Mac OS, Browser, & iOS Apps
Definitive App Comparisons – Crowdsourced spreadsheet with comparisons for Browser, Calendar, E-Mail, Note, Password Manager, and PDF apps.
Affinity Design Suite (Mac/Windows/iOS) – Single purchase alternative to the Adobe design suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign) with a special feature that merges all of their apps into their publisher app. This makes an integrated cross-app workflow much faster since you don’t have to switch apps.
BetterTouchTool (Mac) – Set customizable gestures and taps on Mac touchpads. Huge time-saver.
Alfred 5 (Mac) – Spotlight replacement tool with clipboard history and a huge number of extensions. Huge time saver.
Voice Dream Reader (iOS/Mac) – Text-to-speech app for improving your reading speed and experience. The Mac version is subscription only, but iOS is a one-time purchase.
Dropzone 4 (Mac) – Effortlessly move and copy files on your Mac.
ODrive – Mount cloud drives locally for instant syncing without using hard drive space. Offers just about everything you should need for free.
Bitwarden (Multiplatform) – Password Manager, time-saving autofill function, or hold CMD+Down arrow to trigger it in browsers.
Ferdium (Mac) – All-in-one messenger and web app consolidator.
Vanilla / Bartender (Mac) – Organize your Mac menu bar.
Eagle – Organize your photo/font library.
Davinci Resolve – Professional free video editing software.
Blender – Professional 3D software.
Xnconvert – Batch image converter and resizer.
Gemini 2 – Duplicate file finder.
Doodle (Web) – Simplify meeting scheduling and polls.
Sli.do (Web) – Live Q&A and Polls for your Meetings & Events
Poll Everywhere – Captivates audiences with live activities that deliver actionable results (25 responses free)
Social Fixer – Customize your Facebook feed, filter out undesirable topics (I.e. politics), and mark items as read.
Snapdrop (Web) – Cross-platform in-browser airdrop. No installation is necessary.
Video Speed Controller – browser-specific speed controls: Firefox, Chrome
Download Helper – Download videos from almost any website. Firefox, Chrome
Grammarly – Grammar Checker. Also notable: Hemingway Editor, Slickwrite
ZoteroBib – Easy free bibliography generator
Zotero – Citation collector and organizer. Automatically inserts accurate footnotes and bibliographies into your word processor. Requires some setup, but it is well worth it if you write a lot. The reason I like it over other competitors is that you can add a book by ISBN, plus it’s just faster to use than the other options I’ve tested.
Scrivener – The Photoshop of writing apps. Sort your writing into chapters and sections with snapshots to save and revert to different versions of your work. Doesn’t work with Zotero, but can take EndNote reference codes.
Text Workflow – I use this to automatically find and replace a large variety of common mistakes made by OCR at once.
Devonthink is great for maximizing your ability to search files for research. See how it can save you time below: