Mac tools for productivity
I love finding new tools that save me time or let me do things easier.
Here’s my current collection of Mac apps that I rely on.
Most of these are Mac-exclusive, but some are available on Windows and Linux as well.
Many are also included in Setapp, a subscription service for a bundle of Mac applications.
Menu bar apps
Bartender
Included in Setapp
Helps manage the menu bar by basically adding a second row that can be toggled on and off.
Super helpful menu bar apps that only get used occasionally. Also helps prevent an overflowing menu bar on devices with smaller displays, such as the Macbook Air.
Cursor Pro
https://www.ixeau.com/cursor-pro/
This app adds an outline to your cursor, an indicator of when you’re clicking, and whether you’re left-click or right-clicking/two-finger clicking.
Also lets you magnify wherever your mouse is positioned on the screen, which is helpful for highlighting small bits of UI during a screenshare.
I mostly use this app for workshops or tutorials. This app is similar to Keystroke Pro, which is made by the same developer.
Freedom
Turns off your internet, basically. When it's turned on, it keeps you from viewing any website you haven't whitelisted. I use it mostly as a pomodoro timer.
Also available on Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS.
Handmirror
Great little app that lives in the menu bar. When you click its icon, it shows a preview of how you look on your webcam.
Great way to fix your hair before hopping on a Zoom call.
Hazeover
Included in Setapp
Dims all windows except for the currently active window. I think this is meant as a focus or productivity tool, but I mostly turn this on when copy/pasting text from one app into another.
This is especially helpful when copy/pasting text into Figma. On Mac, Cmd+Click will prevent an app from gaining focus. In Figma, Cmd+Click also happens to be the shortcut for selecting text within a frame.
That means it’s very easy to get text perfectly selected, press Cmd+V, and then paste in a completely different application.
I mostly use Hazeover just to let me know I need to click one more time without holding down the Command key.
Keystroke Pro
https://www.ixeau.com/keystroke-pro/
Displays keyboard inputs on your screen. Helpful when hosting workshops or creating tutorials. Similar to Cursor Pro, which is made by the same developer.
There’s a couple other apps that do the same thing, but this app includes labels for the spacebar, escape keys, and other special keys, which is very helpful when working with anyone not familiar with Macs.
Meeter
Included in Setapp
Another app that lives in the menu bar, it shows a countdown until your next scheduled meeting for day. Super helpful for managing your work during gaps between meetings.
One Switch
https://fireball.studio/oneswitch/
Included in Setapp
Menu bar app that lets you quickly switch Mac settings on and off. I mostly use this to enable/disable True Tone, Night Shift, and swap between Light mode/Dark mode.
Mac enhancements
Alfred
Shortcut tool that sort-of replaces Spotlight on Mac. I use it mostly for grabbing passwords quickly from 1Password/Lastpass, or using text snippets to insert template messages or common emojis. For example, I can type "checkk" to get a "✅".
Other similar tools are Raycast and Slapdash.
Cleanshot X
Included in Setapp
Replacement for the Mac's native screenshot tool. It has great options for recording gifs or video, capturing sections of the screen, annotating images, taking scrolling screenshots, or blurring out info with mosaics. Probably one of the apps I used the most.
fig
An enhancement to the macOS terminal, adds some helpful features like autocomplete.
I actually don't use this app very much, because I mostly try to avoid using the terminal. It's super helpful to have, though, because it saves me the work of looking up unix commands for the millionth time.
I’m sure it has a ton of other features that people who do engineering work will love, but I just use it occasionally for autocomplete.
Magnet
Window management tool that adds shortcuts for window sizing. This is another app I use constantly.
Ctrl+option+arrow keys will let you snap a window so that it takes up half the monitor, and tapping the same direction a bunch of times will move windows to different monitors.
Ctrl+option+return will maximize an app's window size, without making it go into macOS's version of "full screen" where the app becomes its own workspace.
I think the default macOS window management tools are really annoying, so this app is a huge favorite of mine.
There's a few similar alternatives, BetterTouchTool being the most popular one.
Full apps
Arc
This is the new browser from thebrowser.company. I’ve only been using it for a few weeks, but I’m a big fan.
For me, the biggest feature is that pressing cmd+S will hide basically all the browser UI, which I absolutely love. Super helpful to taking the noise out of the browsing experience.
