Hello welcome back to another video it is Francesco here today
We are bringing in an expert were bringing Christopher Lawley who does some awesome videos here on YouTube
dedicated to arrange for applications
I actually discovered him first through his awesome agenda video and he talked about this Mac and iOS
Application called agenda which we reviewed here on the channel before and he goes into how he uses it in his own workflow
Now in today's video he's actually going to be diving into all of the apps. He uses in his workflow
So hopefully you guys can go away with a bit of an insight into how a functioning workflow works
So I'm really excited as you thank to you to Christopher coming on the channel today
I've done a video on his channel about beginner's guide to
notion, so you guys can sort of dive into that if you're interested in that application and if you guys a bit of a break
For me today, I will see you guys in the next video
But without further ado a huge thanks of Chris for coming on and here is his guide and useful resources
Hey guys, I'm Christopher Lawley. I'm a youtuber and a podcaster and I work 100% from the iPad now
I know what you're thinking why I've worked for mac OS and Windows for a long time before and
Well those work honestly
I just really enjoy working from the iPad the app ecosystem
The portability the convenience I can take my work wherever I want and it just works great. I don't ever have to worry about
audio driver issues or some
Process or something stopping on me and you know having to sit there and troubleshoot my computer while I should be working in
certain areas
Yeah, I probably would be working faster on a Mac or a PC, but honestly
There's just something freeing about being able to pick up my iPad and go anywhere
I want my pet of choice is the second-generation 12 point 9 inch iPad pro
512 gig
About the first generation one when it came out and while it was completely great
The second generation one is leagues faster and has a much improved screen
Both of those specs are huge for somebody that's editing
4k video rate on his iPad everyone with the 512 gig model because they never wanted to run out of space again
This is pretty important for somebody that it's video regularly, though
The twelve point nine inch model of the iPad pro is very large and heavy compared to the ten five
I like having the extra screen space for a photo video and audio editing
Keyboards are her rough area for anybody that works on the iPad
depending on your needs it can be a wide variety of
Keyboards to pick from you can use a Bluetooth keyboard or a wired keyboard, of course
There's the smart connector keyboards for the iPad pros. I haven't just found one keyboard that I like to use at all
That's why I used to the smart connector keyboard is the keyboard
I use everywhere outside of my home office
When I take my iPad to coffee shops or my day job or even to the lake
This is the keyboard I bring with me
I like this keyboard because of how easy it is just to fold up and put away
it's really fast and really simple the twelve point nine inch iPad pro is heavy enough as it is and
adding the extra weight of a bulky keyboard case isn't something I want to deal with the smart connector gives the added bonus of not
Needing a battery and no Bluetooth keyboards lasts a really long time
But it's one less thing to remember to charge before a trip
Key feel is really important to me and though this could have slightly better travel
I still feel it's leagues beyond some other keyboards
When I press a key down the whole key feels like one solid piece unlike a lot of other iPad keyboards the smart connected keyboard
Understands the importance of having the keyboard close to the screen
This makes it really easy to reach up and tap on something when you're writing for working at my desk
I've always enjoyed using mechanical keyboards. They're definitely not practical to travel with though
I love the sound and feedback and mechanical keyboard has it's probably all in my head
But I feel like I'm a much better typer when you're using a mechanical keyboard
My mechanical keyboard of choice is the code mechanical keyboard with the Cherry MX blue switches
I
Like the design of this keyboard and since I do a lot of videos about the iPad having something aesthetically pleasing is a huge plus
As media Keys built-in so I can control playback and volume of audio
It also has backlighting as well, which looks beautiful to connect a USB keyboard to the iPad
All you really need is the USB camera connection kit by Apple
I've gone through a lot of different keyboard stance and a bunch of other accessories to get my desk. Where is today?
