End of 2023 Productivity Toolset
Here’s a list of tools I have been using this year to get stuff done.
- Todo lists and Tasks
- The basic interface, capabilities, and Siri integration make Apple Reminders work well for my personal todo list. Most often I think of things to do while in the car, cycling, or even in the pool. Voice integration on Apple devices is the killer feature.
- I use Obsidian for lots of things at work, including a todo file for every month. Since my Obsidian Vault is stored in Dropbox, I can access it from any device and using many different text editing tools.
- Notes and Narratives
- I’ve written by my notes system before. I continue to use Markdown with 1Writer (on iOS) and iAWriter.
- My notes are stored in two Obsidian vaults (read: notebooks). Most of my work and personal notes are in a common vault, stored in Dropbox. I can access them from any device. I also have separate vault on iCloud for notes I want to easily access on my iPhone. Although I do have a paid Obsidian license, I do not pay for their Synch capability.
- I prefer to write for work using Google Docs over Word or Confluence, primarily for its collaborative features. However, Google Docs does lack good merge capabilities.
- I journal regularly in Day One. I tried Apple Journal briefly, though still prefer the capabilities of Day One.
- Matter is my reading and read-later app. It integrates well with Obsidian to save highlights.
- Presentations
- I opt for Google Slides over PowerPoint. I gravitate to iA Presenter for impromptu presentations and presentations that I like to thinker with often.
- I opt for Google Slides over PowerPoint. I gravitate to iA Presenter for impromptu presentations and presentations that I like to thinker with often.
- After trying other iOS podcasting apps, I keep going back to Apple Podcast. Combined with Apple Music and Apple Classical, there is a common interface between them.
- There are new AI-powered tools released almost weekly. I try many of them so long as a metered free version is available. I see myself go to Google Bard more often than using OpenAI ChatGPT. I also enabled the AI-capabilities in Gmail and the other Google App Suite. I tried image generation tools like Dall-E, but I don’t use them often. The initial results were less than stellar.
- There are several fitness and health related apps I use regularly: Cronometer for tracking my food, Strava and Garmin Connect for my cycling trips, runs, swims and other workouts. Apple Health aggregates a lot of the data. I am on the fence to switch from the Apple Watch to a Garmin Watch.
I am a big fan of WonderTools to learn about new capabilities and tools.