The Baseline
Productivity Hack Hangover
Sometimes it feels like everyone and their mother has a productivity hack that's going to "totally revolutionize your workflow."
Work 4 hours a week. Work in 20 minute sprints. Only open your email on Tuesdays. Work in a dark room. Work outside. Train the robots to do all your tasks. Do it all yourself. Walk 20,000 steps. Eat your vegetables....
It's a tornado of (somewhat?) good intentions, coming at us from all sides, all the time. How can we be better, faster, more competent, more complete, more balanced?
Personally, all I end up feeling in the aftermath is more exhausted and more confused. And, ultimately, more concerned (and honestly, ashamed) that I can't seem to figure out the perfect formula to the completely harmonious, fulfilling, and non-stressful work-life that everyone's promising.
It has taken a lot of life experience and therapy to realize... the problem might not be me.
It's the idea that there's a simple "fix" to make working feel easy and great all of the time.
Sometimes, work is work. Even if you designed your own dream job. Even if you spent your whole life climbing the ladder just to be where you are today. Sometimes work is hard. It gets in the way, it's tedious and frustrating, and it's not at all glamourous.
I've found way more peace in accepting that work is allowed to suck sometimes than I ever have in deep diving into the bottomless pit of productivity hacks (and coming up empty-handed).
I'm definitely not encouraging you to stick with a job you hate, or do work that brings you no joy. Life is far too short for that, and one of the tenets of Goodtype is that we believe everyone deserves to love their job!
I'm simply reminding you (and myself) that *some* hard stuff is normal, and it doesn't always mean you have to totally revamp your workflow, your job, or yourself.
Personal improvement is awesome (Ilana will be the first to tell you how much tools like meditation and the Eisenhower Matrix have changed her life, and therapy has reshaped Katie's approach to like...everything.) BUT, the expectation that EVERYTHING must be constantly optimized and perfected often results in procrastination (delaying the things that really matter), and negative self image (what's wrong with me that I can't I find the perfect solution!?).
Consider all of that one great, big caveat to prime you for this next part: the most important and impactful tools we use to run our business.
While you may not find all your self-worth at the bottom of a tech-bro podcast about how working upside-down will, like, totally rewire your brain... there certainly are some amazing tools that can actually support you in what you're trying to achieve.
Check out the podcast episode below, where we go in-depth into the apps and tools that really do make a difference for our business, but as you listen, don't forget...
It's not the pen that makes the artist great. The pen is only a tool.
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Latest Episode
Every Tool We Use to Run Our Business
with Katie & Ilana
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Katie's speaking at DSVC in Dallas!
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DSVC Speaker Series
WEDNESDAY, MAY 13 @ 6 PM, Arts Mission Oak Cliff in Dallas, TX
Come on out to socialize with your fellow Dallas creatives, hear Katie's talk, and grab our new book!
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Watch as Hoodzpah & Fort Live-Critique Our New Font!
Learn alongside Katie as two type-design legends take a look through her first typeface (noooo pressure 😅). We're live-streaming this session on Youtube, so grab some lunch or a snack and hang out in the chat on Tuesday, May 12 @ 12PT/ 3ET.
Adobe 99U Conference is back!
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JUNE 4, 8:30am–6:30pm, NYC or Online
A one-day event bringing together creative leaders across design, storytelling, and technology to share how the industry is evolving.
Use code 99UWelcome20 for 20% off in-person tickets!
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Soooo...Adobe Acrobat Got Cool?
Full disclosure, we’re Acrobat Ambassadors and we partner with Adobe to share tools we genuinely use in our workflow. Rest assured we wouldn't share stuff with you that we don't actually use and believe in!
A Really Cool Use-Case for Adobe Acrobat
Everyone we've shared this with has been kinda mind-blown....
The basics:
Adobe Acrobat has a new feature called PDF Spaces. Basically, you can think of it as an information hub that becomes an expert in whatever info you feed it. Then, you can chat with your expert (the AI Assistant) and ask it anything and everything about what you uploaded.
P.S. PDF Spaces ONLY uses the information you give it to build its knowledge hub. It DOES NOT scrape the internet!
How we're using it:
We created a PDF Space for our course, The Art Licensing Blueprint, and uploaded EVERYTHING we teach in the course—transcripts of our video lessons, PDF guides, bonus materials, etc....
Soon, our students will be able to ask the AI Assistant questions, like "what should I charge for designing a greeting card again?", or, "remind me how to find a licensing agent?" rather than having to manually search through the videos to rediscover those answers.
Want to try it?
You could train your PDF space on whatever you want! Try uploading a contract you got from a client and asking for help wading through the legal jargon, or feed it your top performing social posts and ask it to spot the trends.
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Things we're loving...
