A snapshot of my constantly updating list of awesome products and hacks
Design
- Figma
Design, prototype, and collaborate in one tools. Figma is OS agnostic.
It has all the good things from Sketch + Invision + Zeplin in one tool.
Time Saver
- MagicSpreadsheet is a Virtual Assistant and a “Mechanical turk” for your tasks. It uses AI and Human power to find, organize and edit information according to your needs. For example: find a list of emails, remove background from images, check a list of restaurants in SF if they deliver food, etc.
- News Feed Eradicator for Chrome & Firefox is an open source project that removes your Facebook feed. It’s a real time saver, if you still want to use your FB, but in control of your time
- Calendly helps you schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails
- Grammarly fixes spelling on the go. It has integration with Browsers and Desktop version.
- Slate a window management application for Mac (open source).
My configuration file for slate available here. - Remove notifications on your phone.
When I dig into notifications settings, I discovered that even a Calculator app sends me notifications. WAT?
Disable all notifications on your phone, for 2 weeks. Yes, including calls.
After a 2 week diet, turn on only necessary applications. - Make your phone Black & White. The candy-colored interface on your phone triggers your brain into using it more. Use grayscale mode to make the junk less appealing.
- Customizing Gmail filters is a step to Zero inbox.
GMAIL
- Mixmax a plugin for Gmail to boost your productivity
Development
- Visual Studio Code
After using many various IDEs, including Atom, VIM and other my current recommendation is VS Code. With many various plugins it boosts your productivity. My plugins list is available here. - Postman an API development environment
Company hacks
- Sharing your out of office time between colleagues. Create a Google calendar and give an access to all your team members. Everybody should add their vacations, etc (without notifications).
Tools for Startups
- Vero messaging platform or their competitor Customer.io
Miscellaneous
Photo by Elena Rouame on Unsplash