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If you’ve been on TikTok or YouTube for any length of time and stumbled into the world of cleaning videos, you will have seen these sponges in pretty much every video. They are in the shape of a smiley face and come in several colors and styles. You’ll see them used to clean sinks, bathroom sinks, showers, ovens, and dishwashers. This smiley sponge is called the “Scrub Daddy”. The Original Scrub Daddy with its iconic smiley face and yellow color

June 16, 2023

Doing nothing but playing cozy games

#gaming

Cozy games offer a retreat from the stresses of everyday life. Cozy games = cozy vibes + self-care 🤗 I’ve hit another slump with my creative practice in the last few weeks. You may have seen, or should I say not seen, last week’s newsletter as it was never written. I could feel it coming on and I can feel that I’m under the weight of it right now. Which in itself is progress right? I am a least noticing it.

May 17, 2023

Song exploder but for x

The Song Exploder format is a great way to deconstruct a creative piece of work like a song. I wonder what other things could you deconstruct in this way? What Is Song Exploder? Song Exploder is a podcast (also now a TV show I just found out) that deconstructs songs through interviews with the musicians, producers, and or directors who worked on the song. You hear first-hand the story behind specific lyrics, why certain instruments were chosen, and how the song was recorded. All of this is accompanied by snippets of single tracks from the song like a drum beat, a vocal, or a guitar.

May 15, 2023

The fun world of collage

My first attempt at Collage I finally took the leap recently and started Collaging. The whole process is a super relaxing way to spend a few hours. It’s a manual craft that allows me to completely tune out the world. Every time I work on a Collage I enter a flow state. Time passes like magic and an hour feels like a few minutes.

April 12, 2023

How to stay creative - pop your algorithm bubble

#creation #pkm

My digital algorithm is severely limiting the knowledge I have access to. Some context: I read this article by “Circé Creates”: We need to pop our bubble — a guide to find freedom online. In it, Circé describes the algorithm bubble: The algorithm bubble happens in the parts of your digital environment that are controlled by algorithms. And it manifests itself when the algorithm is only serving you with a specific type of content.

April 5, 2023

A simple format to distil what you learn

It’s surprising and fascinating how our minds can make unconscious connections we don’t realize. I was going through some random notes in my Obsidian vault and came across this one: ICE Method For Active Note Taking (Source) Upon reading it I was immediately surprised that I recognized it. I use a version of ICE to write my newsletter each week. This link didn’t occur to me when I was revising my newsletter layout but it must have been in there deep in the darkest corner of my mind ready to be used.

March 31, 2023

The desire to document and collect

The desire to document and collect must be something in our nature as humans. I recently watched the Pamela Anderson documentary on Netflix and was struck by everything she kept over the years. Every diary, scrap of paper, videotape, piece of clothing, and shoes (lots of shoes). Every memory was saved and stored away in plastic boxes which she delved through during the filming. I’ve also been reading a lot of Austin Kleon’s work recently. He keeps all his diaries on a shelf in his office. When he’s stuck for inspiration or what to write, he opens an old diary to a random page and starts reading. See: The days stack up - Austin Kleon.

March 8, 2023

What's the deal with road signs anyway?

We rely on road signs to navigate safely in our vehicles. When these signs are missing, obstructed, or poorly designed, it puts our safety at risk. I was driving home from visiting family the other week and I’m embarrassed to admit it but I almost had an accident. I took a slight detour on the way home which takes me through an area with a train crossing. As I was driving through it, I realized the lights beside the crossing were flashing. I didn’t really think anything of it until seconds later when the barriers closed to allow a train to pass.

March 1, 2023

The use of color in Better Call Saul

Spoiler Warning: I will be talking about the TV Show Better Call Saul. I won’t be discussing any plotlines but I will be including some shots from the show so depending on how spoiler averse you are here is your warning. The use of color in Better Call Saul is a really important part of the show. Whether it be the color of the scenery, the costumes, or the color thrown from various light sources, everything is deliberately chosen to give a specific meaning.

February 22, 2023

When eliminating distractions is a bad thing

The Isolator This is “The Isolator”, an anti-distraction device created in 1925. It was designed to allow users to “concentrate with ease upon the subject at hand” by making it “almost impossible to see anything except a sheet of paper in front of the wearer”. Sometimes I feel like this is how I’m living my life. Only focused on the task at hand and always eliminating any potential distractions.

February 15, 2023

Button or no button?

Buttons in cars are helpful. They allow you to perform a specific action in the car without having to take your eyes away from the road. About 2 years ago I had my car’s stock radio replaced with an Android-based device (basically a tablet). I thought it would look cool and give me more features when listening to music in the car or navigating via GPS. Cut to today and I’m ready to revert back to the original stock radio with all its knobs and buttons 😭

February 8, 2023

Do you need an emotional support water bottle?

