Automation April

We are one day away from the close of the second annual (🤞🏽) Automation April event, hosted by Federico Viticci and John Voorhees at MacStories. I know this because the inaugural Automation April event was part of my motivation for starting this blog! I had been wanting to have my own little corner of the internet to write about my interests, but I had talked myself into believing that I wouldn’t have enough to write about. But then Automation April came around and reminded me that I have a bunch of interests that are too nerdy to say outloud are perfect fodder for shouting into the void that is the internet. And for linking to when entering contests like Automation April! 😄

Unfortunately I didn’t finish launching this blog in time to enter the contest last year. But I did eventually write about the Shortcut that I wanted to submit. And now I’m happy to report that I have submitted not one but two entries into the 2023 Automation April contest:

1. Schedule a Message: Schedule a text message on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
2. Plan My Day (PMD): PMD is a personal assistant automation for pulling calendar events into your todo list to help you Get Things Done™

I had a ton of fun participating in this event. It’s exciting to see all the progress that’s been made around automation on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.¹ I suspect that Shortcuts is going to become an interesting entry point for the next generation of app developers², as it provides a low-code low barrier of entry to building surprisingly complex programs for some of the most popular computing platforms in the world!

Special thanks to Federico and John, the entire MacStories team, and the panel of guest judges for putting these events on. I’m looking forward to trying out all of the winning Shortcuts!