Seems like on the socials people go over the top with ’the BEST way to be productive is…".
In large groups, more complex systems arise depending on a project’s needs. However, working alone frees me up to get things very lean.
The reality is that 6 things are needed to ship a project:
- Todo app (Todoist): Kanban board with project tasks + notes
- Calendar (Apple Calendar)
- Notes app (Obsidian + Excalidraw): Thoughts + resources + diagrams + documentation
- Email client (Apple Mail / Gmail web)
- Code editor (VS Code)
- Terminal (Ghostty) with SeaShells theme
- Browser (Edge …on Mac!)
Tools come and go, I prefer to use a system like Getting Things Done (GTD) to stay organised and Shape-up as a development framework.
The key aspects for me are:
- The ability to access and update my system wherever I am
- Robust and stable apps that can be used on mobile, desktop and web
- Handoff/syncing between devices
- Integration of
- Email client calendar with my desktop and phone calendar
- Todo app with all calendars
This setup enables me to be the most effective, capture inspiration, manage my time and ship.
Update: 26 November 2025
Todoist Kanban was replaced by YouTrack by JetBrains as it combines spaces for documentation and tasks while also having a mobile app that allows me to manage tasks and docs on the go.
VS Code was replaced by Goland and PyCharm as my primary IDEs. This came after I’ve been using Rider as my primary IDE at work and wanted to use better tools when developing my side projects.
My theme of choice in the JetBrains IDEs is the Night Owl Material Theme and when in VS Code, I use the Night Owl plugin theme by Sarah Drasner.