Tools of the Trade 2025

The Software Stack Powering My 2025 Workflow

2024 was a year of software consolidation for me. I didn’t add many new apps to my system and I stopped using ones that weren’t providing enough value. The apps below are tried-and-true, I’ve used them all for countless hours. This is my arsenal heading into 2025.

Newcomers: New-ish tools that have become essential

Obsidian (Free for most users)

I’ve been using Obsidian for a few years and it’s now entrenched in my toolkit. The major feature of Obsidian (and Notion and other alternatives) is that you can arrange your text documents and connect them. Word, Doc, and other word processors only make separate documents. Obsidian is a bit nerdy and you have to write in Markdown, which is fairly easy but it’s not for everyone. But if you can get through the minor learning curve, you’ll never look back.

Arc (Free)

For years, I’ve hopped among web browsers: Safari, Chrome, Brave, Firefox. I would make a mess of tabs, quit the browser out of frustration, and start making a new mess somewhere else. Arc addresses this issue by closing unused browser windows. I love overall how it manages tabs (I have a tab problem). And it has loads of small features I rely on. I can open a link in a mini-window and quickly dismiss it. It has a mini video player that lets me keep watching a video after I leave a page. And I can summon a search bar from anywhere. Quite simply, Arc is the best browser I’ve ever used. The developer of Arc is shifting its focus to a simpler browser product, and unfortunately, the future of Arc is hazy. 

Readwise

Of everything here, Readwise is the most singular. It has no real competition. Readwise collects all your highlights into one place. These highlights can be from e-books, PDFs, the web, and even YouTube videos. (Alas, it has no good solution for podcasts or audiobooks.) You can then review these highlights in Readwise or export them to notes software like Obsidian, Notion, or others. If highlights are important to you, you need Readwise. Please note: this is still developing software that has some quirks.

Things (Mac only)

I’ve been using Things for over a year and it’s the only to-do list application I’ve ever stuck with. For me, Things has just the right balance of power and simplicity. It’s easy and pleasurable to use and not bogged down with complex features I don’t need. Having said this, I’ll admit I’m an inconsistent to-do list keeper. Sometimes my lists get cluttered with unnecessary tasks, sometimes I’ll switch to paper lists for a bit. Nonetheless, I keep returning to Things. 

Cal.com (Free plan available)

Meeting scheduling software is essential for me because I’m a solopreneur and it saves me going back and forth with people to schedule (or re-schedule) meetings. Cal.com does everything I need and the plan I use is free.

Video Production and Graphics: These are the core of my video production workflow

Davinci Resolve (Free version available)

Davinci Resolve remains my video editor of choice and I think it’s the best product on the market. Adobe Premiere remains the standard for most video production (outside of film and TV at least). I used Adobe Premiere Pro for many years but ultimately left for two reasons: stability and price. The free version of Resolve is hugely powerful and more than most people need. The full version, which I use, is just $300 and then it’s yours forever. I’ll admit, though, I don’t really use Fusion, the motion graphics component, and prefer Adobe After Effects.

Affinity Suite

It’s simply incredible how powerful these apps are for what they cost. Each is just $70 and they can be found on sale for much less. Mostly I use Affinity Photo, Affinity’s version of Photoshop. It’s not as good as Photoshop but it’s very good, it does everything I need, and I’ve stuck with it for years now. I only do occasional vector art so Designer works great for me. I do even less publishing so Publisher is way more than enough for me. Affinity was bought by Canva this year. Here’s hoping they don’t switch to a subscription model.

Essential Utilities: Utilities I use every day

Claude (and ChatGPT) (Free plans available)

My go-to text generator has become Claude. However, I still use ChatGPT plenty. Actually, I also use Gemini, Perplexity, and Meta AI. They’re all way more alike than different, but overall, I think Claude is the best LLM out there – at least as I write this.

Raycast (Free plan available)

Raycast replaced Alfred for file launching and TextExpander for expanding text. I’ve not dug much deeper with Raycast this year and use it in a pretty elementary way. Still, I use it all day, every day and it’s a standby.

Drafts (Free plan available; Mac only)

Drafts is where I capture bits of text. If an idea pops up, I throw it into Drafts, which is very quick to launch. I also do transient bits of writing here, like messages or posts, temporary references, and notes from meetings. Everything I write in Drafts ultimately moves someplace else or doesn’t need to be archived.

Cleanshot X (Mac only)

I use Cleanshot X for screen capture of stills and videos, but another killer feature it has is letting you copy any text you see onscreen. This comes up a lot for me. This text might be in a video or in a part of the UI that can’t be selected, and I need to copy it and use it.

PullTube

For anyone needing to download YouTube, TikTok, Reels, and other online videos, I’ve been using this app for years. I also use it for downloading poster frames. It’s superb and seems to get updates every couple weeks. I use it almost every day.

Notes (Free; Mac only)

Apple has done a really good job with improving its productivity apps over the years. My wife and I switched from Notion, which I found overkill, to Apple Notes for managing family information. If you have a Mac and you want easy note-taking, this is it.

The Hall of Fame: Apps I’ve used for over a decade

1Password

Essential for managing passwords and the family sharing feature works great. Apple is applying pressure here. They finally have a quality password app.

Default Folder X

Boy, I think I’ve used this app for maybe 15 years. I use Default Folder primarily for shortcuts to commonly used folders or apps. Raycast can do much of this now, but I also like some of Default Folder’s other features, like the ability to select open desktop folders to choose a destination in open and save dialogues.

Chronosync

This is how I back up my work drive. It does everything I need. I use TimeMachine for my internal drive.

The Cutting Toom: Apps I phased out in 2024

Spark

I used Spark as my daily email client for over six months and it didn’t add enough value for me to keep using it. There’s no great email client out there. The most interesting one is Hey, but I wasn’t aligned with how it works. I reverted to GMail for personal email and Apple Mail for business mail.

Fantastical

This is the premiere Mac calendaring app and again, it just didn’t offer many advantages over Apple Calendar or Google Calendar. Also, Apple Calendar has become more competitive. For instance, it now has a quick entry feature where you can just type in a date and time and it’ll schedule it. I now use Apple Calendar and Google Calendar.

Gone but Not Forgotten: Shelved for now but maybe not forever

Tana (Free plan available)

I used Tana heavily for about a year. It was how I managed projects and small bits of information. I didn’t find Obsidian well-suited to those tasks. But I’ve since shifted a lot of this work over to Things, Apple Calendar, and Obsidian. But I still like Tana and find its feature set unique. It doesn’t fit my workflow at the moment, but I might return to it in time.

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