A letter every second Sunday about doing careful work in a hurried world.
I’m Nil Arden. I write about attention, tools and the craft of doing one thing properly — from a door-turned-desk in Kuzguncuk. No advice threads, no growth hacks, no tracking. Just a letter, in English and Turkish.
14,206 readersabout 900 replies a yearsince 2022
Latest letter
For six years my calendar looked like a parking lot: neat rows of thirty-minute boxes, each one painted a different colour. I was proud of it. I could tell you at any moment what I was supposed to be doing, and I was almost never doing it.
About the writer
Nil Arden spent twelve years as a product designer before deciding that the most useful thing she could design was her own week. She now writes, edits and teaches a small evening class on technical writing.
Every letter starts in a notebook on Thursday, gets typed on Friday and sits untouched until Saturday night. If it still makes sense then, it goes out on Sunday.
Reader-supported: US$5 a month or US$50 a year, optional. nil@slowdesk.example.com
Every second Sunday at 07:00 Istanbul time. Choose the monthly digest instead and you get the two latest letters on the first Sunday of the month.
Yes, every letter is free and stays in the archive. Readers who want to support it can pay $5 a month or $50 a year; they get nothing extra except my thanks.
No. There are no tracking pixels and no link redirects. I only know you read it if you reply.
Every letter is written in both English and Turkish. Pick your language on the confirmation page; you can switch any time.