Kraft paper gift box containing a roll of black gaff tape, coiled bright green 550 paracord, and bamboo Bongo Ties with elastic loops on a wooden surface

I was on MacVoices this week as part of their annual Holiday Gift Guide series. Chuck Joiner and I talked through some of my favorite gift recommendations for the Mac users/Explorers in your life.

The episodes also feature recommendations from Bart Busschots and Kirschen Seah, so check out the full conversation for their gift ideas. You can watch the full conversation here:

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Feeding pigeons in Venice's St. Mark's Square during the 2007 Italy trip, with the Basilica and Campanile visible in the background

In the summer of 2007, my girlfriend (now wife) and I went on a Globus bus tour through Italy. You know the type: the bus drops you off at a museum, you wear an earpiece while the tour guide talks into their microphone and holds a little stick in the air so you can follow them around, then back on the bus to a restaurant; back on the bus to a hotel; back on the bus and back on the road.

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Person at desk with laptop, leaning back comfortably while speaking, hands gesturing naturally away from keyboard in a bright home office workspace

I’m so bad at spelling that I’m actually better at grammar; using a semicolon is easier than remembering whether I comes before E. As a result of my terrible spelling and tendency to avoid frustration, I’ve been trying to dictate my writing since middle school. If you’ve ever wondered how many children gleefully received Dragon Naturally Speaking as a Christmas gift, the answer is at least one. But regardless of how much I read to my computer, it wasn’t until this year that I finally found the dictation experience I’ve been searching for.

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Stack of task cards on the left flowing into a calendar grid on the right, with one task card placed on each consecutive day, illustrating sequential daily task distribution

I have some pretty good systems for capturing action items; maybe they are too good. Pair that with the fact that no matter how solid my weekly review feels, it’s easy to skip the next one. Pretty quickly, the inputs outpace the outputs, and like the second page of Google search results, there are corners of my Things database I haven’t seen in quite some time.

To address those quiet corners, I’ve spent time working on an automation that puts tasks in front of me every day. While Claude and Gemini both helped me refine this script, what I’m sharing with you today is straight AppleScript; there is no AI required to run it.

So strap in and let me show you my latest creation.

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