Hello, fellow tinkerer 👋

Happy Wednesday. This week, I'm sharing a few actual, real-life annoying problems I have solved.

On the Product Tip, specifically, I'm debating the value of writing up a tutorial for my tutorials site. It feels pretty specific to me, but maybe I'm wrong.

If you read that and go "Omg, I need this also" can you reply and let me know? If I get a few replies, I'll know that it's useful for other people and write up the tutorial. 😁

1) Reflection:

Yesterday, I scanned the QR code on a flyer to sign my 8-year-old daughter up for the PTA-sponsored school science fair. The code went to a Google Form, which was closed for new submissions. Our family has participated in the school science fair since its inception in 2017, and I've never had this problem before.

I emailed the PTA president about it. I got a rather snarky response that the deadline to register had passed, and multiple emails had been sent home about it. I'd missed the deadline by one day. (They let me register my daughter, so all is well.)

The problem with the school emails is that the content isn't in the body of the email itself. The school uses an external website to manage its newsletter content. Only the link to the newsletter is included in the email. And I have kids in three different schools, each with its own link.

Yes, I should have clicked on the link. But between the volume of emails I get from the school and the fact that I can't search the content at all ("school science fair" in Gmail turns up nothing), this is an ongoing battle I have to fight. Stuff gets missed.

2) Product

After the science fair incident, I decided to solve my problem with Claude CoWork. CoWork operates as a desktop app, but has the ability to use Claude in Chrome to browse the web. So I set up a process to grab the URL of the newsletter link, open the web page, scan the content of the email, and then send me a weekly digest from all three schools.

I even trained Claude on what to ignore. For example, none of my kids are in sports, so I don't need any tryouts or game-related announcements. I also told Claude my kids' grades, so if there is an announcement specific to 6th grades, I don't have a 6th grader so I don't need that info. You can see what it looks like here.

This is the problem that feels specific to me, specifically because my school district puts the content of newsletters in external links. However, if this would be helpful to you, can you reply and let me know?

You can read about how I keep my workspace safe with Claude CoWork here.

3) Tip

Another annoying problem I have: people in this house keep taking scissors. Or permanent markers. I'd need one or the other and couldn't find them. And I swear we have about 10 pairs of scissors and 800 permanent markers.

Finally solved this problem by attaching scissors and permanent markers to looooong pieces of string and duct-taping them to a pencil holder in the kitchen. You want to use it. Fine. But they don't go anywhere.

Want more ideas?

→ It's tax time in the U.S.! (groan) I wrote about financial management tools for solpreneurs. And stay tuned, because I'm hosting a free live session with a tax expert at the end of April!
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→ I wrote about how companies are using the excuse of AI to conduct layoffs they would have done anyway here.

That's it for this issue of Tinkering! See you again in two weeks.

Cheers,
Anna

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