What’s old is new again

During my holiday vacation at the end of 2019, I started to reevaluate the tools and workflows I was using. I tend to get locked into existing tools and ignore new or different apps and services. Many of the “new” tools I’ve found were actually ones that I had tried previously, but either had abandoned or wasn’t using the app to its full capability.

Here’s a few of my “new” apps:

Feedbin + NetNewsWire + Reeder. When I started to use social media less last year, my RSS reader became the primary destination when I wanted to know what was going on in the world. I’ve used RSS readers for a very long time and was a devoted Google Reader user. When Google killed Reader, I moved to Feedly and have been reasonably happy with their paid tier, but their newer features weren’t really what I was looking for. Over the holidays, I started trying out Feedbin and really liked it. I was able to then connect it to NetNewsWire on Mac* and Reeder on iPad. I used earlier versions of both apps regularly back in the day before the death of Google Reader. I’m happy with the new set up and going to stick with it for a while.

DayOne. I took a social media break during the end of 2019 and for the most part, I didn’t miss it. One thing that I did miss was recording the fun little things that my children did. A user on Micro.Blog recommended that I use DayOne for recording those moments. I’ve used DayOne off and on in the past, but decided to give it another try and I’m glad that I did. I’m using DayOne for all those silly things I would post on Facebook and it’s working well.

But I've also started using DayOne for personal reflection and a daily journal. I have my four themes for the year: being a healthy person, being a graduate student, being a reader and being a type designer. And I’ve set up a template to remind me to reflect on those things every night. It’s helpful to keep me focused on my themes and be more mindful.

Lose It + Happy Scale. Again, two apps that I have used before, but wanted to try again. Every time I’ve been successful losing weight, I’ve used Lose It. It’s a great app for tracking what you eat — and really, just being aware of what you are eating and drinking. Happy Scale is a powerful weight tracking app.** It’s pretty simple, but has some nice ways to view and process your data. Both apps integrate with Apple’s Health app so the weight data from Happy Scale moves over to Lose It.

I’m still experimenting with some other workflows and apps. I’m trying apps for creating art and editing photos for Sketchbook B on the iPad and I’m looking at file storage and syncing options other than Dropbox. I’ve looked at a couple of replacements for my note taking apps and shockingly, Apple’s own Notes app seems to offer what I need there.

* The new NetNewWire is an all new open source Mac app with iOS on the way.

** My favorite scale app ever was Weighbot by Tapbots, but alas, they discontinued it years ago.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, researcher, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create.