Uses

I love talking about the tools I use every day to get work done and be productive, and I'm really interested in other people's workflows and setups.

This page is inspired by Wes Bos' project uses.tech, and is my attempt at documenting my preferred tools and how I do things.

I'm constantly improving and upgrading my setup, especially when it comes to software tools and productivity workflows, so expect this to change over time.

Software and services

Productivity tools

• Apple Reminders helps me organise my personal life and side projects. Here's where I capture all of my tasks — if it's not here, it's not happening. I really like the fact I can quickly add tasks to my Inbox through a custom keyboard shortcut without needing to leave what I'm doing and context switch to open the Reminders app, and how I can sort these Inbox tasks out later (I do this daily). Potentially the most useful feature to me is scheduling tasks, i.e. linking a task from my list with a time slot in my calendar. I organise my tasks into different categories/projects including "Life admin", "Recurring", "Long term goals", "Learning", "Shopping", "Wish list" and then individual categories for each one of the projects I'm currently working on.

• Apple Calendar is essential for managing my time and planning my week, tracking appointments and events, staying on top of birthdays and coordinating plans with others. The ability to receive notifications and seamlessly sync across all my devices helps me make sure I never miss anything important.

• Apple Notes is great for documenting more long term knowledge. Things like recipes, personal goals, or just a general brain dump when I'm on the move. I like that it supports using an Apple Pencil to draft notes which is nice when I want to take handwritten notes on my iPad. I also think it's great that you can share and collaborate on notes with other iCloud users without asking them to sign up to a new service or install any other apps. I looked into many other notes apps and, for the time being, Notes does everything I need and more. I also like sticking to the defaults and keeping it simple.

• Freedom helps me stay focused. I've got a recurring session on both my laptop and phone that runs on a permanent blocklist. If I want to access social media or read the news, I can do so on my iPad. Messaging applications such as Signal and WhatsApp are not blocked on any devices as I still want to be able to reach out to people throughout the day.

• Magnet for window management, I like being able to use keyboard shortcuts to move windows around. I got a licence ages ago but otherwise I'd probably use Rectangle instead, as it's free and open source, and pretty much the same at least for my use case.

• Raycast is macOS' swiss army knife and a great replacement for Spotlight. I use it for heaps of different things including searching for files, listing different timezones, managing clipboard history, text expansion/snippets, unit conversion, emoji search and a bunch of other automated tasks. I recently switched to Raycast after having been an Alfred user for the longest time.

• Dato is extremely helpful for staying on top of timezones. Its time travel feature is brilliant and helps me with figuring out reasonable times for events across timezones. This is especially useful when you have colleagues, friends and family around the world.

• Xnip is a screenshot tool for Mac that supports annotations, blurring sensitive information and scrolling screenshots. It's fast and works quite well. I tried a number of different alternatives but I always find myself coming back to it. The only feature I think it's missing is text recognition/OCR. That said, lately I've slowly been switching to macOS's built in screenshot tool, with the default set to open in Preview for annotations. Preview also has the edge on OCR, with Live Text letting you select and copy text directly from any screenshot.

Writing

• iA Writer is my go-to application for writing in markdown format. It has the best UI/UX in my opinion and a number of great features, and most of my writing happens here. Definitely an all-time favourite.

• Sublime Text remains, after many years, one of my favourite code/text editors. I still use it mostly for notes, I've got a single todo.md file (automatically backed up to iCloud Drive) I use as a brain dump/mental clutter storage where I keep random thoughts that pop up halfway through a task, also for things like taking notes during a meeting/course. Sometimes I also use it to edit very large files (it's very powerful at finding and replacing), to parse and beautify files, etc.

Coding

• Visual Studio Code is my main code editor. I've got all settings and extensions sync'd via GitHub which is quite handy.

• Ghostty and pure are my preferred tools for all my terminal needs. Before installing this last one you need to make sure zsh is installed and updated (it should be shipped with macOS). I also have zsh-syntax-highlighting installed for Fish shell-like syntax highlighting, and currently use the Snazzy colour preset.

• Homebrew for package management, which also installs macOS' Command Line Tools and Git.

• Mise is a must for installing and handling different Node, pnpm, and Python versions locally across projects. Before Mise I used nvm and manually ran venv, but now I've got everything consolidated in a single tool that automatically switches versions per project based on my config files.

