Build productivity, remove distractions & Writing to think

Philipp Temmel -

My name is Philipp and you are reading Creativerly, the weekly digest about creativity and productivity-boosting tools and resources, combined with useful insights, articles, and findings from the fields of design and tech. The newsletter built for the creative community.

Hey and welcome to Creativerly 249 👋

As mentioned in last week’s, I am going to devote this week’s intro section of Creativerly to the importance of revisiting your old work regularly. A couple weeks ago, I discovered some old design files on my computer. It was pure joy working myself through those files, since on one hand it clearly showed me how much my work progressed, improved, and evolved, but at the same time, I felt the urge to continue working on those old files. I got reminded that revisiting old work regularly is surely a secret sauce to boost your creativity.

Revisiting your old work is a time capsule of your own growth journey. Remember that project you thought was amazing a year ago? Now, fast forward, look at it again. Chances are, you have leveled up since then. You will spot things you’d do differently now. And that is a win, it is progress in action. Beyond that, it is a creativity workout. Diving into your old work can kickstart your brain juices. You see what worked, what did not, and suddenly, new ideas start arising.

Your artistic or professional evolution is not static; it is a dynamic journey marked by growth and refinement. Revisiting past endeavors unveils a chronological roadmap showcasing your developmental trajectory. What once seemed exemplary might now reveal areas ripe for enhancement, reflecting your evolution as a creator. It is crucial to highlight that revisiting past work is not solely for critique but for introspection and commendation. Celebrating achievements from the past serves as a reminder of capability and serves as fuel for continued creative momentum. This process also unveils stylistic patterns and recurring themes, essentially defining one's creative identity. Recognizing these patterns offers a choice—embrace and refine or pivot and innovate.

The revisitation of past work is far from a nostalgic trip; it's a calculated strategy for profound creative advancement. It's an investment in one's growth, offering insights, inspiration, and a platform for innovation. Therefore, embracing this practice is an indispensable tool for any individual seeking to elevate their creative endeavors.

Apps, Software, Tools

Nova →

Nova is an app that follows a new concept to help people focus on what they really need. The concept is called atomic productivity. This new concept has been the foundation on which Nova has been build as the company envisions productivity as something that works in layers.

At the core, you can entitle Nova as a project management tool. As each of the projects you are working on are probably different from each other, you can customize the way you are working on those projects within Nova to your needs and liking. Nova is based on components, and whenever you start working on a new project, you are in control of deciding which components you need. As of writing this, Nova is offering Tasks, Documents, Files, Boards, and Links as components, while Sketch, Dropbox, Google Drive, Figma, and Visual Studio Code are already in the works and set to be released soon. The Tasks component in Nova gives you the possibility to manage your todos with a simple, intuitive, and powerful component. It offers an advanced experience, as it gives you the power to add details to your tasks, such as subtasks, notes, or files. With the Documents component you can write next generation documents thanks to a powerful editor. Nova documents have been build to write professional text documents, that you can customize by adding files, code, Figma projects, and much more.

Nova’s Files component allows you to store and organize files with the so-called Nova Drive for all your projects. The Nova Drive lets manage your files into folders, and to create deeper context, you can even nest them. Nova Boards are basically a Kanban-inspired interface which allows you to view todos on boards and visualize the progress of your work.

The idea of Nova is to say goodbye to all the different apps and services you use to manage and get your projects done. If you ever felt the need of a tool that allows you to manage and organize everything in one place, you might want to take a look at Nova, especially since it also supports your favorite external services in form of integrations. One of the most important factors of an app that wants to gather all your projects and workflows within a single place, is to have a solid and powerful search that helps you staying on top of your materials. Nova offers a powerful Quick Search which you can use to search through all your elements, beyond that it gives you the opportunity to perform actions and navigate through the app.

Nova is a beautifully designed app, offering an intuitive interface, and intuitive controls to make sure your productivity is faster and more convenient than ever. As of writing this, Nova is only available as a web app, but apps for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, Android, and Windows are planned for 2024. For now, you can use Nova for free by signing up for the Standard Plan which will give you access to five projects, 2GB of storage in Nova Drive, four components for your project, and 20 documents. The Pro Plan which is set to be available soon, will cost you $8.99 per month or $99 per year and will give you access to unlimited projects, 250GB of storage in Nova Drive, unlimited components for projects, unlimited documents, shared projects, and reminders for tasks.

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Fresh Updates & News

Indie App Sales →

If you want to support awesome independent developers creating lovely apps for Black Friday, you can do so by taking part in this year’s Indie App Sales which is as big as ever with over 400 apps participating. Indie App Sales is a lovely initiative highlighting apps by indie developers which are running and offering discounts because of Black Friday. Apps like Command-Tab Plus 2, Crouton, Dark Noise, DEVONthink, DoMarks, Doneit, Drafts, Everlog, and loads more are taking part and are offering awesome discounts. Besides supporting independent developers, Indie App Sales is also a lovely directory to discover your next favorite app. Happy browsing and happy shopping.

