🧰 My Toolkit
Hey friends!
Welcome to the first ever issue of The Report. I’m super excited to have you here and to start this passion project of mine. For this first issue, we’ll be taking a tour through my toolkit of apps, tech, and everything else I use to run my life, my business and my passion projects.
This toolkit has been designed and built over 3+ years of experimenting what works and what doesn’t. I’m finally in a place where I have no complaints from anything I use in this toolkit and the entire thing runs like clockwork. The apps I’m going to talk about are divided into the three main functions I live my life by: Organization, Writing and Research/Reading.
A small note before we start: Some of these apps add to my core workflow by helping me think better or organize my life better. I have used them a considerable amount but they are just there to be a supplementary guide, and nothing more.
Organization
I have tried every task manager under the sun and Things 3 is really the only one that understands the way my brain thinks. With support for repeated tasks, calendar integration, supplementary markdown notes, it was an absolute no-brainer to use this app for my day-to-day tasks. Things 3 is a joy to use, and runs seamlessly on all Apple devices. I’m also happy to say that this is the only app I still use daily, without fail, from when I first purchased it.
I’ll be the first to admit that I have way too many email accounts. I have one for my business, one for work, one for personal work, one for newsletters and so much more. Because of the amount of emails I have to handle daily, Outlook was my main choice. It handles whatever I throw at it without any issue and I love the focused inbox feature the most. This was an instant win.
Clay is easily the best designed app I have in my arsenal. I mean, just look how absolutely gorgeous it is! I use Clay to stay on top of my relationships, because the pandemic has made it way too easy for an introvert like me to just toss my phone aside and disappear. With Clay, I’m much more intentional about the people I do interact with, and it’s a great application that helps you stay on top of what’s happening in your network.
I’ve recently revisited DayOne for journaling and I’m happy to say that it has helped me cultivate this habit and actually stick to it. I’ve tried every app out there, and something about DayOne just keeps me coming back. I also use Weavit if I need my thoughts to be more structured, especially if they’re thoughts I keep coming back to. Both apps are equally important for me, and I absolutely love using them.
Writing
Typefully has made waves in the Twitter community and rightfully so. For someone that’s just starting out on Twitter like I am, Typefully is perfect because it doesn’t overwhelm me. It’s a simple app that’s perfectly designed to just get your thoughts onto Twitter and I couldn’t have asked for more.
Craft Docs is one of the most important apps in my arsenal. Another beautifully designed application that works wonderfully across all my devices. I use it to maintain my business, write this newsletter, and take all my notes for work and my personal life. And now, as a future Masters student, I intend on continuing to use it for all my coursework too.
Research/Reading
Unpopular opinion, but I love using Safari for my reading and researching needs. It syncs across my devices, does the job well and I haven’t had any complaints with it thus far.
An unusual app to add to my Research/Reading category but I’ve learned so many great things on Twitter than I have on any other social media app. From insightful threads and lessons, to breaking news and memes, I love using Twitter as a source of my inspiration.
Feeed is a great app for staying on top of blogs, sub-reddits, articles, magazines and newspapers. It’s currently in TestFlight but I’m so so glad I found this app. It consolidates all my daily reading into one app and the UI is great. From the few days of usage so far, I’ve absolutely loved using this app and highly recommend it for those on the lookout for an RSS reader.
The default Apple Books app is also one of my most used apps. I have a lot of books on there and I love using it to read anything that isn’t non-fiction. I’m currently reading a lot of fantasy and I’m actively looking for recommendations as well. Let me know if you have any good ideas!
And that’s my entire toolkit. I’ve enjoyed writing this first edition and I hope you like reading it too! If you have any questions or feedback, respond to this email and let’s chat. I’d love to hear your thoughts. My inbox is always open 💜.
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