I have Keyboard Maestro, Alfred, Automator, Better Touch Tool, uBar, and a number of Preferences in apps which create automations.
Have you any suggestions for a process or workflow which I could follow to simplify this mess. Say I have about twenty automations in each app. Where do i begin?
For example there is a process I set up, SOMEWHERE, SOMETIME using SOME AUTOMATION, which creates an iThoughts file called “Quick Thoughts.itmz” several times a day. When I started a new iMac the behaviour started up having previously stopped.
It is my fault for having set up an automation somewhere. Hence my desire to simplify.
Any suggestions on the big picture issue? Any help appreciated.
It’s for this reason that I basically just use Alfred and Hazel, together with a directory where all my actual scripts reside. BTT controls the TouchBar but any buttons call Alfred workflows or scripts that are also called by Alfred. I’ve looked at Keyboard Maestro a few times but never seen anything compelling enough to invest time in setting it up.
My advice would be to get the scripts out of the individual apps and into separate files that you can call from each.
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I would suggest briefly documenting the 20 or so automation you have in each app. Once you know what you have, you can safely begin prising things apart, such as centralising any scripts as @dfay suggested, rationalising your triggers, and generally coming up with a strategy that you could jot down on the back of an envelope as to what sorts of things are triggered how, and what may then trigger or process subsequently.
Hopefully that process would let you condense your usage to something you find more manageable.
Just remember, you can’t manage what you don’t know about. Logically the first step really should be to make sure that you know exactly what you have (tools, triggers, automation, outputs, etc.) through a quick audit. It will pay dividends and is a standard initial step for business scenarios that present the same sort of underlying issues as you describe.
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