My Personal Technology Stack

Bingeing productivity YouTube and new task management and calendar apps is undoubtably one of my embarrassing (and largely pointless) obsessions during covid lockdowns. We wouldn’t be getting into any of the other obsessions in this post…

The result of this obsessions is the following list of products, and devices that I rely on to manage tasks, time, notes and the content I consume.

A bar I always set with any new app I’m trying is whether this is 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 post-it note.

Task Management

Todoist: This is the definitive to-do list application in my mind, it’s got pretty every feature imaginable and they’re always iterating and improving things. It also works on every platform that’s a major factor for me as I don’t live exclusively inside of the Apple ecosystem. Ever single task I have gets dropped into Todoist from a shortcut on my phone and then I triage and organise them later when I get a moment.

Calendar

Google Calendar: Just the simplest and most accessible calendar application, integrates easily with more applications than anything else it’s hard to argue that premium options give you enough extra functionality to be worth it in my mind.

Content Management and Media Consumption

Notion: Always hard to put into a quick summary why Notion is so great, 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 to keep track of all my book and articles notes, my reading list and I use it for a variety of other note taking tasks as well. The main thing for me is just how pretty and intuitive it is to use - that more than makes up for the slightly slow performance for me.

Readwise: Automatically sync your highlights from kindle into a variety of note taking apps (Notion included)

Readwise Reader: The best read-later platform that I’ve found, 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, gives you lost of ways to customise different list of podcasts and auto-queue new podcasts.

Audible: You don’t always have time to sit down and read, but for those 20 minute gaps you find yourself with on the train or walking somewhere having a few audio books available is great. I find myself also using it for books that I like the idea of reading, but don’t think I’ll be able to fully commit to, but I’ll happily listen to in the background.

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

Devices

iPad Pro: I’ve stopped using my laptop for most of my mobile computing needs now, if I need to go somewhere and read, write or for media consumption on the go I think the iPad Pro is practically unbeatable.

Kindle PaperWhite: There’s nothing easier than throwing a kindle in a bag when your travelling. It means you can always buy a new book to read, and you can literally read anywhere with the built-in back light. Also being able to sync your highlights to note taking apps through Readwise automatically is just an amazing feature.

Miscellaneous App Recommendations

Dashlane: Password Managers are a mandatory piece of software in my mind, you can’t rely on just using the google/apple solution if you don’t exclusively use apple products. 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.

Strong: If you got to the Gym you need something to track your 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 home much adding a physical restriction makes to re-wiring your habits of endlessly scrolling.