I thought it was about time that I shared another Publish the process piece with you. These are where I publish (or share) the process behind my work, including tips I have learned along the way.
Today, I’m sharing the app I use for writing my newsletter, my articles, my posts, my client’s marketing copy… every digital word I produce.
Let’s go!
The above image is taken from my Mac. It’s an app called iA Writer and you can visit their site here. It’s available for Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android and it’s surprisingly inexpensive, especially as it is sold as a one-off purchase, with no annual or monthly fee. For example, the Mac version is currently $29.99.
Why do I use it for everything?
Simple.
The app massively increases my productivity and dramatically improves the quality of what I produce. It gets out of the way. Allowing me to focus exclusively on whatever I choose to write about.
iA Writer and distraction free writing
With iA Writer there are no distractions.
None at all.
The moment you start to type, the screen goes blank. Except for a flashing cursor. The app uses something called markdown. This means you don’t need to use a mouse. You don’t need to access a menu.
Formatting text, adding links, inserting images, in fact everything can be done without taking your hands off the keyboard!
Once you have text on the screen, you can set iA Writer to focus only on the sentence or paragraph you’re currently typing. The remainder of the text fades into the background. It’s there, but fainter. This helps me remain 100% engaged with exactly what I am thinking / typing in that moment.
It’s a feature that by itself, has been of huge benefit to me.
The lack of distractions provides a very productive writing experience. An experience that for me, and many others, has radically improved our writing.
There are a number of distraction-free apps out there. I’ve tried a few, but none can match the level of focus I enjoy with iA Writer.
Is iA Writer what YOU need?
As regular readers will know, I don’t do reviews. However, there are lots of iA Writer reviews available if you do a quick search. This video review is amongst the best. It also has lots of handy tips if you already use the app and want to get more from it.
Yes, as you can see I love iA Writer.
That said, it’s one of those tools that people tend to either love or fail to see any reason to use it. So do your research. Because it might, just might, give you the same kind of productivity boost that it has given me over the past decade.
December 2023 Update:
Since writing this, iA Writer 7 has launched. It includes additional features, and is especially useful if you’re using AI/ChatBots to help write your content.