And I'm really happy with it. The last major accessory I use is the Apple pencil
Honestly, I'm no artist I can't even draw a stick figure but I use it for navigation
I have some RSI issues and I found the Apple pencil helps with that a lot with the Apple pencil
I can change up the way I'm working on my iPad
So my hands aren't always in the same position thus helping with any RSI related pains
The Apple pencil is a big tool for me when editing video or podcasts
Also, I use the pencil for scrubbing through timelines and making edits. This is a really fast way of editing both audio and video
I also use the Apple pencil to mark up my scripts. I export the script
I'm working on into good notes and I'll sit down with the Apple pencil and write out any changes that need to happen to it
I think the Apple pencil is one of the best accessories for anyone with an iPad to have even if you're not an artist
Things theory is my task manager of choice right now, and I'd be lost without it
I've jumped around from a bunch of different task managers on iOS
including to do to do us do
Clear and so many more but there's a ton of different things that make me really excited to use things like it's beautiful design amazing
Keyboard shortcuts great automation and simple UX a lot of task managers fall down because they make themselves way too complicated
But things definitely avoids that as far as how I use things when I want to add a task
I just add it to the end box. Everything gets dumped in there then every morning and afternoon
I open up things at one point and then I just take a look to see what I've added
I will quickly sort through everything assigning dates to tasks. I'll try and stick to the dates as much as possible
But if something comes up or if I get an idea for a project
I really want to work on I become a little bit more flexible
My goal is to complete about 3 to 5 tasks every single day with things 3, there's an amazing keyboard shortcuts
You can quickly add an edit task
I can mark tasks and complete and even move them around from different
Projects or two dates all without ever taking my hands off the keyboard. This app has one of the best
Implementations for keyboard shortcuts on the iPad I'll talk more about this in a minute
But automation is very important to the way. I work. I often come up with ideas for new videos
So I have a workflow. That won't run
Prompt me for the idea and then build out a checklist of items that I need to do to complete that video
I also have workflows that take url's and save them to the inbox so I can check them out later
When I run this workflow will ask me what I want to tag the URL also
so I can kind of remind myself what this is for whether I wanted to make like a link blog post or
Read the article later. I have another one that quickly creates a new tasks
It'll ask me when it's due or what project it belongs to as well
This is great
If you get easily overwhelmed looking at your task manager
And you just want to quickly enter something without seeing what's going on at that moment
I've built a few of these workflows that really help speed up my process of
Dealing with tasks and it allows me to stay focus on creating videos and podcasts
I also like the idea of areas and things I have one for general life stuff like shopping and things I want to learn and
Then I also have one for projects so video blog posts and podcast projects
Most of the tests that are in these projects are just ideas for things I want to do in the future
But when I'm ready to work on them, I'll sign a start date to them
So they'll be in the today or the upcoming areas
I like things a lot
And I know it's a bit pricey to get in the door
But the developers are always updating the app and it really is a great app
The attendant use case of agenda just doesn't really work for me
My brain just doesn't get the whole pseudo note-taking calendar thing
But it's such a beautiful app and well built - I wanted to figure out a way to use it
Before I found the app, I was taking handwritten notes on my projects. They would often get lost or my handwriting was so bad
I couldn't even read them
So after I was experimenting a little bit
I found agenda fits really well in my workflow as kind of a scratch pad for taking notes on projects
Each project gets its own section like a piece of paper and then I put categories for each thing that I'm doing on that page
This could be something I want to cover in a script or a specific shot
I want to capture notes on color correction or even a topic. I want to cover as
I'm working on a project
I often have agenda in split view or slide over it this way. I can take quick notes about a project
I really like how this works for me
It allows me to have my ideas up for my scripts while I'm writing my script in drafts 5
Speaking of dress 5 is the next major app. I use I do all my writing in drafts
This can includes quick simple notes blog posts show notes scripts basically anything I write goes here
There are two big things that attract me to drafts first the organization
Drafts works on the idea of workspaces. These are areas that contain your drafts
I have six of these areas all four different kinds of text files
How it works is these workspaces are based on either tags or searches
So text within the draft you can even choose how all the drafts are displayed within the workspace
All of my workspaces are based on tags
so if I'm working on a blog post
I'll tag it with blog posts and then it'll be in the blog post workspace as somebody that has to be very
Organized this level of care allows me to put all my text documents in one place without feeling like there's just too much stuff
in this app
The second thing that drew me to drafts was the ability to run actions actions are these custom scripts that are written within drafts?
Drafts comes with some actions pre-installed or you can even make them yourselves if you like
If you don't feel comfortable making your own actions, there's an online directory of actions that can be downloaded
I use the actions to quickly do something with my text and the something has endless
Possibilities some are as simple as creating checklists and things or creating a new calendar entry in fantastical others
Like my script export action are a bit more complex
this action actually uses JavaScript to make the font bigger and add some spacing this will then trigger a
Workflow to create a PDF document out of the markdown text and then it'll open in goodnotes
This is how I mark up my scripts like I mentioned before
My favorite action will take the draft that I'm currently working on asked me to name it
Save it as a plain text file and then ask me where I want to save it in the files app
There's so much you can do with drafts and I'm only scratching the surface
like I mentioned earlier automation is very important to the way I work and
Workflow is the backbone of how I'm able to work off of iOS for those that don't know workflow
Is this kind of custom automation utility that allows you to make automation scripts within it with these block actions?
