🍪 #10: My iOS productivity stack of 2023

And a way to get Apple TV for free for 2 months

Dec 28, 2023

Hi,

and welcome again to Little Bites, my weekly bite on productivity, apps, tech, …

I know, I'm one day late, but Christmas and other activities got in the way of my writing. But fear not, I have a great, albeit longer edition for this week.

And before I start, I hope you had some great Christmas festivities and I wish you all the best for the upcoming year.

This week I would like to talk about my iOS productivity stack and a way to get Apple TV for free for 2 months.

Happy reading,
Steven

Reading time: 11 minutes to chew through.

📱 Mastering productivity: Unveiling my ultimate iOS productivity stack

🏷️ Apps, AI

The end of the year is a time for reflection, and as I look back at the past twelve months, I can't help but appreciate the tools that have been the backbone of my productivity.

In this Bite, I am excited to share with you my productivity stack — a carefully curated collection of iOS apps that have transformed the way I work, organize my life, and achieve my goals.

AI - ChatGPT, Poe & Perplexity (free)

AI has been a massive game-changer for me. While a lot of people that I know are hesitant in using it (as it might be inaccurate or go for their job) I embraced its strengths, but also understood its weaknesses.It's also for that reason I'm not committing to one app only.

ChatGPT is the first AI I started working with, and up till today still use on a daily basis. And although I only use the free version that only has data up to Jan 2022, I still find it a good partner for drafts, summaries, ...

Poe is also on my daily list as its not only limited to one Large Language Model, but supports multiple like Lama, Claude,... where I feel that Claude is sometimes better in its answers or drafts than ChatGPT 3.5.

I also like that you can create your own "bot" with a specific prompt so every conversation is already tailored to your needs. The only downside is the limited usage per day that you have as a free user.

Last but not least is Perplexity. I often find myself using Perplexity over a regular Google Search, as it's quick and accurate in its responses. Advantage also is that is can access any open website, so whenever I need a summary of one, I can easily prompt Perplexity.

🍪 #2 - Create iOS webpage summaries

Steven Gobeyn

November 1, 2023

Read full story

Note-taking and knowledge management - Obsidian, Tana (free)

I've had my journey of note-taking tools in the last few years once I learned about "second brains" and became interested in PKM (personal knowledge management) tools.

I've got to learn many and their pros and cons, but once constant that comes back for my personal knowledge management is that I need support for both mobile and desktop, Mac and Windows, it needs to be flexible, and most importantly, I don't want to be tied to a platform (meaning I can migrate when I want to).

For that reason, I went for Obsidian as it stores its data locally has a massive number of plugins, supports iCloud syncing and has a great mobile app. I also started enjoying the writing process in Obsidian, where I now do my drafts before copying the text to this newsletter.

For work, I noticed that a standalone task manager was nothing for me.
I require a tool that is able to hold my knowledge work, meeting minutes, but also my tasks, linked to these items. I started working with Obsidian, but found the task linking and management a bit too complicated.

And that is when I found Tana.
Tana is described as an "all-in-one" workplace, combining features from Roam, Notion,... So it's perfect for linking notes but even more to structure information in "database formats". And this is where Tana shines, I can quickly capture meeting minutes, include some tasks, and make those appear elsewhere with due dates, priority,.... It allows me to stay on top of my work, without to much issues or friction.
And the best of all, Tana can make use of the ChatGPT api so I can use it for something as simple as a meeting summary, but even something complex, to generate a complete note with travel plan, tasks,...

Btw, there is no waiting list. Just join their Slack, introduce yourself and get an invite immediately afterwards.

Password management - 1Password (paid)

A password manager has never been more relevant than today. There are so many websites and tools that require a login making it impossible to remember all in a safe way. So no Word copy-pasting as some of my colleagues do.

Not to forget how easy they make it logging in via different browsers or devices or when migrating to another phone.

I started using 1password years ago when it was still a one-time purchase. Over the years I tried out other password managers as Lastpass, but many of them suffered some kind of data breach while 1password had none of that.

I'm still using it today, and although it has moved to a subscription model, I'm happy to pay for this.
My passwords and data are so important to me that I would not want to suffer a breach or data loss in using a free tool.

Email - Shortwave (free)

I've been using Gmail since 2004. One thing I never liked was the constant influx of mails without any easy way to manage. Sure, folders and labels have been added over time, but still, I felt resistance in opening my inbox, having to manage and clean it rather than dealing with the actual mails.

Inbox from Google (now shut down) and Shortwave provided a different take with grouping messages by tags. This provides me with a quick view of what is in my inbox without information or email overload.

For example, promotions are all grouped together and when I'm done scrolling through them I delete all of them. Gmail also has this grouping you might say, but only for its main categories as forums, promotions, updates,... Everything else will land in your inbox.

Shortwave is free with a link in your signature and only 90 days of history when searching.
For me that is more than enough.

Calendar - Fantastical (free)

I must admit, I'm not really a power user when it comes to managing my calendar.
The only requirements I have are a clear overview on day, week,... and quick entry.

For that reason I landed on Fantastical many years ago and still use it today. Quick view on all my calendars (own, shared and web feeds) and quick entry via natural language input (today, tomorrow, next week Monday at 20h,...).

