screenshots of how you have that set up and everything ⁓ and and borrow from that as they would like for their setup.

Jeff Battersby (33:36)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Sanah Kai (33:52)
Yeah, sure.

Tom Anderson (33:56)
All right. So ⁓ with the keynote ⁓ a couple of weeks ago for WWDC. it was a little bit of a replay of the keynote from twenty twenty four when Apple Intelligence kind of made its debut and Apple was talking about right with some sort of demo back then, ⁓ of personal context and Siri would be able to do all of these things. Of course they didn't ship it right away.

Jeff Battersby (34:11)
With demos.

Tom Anderson (34:26)
Obviously, they still haven't technically shipped it. bits and pieces of Apple Intelligence, yes, but this new fancy Siri, no. ⁓ but two weeks ago, ⁓ you know, they've done a lot of work and they showed off Siri AI, which seems to, from the early people who've gotten their hands on it, seems to be a thing and actually looks like it's going to be quite good. with

kind of keeping the relation with what we've been talking about with like ⁓ the the you know we won't use productivity because I know you don't like that word, but with so but ⁓ what from the keynote kind of stuck stood out to you ⁓ that that you're interested in?

Jeff Battersby (35:03)
To be fair, neither do I. It makes me feel like a cog, but go ahead.

Robin Sanah Kai (35:17)
I think that shortcuts ⁓ is the biggest shift here ⁓ after a keynote. And to be honest, this is the feature I've been waiting for for years. ⁓ Look, I use shortcuts. I have some simple automations. I use them every day, for example, to format my newsletter and so on. Yeah. But again, my these automations are mostly simple.

And still they save me ⁓ some time. But whenever I try to build something more advanced, I really struggle. And shortcuts, I think, was always too complex for regular Apple users. is a powerful tool, but understanding you know actions, ⁓ conditions, inputs, and entire logic is too much for ⁓ many people. So when I

So that with new Siri AI you can actually describe what you want in your words and Siri builds in this is something big ⁓ to me. Now finally we ever ⁓ most of Apple users can ⁓ use the shortcuts the way they they would like to. So I'm really f looking forward to it. ⁓

And ⁓ I already have in my Apple notes a bunch of questi ⁓ ideas ⁓ for more advanced automations. I would like to see really how advanced it is, ⁓ especially integrations ⁓ into Apple apps, like how what I can do with shortcuts in Safari, ⁓ and ⁓ how I connect together notes and reminders. That can could be ⁓ something interesting because

you can connect actually right now upper reminders, upper notes. I I didn't talk about it ⁓ in my setup, but I use it a lot, you know. The upper reminder is my main thing and the upper notes is the context where I keep everything ins inside. ⁓ where the task is not as simple as can be described in one a few words. If something ⁓ for example the project, then I keep everything in upper notes. So you can keep the link directly in the upper reminder. So I've

So maybe with shortcuts you can re also automate a few apps in the the ⁓ sequence you would like to automate. So let's see. there are two more apps ⁓ that I'm quite interested ⁓ to see in the new ⁓ in the OS twenty seven. It's a Safari. I use it every day. ⁓ I try to avoid using ad other ⁓ browsers, but

Jeff Battersby (38:02)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Anderson (38:07)
Me too.

Robin Sanah Kai (38:08)
Okay, yeah,

Jeff Battersby (38:08)
Yeah.

Robin Sanah Kai (38:09)
today I was forced to, but sorry, but but yeah, Safari is the the ⁓ the the mind waving here and then ⁓ they show us the three things that ⁓ that are ⁓ looks quite interesting. The first is can then grouping all your open taps into the topics. ⁓

Jeff Battersby (38:09)
Same.

Robin Sanah Kai (38:34)
Yeah, that would be super helpful if you use a lot ⁓ Safari and you have open tabs. So this kind of organization, the way how I organize up reminders and all my stuff, that will be also useful. ⁓ second interesting it was notify me feature, I guess. So you can ⁓ actually ask Safari to watch any page and then you will get the alert notification kind of ⁓ when it changes. Right. So that could be something interesting.

And first describe an extension. Wow, that's a big, you know. I I am already curious what people will ⁓ how the people will use it, you know, what they build with with ⁓ this feature. ⁓ so looking forward.

