We’re having our first hot week here in Chilliwack which has exposed the problem in my office of getting sun all day. Starting around 9am – 7pm I’ve got sun streaming in my window which makes the office pretty hot.

The other big change this week has to do with adding more RAM to my Mac Mini. For $240 (Canadian) I was able to get 32GB of RAM. That same upgrade would have cost me $720 from Apple. By the time I got the big iFixIt toolkit and taxes were paid it cost me $350, which is still an incredible savings over what Apple charges.

If you’ve found my content helpful then new in 2019 I’ve opened up a Patreon page. You can help ensure that more helpful content keeps coming.

I Shipped

Monday I took you along with my family to a day of paddling with Western Canoeing and Kayaking on a local lake. Cynthia and I have spent lots of time on the water in canoes and kayaks and it’s lots of fun to share this with our kids.

Wednesday I walked you through Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. There is a video and audio and written version of this review so go get your fill in whatever format suits.

Just after last week’s email my post on The Best WooCommerce Plugins to Increase Sales published on Liquid Web. I walked through some awesome plugins and why they stand out from the crowd of plugins out there.

Friday Five

1. Ben Brooks on getting started with an iPad

Ben has a good guide on using an iPad Pro as your only computer. I’ve been iPad first for a while now and have General;y been very happy.

He talks about not using Dropbox or Google Drive with an iPad Pro and I can concur, mostly. The problem with iCloud is that if you have a Mac around as a server like I do then you may be limited on how much you can actually store in there.

Unlike Dropbox iCloud doesn’t allow any selective sync on your Mac. So I have a 512GB which means I can only store 512GB of files on iCloud. That may seem like a lot, but I’m doing more and more video stuff so it’s really not that much. iCloud needs offline only folders on macOS.

The second reason that Dropbox seems to be a poor choice is that it seems to eat your storage. I have had an 800gb System storage report in iOS, and I’m not the only one to have this problem. Where many others found that they had to wipe their iPad a recent update to iOS showed me that Dropbox had 1.4TB of storage on my device.

No there is no iOS device that has that much storage but it at least let me know that Dropbox was likely the problem to an overflowing system storage number. Sure enough removing Dropbox from my iPad took me from 900GB used to 100GB used.

If you have a huge system storage report in iOS and use Dropbox, remove it and see what happens.

2. Justin Jackson says it’s better to wait

I liked this post from Justin. I keep a list of cool ideas in my Bullet Journal and only work on ones that have been vetted a few times. They’ve moved journals, and been looked at and after months of still itching about it.

3. You Research the Competition, but Not the Toll on Your Marriage

From For Better or For Work:

When people start companies, they research the competition, market data, SBA loans, and the cost of office space. But they generally give little thought to how a business will affect their personal lives. The entrepreneur and his spouse assume they’re muddle through for the “year or two” it takes the company to gain traction.

Many companies, and freelancers, spend their entire lives “muddling through” and their marriages pay the price. That’s what breaks my heart and what I want to help.

If you’re in a spot where business is okay, but you can see the toll it’s taking on your marriage and family, that is the place I coach entrepreneurs out of. Shoot me an email to talk: curtis@curtismchale.ca

4. Email for those that hate email

If you hate email, Mike Schmitz has a new free course for you. I’m going through his Faith Based Productivity Course now, and it’s quite good. You should get it now while it’s discounted because it’s absolutely worth it.

5. Which App for Notes, and which one for Writing?

If you’ve been wondering what app works best for note-taking, writing and research then I’ve spent some time looking at that over at The Sweet Setup. I work through Ulysses, Apple Notes and Bear.

2 responses to “Freelance Friday 054 – May 10 2019”

  1. Tony D Avatar
    Tony D

    If you don’t have some UV Film on your windows yet try that out. Basically it’s Clear Window Tint that blocks the UV rays and reduces the heat. It can help a lot. Ceiling fan makes a big diff too.

    1. Curtis McHale Avatar
      Curtis McHale

      I haven’t heard of that, but I’ll be looking into it now.