10 Mac Apps That Will Boost Your Productivity

Apple's OSX is a great operating system but there are always things that can be improved. Over the last couple of years I've collected a set of Mac apps that really boosted my productivity on the Mac. Some of them are really nifty small apps solving tiny problems while other tackle bigger issues.

1. Screenfloat (view app here)

Taking screenshots is a common activity for most people. Whether you're using it to annotate on (which the next tool Skitch is great for) or you're using it to copy something. Screenfloat will save you A LOT of time thanks to it's nice "floating" option which makes your newly made screenshots float above all other screens (making it easy to type over some info). Besides that, it's shot browser is what we've all been looking for when it comes to organizing that huge stack of screenshots on our desktop.

2. Skitch (view app here)

Sometimes, simply taking a screenshot isn't enough. You'll want to annotate and highlight stuff before you share it with others. While there are a ton of apps out there that do this, Skitch by Evernote is my favorite. It's fast, looks good and has the benefit of syncing with Evernote (see app below). Check out this great video by Skitch:

3. Evernote (view app here)

Evernote is one of those apps that has saved my life multiple times already. Basically, it's a cloud based notes application (of which there are a million) but with some great extra's. I've made it a habit to do all my projects in evernote which enables me to search through all files (.doc .pdf and even scanned handwritten notes and photographs of whiteboards) from all my devices that run evernote (mac iphone ipad). This is an invaluable resource for me as a consultant that enables me to always have everything I need available on all my devices.

Besides that, evernote just works great and integrates with a lot of apps. Just have a look!

4. Better Snap Tool (view app here)

Organizing your windows in OSX is a bit of a hassle. This is something Microsoft Windows is... better at. Luckily, the developers of this nice little tool called BetterSnapTool solved this for us!

Easily configure the behaviour of windows that are dragged to the corners or top of you window to auto resize into certain presets. Love it, works great, speeds things up!

5. 1Password (view app here)

1Password is by far the most expensive app in this list, but it's worth every penny. Over the last few years you've probably read about major websites getting hacked which means your login combination of email & password is probably listed somewhere on the internet. Which means that if you use the same combination of email and password for more than one service, you're pretty vulnerable to hacker attacks.

1Password is by far the most user friendly, organised and easy to use solution for having a safe password for each unique service. It syncs across all devices (also windows and android, besides Mac and iOS) and also happens to look great!

6. Collective (view app here)

You probably use CMD + C (copy) a lot, right? And sometimes, you wish you had easy access to something that was under CMD + V (paste) a few moments ago, before you copied something else. This mini app called Collective helps you out. It remembers everything you copied (unless you tell it not to, like passwords for instance) and makes it easily accessible. It's not limited to text either. A true timesaver!

7. TextExpander (view app here)

There are some things that you type a lot. Email signatures, complete auto-canned responses, pieces of code, your address, your contact details and so on. These should not take as much time to write over and over again. That's where a tool like TextExpander jumps in! Easily create your own library of auto-expandable text using shortcuts or abbreviations that auto-expand into full pieces of text.

I Have full HTML, CSS and JavaScript libraries in it, a list of words with stupid accents that I always forget to type, a list of commonly mistyped words that it auto corrects, all my private and work contact details and addresses and some standard email replies to common requests. Love it, saves time.

8. Fantastical (view app here)

Your calendar is important. Often, you need to quickly glance at it while talking to someone or writing an email. Also, when adding appointments, you just want to type in "saturday 18:00 BBQ @ John's House" and have the calendar understand what you mean. Welcome to fantastical (also available for your iOS devices).

I'll still fire up Calendar when planning large projects or looking at my total week planning, but for 99% of my calendar interactions I use the nifty taskbar calendar fantastical provides me with.

9. TotalFinder (view app here)

Finder (the explorer of Mac OSX) does its job, but if your a windows convert you'll probably miss some features that you did have in Windows before. TotalFinder replaces your normal Finder and adds some awesome things like;

• Tabs (OSX Now supports this, TotalFinder already did and does a better job)
• Folders on top in sorting lists
• Colored labels (full colors)
• Dual view mode (see screenshot below, awesome)
• Cut and Paste using CMD + X (way faster than dragging and dropping!)
• Visor window (pops up from the bottom as an overlay)

10. Alfred App (view app here)

Using your mouse to click on an app to launch it is a waste of time when your fingers are already on your keyboard. Alfred App is a quick launching toolbar that lets you launch your apps with a few keystrokes. Besides that, it supports "workflows" that can perform certain automated tasks like "copy my current external IP address to the clipboard" or find a certain file on your computer by typing a (partial) filename.

And that concludes the list. Hopefully these apps help you to become more productive on your mac! If they do, please share this post with others.