Back in the day, I used to be a true power user — I had a highly specific setup, tuned over the years, with lots of specialized productivity tools. I had a highly customized app launcher, I had virtual desktops before they were cool. I used to use my Mac exclusively with a drawing tablet because I could jump around the screen. Yeah. I was one of those.
Then all the ::waves hand:: brain stuff happened. I've barely had any mental capacity to do any work at all, much less get all metacognitive about it.
So I've been digging around in and "working" with a half-broken pile of messy shit for a long time, because it sorta (not really) functioned and anyway I had much more critical things to spend my energy on. Also, my M1 MBP only kinda worked? I have no idea what's wrong with it; hardware tests always passed with flying colors and I just muddled through because what would Apple do if it showed nothing? And that would take energy too.
But now my brain is, mostly, back in my braincase, and I got a used M2 Max 16" because I couldn't function with the half-functioning laptop any more.
And this time… I want to set it up right.
I'll be writing about this stuff in detail, I expect, but in the mean time, here are some of the pretty slick tools I'm using so far.
What I'm using/trialing currently
- Stage Manager. It's so helpful for my slightly damaged ADHD brain to have the other apps disappear when I'm working.
- Mimestream. Testing out this native mail client for gmail (we use Apps for Domains, or whatever it's called now) and it seems really nice, although the key combos are horrific and I'll end up editing most of them I think.
- Grila. A menu popup calendar that's much bigger and seemingly much more useful than Fantastical, and keyboard-oriented.
- rcmd. From the same guys as Grila, an alternative to tabbing through open apps, where you can use the right command key to go directly to an app with its first letter.
- Dropover. A drag & drop "receptacle" power tool, especially handy with Stage Manager.
- Hush. A Safari extension that manages to zero out most web popovers and cookie banners. It really helps! I need to find a good ad blocker next.
- HyperDuck. Install this app on your Mac and iPhone/iPad to effortlessly send web sites from your mobile devices to your computer.
- TabSpace. Safari extension to save tabs and sessions and organize them as you see fit. This is going to be invaluable.
- History Book. Safari extension + standalone app to save full text copies of articles, posts, etc., you come across so you can do a full text search if you can't find something again. (Safari's history search is godawful.)
- Unprocrastinator, from the same maker as History Book. It's a Safari extension that lets you set a 30-second gratification delay on various web sites. I'm using it to stop unconsciously opening Bluesky, which is not something I do because I want to scroll, it's like a fidget. I can stop it.
- I'm trying Readwise, not sure if I'll stick with it or if I'll switch to something like self-hosted Omnivore. But it's nice so far. I know I can use Readwise to sync up my Kindle notes and maybe do Read it Later on my Kindle? Or if I get another eink tablet? We shall see. My goal is to 1. stop tab hoarding (which is a combination of factors, not just read-it-later) and make reading my backlog easier and more rewarding than scrolling bullshit which is what I do mostly just because it's easy.
- For doing my web-based document work (which I usually do in Chrome), I'm trying out Tabme and Workona as sort of "launchpads" for my various projects, to gather all the related gdocs, Notions, references, yadda in one place. The one thing I absolutely am sick to death of doing is looking up the links to shit because I can't remember where it is. And I will literally die before I manage a list of links in a doc file. Again.
Things I'm going to try but haven't touched yet:
- I want to try Obsidian, which can integrate with Readwise (and other tools). Unclear if I will like it, since I'm allergic to Markdown… but it has a lot of plugins and customizability. Blergh?
- Raycast or Alfred (again). I haven't tried Raycast and it looks overall vastly superior to Alfred, which I never liked because it was never as good as Quicksilver used to be. (Alas, Quicksilver — which I started using as soon as it came out — has sucked ass for years and years now.) The one thing I can't believe is that Raycast doesn't have the feature where you select an app and then hit the right arrow to pull up a list of recent files from that app, specifically, to launch directly. That right there is one of the world's biggest time savers. What the fuck! Quicksilver had it, Alfred has it — but I don't like Alfred.
- Dockside. A file tray… a la classic Mac OS folder drawers.
- TabDirector and/or Tab Finder for Safari.
- MacWhisper, for audio transcription using Whisper on-computer (no cloud service).
- A good screenshot tool.
- A more convenient screencast tool than Screenflow, which has its uses but I want something in between that and the built-in tool, or Loom, which I hate unless it's for sending directly to somebody.
- I really want to find an alternative to Spaces that works in a way that makes sense (actually acts like virtual desktops from the good old days).
- I need a clipboard manager. Unclear if I'll end up using a standalone one or Raycast or whatever.
- Text expansion? I used to be a big user of TypeIt4Me and TextExpander back in the day and it looks like they have modern OS X versions too.
- Some kinda jottable notes tool that isn't Stickies and isn't Apple Notes (ew). Maybe an Apple Notes alternative would be nice.
Open to suggestions if you have 'em.