Tools


Apps, web services and devices that I use for personal productivity.

  • Things 3 - For personal/work planning and tracking.
    • A beautiful, simple and powerful to-do app to manage tasks and projects.
    • Requires a one-time upfront investment (~INR 5K) and works only on Mac and iOS.
  • Matter - For all short-form content consumption. The best app that I have paid for.
    • Allows saving links for later, reading newsletters and following writers directly from the app.
    • Parses web pages and renders them in a reader view. Supports highlighting, note taking, and listening to articles. Highlights sync with Readwise and popular apps (e.g. Notion, Obsidian).
    • Now also offers podcast and YouTube video transcriptions.
    • Costs $8 (~INR 640 per month) but is totally worth it.
  • Obsidian - For all forms of note-taking and personal knowledge management.
    • Steph Ango’s ‘File over app’ philosophy inspired me to adopt it. Notes are markdown files that reside locally.
    • Extremely low switching cost - the import from other apps (Apple Notes/Notion etc.) functionality is ridiculously good. One of the best first run experiences that I have gone through.
    • Requires you to be a tech purist to understand and appreciate it. Community contributed plug-ins make it incredibly powerful and customizable.
    • Free to use.
  • reMarkable 2 - Paper tablet (e-Ink).
    • Amazing device for journalling, reading and annotating PDFs.
    • Use it for distraction free thinking and digitisation of handwritten notes.
    • Costs ~INR 44K.
  • Arc - Browser.
    • Arc (by The Browser Company) is reimagining how a web browser should work. It is Chromium based and easily imports from Chrome in one-click.
    • Beautifully designed with a vertical sidebar; optimised to solve the multiple tabs problem through better bookmarking and archiving.
    • Offers a lot of customizations. New features launch every week. Their release videos are something to look forward to.
    • Free to use. There is a learning curve.
    • The mobile app is not great and syncing across devices is not seamless.
  • ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity - Personal assistants.
    • Everyone should pay for at least one of these.
    • The difference between ChatGPT and Claude is perfectly summarised by this tweet : “So Claude is the post-rationalist sensitive therapist type and o1 is the PhD Math professor who doesn’t care about your feelings”.
    • Anecdotal experience
      • ChatGPT brainstorms better and is more nuanced + MECE in its problem solving. It can also handle data analysis and anything to do with attachments better.
      • Claude is better at coding and amazing at all the human stuff (relationship advice, navigating through emotional dilemmas etc.).
      • Perplexity is best for search queries that require a precise well-researched answer instead of link hopping and exploration.
    • Each of them costs $20 (~INR 1600 per month).
  • Freedom - For managing screen-time and increasing focus.
    • Blocks apps/websites across your devices and browsers. Uses VPN.
    • The Locked Mode functionality makes it impossible to bypass.
    • Costs $3.33 (~INR 280) per month for the subscription.
  • Otter.ai - Speech to text AI assistant.
    • Converts voice notes to text. 80-90% accurate.
    • Great for recording and transcribing meetings (and simplifying the process of sending minutes).
  • Streaks - For habit tracking.
    • Clean and simple UI/UX.
    • Syncs seamlessly with Apple Health and screen time.
    • One time purchase fee of ~INR 500.
  • Quartr - Investment insights.
    • The best resource for consuming investor presentations and earning calls data.
    • Offers audio and transcripts with highlighting.
    • Free to use.
  • Day One - Digital journal.
    • Very well designed app for journalling - supports attachments, maps to location and syncs with photo library.
    • Sends useful daily prompts to think and reflect.
    • Costs $2.92 (~INR 250) per month for premium version.