Productivity Apps

[Updated late summer 2008]

As you might guess, my favorite applications are those that enable me to be more efficient and productive.

To wit, my absolute favorite, justifies-the-purchase-of-a-Mac-just-so-you-can-use-this-app is Quicksilver. Oh I cannot even really put into words the joy that is QS. Suffice it to say that on those occasions in which I am in front of a Mac which is not my own, and there is no QS installed, I literally do not know how to operate it. I implore you to download it (it’s free), and fool around with it.

While there’s not a lot of great documentation on the site itself, there is no a great manual which you can download. Also, sites like Lifehacker and Merlin Mann’s 43Folders have devoted quite a bit of time to explaining the joys of QS. I will likely do a series on QS at some point soon.

For years I struggled with passwords. I’ve used various software that would encrypt and store, but nothing really worked that well. 1Passwd finally figured it out. Not only does it encrypt and store, but it allows for autofill of web site info ranging from name and password all the way up to full-on credit card info, etc.

Most delightfully, you can autofill (and autosave) passwords with a simple key combination. Or, better, assign the website and key combination and use a QS trigger so that you can access the website and fill in the password info by pressing one key. The amount of time saved with 1Passwd more than justifies the $30 cost.

I’ve written about my fondness for David Allen’s Getting Things Done system quite frequently. The tool I now use to implement my process is the dead-simple, TaskPaper. While not as full-featured as other GTD apps, TaskPaper gives me just what I need: Projects, Tasks, Tags, Comprehensive sorting. It’s $18.95.

Yojimbo is my file cabinet for all things web site. It’s a fantastic app that does more than I use it for, but it’s something I use every day to capture and organize all the miscellany I pull from the web. It’ll run you $39.

While I’ll soon be doing a more detailed post on iPhone apps, I’m going to include Evernote here, because, while it really works amazingly well with an iPhone, it’s also a pretty great stand-alone app as well. It’s basically like Yojimbo on steroids. That is, you can collect all sorts of information: text, images, etc. One of the amazing things about this app is that it has deep OCR capabilities. So, you can take a picture of receipt or whatever, and Evernote will scan and “read” the text in the images. This allows you to search for text embedded in images. It syncs wonderfully with the iPhone, really does allow you to organize all those bits of information you come across out in the world on a daily basis. It’s free for basic usage.

Another app I use a ton is called Skitch. It’s an image capture utility that is absolutely essential for bloggers, but also comes in handy when you need a quick screen grab. It has a ton of features, including the ability to mark up the image. The UI is astonishingly great, and it’s free.

I’ve become very fond of Twitter, and really believe that it holds tremendous promise for creative types and businesses. Amazonmp3, for example, is using it (and Facebook) very well. The Twitter client I use - both for my desktop and iPhone - is Twitterific. There is a free version, and an ad-free version for $14.98

While I’m clearly a beginner (if that I’m comfortable saying that at this point I have attained beginner status.), when it comes to Wordpress, I absolutely love it. I think it’s very intuitive, and allows for great possibilities. I look forward to learning more.

These are just a few of the apps that I use daily, and which really increase my efficiency, and thus allow me to focus on the bigger things. I’ll add more as they come along.

Share This