---
title: "Choosing simple over complex"
description: "Resisting the urge to add complexity by switching to simpler tools and focusing on personal dialogue over automated marketing."
date: "2019-10-21T00:00:00.000Z"
canonical: "https://www.antonsten.com/articles/choosing-simple-over-complex/"
---

Here's a couple of random things that I've been thinking about lately:

Often when I talk to businesses, I highlight the importance of focus. However, when looking at my own business I can see how easy it is to become influenced through what *everyone else is doing*. It can be a good thing (like when I decided to [write a book](https://www.antonsten.com/books/) because I had enjoyed the books [Paul Jarvis](https://pjrvs.com) had written and self-published), but then there are cases when looking too hard at other's accomplishments can guide you away from your true passion. For example, I thought a while ago that along with my consulting and blog writing I should also sell products. In order to sell these products, I needed other things to support them like [free email courses](https://www.antonsten.com/uxcourse/) which then needed fancy email marketing tools where you can do automations and segmenting and sequencing and... phew. Just like that, having a simple course to share knowledge became a part-time job.

Almost [exactly a year ago](https://www.antonsten.com/break/) I was in a similar position and decided that [taking a break](https://www.antonsten.com/break/) was my best choice. Today I think it's time to rethink the purpose of all of this. I've already started the process of moving my newsletter from Convertkit to a free service with far less features, [Buttondown](https://buttondown.email/). Much like when mobile phones turned into smartphones, I'm struggling to use just the basics. One perk of this move is that there's finally an option to [archive (almost) all of my past newsletters](https://buttondown.email/antonsten/archive/)! Here's what [Frank Chimero](https://frankchimero.com) said when I asked him about Buttondown:

> It’s straight-up: type some markup and email it to people, which is what I need. Mailchimp was overkill.

So you can expect less A/B-tested subject lines sent on optimal times tailored directly to your preferences and more of these personal updates. Instead, I'll opt-in to the fact that [I'm professional because I'm personal](https://www.antonsten.com/i-am-professional-because-i-am-personal/) - something I wrote nearly four years ago and is still true today.

I want the newsletter, and my business, to be more personal. Less 'push' and more 'dialogue'.