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- Jul 13, 2018
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In an effort to improve my productivity and reduce distractions (after listening to *'Deep Work'* by Cal Newport on Audible), I decided to automatically launch and close email and IM apps on my Mac at certain times of day, allowing me to focus on productive work the rest of the time. I cobbled together 2 apple-scripts that work fine from the Terminal:
NB: I had already assigned Outlook, Slack and Skype to their own desktops.
-------
What I wanted to do was open them 3 times a day on weekdays only, so I created the following plist files for launchd.
NB: I tried this with hard-coded username in the file paths and the $USER system variable.
-------
I amended the permissions on the scripts and loaded the plist files via terminal as follows:
-------
As many might expect, this hasn't worked and when I try to start the scheduled tasks manually:
Nothing happens.
Can anyone out there (with more than my <1 days experience with apple-script and launchd), please advise how to get this to work?
Code:
# Open messaging & comms apps.
tell application "Microsoft Outlook.app"
if not (exists window 1) then activate
end tell
tell application "Slack.app"
if not (exists window 2) then launch
end tell
tell application "Skype.app"
launch
end tellNB: I had already assigned Outlook, Slack and Skype to their own desktops.
-------
What I wanted to do was open them 3 times a day on weekdays only, so I created the following plist files for launchd.
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Disabled</key>
<false/>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.open.comms.apps</string>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<false/>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>Program</key>
<string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>osascript</string>
<string>/Users/$USER/Documents/dev/apple_scripts/open_comms_apps.scpt</string>
</array>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>9</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>13</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>16</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>30</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>9</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>13</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>16</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>30</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>3</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>9</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>3</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>13</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>3</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>16</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>30</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>4</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>9</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>4</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>13</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>4</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>16</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>30</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>5</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>9</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>5</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>13</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Weekday</key>
<integer>5</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>16</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>30</integer>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>NB: I tried this with hard-coded username in the file paths and the $USER system variable.
-------
I amended the permissions on the scripts and loaded the plist files via terminal as follows:
Code:
chmod 755 /Users/$USER/Documents/dev/apple_scripts/open_comms_apps.scpt
launchctl load -w /Users/$USER/Library/LaunchAgents/com.open.comms.apps.plist-------
As many might expect, this hasn't worked and when I try to start the scheduled tasks manually:
Code:
launchctl start /Users/$USER/Library/LaunchAgents/com.open.comms.apps.plistNothing happens.
Can anyone out there (with more than my <1 days experience with apple-script and launchd), please advise how to get this to work?
