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For the first time in a long time, I’m starting to think I’m finally catching up to 90% of the things I wanted to write and share. It’s a good sentiment to have a month before a two-week summer vacation. I know it’s a bit of a cryptic post.
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I wanted to publish my long post about Inoreader this weekend so much, but it’s not ready yet. Tomorrow it’s probably the day. Being patient and knowing when something is not ready is a virtue of the writer.
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If you’re on Inoreader, this is a link to my profile page. I’m not sure there are many subscribers here, but in any case, you can follow me there if you want!
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Can't Wait for the Upcoming Publishing Weekend
This weekend, I will publish a 6000 words thousand article about my migration to Inoreader. I’ve been working on that one for at least three months. While doing so, for the first time, I used Ulysses’ “multi-sheets” feature, where each sheet is a different section tied together as a long article that I can publish as a whole. Pretty handy stuff when working on very long articles. Thanks to Ghost’s publishing feature, it will also be the first time that a portion of my article (the last three sections) will be made available to my subscribers only.
I can’t wait to share with my readers the long journey that led me to Inoreder. Watch this space.
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I got my first two paying members (annual subscription!) on my website (numericcitizen.me) hosted on Ghost! Two people are willing to give me their money for my work. I feel blessed. 😊
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A Peek Into My Typical Creative Week
Have you ever wondered what my typical creative week looks like? Here you go, courtesy of Things 3’s Logbook. As I was completing this week’s stretch, I had a look at the logbook, I thought it could be fun to share with you a behind the scene look. I love Things 3 logbook because it gives me a look at my past work.
If you want a closer look at my Things 3 usage in my creative workflow, you might want to watch this video. Oh, and don’t miss my documented micro-workflows.
Now, it’s time to prepare for the upcoming week by duplicating the project template and setting my three goals for the week. 😅
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I had such a busy creative weekend, to the point where I wonder if I did too much. I mean, I didn’t see most of the weekend. It was raining most of the time, and I had those videos and articles that I wanted to move forward. On the positive side, I feel that my ideas backlog is more than ever in control.
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I made my decision. The coffee shop it is. It’s a brand new place near my home. Not too busy yet because there aren’t well-known.
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I’m still wondering where I’ll spend my Sunday afternoon for my creative activities. Should I go out to a coffee shop near my house or should I stay home, make myself a coffee and go in my home office? 🤔🙄
I like the ambiance of the coffee shops, looking around me and furtively watching some people in their own bubble, in front of their screen, with their AirPods on, typing, pausing, etc. It’s a stimulating environment.
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While spending some time in the Anybox bookmarks manager this morning, I was thinking of restarting my monthly newsletter because they are fun (but time-consuming) to build. I should find a way to better automate the production process, though.
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I started writing my 2023 year summary, and I must candidly admit that I’m proud of my digital accomplishment so far. 😊 You won’t notice, but a lot is going on… you know, this iceberg 🧊 image where most of it is underwater, only to see a small portion on the surface?
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Major Updates Coming to WriteFreely And WriteAs
Matt, the founder of the WriteFreely ecosystem, recently wrote a promising post:
It’s become clear over time that in order to make WriteFreely (and Write.as) as useful as it can be, it needs to have a much more unified experience.
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I don’t think it makes sense for our self-hosted product to be chopped up into multiple components like our hosted tools are. Instead, I want to bring all those tools into a single application in WriteFreely.
Earlier this year, I wrote an article (“The Write.freely Ecosystem Explained”) trying to explain the WriteFreely ecosystem because I thought that, in its current form, it was a bit hard to grasp. It’s one of my most popular posts on Write.as. I think there is a need for unification and consolidation into a seamless experience. I’m glad the see that it’s coming.
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BasicAppleGuy writes about his website turning three:
Today marks the third anniversary of basicappleguy.com. A challenging but also very successful year; I want to continue the tradition of recapping the year and thanking you all for the tremendous support.
I worked from home for the first two years of the site because of the pandemic. That meant 19,200 minutes saved on commuting each year alone, which afforded me hundreds of hours to write and work on new wallpapers. This also meant I had around-the-clock access to a Mac (and a good internet connection), giving me abundant opportunities to work on projects with much more freedom. Source: 3 — Basic Apple Guy
His blog post resonates with me a lot. Since March 13, 2020, I have worked from home, and I also save a lot of commute time. I couldn’t do all that content creation that I did since then if I was returning to the office downtown. I’m super appreciative of that, and I hope that it will stay that way. I don’t see why it would change.
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Coming back from vacations. 🛬 Returning to normal programming this week. Vacations are always a great opportunity to disconnect and let new ideas pop up.
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When AI Failed to Inspire Me
I was looking for inspiration all week to write my next Friday Notes edition. Early morning yesterday, I was still unsure if I could make it, but at lunchtime, I tried ChatGPT with “Give me some blog post ideas about the positive effects on creativity of going on vacation for a week”. It came back with phrases that looked taken from a travel agency ad. I tried again with different variations of my question. It failed to impress and to inspire me. I’ll pass this week’s edition.
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Still in my spring cleanup phase, I’m archiving all my bookmarks and references to build a Hugo-based static website. I’m happy to keep my focus on content instead of trying to understand and configure a web site built on Hugo tech.
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Some Numbers
🚨 This is post #2000. I have already written more posts in 2023 than for the entire year last year. I’ll probably write more than 2021. The record year, 2020, will be hard to beat. This post was written using Ulysses on my MacBook Air which is the most used device, with 73%. My Mac mini comes second with 20%, and lastly, my iPad with 7%. I love numbers. Returning to normal programming.📺
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I’m fascinated by the fact that very notorious people in the tech space depends on so simple workflows or simple tools like Apple’s Notes or Reminders to do their work. I reproduce something found on Kottke “Ask Me Anything”:
What do you use for a mobile note taking app (does it sync with your computer)? — Alan H
I am very low-tech when it comes to note taking. I use the default iOS/MacOS Notes app for most things, including keeping track of my media diet. It’s simple, works pretty well, can handle to-do lists, and syncs seamlessly with all of my devices.
I should pay attention to this and maybe think about it when I’m looking at new tools or new ways of doing my things.🤨
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It’s time for an update to my content creation workflow (on Numeric Citizen I/O). In the coming days (or in a week or two), I’ll add something new to help others find new ways to do simple tasks. Comments and questions are always welcomed. 😊👨🏻💻
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This week I got two unexpected gifts from my readers (fans?). One reader on my Ghost-hoested blog paid a one-year subscription, a 25$ gift! Another sent me 40$ to my PayPal account because he likes my YouTube videos about Craft so much. These are in addition to this Italian who sent my money a few months ago.😊
I don’t do what I do for the contributions, otherwise, I would have stopped a long time ago. Yet, these people make a difference and send good vibes to creators and writers like me.
So, dear past (and future?) contributors: thank you.
