Solid points from Austin Kleon, as always. This time on handwriting and drawing as learning methods.

Interesting points in this article about how companies like Google need to spend time building buy-in and selling the "why" of diversity and inclusivity initiatives, so those who feel threatened by them don't end up boiling over and exploding in frustration.

Last month's review. All monthly reviews.

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I'm kind of amazed Things 3 is actually in the world. It was in beta for so long I'd given up on it ever being released. But now that it's here I've tried it out of curiosity and been happy to find it's the best fit for the way I manage tasks. I've been using Things 3 for a couple of months now, and I'm really enjoying it.

I don't want to do a full explainer about how Things works, but just in case you're not familiar with it, here's the basic idea: tasks can have start (yay!) and due dates, tags, checklists, and notes. You can organise tasks into projects, which can have dates, tags, and notes of their own, and can be completed. You can also put tasks and/or projects inside areas, which don't have their own dates or notes (though they can have tags). They're more basic collecting areas for related projects and tasks.

Yesterday we launched one of Exist's biggest new features to date: custom tracking! Nice write-up about it from Brett Terpstra.

Some cool features for working with long-form Markdown in this update:

Long-form writing with Marked 2, plus 2.5.11 teaser!

"I didn’t particularly like sewing, but I liked what you could do with it." Like Austin Kleon, I, too, feel this way about writing.

Today is Josh Sharp's birthday. He's a fun guy who helps me make cool stuff like Exist, Larder, and Changemap. I'm lucky to spend time with him every day.

Details on the next big feature we're working on for Exist, and how we're using it during beta testing: Introducing custom tracking (and how we're using it)

[This survey of freelancers][1] shows there's a gender gap in earnings, even for independent contractors. I'm guessing this data is all U.S.-based, but no doubt the stats are similar in other Western countries. [This blog post about the survey's results][2] points out that the gap may be partly due to earnings being based on previously-held full-time roles, where we know there's a gender-based pay gap.

[Ugh][1]:

For female and non-White executives, the more they valued diversity, the worse they were rated for performance and competence. And the non-White leaders who received very high performance ratings (higher even than the White majority) showed the least interest in diversity.

[Want to be an artist? Watch Groundhog Day.][1]

The creative journey is not one in which at the end you wake up in some mythical, happy, foreign land. The creative journey is one in which you wake up every day, like Phil, with more work to do.

[Last month's review][1]. [All monthly reviews][2].

What went well this month

Last month's review. All monthly reviews.

What went well this month

Last month's review. All monthly reviews.

What went well this month

Last month's review. All monthly reviews.

What went well this month

I recently attended my first ever conference, Playgrounds. It was quite a technical-focused conference about Swift and Apple development.

I noticed a bunch of good and bad things relating to diversity and inclusion at Playgrounds, and wanted to take some time to reflect on them and what we can learn as a community.

At the end of each year (or three months into the following one) I like to reflect on my favourite apps from the past twelve months. I recently switched from an iPhone to a Google Pixel, so the mobile section of this post will be about Android apps instead of iOS for a change.

I'm only including apps I haven't talked about in previous posts, so as to not waste time repeating myself. You can read about my must-have apps from 2015 here and 2014 here.

Last month's review. All monthly reviews.

What went well this month

Last month's review. All monthly reviews.

What went well this month