Tom Anderson (39:22)
Yeah. On our ⁓

recap episode that we did, ⁓ Riley Hill was on there with us and Joe Moyer. But Riley had installed the developer beta, the first one there, right away. And so what he had ⁓ done is he built ⁓ he had to build an extension in Safari to show the page source on a web page and also be able to edit it on the fly there. And ⁓ and it actually worked already. So in the developer beta, that I thought that was pretty impressive. So

Jeff Battersby (39:27)
With Riley.

Tom Anderson (39:52)
I agree with you on that one. I'm I'm really curious to see what ⁓ what people come up with.

Robin Sanah Kai (39:58)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And ⁓ Jeff, you mentioned ⁓ mail app at the beginning, you're not ⁓ a fan of, I guess. But maybe we'll get something better with ⁓ in the future. You know, they what they they announced ⁓ looks quite interesting with I yeah, we'll see, I know.

Jeff Battersby (40:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, we'll see. It I mean, I'm

not you know what it is? I I use mail every day. I think it's not so much that I don't like mail that as other people I think find it, you know, they prefer Outlook. I used Outlook for a long time on my phone because I thought it was better than the mail app. I think it's gone back. I am, ⁓ for the most part completely native. The only and and I a couple episodes ago we talked about the fact that both Tom and I got

new MacBook Airs. my MacBook Pro, though I still for sale ⁓ at a reduced price on Swappa for anybody that wants to buy my MacBook Pro. it I may end up using it for something else if it goes much lower. But I have set that up. I'm really just trying to set it up with only the tools that I need, ⁓ which is all of Apple's apps I use, Calendar I use, ⁓

mail. I use, you know, pretty much everything. Occasionally I'll use pages. Mostly that's because, you know, one of my daughters in grad school is in grad school or headed back to grad school, I should say. And she ⁓ you know, she wants me to look at papers she's writing, so I'll, you know, we can share that ⁓ and I can have a look at it. ⁓ but I I use Highland Pro for writing and have been using that for a long time.

⁓ and I'm the same with you. I try to use Safari. Right here I'm stuck in Chrome because Riverside only likes Chrome. Or the piss Yeah, but this is honestly the only computer in the house that I have Chrome installed on and ⁓ I'm no fan. ⁓ so it's not so much that I don't like mail as people I think complain about mail quite a bit. And I don't know, we'll see. We'll see what

Robin Sanah Kai (41:53)
Mm.

Jeff Battersby (42:14)
new version of the operating system brings brings to mail. It was interesting to me that ⁓ with you know in this keynote the word around the internet was it was boring. ⁓ and the reason it was boring is because unlike the usual hype that we've gotten over the last several years over here this new app and that new thing and we're gonna we're gonna do this. ⁓

I think Apple was very conservative about what it was that they were gonna show and wanted to make sure that we knew as users and, you know, developers, which Riley is, ⁓ an actual developer. I have a developer account and you know, I developed nothing. ⁓ but I do have a developer account just so I could have access to beta and such. ⁓ but the it it it it

I I I think that they were very conservative ⁓ in what they showed because they wanted to show us that this stuff actually is starting to work in the way that they promised two years ago. Two. Count them. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Hundred percent. Yeah.

Tom Anderson (43:23)
Well, I think that was part of the boring element too, as we'd seen seen the concepts and everything before. ⁓ and they brought it

but, you know, I I still think when ⁓ when these come out in the fall, the performance improvements are going to be some of the biggest parts. Like you'll notice it day to day like most people will be like, hmm, I don't know, see it just seems to run better. But I think it's there's so many little things of late, like on my Apple Watch, like I'll get a notification and I'll tap the X and it doesn't go away.

And I tap the X and it doesn't go away. Now if I press the digital crown and bring it back and tap the X, it goes away. I'm like, Come on, can you just clear it, please? ⁓

Jeff Battersby (44:00)
Yeah, or or sending

messages with my watch. You know, I I find that suddenly you know, the the message that I thought I sent doesn't go. So yeah, I think

Tom Anderson (44:10)
Yeah, so I'm really excited

about that. I think the you know, we we called it the snow leopard update on the in the recap, and I think a lot of people are referring to that. ⁓ so I I'm I'm most excited about that. Now I think day to day, like with the the series AI things that they have shown us and from what early users are saying, it does sound like they've actually got this kind of figured out. And that's exciting. And I think that's stuff that's going to pop up, ⁓

you know, just in your day to day things there's gonna be these little surprise and delight things. I didn't know that would work that way now. And it removes some of the friction of we've as we've said before, of like, I need to, you know, I wanna schedule an event, but I need to let, you know, Jeff and Robin know when it is, plus you know, set up a you know, in shared note so that we can add ideas for the party or whatever it is. ⁓ so I think that's gonna be something that is really going to to be nice as well.

