A new video is here 🙂 As promised in my last video about using Craft Docs as a task manager, this week I talk about my favourite shortcuts that I use with Craft Docs to work faster and more efficiently.
Here are the shortcuts I discuss in this video:
Faster workflows
Shortcut 1: Create your own widget for Craft Docs
Craft offers a widget that you can place on your home screen to quickly access documents. But I am not a big fan of this widget — it’s too big and too bright on my dark background.
It’s easy to create your own widget using Shortcut App, and in the video I show you step by step how to create it and add it to your home-screen.
I prefer my “homemade” widgets because they give me more flexibility — not only in terms of their appearance, but also in terms of their functions.
Shortcut 2: Find Craft documents faster
Craft has a great internal search feature, but did you know you can also use the search feature on your iPad and iPhone to access documents directly? Swipe down on the home-screen to bring up search, then simply search for the name of your Craft document.
If you have a keyboard connected, it’s even easier. You can press “CMD + Space Bar” anywhere to quickly open the search.
Shortcut 3: Use deep-links to quickly access other apps and documents from Craft Docs
I take many handwritten notes, and even though Craft’s scribble feature is great for short notes, I usually need more space. Usually, my app of choice for my handwritten notes is Noteshelf, but lately, I have been using Goodnotes more and more.
The advantage of Goodnotes is that they allow you to share links. I use these links to quickly access documents.
And since I am terrible at remembering things, and it would be impossible for me to remember a cryptic link like this, I use the “Text Replacement” feature to quickly create shortcodes. Instead of remembering the full URL, I just have to remember a prompt of my choice.
Craft Docs as a task manager
A week ago, I posted a video talking about how I use Craft Docs as a task manager. Yeah, I was surprised too.
I have always been a big fan of keeping my notes and my tasks separate.
In this video, I show my exact workflow, how I use Craft to keep on top of my tasks, and show a few shortcuts I created to speed up my process.
Shortcut 4: Daily / Weekly Planning Shortcuts
I use this shortcut to quickly access all the information I need for my planning.
It opens the documents I need in Craft, creates a split view with my calendar, and opens Todoist (with a shared to-do list) as a slide over. It’s also possible to add additional apps to the slide overs.
The shortcut looks like this:
Please watch my video if you need a step-by-step instruction on how to set them up.
Download the shortcut here (iCloud link) – Important: If you import a shortcut for the first time, you need to allow that in the Settings App. Find the shortcuts App there and give it the permission to add unknown Shortcuts. Also, I already upgraded to ios15 and created the shortcuts there, so depending on your version, you may need to tweak the shortcuts.
If you want to know how I use these shortcuts for my task management in Craft, have a look at this video.
Shortcut 5: Task Input into Craft Docs Shortcut
Task management can only be successful if there is a way to quickly add my tasks. Opening an app, searching for the right page, and then typing in my tasks is just not an option for me. It would take too much time to enter my tasks, then I’d think I’d do it later and then… I forget. 😉 With this shortcut, I can quickly enter my tasks and, what I like most, I can already sort them into the right lists. It asks me if the task is urgent or not, and then adds it to the document in Craft that I specified in the shortcut.
Please watch my video if you need step-by-step instructions on how to set it up. The shortcut looks like this:
Download the shortcut here (iCloud link) – Important: If you import a shortcut for the first time, you need to allow that in the Settings App. Find the shortcuts App there and give it the permission to add unknown Shortcuts. Also, I already upgraded to ios15 and created the shortcuts there, so depending on your version, you may need to tweak the shortcuts.
(Update 21. September 21) Shortcut to create templates & migrate daily tasks in Craft Docs
I created another shortcut to help me move my unfinished tasks to the next day. Also, the shortcut creates a template that automatically adds the headers I use and my daily habits as uncompleted tasks.
Download this shortcut here (iCloud link) – There seems to be a bug at the moment… If you click on the link and it takes you to the Shortcuts app, there may be an error. If that is the case, open the link in Safari and it should work.
