Current Personal Technology Stack

Principles

Better than Paper: A bar I always set with any new app, tool or device I’m going to use is whether it’s better than a piece of paper and a pen… Now that’s painfully simple, but you’d be surprised by how many apps you have that are less effective at their objective than a piece of paper or a notepad.

A Joy to use: If you’re going to use something every day, you’ve got to enjoy the act of using it, even if “technically” it does what it needs to do.

Reducing Complexity: Wherever you can cut an app, a piece of technology, or a device, do so.

Current setup

Task Management

Todoist: This is the definitive to-do list application in my mind. It’s got pretty much every feature imaginable and is always improving. It also works on every platform, which is a major factor for me as I don’t live exclusively inside of the Apple or Google ecosystems.

Calendar

Google Calendar: Just the simplest and most accessible calendar application, integrates easily with more applications than anything else and it’s hard to argue that more premium calendar applications give you enough extra functionality to be worth it (and they can’t beat Google Calendar for integrations).

Content Management and Media Consumption

Notion: It’s always hard to quickly summarise why Notion’s fantastic, but if you put in the time to learn and set it up then you’ll become reliant on it incredibly fast. I use it primarily as a content database. It has all of my book, film and article highlights stored there. The main thing for me is just how aesthetic the user interface is and how intuitive it is to use - that more than makes up for the slightly slow performance for me.

Readwise: It automatically sync your highlights from kindle and other applications into a variety of note-taking apps (Notion for me). This is impossible to live without once you start.

Readwise Reader: The best read-later platform that I’ve found for articles. It automatically syncs your highlights into Readwise but also has built-in features to subscribe to email newsletters and send them directly to the app. Makes reading and keeping track of articles you want to read later an absolute joy.

Pocket Casts: My personal favourite podcast app. It has great features to organise your subscriptions and automatically queue new episodes of your favourite podcasts. Also, as with all other apps I’ve listed, It’s got a clean interface that’s super intuitive to use.

JustWatch: Keeps track of your watch lists and lets you filter them by what’s available on specific streaming services, which is incredibly useful when things are constantly being added and removed.

Devices

13-inch iPad Pro: I’ve stopped using my laptop for most of my computing needs now, the iPad Pro is practically unbeatable for anything I need to do other than coding.

Kindle PaperWhite: There’s nothing easier than throwing a kindle in a bag when you’re travelling. It means you can always buy a new book to read, and you can literally read anywhere with the built-in light. Also being able to sync your highlights to note-taking apps through Readwise automatically is something you can’t live without once you’ve started using it.

Pixel 6a: All phones do the same thing and I lose things faster than I can re-acquire them. So the budget Pixel phones have been my go to for years, it does exactly what you need a phone to do and doesn’t break the bank.

Miscellaneous Apps

Dashlane: Password managers are a mandatory piece of software in my mind (you can thank my time in cybersecurity for that). There are lots of alternatives here and most of them are pretty good in my mind. I’ve just always liked Dashlane’s interface and it plays nicely on iOS and Android which is important since I have an Android phone and use apple products at the same time.

Strong: If you go to the Gym you need something to track you’re lifts and also plan your program in advance, there’s nothing worse than turning up and not knowing what your going to do that session. Pretty much every feature you need is available in the app and the premium option is only a very small monthly fee.

Unplug: The best way to cut down on screen time that I’ve found. It’s a physical tag that you have to touch to your phone to access specific apps. It’s amazing how much adding a physical restriction makes to rewiring your endlessly scrolling habit.

Filterbox (Android): App that lets you add specific filters and schedules to your phone notifications. This app helps turn your phone into a much less distracting device. For example, I don’t want constant notifications from a news or sports application throughout the day, but I do still like to be able to read them at some point, so I have them scheduled to come through as I’m commuting home after work.

The Way: Fantastic meditation app I’ve been using after a Tim Ferris recommendation. Found it way easier to make the habit stick using this app than with Calm or Headspace which I’ve used before.

Google Photos: Simple and easy to use photo application, particularly if you’re using only Android or a combination of iOS and Android. Using this as my de facto photo storage solution has really simplified things.

OneDrive: My chosen cloud storage app, I think it’s hard to beat Microsoft when it comes to this given OneDrive integrates with all the office applications, which depending on your line of work, your employer may well be forcing you to use anyway.

Google Maps (specifically lists): I’m only including this to call out the fantastic lists functionality on Google Maps. If you have a list of places you want to visit - the best and easiest way to store and visualise these is in Google Maps. Given you go to Google Maps to find somewhere to visit/eat/drink anywhere, this is naturally the best place to keep any lists of places you want to go.