Productivity Tools that I recommend
I’ve come to depend on many tools to stay productive in an environment where I need to seamlessly integrate synchronous with asynchronous work. Here are some tools that I highly recommend.
- Grammarly and Hemingway – I believe that the ability to write well will be a key differentiator in a hybrid workplace. I use both Grammarly and Hemingway to improve my writing. Grammarly does a great job of catching grammatical errors. Hemingway helps me simplify my sentences. They complement each other really well.
- Craft – I’ve tried a lot of writing tools in the past – Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research etc. But I never used them for more than a couple of months. I’ve stuck with Craft for more than a year now, and I use it as my default app to write and save all kinds of notes (meeting minutes, essays, to-dos etc.). I love the simplicity of Craft; it’s incredibly easy to use and has native Mac and iOS apps (unlike some of its competitors that use web wrappers while porting to other platforms).
- Cleanshot – I use Cleanshot to take, annotate and share screenshots and make and share short videos (screen recordings). I can’t recommend Cleanshot enough – it’s brilliantly executed software.
- Loom – I use Loom to create short videos. I am a big fan of using asynchronous video instead of meetings. I’ve made videos for sharing demos, reviews of decks and short messages to my teams. Loom has been a game-changer for me.
- Krisp.ai – Krisp does one thing – reducing background noise on calls. And it does it incredibly well. I often work from coffee shops, and Krisp does a great job of filtering out the background sounds.
- Figma – Figma is one of the most versatile software launched in the last decade. I use Figma for various use cases – brainstorming, ideation and creating prototypes. I also love that audio is natively integrated into Figma; that allows you to seamlessly integrate synchronous and asynchronous work into your workflow. Figma is the gold standard for collaboration software.
What tools do you all use at work? Any recommendations?