I think part of building a creative practice is being intentional with the tools I use. This is a working list that can both keep me accountable and maybe help you out as well.
Pen and Paper
After reading The Artists Way, the part that really stuck with me was the morning pages, three pages of uninterrupted stream of conscious writing, no editing, no revising. It helps pull things out of my head that would normally just derail my day. Then throughout the day I keep an analog to-do list.
Figma
It makes da shapes.
Adobe Suite
Still in the rotation, definitely doesn’t hit the same. RIP dreamweaver.
Calmwriter
If you struggle with creating a focused environment for writing like I do, Calmwriter is for you. I think it’s super important to create space for writing that is disconnected from AI and Calmwriter is just enough text editor for me.
Obsidian
From there I try to move things into my Obsidian vault. I use markdown files to organize the business of operating a creative studio. This is definitely a work-in-progress and probably worth its own post eventually.
Claude
LLMs, compute, and energy use are going to be defining issues of our time. So far it’s been a game changer for writing and testing code.
Astro
Astro felt like a nice balance of simplicity and flexibility. Using .md files in my vault and as pages helps keep things simple.