I’ve been trying to make writing a larger part of my practice. This ~weekly email is one of the outlets I created to improve my writing and share what I know. The biggest thing I’ve learned so far is that writing takes so much time.
I’ve drafted up a few of these emails in the last couple weeks, but decided not to send them. I was focusing on so many other projects, especially writing projects, and felt that I needed to wait until they were fully ready before I sent them. This resulted in thinking negativity and I felt like I was just procrastinating. I’m now realizing that I wanting to make sure these emails were perfect was making them not exist. So to fight that I build systems that make it a little easier.
Organizing Ideas
I was an Evernote user for years. I thought it was one of the best tools to organize ideas in my professional and personal life. I recently switched to Notion, and I have the most designer reason for abandoning Evernote, but I’m not ashamed.
I was constantly disappointed and frustrated by type hierarchy.
Typography is important to how information is communicated. Type design is important even in simple things like plain text documents and spreadsheets. (both of which I really enjoy designing) There is a skill to design something so it communicates an idea clearly and effectively. The switch to Notion has let me use markdown and I find organizing my ideas much easier. This is on top of having it available and synced through all my devices and open to whatever format I need at the moment.
Now I’ve got hundreds of writing ideas to start from, organized in a single place. The ideas range from articles for Noun Project to sharing ideas about mental health. I’ve got two more articles to finish up this week to post, and several other writing projects already in the works. Stay tuned to read more.
My Newest Writing
I’ve been animating Noun Project icons for a long time using Photoshop, and I realized that I should share all of the knowledge I’ve amassed. I wanted to write it in a way that highlighted the core insights, while also inspiring people to push the boundaries. I’m proud of the result, check it out.
Tutorial: How to Create an Animated GIF Using Icons
Here’s a quick preview: