| I copy pasted everything from my blog here. If you want the actual links to things I use, just use the link since I can't dump it in hackernews without it being really unreadable. http://vincentmtang.com/toolbox/ I only put all the ways I organize my things via software, still a WIP (work in progress) for hardware things I use (pens, notebooks, etc) ------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Notetaking / Productivity Dynalist – Primary notetaking software Airtable – Google spreadsheet meets microsoft access. A swiss army knife for business. Very useful for making a minimal viable prototype Pinboard – Bookmarking. I consider this 3rd party chrome extension a must-have, I bind it to my CTRL+D key Anki – Flashcard software. I use it to speed up learning math, programming languages, and computer science. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Software Development Chrome – My everyday browser Slimjet – A simple chromium based browser that I use for webdevelopment occasionally. Because then I can have a seperate desktop icons VS Code – My primary IDE Github – Git + cloud storage for programming projects Codepen – Isolated frontend environment. Used to A/B test components and explore cool things. Organize codesnippets here like I do in evernote. Postman – API testing LucidChart – Making flowchart diagrams and data models. Not free though, for that I prefer draw.io ------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Design Tools – (macOS and windows) Flux – Makes screen red at night so I can sleep easier AffinityDesigner – I use all adobe products as well, but I prefer this over illustrator AffinityPhoto – Same reason, I prefer over adobe photoshop AdobeIndesign – Catalog & Brochure design Figma – UX design tool, applesketch is macOS only AutoCAD – Architectural drafting program, but not free Fusion360 – 3D modelling program for DIY projects GooglePhotos – Photo & video backup Dropbox – Cloud storage for files/folders ------------------------------------------------------------------ ## WINDOWS SPECIFIC Phraseexpress – Keyboard macro automation. Checkout my 14 phrase-express guide to see use cases Autohotkey – When I need an advanced macro that phrase express doesn’t work on. It has a high learning curve and ugly syntax language though DirectoryOpus – Native windows file explorer sucks, this is best file explorer in market. Has a learning curve. Checkout use cases here 7+ Taskbar Tweaker – Smaller icons on my windows desktop screen Blank Spacer Exes – It gets hard to look at so many icons in windows, so this gives me eye relief by grouping icons together Greenshot – The best windows quick image editor out there. First thing I install on friends/family PC normally, its that good. MacOS version is not good. ShareX – ShareX is greenshot image editor that supports gif uploads / custom image-hosting options. Version 11.6 is the best. MacOS has no equivalent. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ## MacOS specific – alot of programming apps Iterm2 – A better terminal environment. I binded it to ⌃⌥[spacebar] Oh-my-zsh – My preferred bash alternative for development Penc – Gesture based window snapping/resizing Spectacle – Keyboard based window snapping/resizing Keyboard Maestro – Keyboard automation for macOS. Similar to phraseexpress but better Alfred – Better alternative to macOS’s spotlight for quickly opening files / apps. I binded it to ⌥[spacebar] Captured – An inferior version to shareX without gif support, but best thing I could find. Dropzone 3 – For quickly handling common tasks like moving folders around Cheatsheet – Because I’m a new mac user I need to quickly memorize commands Unarchiver – So I can one click install things on macOS ------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Chrome Extensions – Productivity Silverbird – For quickly tweeting things on twitter Tabsnooze – Set reminders to myself to pay bills at end of month, and to do incremental reading Pagenotes – When I need to save some specific information on a website. E.G. terminal commands, regular expressions on regex101.com, etc. TheGreatSuspender – Suspends unused tabs after 30 minutes. Because chrome is a memory hog Tampermonkey – Injecting javascript on a page to enhance notetaking tools. Its like your own chrome extension. Read about how I use it here Ankitab – Relatively unknown, but its the opposite of Momentum. I use it to review flashcards thoughout the day DynalistCompanionClipper – I use this with my notetaking app dynalist, I dump all my ideas here as they happen. Stylus – Add custom CSS to webpages. Since stylish was tracking user data and got banned VideoSpeedController – So I can play youtube videos up to 16x speed with captions to speedread. Its how I consume information very quickly Imagus – Hover over an image to see its full view. Useful for my notetaking app dynalist, as well GoogleDictionary – Select a word to see its definition. PowerThesaurus – Select a word to see synonym and antonyms. Thesaurus are my favorite business and coding tool, naming is important ClipboardHistory2 – SelectAll, CopyAll – you now have a saved copy of whatever your typing on reddit / hackernews / wordpress Lastpass – Chrome extension for managing passwords. Cross platform AmazonAssistant – So I can dump all my favorited wishlist items anywhere to amazon, export it out later ------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Chrome Extensions – WebDevelopment Wappylzer / Builtwith – To check what websites are running these days, accurate 50% of time Page Ruler – Measure things on screen quickly Webdeveloper – Powerful swiss army knife for webdevelopment, but I never use it ViewportResizer – For responsive webdevelopment, I use this daily. Better than chrome’s native tools. Checkout bookmark version here Gifscrubber – I need to pause gifs especially if I want to make a codepen of it from dribbble, etc. PlaytheGif is a close equivalent. RefinedGithub – Better looking github made by Sindresorhus Octotree – Left side file explorer for github repos ------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Android / General ColorNotes – Every other noteapp I’ve used sucks. I write things here, copy+paste it to dynalist later GoogleKeep – When I need to quickly sync an image or text from my phone to PC and nothing else works Meetup – Use the specific link, login, and add URL to homepage. Meetup android app sucks. Shows only the 28 techmeetups I’m subbed to SolidExplorer – File explorer Should I answer? – Tells me if phonecaller is a scammer. Not that I pick up phonecalls I don’t recognize anyways, that’s what voicemails for. Slack – Team communication OfficeLens – For making PDF’s from documents using your phone camera. waze – If I know a driving route is slow, I use waze okgoogle – My favorite commands are: “Play spotify”, “Next Song”, “Navigate Home”, “Exit Navigation”, “Find Parking” Spotify – Music Musixmatch – Lyrics for spotify GoogleCalendar – Calendar ------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Content / News Youtube – I only put an alert on people that post high quality content infrequently. E.G., SmarterEveryDay, MarkRober, TomScott ProductHunt – Where I like to see all the new fun tools out there Hackernews – Lots of smart and interesting people here. Also, where I find out about news in the tech environment Reddit/subreddits – Copy this multihub, delete ones that aren’t relevant to you, add cool ones like r/welding, r/cableporn, r/engineeringPorn |