From Pastors To Pomodoro Playlists: 6 amazing uses of Craft

using Craft to create a Pomodoro playlist is a whole new level of interesting.

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management system created in the 1980s by the Italian, Francesco Cirillo. It divides time into 25-minute long blocks of intensive focus, followed by a short break between each block. Pomodoro - which means 'tomato' in Italian - comes from the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used to signal the end of each period.

Craft user Jo has put together Pomodoro playlists consisting of songs that run for 25 minutes. Jo elaborates:

"I made a site to curate playlists I create in lieu of Pomodoro timers. They're 24-26 minutes long and I do my work during that time, then take a short break if I'm not in a flow state. Because they're so short, I have a lot of them, and find sorting through folders in Spotify is really tough, so I wanted to create something a little more user-friendly."

2. Sharing Your Quotes Collection

Collecting and sharing great quotes is what Adnaan Naveet has been busy using Craft for - alongside taking notes for law school and about books. With more than 500 quotes from 35 authors on topics from love to Latin maxims, Adnaan says his collection is a work in progress, with more quotes being added all the time.

"I've started using Craft to store notes from the books I read, and while I'm yet to get a head-start on the actual note-taking, I've been obsessed with how beautiful Craft looks with famous art in the background. It's low-key distracting because I'm not sure I'll be able to actually read when I'm staring at how pretty the backgrounds are 🙂"

3. Creating a Podcast Website

Many - if not most - podcasts don't have a dedicated website. This makes it hard for hosts to share useful information about their podcasts with listeners. Enter Craft, as a quick and easy way to build a useful website for your podcast.

A great example of this comes from Shaun Weston, producer of 'The Big Tech Little Tech' podcast who has used Craft to create a website which gives listeners rich and valuable information about the show, such as show notes about each episode, insights into guests and the host themselves, and relevant links. Shaun says:

I've launched a new podcast called 'Big Tech Little Tech,' and decided to use Craft for hosting show notes and episode guides. It's just so easy to do, and making changes on the fly is fast and convenient.

4. Connecting (and going deeper) with friends

Peter Thomas' use of Craft - as demonstrated at one of our 'Showcase Your Craft' events - was unique, interesting, and one of the most touching uses of Craft we have yet seen.

Peter wanted to stay connected with Preston, one of his oldest friends who lives on the opposite side of the USA. With 3,000 miles between them, plus the east coast / west coast time difference, and with both buddies living busy family and professional lives, finding time for calls was becoming increasingly difficult.

Having already used Craft for other things including a Bible study group, Peter introduced Craft as a way of not only catching up with Preston, but going deeper in their friendship than ever before.

Using a shared Craft space, Peter shares with Preston a weekly prompt on a random topic; it can be about current events, relationships, values, or anything. It's a single sentence he puts into their Craft space to serve as a stimulating and creative writing prompt about which they compose their personal responses.

For example:

• If you could change one thing, what would it be?
• What is the best dinner you ever had?
• Name a movie that impacted you in a big way

These are open ended questions that encourage Peter and Preston to think deeply and share really insightful memories, thoughts and ideas with each other. As time has gone on, the pair have accumulated a significant amount of content, and are even considering turning it into a book for their kids one day.

Though this process, I have gotten to know Preston better than I ever thought I could. It creates a meaningful and lasting connection and it's a way to keep in touch with each other. It's also free therapy.

Want to try out this idea yourself? Peter shared his keeping in touch with Craft template here - complete with writing prompts to get you started.

Join the Craft community to see more 'Showcase Your Craft' events.

5. Writing Sermons

Many of our users use Craft to draft, edit and share their writing. Blogs, essays, proposals and briefs are just some of the documents being created in Craft. But this is the first time we have heard of Craft being used to write sermons. Pastor Nathan Hill elaborates:

"I’m a pastor, student, sportswriter, and game designer. A little bit of this and that. I use Craft to write sermons, articles for my congregational communications as well as weekly soccer columns, mockup web design, design elements for tabletop role playing games, and share information. It’s such a useful tool! And pretty! I’m still learning how to make the most of it, but the web sharing features are incredible and amazing. Thanks for the great software!"

6. Organizing Your Life (with the Johnny.Decimal System)

Many people use Craft's nested linking structure as place to organize their work and personal life but Craft super-user Esme Crutchley takes it to the next level. The ex-librarian and organizational expert uses the Johnny.Decimal system to keep her work and personal life highly organized.

The system works like this: you break down each area of your life into 10 broad sections (for example 'finance and legal,' 'people,' 'content,' etc., and then subdivide each of those further. So for example; 40-49 is 'brand,' 49 is 'Content,' and 49.00 could be 'Focus,' 49.01 could be 'Ideas,' and 49.02 could be 'content in progress.'

Craft is the most gorgeous way for me personally, to write my content. I always know where everything is and I'm able to find anything at a drop of a hat.

How do you use your Craft? Let us know via our community, Twitter or LinkedIn.