🔗 🧠 Links for Thinks #1

Welcome to the inaugural (newsletter) edition of Links for Thinks! This was a fun little internal project I started sharing with the design and product teams at Morning Brew that was pretty well received. I moved it over to Twitter where it got a bit more engagement outside of folks I know, and then as with most other side projects of mine—it took a bit of a back seat. (Sorry, facesonpumpkins).

But now it’s back in full force in a new format! I’ve had some time to reflect and come up with my system that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

I’m hoping there will be plenty of goodies for you all to work into your daily lives (design or otherwise)—if there are any suggestions please don’t hesitate to lmk.

Onward to the links and the thinks.

TODAY'S EDITION

1. How to Tell a Story so That Everyone Listens

2. Web Interface Guidelines

3. We All Can Reach a "Flow State"

4. The Key to Sustainable Productivity

5. Design Spells: Design Details That Feel Like Magic

— Jake

WE’RE ALL STORYTELLERS

Maybe a bit intense, but probably a good thing to remind ourselves. When most people think of a story, they may be thinking of things that happened to them in chronological order. But a story isn’t just recounting events in order; that’s just reporting on your life. A real story shows change over time—often a shift in perspective, like "I used to think X, now I think Y," or a full transformation, "I was one type of person, now I’m different."

THE JUICE

1. Know Your Point: When you're thinking about structuring your story, start with the transformation you want to convey at the end—what are you even trying to say?

2. Use Scenes, Not Scripts: Map out key scenes as checkpoints instead of scripting every word. Stories/speeches live out in the world, not on a piece of paper.

3. Add Color to the Gaps: Once you have your scenes, bring in stakes, suspense, surprise, or humor as needed—make sure to play to your specific audience.

4. Use Imagination (maybe just not yours): Resist the urge to over-describe or over-teach—leave space for mystery and engagement.

5. Be a Strategic Listener: When you hear or see something that really made an impression, take a minute to think about why that was good for you.

6. Structure Matters: Chronological order isn’t always the best choice; choose the order of events that best supports your point and is engaging.

7. Get Personal: If a personal story enhances your message, don’t hold back—lean into it.

GUIDELINES…FOR WEB INTERFACES

A bit of a technical checklist of things that make up a good web interface. Also the design of the site itself is :chefs-kiss:

If some of these things sound foreign to you and you’re someone who works on digital products—I suggest getting yourself into a bit of a Google rabbit hole this week.

Otherwise, check out below for the “well yeah, of course” takeaways.

THE JUICE

1. Make Interactions Effortless: Design elements that respond the way users expect—no jankiness, no second guesses, just seamless clicks, taps, and actions.

2. Keep Text Sharp and Easy to Read: Use fonts and sizes that look good on any screen, ensuring everything stays stable and doesn’t shift around unexpectedly.

3. Animate with Purpose: Use motion where it counts. Make it smooth and satisfying, but keep the vibe quick and unintrusive. Unless your vibe is slow and obtrusive, then you could lean into that.

4. Lean into Touch-Friendly Design: Ensure every tap feels natural on devices, from button size to responsive feedback—no accidental presses or hidden gestures.

5. Put Accessibility Front and Center: Make sure everyone can engage fully with accessible design that plays well with assistive tech and is easily navigable.

THE SWEET SPOT

Most people have experienced some state of flow in their life—but maybe you haven’t taken a lot of time to dive into what it even means.

Flow is the state of performing at or near an individual’s mental peak, when things are just working effortlessly.

Steven Kotler dives into the thinking around how someone may experience more flow in their lives. He starts with the idea of taking on challenges that are just outside of your skillset—embracing that slight uncomfortable feeling. And then understanding the triggers and motivators for what helps embrace that flow state:

THE JUICE

1. Find Your Sweet Spot: Find stuff that’ll push your skills just enough to stay excited but not stressed.

2. Know Your Body: Tune in to when you're naturally most productive. I recently realized that I’m a morning guy after years of fighting against it. Discover what times of day your mind and body are primed and ready to go.

3. Create a Distraction-Free Zone: Get rid of your phone, block out time, silence notifications, and clear your workspace. Flow is a fickle beast—once you leave it, it’s hard to get back.

4. Use Dopamine Triggers: Leverage novelty, unpredictability, complexity, awe, pattern recognition, and risk-taking to fuel your flow.

5. Lean Into Intrinsic Motivators: Flow feeds on motivators like curiosity, passion, purpose, autonomy, and mastery. These work together to keep you engaged.

6. Collaborate for Flow: It’s easy to get siloed in our current remote forward world—but don’t forget to work with like-minded creatives; group flow is a great way to amplify our ideas.

HEADLINE TITLE

The vicious cycle of perceived productivity: we get excited about a new tool or method or process, get all wrapped up in it for a short period of time, lose interest in the thing, and eventually revert to old stupid habits. I know it all too well.

Scott Young suggests this happens because we confuse two types of productivity: the subjective feeling of productivity (feeling busy or focused) and objective productivity (actual output of meaningful work). While these sometimes do align, sustainable productivity relies less on feeling busy and more on creating systems that produce results regardless of motivation or effort.

THE JUICE

1. Low-Effort Routines: Build routines you can follow even on low-energy days. Lean into the laziness if you need to, but make sure you can still do your things.

2. Build Knowledge and Skills: The more skills you have, the easier tasks become, saving time and effort. You’re already trending in the right direction by reading Links for Thinks.

3. Eliminate Unnecessary Tasks: Automate, delegate, or remove tasks that don’t add value to your life. The more unimportant things you pile on, the less time you have for the good stuff.

THE MAGIC IS IN THE DETAILS

Nothing like a little catalog of inspiration for you to kick off the week.

THE JUICE

1. Animate with Purpose: Use motion where it counts. Make it smooth and satisfying, but keep the vibe quick and unintrusive. Déjà vu?

2. More Magic: It feels like a lot of websites and apps are becoming too homogenous—let’s make the internet weird and cool again.

THANKS FOR READING—SEE YOU NEXT MONDAY

In the meantime, feel free to:

1. Forward this email or share this link with your friends if you feel they need some links for thinks: https://www.linksforthinks.com/subscribe

2. Reach out with any suggestions or questions for the newsletter.

3. Send me some of your favorite links and take aways.

Cheers, Jake