Capacities →

Capacities has introduced a new concept to its app called task actions. With task actions users will be able to send any todo created in Capacities to their favorite task management app with a single click. As people are already using Capacities to think, work, and create, they are now able to quickly delegate tasks to a place where they belong when they come to their mind too. With task actions, users are able to keep track of tasks in one place without switching between apps. As of writing this, Capacities supports first-class integrations for Todoist, TickTick, Things, Apple Reminders, Google Tasks, and Microsoft Todo.

Clay →

Clay has not only become one of the most powerful CRM tools out there, beyond that, it is without a doubt one of the most beautiful designed apps in general. With their newest release, Clay 2.0, they introduce a collaborative CRM to keep your team’s entire network in sync. While Clay initially started out building the CRM tool to manage all your personal and professional relationships as an individual, Clay 2.0 helps to see all the interactions anyone in your company has had, within a beautiful timeline. Teams are now able to search across the entire network with Clay’s blazing fast smart search and ask any questions using their AI navigator, Nexus.

Todoist →

With its newest update, Todoist, one of the most popular task management apps ever created, introduced its new redesign with the goal in mind to create a simplified and lucid version of the app. This new update sets the stage for a couple of design changes that will get introduced soon. Todoist’s redesign gathers a couple of existing elements within a new user menu, the sidebar got polished introducing a new layout and customization options, projects now use a “#” symbol, the new quick search can be used to quickly find tasks, projects, and actions you are looking for, and a lot more.

Blocksurvey* →

Blocksurvey, the privacy-focused app to create beautiful forms and surveys recently announced that it has been SOC 2 Type II certified. As the company has always been prioritizing privacy and security, this is another big milestone ensuring users’ security. SOC 2 stands for Service Organizations Control 2, and it is a set of standard rules and guidelines for companies to be secure. With the Type II audit, users can be confident that Blocksurvey will continue its dedication to data protection. The SOC 2 Type II certification complements Blocksurvey’s existing end-to-end encryption, and fortifying the safety and security of its users’ data.

Kosmik →

Kosmik is an infinite canvas tool for all your sources. As of writing this, Kosmik is preparing for launching a new major version of the app, version 2.0. In a recent email update, the company shared the news that Kosmik 2.0 will be fundamentally different from the app users can use today. To set the stage for the new major version, Kosmik released an update including some new features, bug fixes, and improvement, including the possibility to import multiple files in a single click, a better side panel, improved undo/redo, and more. Although the email promised a glimpse into Kosmik’s new 2.0 version, there were actually no additional information regarding that, besides the fact that it is “almost ready”.

Craft →

Craft is celebrating its 3 year anniversary. As part of this anniversary, Craft prepared a couple of surprises for their most recent release, including a new way to customize your share links, new embeds and smart links, and for those who are looking to celebrate with them, Craft is offering a 50% recurring discount on subscriptions until December 4th.

Mental Wealth

❯ Until the Right Design Emerges – “Too often, the process of design is cut short. When faced with user needs or product requirements, many designers draft a mockup or wireframe informed by what they've seen or experienced before. But that's actually when the design process starts, not ends.”

❯ Systematic inventive thinking: the power of thinking inside the box – “When talking about creativity, many people will tell you: “Think outside the box!” The catchphrase is so common in management consulting and business environments, it has become a bit of a cliché. What if innovation could be fostered by thinking inside the box instead? That’s what Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT) aims to achieve.”

❯ The science behind inspiration and how to design more of it into your life – “If you’re like me, connecting with the creative muse has felt a bit strained the past few years. Finding inspiration can be hard in what feels like a nonstop stream of awful news, marked by climate disasters, humanitarian crises, a global pandemic, and what feels like the political upside-down. Staying inspired can be challenging as we experience a collective mental health dip¹ and work burnout is on the rise². And applying inspiration to our pursuits can feel downright impossible, with just the ping of a phone to interrupt our flow state and send us back to square one.”

❯ Writing to Think – “A few weeks ago, my 13-year-old son asked me why writing was so important. He wasn’t happy. One of his teachers had asked him to write an essay and he would rather use AI to generate it for him and be done with it. The question seemed as natural to him as using a dishwasher is to us. If there is a better, more convenient way to do this, why not use it?”

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Appendix

❯ ICYMI

I created a personal newsletter as part of the process of building my new personal website at philipptemmel.com. The personal newsletter will be a casual one. For now, I will use the personal newsletter to send out updates about my the state of my personal website, but in the future it will be the place to share my personal writing, ideas, thoughts, and updates about my side-projects. It will pretty much be a behind the scenes look of what I am building and creating, I will also share some additional information about Creativerly there. If you are interested in that kind of stuff, you can sign up here.

❯ Quick Bits

Till next time! 👋‌‌‌‌

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