đ Good morning from Los Angeles! I'm Nate Kadlac, and this is #79 of Plan Your Next. A Sunday newsletter that connects design, creativity, and how you prepare for your next thing.
đĄ Whatâs new?
đ¨ Iâm thrilled to be collaborating with Khe Hy to design a new sales landing page for his course, Supercharge Your Productivity. This page will be built from the design kit Khe created during my own workshop, Approachable Design. Weâll demonstrate the importance of differentiating yourself, and how it can attract more sales. (Crosses fingers)
đśđźââď¸ Iâm in the early innings of building out a self-paced version of Approachable Design. Iâm sure this takes on a different name, but this will be a lightweight version of my live workshop that gives you the tools to do it on your own time.
đ¤ I could use some feedback! Iâm thinking about starting a podcast around breaking down design decisions, and how other creators think about their sense of style. Does this seem interesting to you? If so, who should I interview? One day Iâll chat with Casey Neistat and how Tom Sach influenced his own styleâŚ
Good morning from Los Angeles!
In this specific momentâIâm creatively vacant. Iâm sitting at my makeshift desk on a Saturday morning at 8:43 staring at a white wall, forcing myself to expel the energy required to push the keys down in some coordinated fashion.
These are the moments everyone faces. An emotional dread to make something from nothing. I could give up and finish re-watching early seasons of The Sopranos, or I can make amends with the white wall, determined to pursue this one-sided crush.
But creativity doesnât magically grow from a black hole. It builds on itself. Block by block. Sentence by sentence.
Looking through my notes, I sift through ideas and lines of thoughts as if Iâm late for a train, running to catch up. Each note I stare at seems to give me a blank stare, as if they donât want to be wasted on this last-minute essay.
I forget about them as quickly as the last two cups of cold brew before 9 am.
The day starts to accelerate, and itâs now 11:41 am. Iâm charging our electric car in a ramp lined with other cars feeding off of the same electric fuel. Iâm half-sunken into the driverâs seat searching for a creative injection. I let the last few hours slip away, imagining I have more time than I actually do.
Creativity is difficult to measure because weâre unsure how long it will last or when it will occur. And for many creators, we are paid not just to be creative, but to create.
Putting myself literally behind the driverâs seat of a car offers no real connection to the creativity I am searching for, but Iâm white-knuckling this path as far as it takes me.
Maria Popova writes, âcreativity is combinatorial, that nothing is entirely original, that everything builds on what came before, and that we create by taking existing pieces of inspiration, knowledge, skill, and insight that we gather over the course of our lives and recombining them into incredible new creations.â
If weâre not collecting and building along the way, weâre not allowing ourselves to be fully creative. Pieces of creativity lie everywhere around us, we just need to be observant of whatâs in our pockets along the way.
Itâs now 9:21 pm, and Iâve slogged through this essay during a week that seemed to offer no time whatsoever. Itâs a pursuit thatâs not always fulfilling, and this shows the darker side of having an off week. But pursuing itâeven brieflyâonly gives us the opportunity to build on it later.
Pete Docter, who directed Pixarâs Inside Out describes the creative pursuit:
"There are days youâre going to feel sad. Youâre going to feel angry. Youâre going to feel scared. Thatâs nothing you can choose. But you can make stuff. Make films. Draw. Write. It will make a world of difference.â
This frightening feeling I have of hitting publish on an essay I struggled to write serves as a good reminder that this is a rollercoaster we donât always have control of.
As I look down at my phone, itâs 10:01 pm, and a tweet is served up by my good friend Megan, which fittingly puts this essay to a close.
This blip of an essay, counts.

âĄď¸ Two creative hits for next week
âď¸Your next Scribble
I love to draw. Even more, I love simple line art. Sneaky Art is a fun newsletter that displays fountain pen art aimed to capture accidental art in the midst of a chaotic life. H/T Lyle McKeany
đ Your next trip
If youâre a Star Wars fan, you can sleep in Luke Skywalkerâs house from Episode IV. Located in Tunisia, where many of the scenes of the first 6 episodes were shot, this looks legit.
đ See you next Sunday
If youâve forgotten who I am, hereâs a little bit about me. As always, my calendar is open to chat about your next adventure, crazy idea, or if youâre feeling creatively stuck.
Have a great week,
p.s. If you enjoyed this letter, would you please let me know by tapping on the heart below?
I appreciate the calm and reflective vibes of this post. Highly recommended to read with a warm drink in a cozy place âď¸
Thanks for the mention! I'm glad you liked my work. đ