Task Management - TickTick (paid)

I was originally using Things, a great looking and minimal calendar, which however has one issue.
It's Mac/iOS only.

And while for personal use that could be fine, I also wanted to be able to view my calendar and add entries on Windows (app or web) when at work.

For that reason, I use TickTick. It has multi-device and web support, has much better natural language input than Things, but also has way more filtering options. And via their interactive widgets I'm now on top of all my tasks and lists.

Time-tracking - TickTick (paid)

When I create tasks for work, I always estimate the time it takes me to complete them (like 15, 30 or 60+ minutes). This enables me to plan my available time, focusing on a big, medium and small task per day.

However, estimation is one part, you also need to be aware of the actual time you're spending on things to be more accurate when planning your next set of tasks.

As I'm already using TickTick which has a time-tracking feature, that is what I use.
When a task is created I can start tracking it and get an overview when it's completed of the total time spent. TickTick also has a dashboard (web only) on time spent with filtering per day, tag,... to provide clarity on what I'm spending my time on.

Read later - Reader (paid)

I started of with Pocket but quickly moved to Matter as it offered a lot more features like highlighting, organisation and pushing information to my second brain in Logseq. It also was free.

I did not understand people using Readwise to resurface "highlights", however, when I started reading books making highlights (of things I wanted to remember) it made sense to use it.

Especially since a Readwise license also provides access to Reader, one of the best read later apps available. It offers everything you would need of sources, highlights, tags, AI summaries,...

Given the fact that Matter now also charges 8$/month, I'm sticking with Reader for it's features and integration with Readwise to help me remember.

Bookmarking - Raindrop (free)

If you're only using 1 browser you might not need a bookmarking app, however, if you use multiple or switch from time to time it is a great time saver.

Of all the tools available, I feel that Raindrop tops all of them. It has folders, tags, search and multi device support, but its best feature has got to be its URL bar integration. Start typing "rd" and quickly get any bookmark that you saved.

RSS - Reeder (paid, one-time)

I used Feedly in the past but somehow never was able to manage my feeds and afterwards abandoned rss readers.

RSS is not dead and actually still relevant in 2023.

Via Artifact, I got to learn about Reeder, which I've come to love with its easy setup and minimal approach. Combined with my own iOS shortcut to get summaries of articles I'm now on top of my news and tech consumption.

🍪 #6 - Keeping up with information overload

Steven Gobeyn

November 29, 2023

Read full story

Goal tracking - Streaks (paid, one-time)

Streaks is no-nonsense app to keep track of your habits, which can be those you want to do more or less, daily, weekly,...

Per habit, you can see your progress over time and "streaks".
Streaks also provides nice gentle reminders when you are expected to complete your habits.

Focus - Brain.fm (paid)

We live in a distracting world and every app on your phone might be calling for your attention.
Luckily, certain apps try to fight this and want you to be more focused on the task at hand.
My brain often jumps from one thing to to next so I welcome anything to keep me on track.

Brain.fm offers focused soundscapes for work, reading, relaxing,... in combination with a pomodoro timer (25min of work / 5min break). Choose a timeframe you want to work or focus and remain mindful on what you're doing.

Writing - Obsidian (free)

I'm not real writer but do enjoy a good experience when doing it (like this newsletter). There are some good tools available like iA writer or Ulysses, however, paying a lot for a small hobby does seem a bit too much.

I found that with Obsidian and it's markdown support, I have a great and minimal experience, formatted articles with ease and always access via icloud syncing.

And even in areas lacking internet access (yes they do exist, I experienced today), I can continue writing and sync my changes when internet is restored.

Podcast - Snipd (free)

I enjoy quite a few podcasts and I'm always on the lookout for more or any that can provide me with knowledge or personal improvement. And as I'm running a lot, I also have quite some time to listen.

I've used Apple podcast and Overcast before but have found my match with Snipd. With it, it can take snips while running and revisit them afterwards as something to check or remember. It also offers recommendations, groups and AI summaries (2 per week via the free tier) so I can judge whether an episode is worthwhile listening to.

Before a run or bike ride I look at the available episodes, add them to my queue and be on my way.

And one general tip: listen at 1.5x speed.
You get used to it rather quickly and via this way will be able to listen to more in the same timeframe.

Browser - DuckDuckGo (free)

I don't really continue my browsing journey from one device to another, and mostly any browsing I do on my iPhone is purely to check something. I've been using FireFox focus for a long time as it resets a session when you close the app. I don't need a long list of open tabs (like my girlfriend) or websites that continue tracking me as cookie remain stored.

I recently stumbled on DuckDuckGo and enjoy it provides a similar experience to clear a session when I need it. But the advantage that DuckDuckGo has over FireFox Focus is that it supports multiple tabs and can manage cookie consent and tracking for you.

In closing

This is a list of some of my most used apps when it comes to productivity, however, the list of apps I use is more extensive.

Also one thing to note is that the above list is always in motion as a constantly seek new tools that can help increase my productivity and efficiency.

So therefore I'm also curious, what's in your stack or something I should have a look at?

Apple tv - Watch for free for 2 months

I have a running subscription of Netflix and Disney, but must admit that whatever Apple TV has available is often of a higher quality. Adding another streaming service is perhaps too much, but similarly like last year, they launched an offer to use their service for free for 2 months.