Finding curiosity and focus. Onwards, 2022.
Issue 8: Tools that are helping me find focus in 2022 & HyperCard OS - a newly released template for Notion
Howdy friends,
First off, happy new year! I do have to apologize for my — ironically — inconsistency over the last few weeks. As 2021 came to a close, I felt a tug-of-war between many conflicting priorities and while I had drafted something for the original Issue 8, I still don’t think I’m ready to publish that one quite yet. (Spoiler alert: it’s about creative communities and it felt impossible to talk about that without addressing emerging themes in Web3 and DAO, all things that I’m still taking time to learn more about and don’t feel confident enough to address.)
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An unintended theme for me at the tail end of 2021 (and part of the reason why I couldn’t get myself to send out an early iteration of this newsletter) was related to being overwhelmed. And yes, I’ve created systems to manage some of this chaos but as I’m sure a lot of you will empathize with, it’s almost impossible to not distract yourself with the next article to read, the next tweet in a thread, and be sucked into “rabbit holes” as I had so delightfully declared my love for in the last issue. Especially in researching around the topic of creative communities, I was mindlessly adding articles into my Read Later pile without actually processing much at all.
In an effort to calm the storm, in the third week of December 2021, I deleted Twitter & Instagram off of my phone. (read: I didn’t actually delete my accounts and once in awhile, I do find myself reaching for my phone and checking some things on my mobile Safari browser but the snail speed and clunky UI generally deters me from staying on too long.)
Moving into the new year, one of the biggest themes for me in 2022 is focus. I am the first to admit that this has been super difficult for me and as I tend to both my digital and IRL spaces, I’ll be reporting on what works and what doesn’t. One of the first things is that I’m giving myself more breathing room and will be publishing this newsletter once every two weeks instead. It takes an incredibly long time to compile every issue and if I tallied the hours spent over the last two months, you would simply laugh. But that’s neither here nor there. I love this process and I want to give myself more space to do it, especially as I’m hoping to dive deeper (i.e. focus) on topics this year that might require some more reading, research and introspection.
Another big theme of the year is curiosity (and unlike the popular saying, it shan’t and won’t kill the kitty)! In the last year, being curious and having an open mind has led to wonderful connections and creations (like this very one you’re reading).
And in keeping with this two themes in tandem, I’m curious about what you are doing to find focus. What are your daily practices? What tools are you using? To satiate your curiosity, here are a few tools & practices on rotation that I thought I’d share with y’all:
Notion: (pauses for gasps) every few months, I find myself caught in a love/hate swirl of emotions for the tool. Does it fit what I need it to do or is it just stifling my creativity? Why is it taking 5 seconds to load this database? Why does no one just get it?
I’m finally coming to terms that while Notion is the best tool out there for a lot of things, it’s not the best tool for everything, and that’s ok.
Bear: I’ve used Bear for over 4+ years and while I took a quick hiatus as I switched a lot of daily things into Notion, I recently took the bear out of hibernation. I’ve been been using it as a great way to jot down on-the-fly notes and off-the-cuff to-do lists. While I still haven’t found the perfect divide between Bear and Notion but I’m trying to not let that dictate the actual act of thinking + creating. Bear, to my greatest joy, is so incredibly fast. I even have a shortcut on my Apple Watch that lets me leave speech → text notes on Bear.
Muse App: I’m really excited for what the team at Muse is building and over the holiday, I got a chance to beta test the Mac app. I’m hoping to write an in-depth post about this in an upcoming issue but I’m still trying to put into words what it feels like to think + create on a computer vs. an iPad — more to come!
Are.na: I briefly mentioned Are.na in the last issue and given this is a yearly roundup, this list wouldn’t feel whole without a mention of this again. And what I can’t put into words, the are.na team can:
We don't have likes, follower counts, or recommendations either. We're not trying to profit from our members' popularity or drive traffic to certain kinds of content and away from others. We simply believe in carving out a more mindful space on the web where you can think clearly and learn with other people. (—here)
iOS widgets: the real estate on your home screen is expensive and slowly but surely, I’m learning to use it wisely. Whatever I can do to shrink the time between 🧠 to paper is what is being prioritized here. I’ve also recently removed email & slack from the main page so that it takes just a little bit more effort to open them up.
Sleep Schedule + focus mode on iOS: this is something I discovered by happenstance when upgrading my phone this year. By setting a “bedtime” and “wake up” time, your phone will automatically turn off notifications two hours before your listed bedtime. While I have no quantitative evidence to support this, I am all the calmer because of this.
Crosswords: If you are at all interested in wordplay and need a distractingly healthy app on rotation, I can’t recommend this enough. It’s the equivalent of taking a smoke break for your mind.
Calling people (instead of texting): My partner is perplexed when my first instinct is to hit the 📞 button instead of replying to a message. I grew up in the 90s and I LOVED calling people. Mostly, it saves so much time and is a nostalgic respite from the screen.
Other tools I’ll be investing time in exploring:
Voiceliner by Max Krieger: I haven’t had too much time to give this a spin but anything that has “Braindump better” as a headline is an instant save.
Kinopio by Pirijan: Kinopio describes themselves as “Spatial Thinking for New Ideas and Hard Problems”. This is one that I’m deeply excited about trying. It has the feeling of Sprout x Glitch (which makes sense because Pirijan was one of the co-creators of Glitch). I particularly loved their piece about how they build.
mmm.page: This has very similar vibes to Kinopio and looks extremely well thought-out as a creative way to build websites. Again, drawn to their simple and effective premise: “Make a website in 5 minutes. Messy encouraged.”
If I reduced this list to its most basic components, I’m simply searching for quieter digital spaces to exist in. I’m looking to minimize time spent inside of spaces that encourage erratic exploration and be a bit more curiously focused on spaces & tools that are - for a lack of a better word - nourishing.
To that end, I’d like to share a project that I’ve sat on for a very long time and finally released — HyperCard OS Template for Notion. Call it a love letter to HyperCard in the form of a Notion template. The full system works out of the box as a way to find focus in your daily life (via a journal + task tracker), manage all the articles, movies, and shows you consume, subscriptions you have, and more! — And in true HyperCard fashion, is completely remixable to fit your needs.
If you already have a system that works for you on Notion and all you want are the cover cards + icons, I’ve made all of this available for free here.
If this is your first rodeo + foray into Notion territory, do not fear. For anyone here who decides to get their hands on a template, I will be more than happy to walk you through setup on a call. I will note that part of the template also includes a 25-minute video screen share and walk-through (which you can see on the landing page).
I’m so thrilled to get to share with you all a creative project I’ve sat on for so long. As with anyone who creates anything and shares it with the world, there is no shortage of self-doubt but this feels like the right start to a new year and this adventure we’re calling Tools For Creativity. Onwards and upwards, I can’t wait to meet you all — old friends and new. Thank you so much for making digital space for me.
Peace, love & creativity in the near year.
— Nikki