11 essential tools I could not live without.
2 min readMar 30, 2015
- 1Password — The first thing I install on any new device no matter what. It helps me keep track of passwords and all kinds of other vital information. I would be completely fucked without it.
- Flycut — Probably the second app I install on any new Mac. A buffer for your copying and pasting. I probably use this more than any other utility on my Mac.
- JetClock — A nice little menubar clock replacement that lets me know what time it is for the zones I care about most. I work with a team spread out across the globe and I’m terrible at math, so this helps me a lot.
- iA Writer — I love Evernote for everything except taking notes because I like to write notes in Markdown and even before that was the case, I liked writing and taking notes without distraction. It saves everything to my Dropbox so I never have to worry much about it. I also like Simplenote + nvALT and Byword, but iA Writer has been my go-to for a while now. Every day I open a new document where I journal and take notes throughout the day.
- OmniFocus — I have literally tried every GTD app on the planet and OmniFocus is the one I use every day. I use it to keep track of projects and lists. It’s not the simplest, but it’s the best there is.
- Arq — For everything that isn’t on Dropbox or Google Drive, I use Arq to back things up to Google Cloud Storage and Amazon Wide Storage. I’m always shocked when people say they don’t know about this app.
- Bartender — Keeps my menubar tidy until I actually need something.
- The Unarchiver — Best way to uncompress anything.
- Soulver — Remember when I said I was bad at math. This is how I do math.
- Day One — A gorgeous journaling app.
- Alfred — I use this as a Spotlight replacement and it does a hell of a lot more than Spotlight.
