Tools for Creativity: Daily rituals that make way for creativity
Issue 3: Thinking about how artists make way for creativity, how Hemingway *might* have used Notion, and tailoring work (and creative) environments to suit individual needs.
Happy Sunday - lots to muse through this week.
First off, say hello to your new Notion ambassador! Last week was my initiation into the official Notion ambassador program and I couldn’t be more thrilled. A handful of folks have asked what this means and what my official duties are as an ambassador and I can’t say that I have any more official duties than I have already been doing in my free time which includes: regularly tweeting about how much I love Notion and how I (and others) use it, supporting folks in the community and of course, writing this newsletter. And no, I do not get diplomatic privileges at airports unfortunately. Perhaps one day soon, when Notion becomes its own nation, hah.
Speaking of this newsletter, some of you may have also noticed a small change — I have since rebranded away from the Nikki Does Notion brand into Tools For Creativity. Over time (and I say so overtly dramatically since this is just Issue 3), I’ve untangled that my interests span beyond just one single tool and while Notion is very well aligned with my interests in exploring tools for creativity and creative thought, there may be others that I will use and talk about frequently. (Nobody puts baby in a corner… with just one tool.)
And yes, this rebrand also means that all prior links shared are now defunct and I have Mergen (hi!) to thank for pointing out all my dead links last Wednesday. If you spot any more, let me know!
If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.” - R. Buckminster Fuller
I recognize that it is slightly peculiar to be singing creative praises for a tool that is most well-known for workspace organization and team productivity. When you think of creativity, I am sure that a couple applications immediately spring to mind — perhaps Adobe Illustrator or Figma — software that you would typically associate with creation in the more literal sense. Definitely not a note-taking or workspace wiki software application.
This week, I’m still thinking a lot about how an organized mind actually gives room for more creative thinking. When asked to think of what an artist’s studio looks like, your natural tendency might be to imagine that their lives are made of disorderly chaos — stacks of paper, drawings, books and manuals strewn all over the place. There is in fact another side to this creative coin where creativity is actually borne out of routine and daily rituals, one where processing of information gives way for more creative thinking.
I’ll be the first to admit that I am on the latter side of this creative coin. If my mind is in chaos, it strips away any potential for creative thinking.
This line of thinking brings me back to a book I bought about eight years ago, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. I knew there had to be some nuggets in there to guide this thought through, the idea of how decluttering and making sense of the notion that chaos does in fact lead to better creative output. The book, as Currey puts it, is about the circumstances of creative activity, not the product; it deals with manufacturing rather than meaning. Is finding a basic level of daily comfort a prerequisite for sustained creative work? When we start finding ways to compartmentalize structured thoughts, can that make room for more creative ones? This book details how small daily increments and habits make way for more grand creative visions. Hemingway, for one, tracked his daily word output on a chart, so as not to kid [himself]. I can’t help but imagine what Hemingway’s Notion dashboard would look like if he had it available to him. Of the 161 daily habits charted in this book, it is unsurprising how much ritual and organizing one’s day gives way to creative thinking.
Speaking of routine and environments built around routine, I came across a paper, User-tailorable systems: Pressing the issues with buttons (EuroPARC, January, 1990), recommended by someone I recently started following, Geoffrey Litt. The idea of interoperability and why I think Notion has the potential to build a world suited for not just systems thinkers, but also creative thinkers is to me a really exciting one. The main premise for this research was to make systems more tailorable by building a more flexible architecture for people with different skill sets. The idea of tailoring and personalizing one’s work (or creative) environments is very akin to what I think the strength of Notion lies on and while it is not yet perfect, it’s close. And in my mind, delivering the product to service this mission to millions of people is already half the battle. I’m brought back to a quote by Notion’s co-founder Ivan Zhao via an old Ness Labs interview, Humans are toolmakers by nature, yet very few of us have the skills or knowledge to modify the software tools that we use every day… Imagine if people had the freedom to work exactly the way their brains work, rather than having to conform to the rigid software that dictates how you’re supposed to use it.