Jeff Battersby (44:43)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Sanah Kai (45:04)
True, and I do believe that more Apple users will be encouraged to use the Apple apps actually. You know, when you see the small pop-up ⁓ in your messages, that you can add the new reminders or add the new note to Apple nodes, they discover, hey, that can be actually quite useful. So I'm very curious how they improve that apps inside the Apple ecosystem start will ⁓ talk to each other. This is quite ⁓ and that

Tom Anderson (45:31)
Mm-hmm.

Robin Sanah Kai (45:33)
That will be actually useful ⁓ working across apps inside Apple ecosystem. So mail, calendar, ⁓ yeah, reminders, then plus notes, ⁓ everything works together.

Jeff Battersby (45:50)
Excellent. Well, Robin, we really are grateful that you took the time to come on with us. ⁓ w and appreciate your insights in, you know, with Apple's apps, particularly reminders, which you know, I confess is not something that ⁓ I mean I use reminders regularly, but I don't use it n probably in the way that it should or could be used. So really grateful for that. ⁓ if you could remind us where our listeners can find you.

Robin Sanah Kai (46:21)
So for Macusers.com, ⁓ this is my newsletter. ⁓ on threats ⁓ Robin Sanake, this is my channel ⁓ and

Jeff Battersby (46:35)
why don't you

spell that for us? 'Cause it's just so everybody has the the ability. I mean we'll have a link, but Okay. Great.

Robin Sanah Kai (46:40)
I will add the show notes maybe with all the links. and

then also ⁓ medium, that's my main writing. I share everything in the newsletter, so the most useful, the most valuable content I use ⁓ I share every Monday on my newsletter.

Jeff Battersby (46:50)
And it

Yeah. Great.

Tom Anderson (47:00)
Awesome.

Yeah, I highly recommend f follow on threads, subscribe to the newsletter if you're on Medium, find over there. I mean it's constantly publishing high quality content. ⁓ very little filler as they say. So high bang for the buck. Yeah, good stuff.

Robin Sanah Kai (47:16)
Thank you.

Jeff Battersby (47:19)
All right, Robin, thanks again. We really appreciate you coming on and ⁓ look forward to continuing to hear from you. ⁓ hopefully maybe after. ⁓ awesome. And ⁓ when when the operating system is out and most humans have the opportunity to use it, maybe we'll have you back on and ⁓ see what you've really loved about notes and reminders and all of Apple's built in apps. All right, as a reminder.

Robin Sanah Kai (47:27)
I really enjoyed.

Yes, sure.

Jeff Battersby (47:46)
You can get to us at feedback at basick show dot com. We are now accepting money from you if you're so inclined to give it to us. little subscription option if you go to basic afshow.com. So feel free to do that and you know, throw a couple pennies our way. ⁓ again, we do this for love, not for money. ⁓ we'd be happy to do it for money at some point in time. Tom, where w can we find you?

Tom Anderson (48:15)
Tomfanderson.com is the website. I've got a newsletter there as well. ⁓ threads is at Tom Anderson.

Jeff Battersby (48:24)
And I'm at Reyes Point anywhere that you can desire to find me. ⁓ I don't post a lot. I'm a stalker more than than I am a poster these days. ⁓ but you can find the occasional posts from me. show music as always, psychokinetic Celsius seven. Always grateful to them ⁓ for the banging music at the beginning of the show and highly recommend that you check them out.

And then ⁓ show artwork, Randall Martin design. That's it, Tom.

Tom Anderson (48:58)
All right. Thank you, Jeff. Robin, thank you again. Really appreciate you hanging out with us for a little while today. It was lot of fun. And ⁓ and again I'll remind folks, check the show notes since where all of his links will be. so we hope you enjoyed this episode. If someone you know would enjoy these types of conversations, share it. I'm sure they'd like to listen. We'd appreciate that as well. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever it is, ⁓ that

can do this if you want to give us a rating and or review we'd appreciate that too it helps more people discover the show helps it grow for that we'd be appreciative so thanks for being here until next time have a great rest of your day or your night

Jeff Battersby (49:34)
See ya.