It also has some other helpful features, like “workspaces”, which is basically a way of managing bookmarks for specific tasks/roles.
So, for example, you can have a Work workspace that has a dozen bookmarks for staging sites, calendars, etc, and an Entertainment workspace with links to all your streaming services. It’s the only version of Tab Groups that I’ve actually used, so I’ve been pretty impressed by it.
It has some other features, like split-view and picture-in-picture, but I don’t use either of those features almost ever.
It’s based on Chromium, so all Chrome extensions should import and work normally.
One helpful hotkey (besides Cmd+S to hide the UI) is cmd+shift+[ or cmd+shift+] to go to next/previous tabs. Otherwise, control+tab will scroll through your tabs based on how recently they were active, which absolutely breaks my brain.
Cron
Good calendar app which feels very similar to the native macOS Calendar app. The key feature difference is Command Menu shortcut that can be launched with Cmd+K
Recently got acquired by Notion, so I’m interested to see where that partnership goes.
Eagle
Another fancy screenshot tool, this one lets you capture images and quickly add them to a repository within the app. Using the browser extension will automatically add things like the URL the screenshot was taken from, and the app also lets you add descriptions and tags.
Super neat way to catalogue all the small "Oh, that's interesting, I like that" moments that you have when browsing.
Sort of like Devonthink for images.
Also available on Windows.
Firefox Developer Edition
I use this mostly for the Inspect tool.
Firefox is the only browser that has an Inspect tab specifically for fonts.
It gives quick access to info like font size, line height, and font weight, and also lets you find out whether a site is using pixels, percentages, rems, or unsigned units.
Super, super helpful for understanding why a website’s typography is working or why it’s difficult to read.
The developer edition is basically the same as vanilla Firefox, but includes a slightly different dark mode theme that I prefer.
Also available on Windows/Linux.
Keyboard Maestro
https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/
This is another shortcuts tool. I’ve mostly used it for rebinding hotkeys, or creating macros so that multiple actions are tied to a single hotkey.
Helpful occasionally for stuff like Figma. One macro set that got heavy use was when I was trying to remove .base components from a file, which meant a lot of copy/pasting styling and then ungrouping a frame one level deep in the hierarchy. Because Figma already has hotkeys to do all those actions, I was able to build a macro that did all five of those actions with one hotkey.
In Figma, the Automator plugin has mostly replaced what I’ve used this app for, but this still comes in handy every now as an alternative to Automator.
Mela
Great recipe app for Mac and iOS, made by the same developer as the RSS app Reeder.
The key feature of the app is that it will parse a recipe webpage to just the ingredients and steps. This is a huge boon for any recipes that come from blogs, which will often have the actual recipe buried at the end of a long article for SEO reasons.
Also lets you quickly add ingredients from a recipe into a grocery list, which helps a ton with meal planning.
Mindnode
Included in Setapp
Just a good, simple app for creating mindmaps. Helpful for brainstorming ideas and lo-fi planning.
Notion
Good note taking tools that let you do complicated layouts very easily.
Lets you color code things, create dashboards, add accordions and dividers seamlessly within a page.
The spreadsheet/database tools are also incredibly powerful, and basically give the advanced features of something like Airtable or Excel inside of a Word doc.
A great example of Notion databases in action can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlsMkLk7M_I.
Notion is also available on Windows. Craft is also a similar alternative.
PDF Expert
Very overpriced PDF app, but has a couple features that aren’t in any any other apps.
My favorite feature is that you can have the same copy of a single file open multiple times, which I haven’t figured out how to do in Preview without making duplicate copies of a file. Because I use Apple’s Books app as a library to house all my PDFs and ebooks, it’s a huge pain to find the hidden library folder files are actually stored in, and an extra hassle to make duplicates without those duplicate copies accidentally getting added into Books.
Having two copies of a file open comes in super handy when referencing a glossary or other end-of-book contents at the same time you’re reading the main text.
Also has advanced features for document creation/filling out forms/etc but I’ve rarely touched those features.
Reeder
My favorite RSS reader. It’s very similar to Google Reader (RIP) with its use of folders and window panes, which I find much simpler to use than things like Feedly or Flipbook that add a bit of extravagance to the reading experience.
Also includes a couple extra features like full article downloads within the app, lots of font customization options, and the option to use Bionic Reading to help with dyslexia and speed reading.