The EuroPARC research was centered around creating user tailorable systems by way of buttons, allowing users of this OS to create (or duplicate and edit) buttons customized around their own daily workflows. Does your work center around recurring tasks that require you to do the same thing over and over again? Well then, create a button for it! Of course, the idea of a tailored OS is already taking shape on the very OS that some of us are familiar with — the iPad — widgets and shortcuts being a prime example of this.
The analogy of templates (and template buttons) in Notion also comes to mind. A large part of Notion’s early success came from templates, pre-built structures and systems to guide new users into suggested workflows. Today, thousands of Notion users around the world regularly create and sell pre-made templates for any and all use cases possible — from Pokédex wikis to meal planning templates, it feels like every use case under the sun has a pre-built Notion template.
When I first started implementing Notion for my team’s workspace about 2.5 years ago, I distinctly remember writing the support chat to remove access to creating documents from templates for new users. Having these global pre-made templates actually caused more friction and confusion in the process of onboarding new team members that it almost prevented us from implementing Notion as our team wiki. Thankfully, this was remedied soon after and I still remember this fondly as it truly felt like the Notion team heard our feedback and made these improvements based on them (though, it was clearly something that they were already thinking about :p).
Templates are super helpful and have definitely contributed to the rising adoption of Notion as a tool than would otherwise be the case. In fact, I myself have benefited greatly from pre-built templates by the likes of Notion masters like Marie Poulin. Nowadays though, when I create a new page, I do default to creating a blank one, knowing that a blank page mimics the endless possibilities for building out the creative systems I need to suit my brain. But that’s just me and definitely helped by my innate familiarity with the tool.
I know that for even the most creative thinkers, templates can help guide the use of Notion far better than my endless proclamations for it can. I find myself wondering if there is an in-between of sorts, something less frightening than a blank page and more malleable than what the current template system provides. This feels like a topic for another week so I‘ll end here.
Further Exploring
Per last week‘s newsletter, some kind netizen shared with me this article titled File Not Found by Monica Chin, a super relevant piece about how students nowadays have little to no conception around file structures and directories, going back to last week‘s issue that this next generation of thinkers will likely have a very different idea of how knowledge is saved and sorted.
Towards a Theory of Conceptual Design for Software by Daniel Jackson (pdf): a paper that argues for viewing the design of software in terms of concepts, with their invention (or adoption) and refinement as the central activity of software design. Also recommended by way of excavating many of Geoffrey Litt’s internet archives.
The Muse App and the Muse Podcast: I’m proud to share that I‘ve formed a new daily habit of going for a run everyday for at least 30 minutes and I can’t tell you how much of these runs have been shaped by the Muse Podcast. It‘s through them that I discovered Geoffrey Litt and Weiwei Xu, co-creator of Sprout. I‘m so thrilled I get to connect with Weiwei later this week and I’ll likely talk about Sprout in next week‘s edition. I also shaped my thoughts for this newsletter using the Muse App and have been delightfully surprised by how fun it is to use. I definitely recommend checking it out if using an iPad is part of your daily workflow.
In the past week, I‘ve had the pleasure of connecting with SE Asia’s first (and perhaps only?) certified Notion consultant, Rui & happened to be in the same Notion Ambassador cohort as YouTuber extraordinaire Thomas Frank. If you aren’t already familiar with them, please give them a follow! I promise you will benefit greatly from watching just one of Thomas‘ Notion Explainer videos whether you’re just getting started or already have a good grasp of what Notion can do. Here’s one of his latest on Notion’s grouping feature.
Omar Rizwan on shaping computers into friendlier forms from Notion‘s very own Tools & Craft podcast.
The internet has been so giving last week but I can‘t tell you how glorious it was to spend a weekend away camping and decompressing. Nature is healing (and also super windy, it turns out). While tools are the main theme of this newsletter, I encourage you all to take some time away your screens as well. Have a wonderful week ahead.
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Until next week,
Nikki
Love this newsletter, Nikki! I just discovered it from mutual Twitter followers liking it—the algorithm works. Looking forward to more issues of Tools for Creativity!