My Ultimate MacOS Productivity setup (Updated for 2021)
Around this time last year, I wrote an article on my favorite macOS productivity tools. Since then, a lot of what I have used has changed and new apps have also been released. The right apps can help you get a lot more done on a daily basis. We already spend hours on our devices, so why not make our time there just a little more productive?
Over the past year, I’ve continued to refine and develop my setup and I truly feel that I now have a setup that caters to all of my needs and that may certainly help you as well. A lot of the apps can easily slot into your workflow without the need to change any of your existing apps. Without further ado, here is my current Mac productivity setup.
Ulysses
The first app, and one of the few constants from last year, is the app Ulysses. Ulysses is, at its core, a markdown editor, but it does so much more than that. While the editor itself is excellent, it’s in equal part the additional features like robust file management and tagging systems besides nice additions like word count goals and LanguageTools integration that makes it so good.
One of my favorite features of it is its one click medium publishing which eliminates the need to convert markdown into rich text before publishing.
IA writer was the app I used before Ulysses, and it shares a lot of the same features including an excellent editor that you can easily configure to look exactly like that of Ulysses. It’s still though, primarily a markdown editor, not a full-blown writing tool, and it uses pure markdown files. It’s still my favorite tool for editing simple text files, but for more complex workflows like writing essays, articles and school projects, I prefer Ulysses.
Athens Research
If Ulysses is what I use to turn my knowledge into words, Athens is what I use to collect that knowledge. Athens Research is a tool for networked thought. It’s in the same vein as apps like Roam Research and Obsidian. In Athens, I use bidirectional links, block references and a graph view to record and rediscover information. Athens makes it effortless to outline articles, thanks to the sidebar and linked + unlinked references.
I use it primarily as a note-taking app and I record all aspects of my academic life on it. Be it school notes, khan academy or even book highlights. I’ve noted down information on a variety of topics ranging from Energy Transformations, to the Nazi invasion and even the pros and cons of artificial sweeteners. It’s like a second brain for me at this point.
I’ll likely write a full post on Athens research in the future, but this has been the single most significant change for me over the last year.
Oh yeah, did I mention this is offline first and open sourced as well? The app is currently free to self-host and is available on Mac, Windows, and Linux with mobile apps and a web app on the roadmap.
Some people may prefer using markdown files or don’t like a pure outliner for their notes, for them, I recommend an app like Obsidian which is further along in development and uses plain markdown files.
You can download Athens from their GitHub repo.
Things 3
After trying Omnifocus for a period last year, I realized that I really had no need for most of what Omnifocus offered. Around that time, I also came across an app called Things 3. The first thing that got me into it was the UI and UX. It’s one of the best designed apps available, and its use of transitions, colors and transparency all come together for a breathtaking experience. Seriously, this was the first thing I noticed in the app.
The app offers a wide variety of keyboard shortcuts for easy navigation. The app supports tagging, adding notes, setting “do” dates, setting “due” dates and even adding checklists. You can also sort tasks into projects and put those projects into “areas” and filter the tasks based on tags. It’s a powerful app that is incredibly simple to use.
Oh, and I almost forgot my favorite feature, control-space globally, to add a quick entry.
Todoist is an alternative that works well for most people, it might be worth a look for you, especially if you frown at the $50 price tag or require the need for collaboration.
You can get Things 3 here for $49.9.
Endel
Endel is an app that creates custom soundscapes for you based on factors including your natural biorhythm, heart rate, activity level and the weather.
I’ve recently moved fully to Endel and use it a lot more now throughout the day (and night). With the addition of more modes including collaborations with artists like Grimes for their AI Lullaby and with Plastikman for their Deeper Focus, they’ve kept things fresh as well. I really like their Deeper Focus for when I need to focus on tasks and I can honestly feel a significant difference especially when they are paired with noise insulating headphones.
They’ve also got a normal focus mode, a sleep mode and a relax mode as well for when you have to relax. I use the sleep mode fairly often, although my favorite part of the mode is the smart alarm feature which starts waking you up about 5 minutes before the time you stated by making small changes to the music and ending in a crescendo that wakes you up. The entire process is very smooth and I definitely feel myself waking up easier in the mornings.
There are a few other soundscapes for specific activities like deep work, studying, chill and power naps which you can trigger for a set amount of time.
Right now, for instance, I’ve set a 30 minute deep work session after which I will take my pomodoro break.
There is also some scientific evidence behind it, which can be seen on Endel’s website. An alternative to this is Brain.fm.
Endel is available for Mac, Android, iOS, WatchOS and as an Alexa skill, and can be downloaded here. A lifetime subscription costs $99 while a monthly subscription is $5.99. You can get it cheaper on non-US app stores.
Text Sniper
This app is a relatively new tool that I’ve added to my arsenal. The app does one thing, but it does that one thing so well, that you can’t help but gush over it. Ever come across some text in a video or in the presentation of a video call that you would love to note down but would take too long? That’s what text sniper is for.
This is literally the process:
- Cmd-shift-2
- Select the text
- Done, it’s copied to your clipboard
The complete process takes hardly a second depending on how much text is available and how clear the text is. The accuracy and speed are both crazy good and it’s already saved me hours of time. It’s got support for 8 languages, can speak out the text it detects on the screen and you can even scan a physical document with your iPhone using continuity camera and have it copied. It’s a truly magical app that you have to try to believe.
You can download Text Sniper from the Mac App Store or get a free trial through Setapp.
Alfred
Alfred is like the glue that binds all the other applications. It’s an application launcher at its core, but it is truly the most versatile app on this entire list. It’s got over 25+ in built functions besides a hugely extensible workflow system.
I use Alfred as a clipboard history app, so that I can roll back and search through any of my previously copied items with a cmd-shift-v, a text expander to expand frequently used text, a search function for Notion, a calculator, quick access to certain sites, ability to search any site (Amazon, Ebay, Google, Duck Duck Go, Wikipedia and more), and even the ability to uninstall an app using Clean My Mac’s app cleaner.
It’s got integrations with a lot of the apps that I use including Things 3 and Bitwarden which is one thing that makes it indispensable for me. The amount of stuff you can do with this app is truly endless and warrants an article of its own.
I hope the apps above help you become more productive, they certainly have for me. Some of the apps above warrant an article of their own because of the sheer possibility of usage with that app, although most of them should be fairly easy enough to pick up. Many of the apps that I mentioned can slot right into your workflow and don’t actually need to replace any app for you. Apps aren’t everything though, the onus of the work still falls under you, but apps can help you just that little bit where you need it.