They can be as simple as saving a file or as complex as downloading a video from YouTube and my current count
I have 49 different actions and that's after I just cleaned up a bunch. I use workflow to automate a lot of my work
I never want to do the same task more than a couple of times
They can hook up with some two maps like files, but they also work with a ton of third-party apps
workflow also supports a whole bunch of scripting options including x-callback URL
Support so you can really get into the weeds and build some really crazy
Automation stuff whenever I shared links to a new video or blog post or even a podcast that's done using
Workflow as you can see there is a lot of utility to this app
There's so much that can be automated through workflow and I can't stress how important it is for anyone that works on iOS
I don't think I'd be able to work off the iPad as effectively if it wasn't for workflow
Looma fusion was the last step. I needed to completely work off my iPad
It's a multitrack video editor that has a ton of awesome Pro features
For well over a year now every single one of my videos has been edited using this application
You can color correct adjust audio framing use effects
Anything you would expect in a professional video editor is here
It supports up to 3
4k video tracks with audio and three additional audio tracks
The app also has support for key framing so you can do simple animation stuff and custom effects as well
The app is constantly getting updates and it's massively improved from where it was. Just a year ago
This is hands-down my favorite and most important app on the iPad
That's kind of it for the big productivity apps that I use
I wanted to cover some utilities that I find really helped me with my work you Inc is a shelf app
This is meant to be a temporary storage area for files images links. Whatever
It's sort of like having a desktop on a Mac or a PC
This isn't supposed to be the final stop for these files
But if you're working with something, this is a handy place to store them temporarily
The best way to work with joint is to use drag-and-drop quickly moving files in and out of the application
I use this a lot for photos
I want to edit an affinity photo or links that I need to save for the descriptions of videos
This isn't stuff that I want to permanently have in the files app. This is just stuff I need for a short period
Speaking of the files up something that bugged me when it was first released was that I couldn't create a folder to save files
Locally on my iPad I could only save them in cloud services or in folders created by other applications
Then I heard of an app called local storage. This creates a folder in D on my
I pad section of the files and allows you to save stuff a locally to the disk
This is great for working with large video files
So you don't have to wait for them to upload or download there is a trick to this application when you first download it
Nothing will be in the files app including the folder
so open up photos or some app that you can export a file out of
Select the save to file in the share sheet and then pick the local storage under the on my iPad section
This will then save that file
Into the local storage folder on the iPod my iPad section and then you can create subfolders within that folder now
After that, you can drag and drop or use the share sheet or even use a workflow to save files there
I have ADHD and sitting down and writing for a long period of time can be hard for me
I have to have some noise going on but music can sometimes be really distracting
There are a ton of noise applications on the App Store
But noise EO is my favorite what I like about this is how you can mix sounds and make your own scenes
It's great way to mix things up
So you aren't listening to the same ocean sounds over and over you could turn up the volume for a specific track as well
And it'll also intensify that sound you can save your scene so you can quickly pull up a list of your favorites
For anyone that has a hard time focusing. I recommend looking into a noise app
So I know I just recommended noise EO and noisy o is a fantastic application
I absolutely love it and I use it every single day. It's a great application
But as I'm putting together this video right now
I just found another noise app called tide and tide is based on the system of
notifications and timers and
I'll go into the specifics in just a little bit but it's not really a recommendation because I haven't really spent a whole day with
The application yet?
But it's a really cool app. It's free. So there's not really anything to lose so go check it out
Like I mentioned Taita is another noise app, but this one is built around timers and notifications
The sounds aren't anything super special. You can't combine them like in noisy. Oh, but we're grab
My attention is when you started it automatically runs a timer and of course you can change the length
Every time you complete a set you get a focus point and if you're like me you need those arbitrary
Focus points you can also turn on immersive mode
So if you leave an app it'll send you a push notification telling you to come back or you'll lose the point
This has kept me from using Twitter while I should be writing a playtime's already
There's a lot more to this app
But I'll go into it in a later date a lot more after I spent some time with it
it's a brief overview about how I work on my iPad if
You're interested in there's still a lot more to talk about
You could check out my channel where I have a bunch of videos on iPad productivity and iOS productivity
There should be links in the description below
if not
you can go to the untitled site calm and all my projects are there including my youtube channel and my
Podcast if you guys have any questions, you can find me on twitter at chris underscore Lalli
That's la wle why thank you guys so much for watching and have a great day