My Tech Make-over

Whenever I finish a chapter of life—things like moving or completing a large project—I always feel compelled to clean house in a variety of ways. I tidy up my workstation and do chores that have been kicking around for months. I organize my computer, archive old stuff, and clean up my desktop. Although even at the worst of times, gotta say my desktop is pretty dang tidy.

But the most impact comes from the improvements I?make?to my software workflow. Occasionally these changes don’t stick, occasionally they end up being horizontal moves, but mostly, they’re meaningful upgrades to how I work.

Here’s my?tech?changes from recent years.

• For writing I switched from the writing application?Scrivener?to the note taking application?Obsidian. This was an excellent move but Scrivener is great and might work well for you.
• For video editing I switched from?Adobe Premiere?to?Davinci Resolve. Resolve is an entirely superior application, great move, many other video editors are now following suit. This also saved plenty of money. Everything after?This is Not a Conspiracy Theory?has been made in Resolve.
• For photo editing and graphics work I switched from?Photoshop?to?Affinity Photo. This move also saved money and it works well enough for me because I don’t use Photoshop that much anymore. But Photoshop is still the best and if I did more graphics work I would switch back.

I've also made new additions, like the Mac-only application?Drafts.?This is where I do transient bits of writing, like important messages or posts, handy references, notes from meetings—actually I’m writing this newsletter in Drafts! (Obsidian is more like a personal library, a “second brain.” Drafts is more like a notepad.)

And I love?Text Sniper?(also Mac-only) for capturing bits of onscreen text.?Can’t say enough good things about this application and I use it almost everyday.

Here’s the changes I’ve made in recent months. Some of these are still on-going.

• For browsing, switched from?Brave?to the?Arc Browser,?which is still a beta. It’s better, do it.?You can probably find an invite in this Twitter thread.?I made?this video with Nick Milo about Arc.
• Although I’ve run a Mac for a long time, I didn’t actually use much Apple software or services. I didn't even have an iPhone. But now I’ve now?joined the Apple Cult. I realize this choice isn’t very exciting or original, but in my new dad life using Apple everywhere makes life easier. Everything works well, connects well and the user interface is consistent. I now use Apple Music, Podcasts and Notes regularly. I’m even trying out Apple News for news. I now have an?Apple Watch. I love being reachable all the time by my family, and I often use it for podcasts, alarms and UV readings here in sunny San Diego. My wife got me?AirPods Pro?for Christmas and I love them so so much. We use Photos all the time for family photos and it’s one of our absolute favorite things. These all get synced up to an ever-ballooning iCloud account. (I tried to use Siri with my watch for a while and gave up.)

The verdict is not yet in on these current switches.

• Trying?Spark?email client for business email. I’ve used Gmail forever, but I’ve moved my business addresses to iCloud. This is just an area where I’m looking to freshen things up and have a feeling of renewal.
• I’m moving away from Notion, Apple Reminders and Asana and trying?ClickUp?for task and project management. The?free plans?have everything most of us will ever need.
• I’m likely switching to the very exciting, kinda geeky launcher?Raycast, which would replace?three?apps: Alfred, TextExpander, and Default Folder.
• A lot of business and productivity books are padded and shouldn’t be 300 pages long, and I often find podcasts fluffy and meandering. I’m currently using?Blinkist?for 20 minute summaries. I still read the most important books, but for the next tier down, this is seeming like a great way to pick up some good bits.

And these old-timers hang in there year after year.

• 1Password?for passwords.
• iStat Menus?gives me system and network stats I sometimes need.
• Slack?for messaging.
• Breaktime?for focusing. I set it to 52 minutes, then take a break. I’m sporadic at this.
• Chronosync?for backups.
• DropBox?is still the best for online file storage. I like?WeTransfer?for sending large files.
• We need Excel for the business so we use?Microsoft 365?or whatever it’s called this week.

All told, almost my entire suite of applications has been replaced?over?the past few years, including stalwarts like Scrivener and the Adobe suite. These changes have been overwhelmingly beneficial.

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