• Sublime Merge is quite handy for things like visually parsing diffs, navigating a project's history, or scanning a list of changes to a particular file over time. For anything else I use Git in my terminal.

• Charles Proxy is very useful to view all of the HTTP(S) traffic between my computer and the internet, including requests, responses and HTTP headers (which contain cookies and caching information). It's also extremely useful if you need to mock API endpoints to test features locally if your backend is not ready.

Security

• Bitwarden is my preferred password manager. It works well across devices and have never had any problems with it.

• Microsoft Authenticator is my 2FA client, and it runs only on my phone. I used to use Duo and still like it, but given both work and uni require using Microsoft Authenticator, I consolidated all of my accounts there for simplicity.

Reading and information organisation

• Goodreads helps me track books I've already read or those I want to read. I like the fact that I can sync Goodreads with my Kindle, too. The UI is a bit dated and cluttered, but it gets the job done.

• Anki for creating and reviewing flashcards. I mainly use this tool for documenting vocabulary and grammar when learning a new language.

• Instapaper is my "read later" service, and I use it all the time to keep track of the articles/pages/blog posts I want to get to at some point. The UI is quite simple and minimal, and it works well for what I need it for. What I like the most about Instapaper is its integration with Kindle, which allows me to send articles directly to my Kindle, making offline reading incredibly easy.

Miscellaneous

• Brave is my browser of choice on desktop, primarily for the better developer tools while still ticking all the boxes around privacy. On mobile I use Safari since Apple seems to restrict certain system integrations (like adding calendar events) to first party apps only.

• Spotify for streaming and organising my music library, although I also enjoy brain.fm especially when I want to do some focus work.

• PDF Combo is quite handy for combining PDF files, and Lightweight PDF is useful if you ever need to compress a PDF file. I typically use these if I need to submit any school/government forms/documents when there's a file upload size limit. I typically don't keep these installed all the time as I rarely use them.

Hardware and furniture

• Dell S2721QS (27 inch 4K UHD Monitor) is my primary 27 inch screen directly in front of me. I only have one external monitor and keep my laptop closed as I like the constraint of needing to use a single screen and handling workspaces.

• Herman Miller's Aeron Chair is easily the best chair I've used for long hours at my desk. The adjustable lumbar support, breathable mesh, and ergonomic design make a huge difference in staying comfortable throughout the day. It's an investment, but one that has definitely paid off in terms of comfort and taking care of my posture.

• Omnidesk Pro is my desk which lets me switch between sitting and standing throughout the day. The height adjustment is smooth and easy, and I like that I can save preset heights to switch positions quickly. Having the flexibility to stand helps with focus and reduces fatigue, especially during long stretches of work. The sturdy build and spacious surface also mean I have plenty of room for my setup without feeling cramped.

• Sony WH-XB900N is my current set of noise cancelling headphones. Had them for a few years now and they are still great. Battery lasts a couple days at a time, they are very comfortable to wear and the noise cancellation is really good.

• Nexstand K2 is the laptop stand I carry with me when travelling or working from a café/library. It's lightweight and compact, but it can be a little wobbly.

• I've got an Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse. I like that they are both clean and simple. The keyboard feels great to type on, and the mouse is a genuinely good mouse with support for gestures but with a horrible charging user experience.

Away from work

I try to stay away from my laptop after working hours and during weekends.

I always keep a notepad close for journalling, doodling and brain dumping either when I'm on the go or throughout the day when I'm at home.

When I'm travelling I usually take my iPad 11-inch (A16) and Logitech Crayon with me. Depending on how much space I've got, I also take my Logitech K380 Bluetooth keyboard as it's much easier to write with than the on-screen keyboard.

I've got an old Kindle Paperwhite (7th generation but still going strong) I use to read my ebooks, which is particularly handy when travelling/onebagging. I really like that I can push websites and other content straight from my iPhone into my Kindle through the Kindle app (which is slowly replacing Instapaper for me). I wish I could borrow ebooks from my local library through my Kindle but unfortunately this is currently unsupported, so I do this from my iPad instead.

In the past few years I've also been making use of my local library, which is a great way to enjoy physical books without the extra clutter.

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Last updated: August 2026