My workflow and all the apps I use in a day to stay productive

Hey there!

This week was quite boring in the tech realm because absolutely nothing happened. We only received one rumour and that was pretty obvious — the Pixel 7 will retain the same design language as that of Pixel 6. Yeah, that’s it. Now, I need to keep the newsletter running and I have always wanted to enhance my content. So, this newsletter will be a little bit different — I am going to talk about all the apps I use in a day to keep my productivity at its peak. Well, this is going to be an interesting read because I will be exploring a lot of apps. Buckle up :)

Before we get started, I am a Mac user and I use the MacBook Pro 2020 M1 base model extensively. And I couldn’t ask for a better machine. This laptop gets the job done swiftly without making a sound. Okay, so I first open my MacBook at around 8:15 am. That is when I have reached school and my day is just about to start. My school starts at 8:30 am so I spend the first 15 minutes reading emails and having a look at what is planned ahead. I usually plan my days in advance to stay on top of deadlines. To view my mail, I use the default Gmail website. Primarily because I haven’t been able to find an app that looks aesthetic and also promotes inbox zero. Yes, I am aware there is one such client — Superhuman. Superhuman is a simple mailing client for macOS X that surcharges your mailing experience with a sleek design but it is $30/month! That’s too expensive for checking emails :) So I prefer the default Gmail website. I use the popular, fast and minimalistic to-do application, Things 3 to check what I have planned ahead. It gives me a brief overview of what I need to get done.

By the time I am done with this process, my first class is about to start. During classes, I use a series of apps. The most used app is Notes. Notes on my Mac is a simple way to take notes. The best part is, it is easy and simple. All I have to do is open the app and start typing — this helps me reduce friction between me and my work. The next most used app is Pages. I use Pages during my classes often to take down more detailed notes and I use it when I am solving worksheets. Pages is just a Word alternative that looks way better in terms of design, so I use it as my default document reader. I also use Notion. Yeah, Notion is pretty complicated, but it comes in handy when I am studying Physics because I can input TeX equations directly without any hassle so that’s really cool to have! That’s one of the only uses I have for Notion. Throughout my classes, I also use the default calendar app to make sure I am on top of my deadlines and I know what class is next :) Apple Calendar is sweet, native and fast. It may not be the best when creating shared events with people, but I don’t do that anyway! It doesn’t make a difference to me. I also use Keynote by Apple for making my presentations for class. Again, Keynote is the Apple equivalent of PowerPoint and it has better design and classier templates. That is my go-to presentation app.

Throughout the day, I also have free classes where I don’t have a lot to do. During those classes, I usually listen to music, browse through Twitter, have a look at my website analysis or do miscellaneous tasks. My school has this ICT policy where they have disabled most of the social media websites so I use the app ClearVPN to bypass these restrictions and listen to music. Yeah, okay. I am not in the right to listen to go through Twitter but come on, music is a must. For music, I keep on alternating between Apple Music and Spotify. Apple Music works with my HomePod mini but with Spotify, I can have better music discovery.

Yeah, that’s pretty much everything I use when I am in school. My school day ends at around 4 pm. Usually, I leave by 4:15 pm. When I am commuting I use my phone to check social media and read the news sometimes. I can’t focus when I am in the car, so I just relax.

When I come home, I usually listen to music and unwind. At 6 pm, I start work again. A lot of my work these days has been on Photoshop and Final Cut Pro X because of a marketing project that I have been working. For a little more context, a group of friends, including me, have been working with a cafe that helps intellectually disabled people — Cafe Arpan. You should check them out here!  

When I am home, I use all the same apps I use in school to complete my assignments. I also use the preview app to annotate PDFs when I am working at home. The app is simple and lightweight which makes it optimised for my workflow.

Throughout the day, I also use the Dashlane app to store all my passwords and payment methods. The app is really cheap and offers some great functionality! You should definitely check it out if you want to secure and protect your digital identity. Before I wind up my day, I clean the case files and system logs of my Mac to make sure it runs smoothly. I clear the junk using this app called CleanMyMac X. It is by the same developer that built ClearVPN. The app offers a lot of functionality and makes sure my Mac doesn’t have any hiccups. Right after I am done cleaning my Mac, I use the MentalWalk app to reflect on my day and with that, I wrap my day up :)

So that’s a day in my life with tech. This article was a little offbeat and I hope you liked it :) Hehe, it's funny that I say the same sentence for my personality too. Anyways, this is it for this week. Usually, I would ask you to share this newsletter with your friends and family but this week has been rough for the world. Let’s take a moment to think about all the innocent lives being lost in Ukraine and pray for them.

Let’s hope this war gets over soon.

Peace,
Tejas
6020 Days Old