Automating things

I’m upstate, away from home and office, and feeling very frazzled coz I depend on my cues to shift states. Without it, I get confused, forgetting:

1. That I should switch states
2. What to do to switch states

I am VERY GOOD at muscle memory, tho. So I decided to create some simple triggers to switch easily. I know I’ll eventually switch without my conscious decision, and that’s how I roll.

First, I’m on a mac and use:

1. alfred for well, everything. everything is just a ⌘-space away (I disable spotlight).
2. atext for global replacements. Like, any time (and anywhere) I type -go, replace it with whatever.

There are other options, like alfred built-in snippets, but it’s paid and it doesn’t accept variables. TextExpander is a good alternative but expensive, and frankly, atext does the job.

Settings

I enabled terminal integration on alfred, so typing > at the start of my query means “run it on terminal instead”

I also change “Prefer tabs when opening documents” as “Always” on system preferences > dock. (sublime text-specific info here)

First trigger: -work

typing >-work and hitting enter then opens all different tools that need my attention: my jira tickets, work inbox, work calendar, teams, figma.

open 'FIRSTURL'
open 'SECONDURL'
open 'THIRD URL'
open -a FIRSTAPP

I dunno exactly when to use `''` or not. If URL is simple, you shouldn't use it. If too complex, you should. It breaks either one way or another, so test first and stick with it.

Also, remember to leave a blank line. That ensures all your commands will run.

Second trigger: -social

Same thing, but opens mastodon, twitter, savee and secure scuttlebutt (with open -a Patchwork)

Third trigger: -todo

Set Up Sublime Text for Markdown and Jekyll

tags: #productivity #automation #exocortex