Productivity Toolbox •
Below is the app / source list I use to efficiently work on research, writing and smart content consumption. You can browse them according to the theme its connected to (e.g. work-related, entertainment) or a very specific use case / problem it solves (e.g. I want to have a full access to my clipboard history).
Where noted, the apps are the part of the Setapp suite. Please note that this list is macOS / iOS / padOS-oriented as Mac ecosystem, in my opinion, is far better for productivity landscape and tooling. The list will be constantly updated if a new tool makes it way into my toolbox – either for me looking around ProductHunt or getting recommendations from like-minded folks.
Current update: 25 March 2024.
Transparency info – many of the links include referrals.
Essentials:
🔍 Raycast
🦁 Brave
✍️ UpNotes
✉️ Spark
✂️ CleanShot X
📓 Things 3
🎵 Spotify
Work-related:
📪 Email client: Spark (included in Setapp suite)
📺 Screenshot / Screen recordings / OCR: CleanShotX (included in Setapp suite)
🎤 Voice-to-text solution: Oasis / Whisper Notes / AudioPen
✍️ Auto-notes from meetings: TL;DR
🎛️ Control Center: Raycast
✍️ Writing Software: ReflectApp / Ulysses (included in Setapp suite) / uFocus
🖌️ For making presentations: Canva
👩💼 Task Manager / ToDo software: Things
🔏 Habit Tracker: Habitica
🎤 Podcast app: PocketCast
📚 Real-it-later / Newsletter App: Omnivore
📆 Calendar: Fantastical
🔑 Password manager: 1password
🕧 Time tracker: Rize / Sessions (included in Setapp suite)
✍️ Note Taking App: UpNote / Floating Notes in Raycast for quick note-taking. Previously: ReflectApp / SideNotes (included in Setapp suite)
📺 Screen management: Mosaic (included in Setapp suite)
📺 External Brightness configurator for Mac: DisplayBuddy (included in Setapp suite)
🪫 Battery management: AlDente Pro (included in Setapp suite)
🧹 Toolbar management: Bartender (included in Setapp suite)
🤔 Shortcut reminder: CheatSheet
🚀 Emoji App: Rocket
🎵 Noise Cancelling software for calls: Krisp
📺 App that adjusts a display’s color temperature according to location / time: F.lux
💻 Making Drag & Drop on Mac more efficient: Dropover
🕧 TimeZone Tool: Menu World Time
🗒️ SideNotes on a Mac: SideNotes (included in Setapp suite) / Alternative: Apple Notes
✍️ Reading Tool that I can make manual notes in with a sync feature: Goodnotes
🔴 Distraction blocker for Mac & iOS: Freedom
🧹 Mac Cleaning Software: Clean My Mac (included in Setapp Suite)
👩💼 For link / resource management: Raindrop.io
🎥 Video Downloader: Downie (included in Setapp Suite)
🫡 Professional relationship manager: Clay
📚 PDF Reader: NitroPDF (included in Setapp Suite)
📚 RSS Reader: Reeder
🧹 App cleaner: AppCleaner
📚 Read it Later: Omnivore / Matter / Pocket
⌨️ Text replacement & Keyboard Shortcut App: Text Expander
🔍 Research CoPilot: Perplexity
💸 Web3 Wallet: MetaMask / Rainbow Wallet
📚 Highlighting quotes from paper books: Highlighted
📸 Free picture database: Unsplash
Browser Extensions:
🍪 Cookies: I still don’t care about cookies
🔗 Link management (open, copy, bookmark multiple links): Linkclump
🔴 Removing social media noise: News Feed Eradicator
👩💼 Tab management: OneTab
Entertainment:
🎵 For listening to music: Spotify / Bandcamp
🎵 For tracking listening data / habits: Last.fm (you can lurk what I listen to here)
🎵 Scrobbling from desktop player to Last.fm: NepTunes
🎵 Scrobbling from browser (Brave extension): Webscrobbler
📚 For tracking reading and wishlisting books: Goodreads (you can lurk what I read here)
🎥 For tracking movies I watch and data connected with it: Letterbox (you can lurk what I watch here)
Sports:
🚶♀️ For walking / hiking tracking: Strava