I mostly use the iOS version of the app, but it’s nice to have the Mac app available as an option.
Only available on Apple devices, but Feedbin is a very similar browser app that works across all devices.
Roam/Logseq/Athens
https://www.athensresearch.org/
These are a genre of apps called PKMS (personal knoweldge management systems). Absolutely hate the name, and the community for them leans heavily toward cryptobro/NFT crowd, but I like the tools quite a bit.
Basically, these are all note taking tools that don’t use folders, and instead use only tags or hyperlinks to navigate between pages. I find them super helpful for taking out the decision making of how to classify personal notes.
For example, instead of choosing whether to place notes into a folder for Webinars or Conferences or Content Design, I can take a page with all three of those things. Then, when I got my page for Content Design, I can see all the notes I’ve added on that page, and then below those notes are links to any pages where I’ve included the tag.
I’ve found it a great way to collect resources and notes, and my notes are more findable than other tools like Onenote or Notion where there might be multiple folders and sub-folders that would all make sense to add a page to, but the page can only exist in one of those places at a time.
I think these tools only make sense for personal notes. When working with a team, Notion, Obsidian, or sort-of similar options like Confluence, Salesforce, or Storybook are definitely the way to go.
Also available on Windows/Linux.
Thanks for reading!
Hopefully this was helpful!
If you want to get in touch to talk about design, feel free to send an email to joey.pearlman@gmail.com .
Mac tools for productivity
I love finding new tools that save me time or let me do things easier.
Here’s my current collection of Mac apps that I rely on.
Most of these are Mac-exclusive, but some are available on Windows and Linux as well.
Many are also included in Setapp, a subscription service for a bundle of Mac applications.
Menu bar apps
Bartender
Included in Setapp
Helps manage the menu bar by basically adding a second row that can be toggled on and off.
Super helpful menu bar apps that only get used occasionally. Also helps prevent an overflowing menu bar on devices with smaller displays, such as the Macbook Air.
Cursor Pro
https://www.ixeau.com/cursor-pro/
This app adds an outline to your cursor, an indicator of when you’re clicking, and whether you’re left-click or right-clicking/two-finger clicking.
Also lets you magnify wherever your mouse is positioned on the screen, which is helpful for highlighting small bits of UI during a screenshare.
I mostly use this app for workshops or tutorials. This app is similar to Keystroke Pro, which is made by the same developer.
Freedom
Turns off your internet, basically. When it's turned on, it keeps you from viewing any website you haven't whitelisted. I use it mostly as a pomodoro timer.
Also available on Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS.
Handmirror
Great little app that lives in the menu bar. When you click its icon, it shows a preview of how you look on your webcam.
Great way to fix your hair before hopping on a Zoom call.
Hazeover
Included in Setapp
Dims all windows except for the currently active window. I think this is meant as a focus or productivity tool, but I mostly turn this on when copy/pasting text from one app into another.
This is especially helpful when copy/pasting text into Figma. On Mac, Cmd+Click will prevent an app from gaining focus. In Figma, Cmd+Click also happens to be the shortcut for selecting text within a frame.
That means it’s very easy to get text perfectly selected, press Cmd+V, and then paste in a completely different application.
I mostly use Hazeover just to let me know I need to click one more time without holding down the Command key.
Keystroke Pro
https://www.ixeau.com/keystroke-pro/
Displays keyboard inputs on your screen. Helpful when hosting workshops or creating tutorials. Similar to Cursor Pro, which is made by the same developer.
There’s a couple other apps that do the same thing, but this app includes labels for the spacebar, escape keys, and other special keys, which is very helpful when working with anyone not familiar with Macs.
Meeter
Included in Setapp
Another app that lives in the menu bar, it shows a countdown until your next scheduled meeting for day. Super helpful for managing your work during gaps between meetings.
One Switch
https://fireball.studio/oneswitch/
Included in Setapp
Menu bar app that lets you quickly switch Mac settings on and off. I mostly use this to enable/disable True Tone, Night Shift, and swap between Light mode/Dark mode.
Mac enhancements
Alfred
Shortcut tool that sort-of replaces Spotlight on Mac. I use it mostly for grabbing passwords quickly from 1Password/Lastpass, or using text snippets to insert template messages or common emojis. For example, I can type "checkk" to get a "✅".