In a recent conversation with a friend, I discovered the world of water bottles on TikTok. In particular, my friend referenced a hashtags: #emotionalsupportwaterbottle or ESWB. This concept intrigued me so I reactivated my TikTok account to learn more (pray for me 🙏). I learned this week (I’m way behind) there’s a web version of TikTok. This was the approach I took instead of installing the app on my phone where I could scroll endlessly. To be fair, the same scenario is possible on a computer but at least I eventually tore myself away long enough to write this.

January 30, 2023

A creative's secret power up - the power of noticing

Beauty product design i.e. the design of packaging for cosmetics, beauty products, and even candles is a fascinating world I never thought to explore. So this past week, to sate my curiosity I went down the rabbit hole. But first some context: The world of the shop-with-me video I’ve recently been watching shop with me videos focused on beauty products. It’s a long story about how I’m learning more about make-up and beauty products to make me look young forever (hmm may be too late for that 😅).

January 23, 2023

Help! I'm a digital hoarder

I’ve been obsessively watching the TV show Hoarders over the last few weeks and it’s been pretty eye-opening to see the commonalities between the different episodes. One of the traits many hoarders share is the notion of keeping things in case they might need them. This is something that got me thinking about my digital life and the idea of digital hoarding. Being A Digital Hoarder I’m completely guilty of keeping certain notes or files in case I need them in the future. Chances are I have no use for them and they should be trashed.

January 11, 2023

How to get started learning to draw with an iPad and Apple Pencil

Drawing is something I’ve always loved doing since I was a kid. My earliest memories from school were drawing dogs in my copybook to “decorate” my writing. As I got older, I’d obsessively sketch all the characters from Dragon Ball Z to the point where my notebooks were overflowing. But as I’m sure you can guess, I moved on and drawing stopped being something I did to pass the time. I became more negative about my drawing ability and would rarely sketch things for fear they’d look terrible.

January 4, 2023

How I Use Embedded Queries In Obsidian To Simplify My Note Management

Today I’m going to share with you how I use embedded queries inside of Obsidian. I’ll explain what they are, how they work, and give you some examples of how I use them to retrieve lists of notes inside my personal Obsidian vault. What Is An Embedded Query? In Obsidian, an embedded query is functionality that lets you insert a search query into a note. You’ll then see the results of the query display from directly within the note.

October 31, 2022

How I Reframed My Digital Life After Reading Building a Second Brain

Building A Second Brain by Tiago Forte is an excellent distillation of the methodology of the same name. This book is up there with Getting Things Done and How To Take Smart Notes for how transformative it was for me. Here are the 4 ways this book reframed how I manage my digital life: Way 1: I manage my digital data with projects, not topics After resisting it for the longest time, I’ve finally embraced the PARA method for managing my digital data.

October 5, 2022

Here's How To Get Your Bookmarks Out Of Twitter And Actually Use Them

I’m going to show you how I get my bookmarks out of Twitter so I can review them at my own pace. If you’re like me you love collecting bookmarks. You find a thread that has some useful tips, so you bookmark it. You find a tweet with a cool graphic or a link you want to save and look at later, so you bookmark it. Eventually, you end up with a treasure trove of information but it sits there because you never remember to look through your bookmarks list.

September 28, 2022

5 Practices I Follow Consistently After Reading The Bullet Journal Method

#productivity

Every time I read The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll, I come away with a new nugget of insight that changes my mindset around my creative practice. Most people will read a book, put it back on the shelf, and never think about it again. This used to be me too until I started to actively take notes on what I read, starting with The Bullet Journal Method. This book changed how I think about journaling, writing things down, and regularly reflecting on my life. So much so, I decided to write this article!

September 21, 2022

How I Use Todoist As A Creative To Manage My Work And Get More Done

Imagine having a system that allows you to find and focus on your most important tasks easily. Everything is accounted for and you find it a pleasure ticking off tasks as you complete them. That’s a reality for me now I’ve revamped the way I use Todoist. Here’s my system: Diving Into PARA Before we dive into the nitty gritty I want to give you some background on how this current system came into being.

July 25, 2022

RTFM! Users Won't Read Your Documentation, Here's A Better Approach

It’s easy to be optimistic when writing detailed documentation for your product. You want to make sure there’s a wealth of knowledge in your user manual anyone can search for and find. The sad reality is that nobody reads the user guides. Instead of putting all your effort into perfect user guides, you should reduce the need for a user to refer to the documentation in the first place. Here’s the why and the how:

July 18, 2022

Here's Why the Notebook Is the Ultimate Tool for Creativity