Instead of This, Write That

Instead of “Thanks in advance” just write “Thanks”.

Instead of “In order to” just write “To”.

Instead of “That said” or “That being said” just write “Nevertheless” or “Furthermore” or “Moreover”. Or, you can just move on to your next logical sentence.

Finally Solving The New Yorker Problem

Something I’ve noticed about The New Yorker magazine is that many of its subscribers, at least the ones I’ve read about, seem to feel guilty about falling behind on issues.

In fact, it seems almost a requirement to describe a subscription as “unread copies of The New Yorkers stacked on my nightstand/coffee table.”

I’ve subscribed and unsubscribed to it for several years — unsubscribing to it due to the psychic weight of six (and often more) unread issues — because there’s no way to keep pace with a weekly magazine.

But, finally I realized the winning strategy: view the printed magazine as a bonus, and stick to enjoying the shorter online stuff and the weekly podcast.

Try it out.

#Evernote Rebrands Itself

This week one of my favorite apps, the note-taking app Evernote, launched its brand refresh. I like it.

The company, which has been around for 10 years, wrote about how the app’s focus has evolved and how the brand has evolved too:

When asking ourselves what we stand for, the question yielded an array of answers. None of them were wrong per se; all of them reflected aspects of what we do: We help you remember everything. Capture and recall what’s important. Get organized. Be productive. Turn ideas into action. Work together.Yes, we do all of that, but we needed to get to the why, not the what. Why do we strive to create products that allow people to achieve these things? Why do we come to work everyday? Because we care about what you care about. We want to provide a way to help you focus on what matters most. And when we agreed that was our place in the world, the process of building a brand system that reflected our purpose became clearer. We’d found our focus.

I’m a big fan of Evernote, and have used the app since the day it launched. Or close to it. This weekend, my subscription renews for another year, and I’m always happy to pay for this great app that has become a huge part of my work and personal life.