THE MACSPARKY DISPATCH

Hi Friend,

I recently did a quarterly planning session with some of the MacSparky Labs members. I do that every quarter and find it really rewarding. It gives us a bit of a personal accountability circle. During the session, I started talking about the importance of quarterly review.

Now I know, reading this, you're thinking that the new year is just around the corner. If you're going to start thinking about planning and priorities, that seems like the ideal time to do it.

But think back to whatever you did this past January. Is it still on your mind? It likely isn't, because January is a very poor boss of October.

I'm a big fan of quarterly planning. I think, as humans, we respond much better to a three-month plan than a year-long plan. It gives you a sense of renewal every three months, along with real, actionable feedback loops. Quarterly reviews give you a scheduled chance to make adjustments.

I've been working a lot lately on my health, but that isn't a thing you can fix with one January resolution. In Q1, I was more focused on better eating habits and losing weight. In Q4, I'm thinking a lot more about how to gain more muscle and become more fit. Revisiting it quarterly lets me change the area of focus.

Annual planning gives your goals a lot of hiding places to disappear. Ninety days is much more concrete. You can pick a few things where you can actually move the needle and make progress.

I've got a lot more thoughts on this that I cover in the Productivity Field Guide, but here we are at the beginning of Q4. My advice to you is to start now. Don't wait until January 1 to try to get serious about what's important to you.

Figure out a few things today that you can do in the next 90 days and get to work.

Your pal,
David

This Week in the MacSparky-Verse

Here's what ran at MacSparky.com this week.

• ​Apps Adding Siri AI Support for iOS 27 looks at how third-party apps are putting the new Siri to work.
• ​Mike Vardy's New Book, Productiveness asks whether our work amounts to something beyond getting more done.
• ​Rogue Amoeba Turns 24 (and 24% Off) celebrates the Mac audio tools I use every day with a birthday sale.
• On Mac Power Users 868, Tyler Stalman joins Stephen and me to dig into the iPhone 18 Pro's cameras.

In the MacSparky Labs, we covered a lot:

• I posted the home server Deep Dive recording and the quarterly Q&A video and podcast.
• I wrote a guide to setting up your Apple Legacy Contact.
• I made a Keyboard Maestro video on jumping to websites and folders and copying files with conflict palettes.
• We got together for our Q4 planning meetup.
• I published The Lab Report podcast on iPhone fixes, Final Cut Camera, and Freeform folders.

Next week, we're getting together for the October Labs meetup.

That was a single week, and the Labs run like this every week. If that sounds like your kind of place, come join us.

Put the next 12 weeks to work with Shortform

This week's newsletter is sponsored by Shortform.

If this week's piece got you thinking about shorter planning cycles, Shortform has a guide to The 12 Week Year. The book explores how working in 12-week cycles can help you turn long-term goals into things you can actually get done.

You could ask ChatGPT for a quick summary of the book. Shortform gives you more to work with. It's the difference between talking to someone who's heard about the book vs. someone who's actually read and thought about it. Its guide breaks down the ideas chapter by chapter and adds analysis and exercises to help you apply them. One exercise asks you to write out your vision and the steps needed to get there. That's useful when you're sitting down to figure out what deserves your attention this quarter.

Knowing the premise of a book is a start. Working through how it applies to your own life is where it becomes useful.

The current offer is 49% off the annual plan. Sign up for free through my link and you'll get a discount. Pick one. Give it fifteen minutes.