Other similar tools are Raycast and Slapdash.
Cleanshot X
Included in Setapp
Replacement for the Mac's native screenshot tool. It has great options for recording gifs or video, capturing sections of the screen, annotating images, taking scrolling screenshots, or blurring out info with mosaics. Probably one of the apps I used the most.
fig
An enhancement to the macOS terminal, adds some helpful features like autocomplete.
I actually don't use this app very much, because I mostly try to avoid using the terminal. It's super helpful to have, though, because it saves me the work of looking up unix commands for the millionth time.
I’m sure it has a ton of other features that people who do engineering work will love, but I just use it occasionally for autocomplete.
Magnet
Window management tool that adds shortcuts for window sizing. This is another app I use constantly.
Ctrl+option+arrow keys will let you snap a window so that it takes up half the monitor, and tapping the same direction a bunch of times will move windows to different monitors.
Ctrl+option+return will maximize an app's window size, without making it go into macOS's version of "full screen" where the app becomes its own workspace.
I think the default macOS window management tools are really annoying, so this app is a huge favorite of mine.
There's a few similar alternatives, BetterTouchTool being the most popular one.
Full apps
Arc
This is the new browser from thebrowser.company. I’ve only been using it for a few weeks, but I’m a big fan.
For me, the biggest feature is that pressing cmd+S will hide basically all the browser UI, which I absolutely love. Super helpful to taking the noise out of the browsing experience.
It also has some other helpful features, like “workspaces”, which is basically a way of managing bookmarks for specific tasks/roles.
So, for example, you can have a Work workspace that has a dozen bookmarks for staging sites, calendars, etc, and an Entertainment workspace with links to all your streaming services. It’s the only version of Tab Groups that I’ve actually used, so I’ve been pretty impressed by it.
It has some other features, like split-view and picture-in-picture, but I don’t use either of those features almost ever.
It’s based on Chromium, so all Chrome extensions should import and work normally.
One helpful hotkey (besides Cmd+S to hide the UI) is cmd+shift+[ or cmd+shift+] to go to next/previous tabs. Otherwise, control+tab will scroll through your tabs based on how recently they were active, which absolutely breaks my brain.
Cron
Good calendar app which feels very similar to the native macOS Calendar app. The key feature difference is Command Menu shortcut that can be launched with Cmd+K
Recently got acquired by Notion, so I’m interested to see where that partnership goes.
Eagle
Another fancy screenshot tool, this one lets you capture images and quickly add them to a repository within the app. Using the browser extension will automatically add things like the URL the screenshot was taken from, and the app also lets you add descriptions and tags.
Super neat way to catalogue all the small "Oh, that's interesting, I like that" moments that you have when browsing.
Sort of like Devonthink for images.
Also available on Windows.
Firefox Developer Edition
I use this mostly for the Inspect tool.
Firefox is the only browser that has an Inspect tab specifically for fonts.
It gives quick access to info like font size, line height, and font weight, and also lets you find out whether a site is using pixels, percentages, rems, or unsigned units.
Super, super helpful for understanding why a website’s typography is working or why it’s difficult to read.
The developer edition is basically the same as vanilla Firefox, but includes a slightly different dark mode theme that I prefer.
Also available on Windows/Linux.
Keyboard Maestro
https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/
This is another shortcuts tool. I’ve mostly used it for rebinding hotkeys, or creating macros so that multiple actions are tied to a single hotkey.
Helpful occasionally for stuff like Figma. One macro set that got heavy use was when I was trying to remove .base components from a file, which meant a lot of copy/pasting styling and then ungrouping a frame one level deep in the hierarchy. Because Figma already has hotkeys to do all those actions, I was able to build a macro that did all five of those actions with one hotkey.
In Figma, the Automator plugin has mostly replaced what I’ve used this app for, but this still comes in handy every now as an alternative to Automator.
Mela
Great recipe app for Mac and iOS, made by the same developer as the RSS app Reeder.
The key feature of the app is that it will parse a recipe webpage to just the ingredients and steps. This is a huge boon for any recipes that come from blogs, which will often have the actual recipe buried at the end of a long article for SEO reasons.
Also lets you quickly add ingredients from a recipe into a grocery list, which helps a ton with meal planning.
