I made some changes to the website that are worth sharing. In this post I’ll show you what’s different and in a follow-up I’ll go into detail about customizing my Jekyll theme.

Homepage

Before: After:

In the initial design the logo and tag line took up the entire screen. Scrolling was required to read about the apps. I can see what I had intended, but in practise it didn’t work well.

The new layout focusses on the software. It feels more compact and easier on the eyes. Note how the updated ‘cards’ clearly point out the app’s name and subtitle, conveying its purpose in a glance.

What do you think? Better, worse? Could it be improved? You can let me know on Twitter.

News overview

Before: After:

The news page bothered me for a while. The old template showed an endless list of post titles. I’ve written quite a few articles over the years and this mess didn’t invite anyone to read them.

In the updated situation it shows everything right on the overview. There’s no reason to not scan the first post. The results are paginated. Each page shows up to five entire stories. It’s effortless to keep reading.

Related apps

This is a new feature. Underneath each post it shows the apps that were mentioned. I struggled with directing readers from an article to an app. This might just solve it.

You might notice some new colors, adjusted margins and paddings as well. Nothing too radical. In the next post I’ll tell you how I implemented the major changes.

I’m delighted by the feedback I received from the people who downloaded the Timeless beta over the past two weeks. The two most requested features were:

• Displaying the indicator only on certain days.
• Showing something useful when the indicator isn’t in use.

The latest update addresses both these requests with a new scheduling feature and the option to show a regular old clock when the indicator sits idle.

This means you can display the time before and after your timeless period starts and during the days you’re not working. The main goal is to reduce friction when giving Timeless a go.

Feedback

If you haven’t already, I’m hoping you’ll install the new beta and let me know what you think.

The beta includes a built-in feedback dialog that you can use.

After using Timeless myself for weeks and tweaking the experience, it’s finally time to share the first beta version with you. I’m very excited about this. Try Timeless now.

Hiding the clock from the corner of my eye and switching to the less specific indicator of Timeless has allowed me to be more productive while reducing anxiety. I’m curious to hear if it does the same for you.

Download the beta today

After launching the app for the first time, the setup wizard will help you get started by completing the tasks below.

1. Hide the clock from your menu bar.
2. Define the indicator ranges.
3. Submit bug reports, comments and suggestions.
4. Updates to the beta will be presented to you automatically.

I’m working on a more natural way of getting the most out of my day: it’s an app called Timeless. At its core it gives me a generic sense of what part of the day I’m in: morning, lunch time, noon etc.

Instead of breaking concentration or induce stress it lets me continue working when I’m still in the time bracket I’m expecting to get stuff done. Then, in a glance, it lets me know that I’ve entered a new part of the day. If it’s between 12pm and 2pm I should probably get lunch.

There’s no notification to ‘get lunch now’, just a hint that when I’m ready I should probably go grab something to eat.

Even when combined with more urgent interruptions, like water breaks, it allows me to comfortably get back to work. I don’t feel any pressure or hesitance because of how much time I have left in the day.

Beta sign-up

I’m getting ready to let others give this a go as well. If you’d like to be invited to try the beta, subscribe to the mailing list. Thanks!

Pipvid v1.1 was just released! 🚀

This update adds a brand new feature: it allows you to specify the maximum window size up to which Pipvid should manage it.

Using this setting means you can keep Pipvid turned on, use the player window as normal when it takes up a certain part of the screen, then shrink it down and Pipvid will automatically snap it into the corner. It’s size based automatic picture-on-picture mode. 👌

Get Pipvid today!