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The Mix Tape, Vol. 41

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The Mix Tape, Vol. 41

Matt Tillotson
May 29, 2020
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The Mix Tape, Vol. 41

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Welcome! Here in Florida, things are slowly coming around:

  • Traffic is increasing.

  • The neighborhood gym and pool are open.

  • The county mosquito trucks have roared back to life, spraying God-knows-what chemicals on slumbering neighborhoods in the wee hours.

Onward we roar as well, in Volume 41.


A newsletter for newsletters

“It’s Not a Newsletter” is a monthly publication loaded with information about making great newsletters.

And, in a triumph of marketing truth, “It’s Not a Newsletter” is actually not a newsletter. The creator uses a Google Doc to publish each month:

Welcome to the May edition of Not a Newsletter, a monthly, semi-comprehensive, Google Doc-based guide to sending better emails! I’m Dan, the founder of Inbox Collective, an email consultancy, and the former Director of Newsletters at The New Yorkerand BuzzFeed. Every month, I update this doc with email news, tips, and ideas. Sign up here to be notified when a new edition goes live!

Lots of good stuff on writing, email deliverability, growing a newsletter, and more.


Supercharge your iPhone with Siri Shortcuts

Siri Shortcuts might be the most powerful thing you’re not putting to work on your iPhone or iPad. 

And that’s a shame. Shortcuts can:

  • Shorten simple and common tasks, like starting a text message to someone you text often, or

  • automate something very specific to your individual workflow, like adding information to a document or spreadsheet you use frequently. 

I use Shortcuts for one-tap access to Apple Music playlists, to launch the Nike+ run tracker, and much more.

The best part is: you can use Shortcuts without knowing anything about programming.

(Although you can also get fancy and build your own Shortcuts in the Shortcuts app.)

Want to get started using Shortcuts?

I wrote a Siri Shortcuts beginner’s guide here.


App recommendation: Remember sports?

The Retro Bowl iPhone game is a soothing salve for our sports-starved age.

(And we are starved. I mean, six million of us watched two old quarterbacks play golf in the rain last weekend.)

Nostalgia trip: Retro Bowl harkens back to days of yore, when we played Tecmo Bowl on the Nintendo Entertainment System, swilled Mountain Dew with reckless abandon … and chucked controllers at our friends when video-game Dan Marino threw interceptions.

It’s fine if you’re old and slow: Retro Bowl’s simple gameplay won’t punish you (um … me) for your (um … my) declining quick-twitch skills.

Dirt cheap: The basic version is free. The $1 upgraded version provides deeper gameplay customizations.

Worth checking out. (Mountain Dew is optional.)


Writing advice for 2020

Writer and entrepreneur Derek Sivers, on his writing process:

Sounds about right.


This week’s hopeful chart

Twitter avatar for @flightradar24
Flightradar24 @flightradar24
The total number of flights tracked by Flightradar24 climbed above 100,000 for the first time since 22 March yesterday. Non-commercial traffic growth is currently outpacing commercial flights. See additional details at: flightradar24.com/blog/100000-da…
Image
2:06 PM ∙ May 21, 2020
597Likes230Retweets

Slowly coming back.


This week’s therapy for a concertless world

  • Shawn Mullins puts on a great one-man show. He’s an excellent storyteller, guitarist, and singer, and he’s doing his first Facebook livestream show Sunday at 6P eastern.

  • The Rolling Stones have been working on an album, and accidentally created the anthem for our times: “Living in a Ghost Town,” written before COVID-19 sneezed all over our lives.

As someone said in the YouTube comments: “I think this band has a future.”


Our mailing list is growing

I know! I don’t understand it, either! 🤷🏼‍♂️

But I truly appreciate you taking the time to read.

If you know someone who might enjoy The Mix Tape, please
send them to the signup page. 

See you next week!

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