Mindnode
Included in Setapp
Just a good, simple app for creating mindmaps. Helpful for brainstorming ideas and lo-fi planning.
Notion
Good note taking tools that let you do complicated layouts very easily.
Lets you color code things, create dashboards, add accordions and dividers seamlessly within a page.
The spreadsheet/database tools are also incredibly powerful, and basically give the advanced features of something like Airtable or Excel inside of a Word doc.
A great example of Notion databases in action can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlsMkLk7M_I.
Notion is also available on Windows. Craft is also a similar alternative.
PDF Expert
Very overpriced PDF app, but has a couple features that aren’t in any any other apps.
My favorite feature is that you can have the same copy of a single file open multiple times, which I haven’t figured out how to do in Preview without making duplicate copies of a file. Because I use Apple’s Books app as a library to house all my PDFs and ebooks, it’s a huge pain to find the hidden library folder files are actually stored in, and an extra hassle to make duplicates without those duplicate copies accidentally getting added into Books.
Having two copies of a file open comes in super handy when referencing a glossary or other end-of-book contents at the same time you’re reading the main text.
Also has advanced features for document creation/filling out forms/etc but I’ve rarely touched those features.
Reeder
My favorite RSS reader. It’s very similar to Google Reader (RIP) with its use of folders and window panes, which I find much simpler to use than things like Feedly or Flipbook that add a bit of extravagance to the reading experience.
Also includes a couple extra features like full article downloads within the app, lots of font customization options, and the option to use Bionic Reading to help with dyslexia and speed reading.
I mostly use the iOS version of the app, but it’s nice to have the Mac app available as an option.
Only available on Apple devices, but Feedbin is a very similar browser app that works across all devices.
Roam/Logseq/Athens
https://www.athensresearch.org/
These are a genre of apps called PKMS (personal knoweldge management systems). Absolutely hate the name, and the community for them leans heavily toward cryptobro/NFT crowd, but I like the tools quite a bit.
Basically, these are all note taking tools that don’t use folders, and instead use only tags or hyperlinks to navigate between pages. I find them super helpful for taking out the decision making of how to classify personal notes.
For example, instead of choosing whether to place notes into a folder for Webinars or Conferences or Content Design, I can take a page with all three of those things. Then, when I got my page for Content Design, I can see all the notes I’ve added on that page, and then below those notes are links to any pages where I’ve included the tag.
I’ve found it a great way to collect resources and notes, and my notes are more findable than other tools like Onenote or Notion where there might be multiple folders and sub-folders that would all make sense to add a page to, but the page can only exist in one of those places at a time.
I think these tools only make sense for personal notes. When working with a team, Notion, Obsidian, or sort-of similar options like Confluence, Salesforce, or Storybook are definitely the way to go.
Also available on Windows/Linux.
Thanks for reading!
Hopefully this was helpful!
If you want to get in touch to talk about design, feel free to send an email to joey.pearlman@gmail.com .
Mac tools for productivity
I love finding new tools that save me time or let me do things easier.
Here’s my current collection of Mac apps that I rely on.
Most of these are Mac-exclusive, but some are available on Windows and Linux as well.
Many are also included in Setapp, a subscription service for a bundle of Mac applications.
Menu bar apps
Bartender
Included in Setapp
Helps manage the menu bar by basically adding a second row that can be toggled on and off.
Super helpful menu bar apps that only get used occasionally. Also helps prevent an overflowing menu bar on devices with smaller displays, such as the Macbook Air.
Cursor Pro
https://www.ixeau.com/cursor-pro/
This app adds an outline to your cursor, an indicator of when you’re clicking, and whether you’re left-click or right-clicking/two-finger clicking.
Also lets you magnify wherever your mouse is positioned on the screen, which is helpful for highlighting small bits of UI during a screenshare.
I mostly use this app for workshops or tutorials. This app is similar to Keystroke Pro, which is made by the same developer.
Freedom
Turns off your internet, basically. When it's turned on, it keeps you from viewing any website you haven't whitelisted. I use it mostly as a pomodoro timer.
Also available on Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS.
Handmirror
Great little app that lives in the menu bar. When you click its icon, it shows a preview of how you look on your webcam.
Great way to fix your hair before hopping on a Zoom call.
Hazeover
Included in Setapp
Dims all windows except for the currently active window. I think this is meant as a focus or productivity tool, but I mostly turn this on when copy/pasting text from one app into another.