🏋️♂️ For workout planning and exercise creation: Fitbod
Specific use cases:
➡️ Preventing Mac from Switching Off: Caffeine
➡️ I want to efficiently drag & drop on Mac, including pictures from the web: Dropover
➡️ I want to paste emojis in text but copy-paste from web pages takes to long: Rocket
➡️ I want to efficiently monitor my time and projects I work on: Rize
➡️ I want one calendar that integrates with Google Calendar, Office, Facebook Events, Meetup Events etc: Fantastical
➡️ I don’t want to write the same thing over and over: TextExpander
➡️ I want to have access to clipboard history: CopyClip, Paste (included in Setapp Suite) and a feature in Raycast
➡️ I want to have an efficient email client with Google Suite integration: Spark
➡️ I want and customizable Pomodoro Timer: Sessions (included in Setapp Suite)
➡️ I want to adjusts my display’s color temperature according to location and time of day: F.lux
➡️ I often forget keyboard shortcuts and cannot print every cheatsheet for every app: Cheatsheet
➡️ I get easily distracted and want to turn distracting apps off: Freedom / Sessions (included in Setapp suite)
➡️ I have a PDF/webpage I want to copy text from but the copy function is blocked: CleanShotX
➡️ I’m looking for an Gmail alternative: Proton Mail
➡️ My Mac’s toolbar is a mess as I have loads of icons there: Bartender (included in Setapp Suite)
➡️ I do various things on my browser and would like to have different profiles for each of the activities I do in a browser (eg. work-related, hobby related): Arc
➡️ I have too many windos opened on my deskop and have to get them in order fast: Mosaic (included in Setapp suite)
➡️ I want to delete an app with all the files connected with it: AppCleaner
➡️ Apple Sticknotes are not enough, I want something better: sideNotes (included in Setapp suite) and Raycast’s Floating Notes
➡️ Apple Notes is not enough, I need a note app for networked notes: Reflect App / Obsidian
➡️ Apple Notes is not enough, I need a note app with structured notes: Evernote
➡️ I love Last.fm and want to scrobble from other music players than Spotify: NepTunes for desktop, Webscrobbler for browser
➡️ My inbox is cluttered with newsletters, I need a service to get this in order: Omnivore / Matter
➡️ I need a Read-it-Later app: Omnivore / Matter / Pocket
➡️ I want to cut down on app subscription / prices – is there a Netflix equivalent for Apps? Setapp Suite
➡️ I want to block certain apps on my smartphone to be better focused: Freedom
➡️ I want to block certain apps on my computer to be better focused: Freedom
➡️ I don’t want to be writing the same thing over and over (eg. email address, bank account number, email template): TextExpander
➡️ By the end of the year I want to have a summary from all sources I was listening to, not only Spotify Wrapped: Last.fm
➡️ I forget to write down keyboard shortcuts: CheatSheet
➡️ I want to do efficient research and need a entry point with materials etc.: Perplexity Ai
➡️ I read paper books and want to have my underlinings including passages and quotes digitised: Highlighted
➡️ I have a problem with configuring brightness for external display for Mac: DisplayBuddy (included in Setapp suite)
➡️ I want to have my meetings transcribed and summarised: TLDR
➡️ I have loads of links to open from one side. Don’t want to click on them separately: Linkclump
➡️ I have too many tabs on my browser and want to manage them efficiently: OneTab
➡️ I don’t have a time to read newsletters, X or any other medium and I’m looking for top content on tech, web3 and product: Kiwi News
➡️ I’m looking for free photos I can use for my newsletter / blog / instagram / youtube: Unsplash