Many of us play more than one role in the digital world. I’m no exception. This year, I’ve been a writer, online business owner and student, using a variety of digital tools to get the job done in each role.
Since I’ve been writing on the internet for less than a year, this has been my first chance to do a yearly round-up of a topic. Because what I talk about largely relates to online productivity and personal knowledge management, I thought it would be wise to start with some apps, tools and services that have made a difference for me this year.
In this list are some long-standing favourites I’ve been using for many years, with some other tools I’ve picked up this year due to transferring to an Apple ecosystem. I hope you discover something new in this list, so let’s get started…
Obsidian
Anyone who’s read any of my articles over the last year knows I can’t get enough of this app. So instead of me going on about it over again in this piece, I’ll direct you to some more work I think you’ll like if you want to learn more about Obsidian…
Lemon Squeezy
This year, after writing for a while, I began to develop an online product that I thought would offer value to people. This product needed somewhere to be hosted, where people could purchase and download it.
This place, for me, was Lemon Squeezy. Used by info-product giant Thomas Frank, I liked how the fees were cheap, and how the white-and-purple design of the platform also blended in very nicely with my branding compared to the contrasting colours and weird fonts on Gumroad.
ConvertKit and beehiiv
Along with writing articles this year, I’ve also been sending lots of emails, including my weekly newsletter Fundamentalised, and other bonus emails for my product PARAZETTEL.
beehiiv for the former and ConvertKit for the latter have been the tools that I’ve used for this job. In beehiiv, I’ve liked how I’m able to design how the newsletter looks down to the different styles of quote blocks in beehiiv, and the sequences that I can build in ConvertKit give the best welcome to the email list I can provide.
I owe a lot of my growth this year to being able to send emails, so both of these tools deserve a place on the list. They’re both business-oriented oriented though, so you might not have a use for them if you don’t want to make a newsletter or deliver email marketing. Don’t worry though, as the next couple of apps have a wider application.
Around the middle of 2023, I realised that it was time for an upgrade in my tech. I’d started to earn a little money through the partner program on Medium and realised that the little inefficiencies that I was experiencing through using a slow and aged laptop might impact my ability to create work. This would be true, especially around design and development for websites and graphics. So, I went to the huge shopping mall on the edge of my city in the UK and purchased an M2 MacBook Air. Having used Windows all my life, this was going to take some adjusting to, but I can happily say now, that by the end of the year, I have completely transitioned. The next two apps are ones that I’ve picked up through my new MacOS usage…
Raycast
This is one of those tools that is just perfect for getting the job done with minimal fuss. I love it when a tool just fades into the background so you don’t notice it’s there, and this is exactly the case with Raycast. On Windows, I used to like using PowerToys Run to show a search bar for my programs, files and more, but Raycast on MacOS goes beyond this.
It does all the basic things PowerToys Run did, and more. There is an extension store that contains extensions that the community have built to integrate Raycast with all of your favourite tools for added extensibility. Kind of like Obsidian really — maybe that’s why I like it. Again, I don’t use many of these extensions because I like keeping my environment as minimal as possible.
Arc
I didn’t fancy using Safari when I switched over to Mac, and I’d heard of this up-and-coming browser that was dubbed to be a Chrome-killer. This browser was Arc, and after using it for about half a year, I can safely say that I’m not going to be heading back to Google’s browser offering any time soon.
There’s something different about Arc. Where other browsers have been made for profit, or the sake of it, Arc feels as though it’s been created with a love for the product and a pride in experience and usability. Whether it’s the re-imagination of browser features such as the search bar as the command bar, or the little animations for many actions, this browser is a joy to use.
I wrote a more in-depth piece about Arc, which you can read here…
Medium
Medium’s not a desktop application or a tool but it deserves a place on this list, seeing as it’s where I’ve garnered most of the online attention for my brand in the last year. Writing articles appealed to me even before this year, but it was on the 3rd of January this year that I published my first piece on the platform.
I can only express my gratitude to everyone who’s read any of my work over the last year. You’ve all changed my life, and I can’t wait to see where I take things with my writing in the future. I don’t have any concrete plans yet, but one thing’s for sure — I won’t stop creating.
Thank you.
Todoist
I’ll finish this list with the longest-serving application in my entire arsenal. Todoist has been part of my productivity since 2021 when I first understood that my work was something that I could improve.
It’s a superb application, with quick add features, natural language recognition included, as well as plenty of free features. You can make things as simple or complicated as you wish with tags, filters, projects and sections. Whichever you choose, the app scales up or down perfectly so you don’t get limited or sidetracked.
These are the most important apps in my workflow as an online writer, business owner and student. I’ll say again that I’m so grateful to you all for reading this year, and as always, I hope that you’ve learned something from this piece. This won’t be the last time you hear from me this year, especially if you sign up for PARAZETTEL V2 updates, so stay tuned and I’ll talk to you soon!