This is especially helpful when copy/pasting text into Figma. On Mac, Cmd+Click will prevent an app from gaining focus. In Figma, Cmd+Click also happens to be the shortcut for selecting text within a frame.
That means it’s very easy to get text perfectly selected, press Cmd+V, and then paste in a completely different application.
I mostly use Hazeover just to let me know I need to click one more time without holding down the Command key.
Keystroke Pro
https://www.ixeau.com/keystroke-pro/
Displays keyboard inputs on your screen. Helpful when hosting workshops or creating tutorials. Similar to Cursor Pro, which is made by the same developer.
There’s a couple other apps that do the same thing, but this app includes labels for the spacebar, escape keys, and other special keys, which is very helpful when working with anyone not familiar with Macs.
Meeter
Included in Setapp
Another app that lives in the menu bar, it shows a countdown until your next scheduled meeting for day. Super helpful for managing your work during gaps between meetings.
One Switch
https://fireball.studio/oneswitch/
Included in Setapp
Menu bar app that lets you quickly switch Mac settings on and off. I mostly use this to enable/disable True Tone, Night Shift, and swap between Light mode/Dark mode.
Mac enhancements
Alfred
Shortcut tool that sort-of replaces Spotlight on Mac. I use it mostly for grabbing passwords quickly from 1Password/Lastpass, or using text snippets to insert template messages or common emojis. For example, I can type "checkk" to get a "✅".
Other similar tools are Raycast and Slapdash.
Cleanshot X
Included in Setapp
Replacement for the Mac's native screenshot tool. It has great options for recording gifs or video, capturing sections of the screen, annotating images, taking scrolling screenshots, or blurring out info with mosaics. Probably one of the apps I used the most.
fig
An enhancement to the macOS terminal, adds some helpful features like autocomplete.
I actually don't use this app very much, because I mostly try to avoid using the terminal. It's super helpful to have, though, because it saves me the work of looking up unix commands for the millionth time.
I’m sure it has a ton of other features that people who do engineering work will love, but I just use it occasionally for autocomplete.
Magnet
Window management tool that adds shortcuts for window sizing. This is another app I use constantly.
Ctrl+option+arrow keys will let you snap a window so that it takes up half the monitor, and tapping the same direction a bunch of times will move windows to different monitors.
Ctrl+option+return will maximize an app's window size, without making it go into macOS's version of "full screen" where the app becomes its own workspace.
I think the default macOS window management tools are really annoying, so this app is a huge favorite of mine.
There's a few similar alternatives, BetterTouchTool being the most popular one.
Full apps
Arc
This is the new browser from thebrowser.company. I’ve only been using it for a few weeks, but I’m a big fan.
For me, the biggest feature is that pressing cmd+S will hide basically all the browser UI, which I absolutely love. Super helpful to taking the noise out of the browsing experience.
It also has some other helpful features, like “workspaces”, which is basically a way of managing bookmarks for specific tasks/roles.
So, for example, you can have a Work workspace that has a dozen bookmarks for staging sites, calendars, etc, and an Entertainment workspace with links to all your streaming services. It’s the only version of Tab Groups that I’ve actually used, so I’ve been pretty impressed by it.
It has some other features, like split-view and picture-in-picture, but I don’t use either of those features almost ever.
It’s based on Chromium, so all Chrome extensions should import and work normally.
One helpful hotkey (besides Cmd+S to hide the UI) is cmd+shift+[ or cmd+shift+] to go to next/previous tabs. Otherwise, control+tab will scroll through your tabs based on how recently they were active, which absolutely breaks my brain.
Cron
Good calendar app which feels very similar to the native macOS Calendar app. The key feature difference is Command Menu shortcut that can be launched with Cmd+K
Recently got acquired by Notion, so I’m interested to see where that partnership goes.
Eagle
Another fancy screenshot tool, this one lets you capture images and quickly add them to a repository within the app. Using the browser extension will automatically add things like the URL the screenshot was taken from, and the app also lets you add descriptions and tags.
Super neat way to catalogue all the small "Oh, that's interesting, I like that" moments that you have when browsing.
Sort of like Devonthink for images.
Also available on Windows.
Firefox Developer Edition
I use this mostly for the Inspect tool.
Firefox is the only browser that has an Inspect tab specifically for fonts.
It gives quick access to info like font size, line height, and font weight, and also lets you find out whether a site is using pixels, percentages, rems, or unsigned units.
Super, super helpful for understanding why a website’s typography is working or why it’s difficult to read.
The developer edition is basically the same as vanilla Firefox, but includes a slightly different dark mode theme that I prefer.
Also available on Windows/Linux.
Keyboard Maestro
https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/
This is another shortcuts tool. I’ve mostly used it for rebinding hotkeys, or creating macros so that multiple actions are tied to a single hotkey.
Helpful occasionally for stuff like Figma. One macro set that got heavy use was when I was trying to remove .base components from a file, which meant a lot of copy/pasting styling and then ungrouping a frame one level deep in the hierarchy. Because Figma already has hotkeys to do all those actions, I was able to build a macro that did all five of those actions with one hotkey.
In Figma, the Automator plugin has mostly replaced what I’ve used this app for, but this still comes in handy every now as an alternative to Automator.
Mela
Great recipe app for Mac and iOS, made by the same developer as the RSS app Reeder.
The key feature of the app is that it will parse a recipe webpage to just the ingredients and steps. This is a huge boon for any recipes that come from blogs, which will often have the actual recipe buried at the end of a long article for SEO reasons.
Also lets you quickly add ingredients from a recipe into a grocery list, which helps a ton with meal planning.
Mindnode
Included in Setapp
Just a good, simple app for creating mindmaps. Helpful for brainstorming ideas and lo-fi planning.
Notion
Good note taking tools that let you do complicated layouts very easily.
Lets you color code things, create dashboards, add accordions and dividers seamlessly within a page.
The spreadsheet/database tools are also incredibly powerful, and basically give the advanced features of something like Airtable or Excel inside of a Word doc.
A great example of Notion databases in action can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlsMkLk7M_I.
Notion is also available on Windows. Craft is also a similar alternative.
PDF Expert
Very overpriced PDF app, but has a couple features that aren’t in any any other apps.
My favorite feature is that you can have the same copy of a single file open multiple times, which I haven’t figured out how to do in Preview without making duplicate copies of a file. Because I use Apple’s Books app as a library to house all my PDFs and ebooks, it’s a huge pain to find the hidden library folder files are actually stored in, and an extra hassle to make duplicates without those duplicate copies accidentally getting added into Books.
Having two copies of a file open comes in super handy when referencing a glossary or other end-of-book contents at the same time you’re reading the main text.
Also has advanced features for document creation/filling out forms/etc but I’ve rarely touched those features.
Reeder
My favorite RSS reader. It’s very similar to Google Reader (RIP) with its use of folders and window panes, which I find much simpler to use than things like Feedly or Flipbook that add a bit of extravagance to the reading experience.
Also includes a couple extra features like full article downloads within the app, lots of font customization options, and the option to use Bionic Reading to help with dyslexia and speed reading.
I mostly use the iOS version of the app, but it’s nice to have the Mac app available as an option.
Only available on Apple devices, but Feedbin is a very similar browser app that works across all devices.
Roam/Logseq/Athens
https://www.athensresearch.org/
These are a genre of apps called PKMS (personal knoweldge management systems). Absolutely hate the name, and the community for them leans heavily toward cryptobro/NFT crowd, but I like the tools quite a bit.
Basically, these are all note taking tools that don’t use folders, and instead use only tags or hyperlinks to navigate between pages. I find them super helpful for taking out the decision making of how to classify personal notes.
For example, instead of choosing whether to place notes into a folder for Webinars or Conferences or Content Design, I can take a page with all three of those things. Then, when I got my page for Content Design, I can see all the notes I’ve added on that page, and then below those notes are links to any pages where I’ve included the tag.
I’ve found it a great way to collect resources and notes, and my notes are more findable than other tools like Onenote or Notion where there might be multiple folders and sub-folders that would all make sense to add a page to, but the page can only exist in one of those places at a time.
I think these tools only make sense for personal notes. When working with a team, Notion, Obsidian, or sort-of similar options like Confluence, Salesforce, or Storybook are definitely the way to go.
Also available on Windows/Linux.
Thanks for reading!
Hopefully this was helpful!
If you want to get in touch to talk about design, feel free to send an email to joey.pearlman@gmail.com .