Productivity Super Stack
In a world cluttered with productivity tools, distilling down to the essentials is like crafting the perfect stack: you need the right layers to make it truly effective.
Welcome to the Productivity Super Stack. This is all about the core tools that keep me focused, fast, and efficient as a developer.
Only the Essentials…
Just like a great tech-stack needs its essential components, so does a productive workflow. Throughout my career, I've tried countless tools, but for the sake of minimalism, maintainability, and sanity, I've distilled my stack down to four essential categories.
These are the components:
Terminal
Command Palette
Notes App
Calendar and Email
That’s it. Nothing else.
No superfluous pile of applications to clutter my brain or workflow. Just the essentials and no more.
Add a browser in there and I can confidently say that I can do nearly 100% of my work without ever needing another tool.
The Tools
The Terminal: Warp
Let's get to the meat of this thing with Warp, my terminal of choice. Warp also serves as my dedicated IDE. If you want to know more about that, see my first article on my nvim setup here.
The Why?
Warp stands out because it's super customizable, allowing me to tailor it precisely to my needs and preferences, from my fully custom theme to specifying my own commands for various actions.
One of the standout features is the integrated command line AI, which was a game-changer before I recently switched to Copilot in the CLI. Warp's design is both attractive and non-distracting, helping me stay focused on my work. I particularly love the ability to pin the command line to the bottom of the terminal.
Another reason I love Warp is its shortcuts and command palette, providing quick access to all its features, including command snippets, notebooks, themes, and more. The hot keys for window splits and tabs make navigation a breeze, eliminating the need for tmux or Zellij.
In addition, the integrated autocomplete and various shell features allowed me to ditch Oh My Zsh in favor of a very stripped-down Starship configuration.
The Why not?
However, Warp isn't without its downsides. You need an account to use it, which can be a minor hassle (and has questionable utility for non-paying users). The AI features, while powerful, are expensive, and I often run out of tokens early in the month, hence the switch to Copilot. It's also missing some basic features like font ligatures, which can be a drawback for some users.
The Command Palette: Raycast
Raycast is an incredibly powerful and versatile Spotlight replacement on Mac that has become my go-to productivity multiplier. Designed to streamline your workflow, Raycast allows you to perform various tasks quickly without needing to switch apps or reach for your mouse.
The Why?
Raycast's shortcuts for everything essentially allow me to ditch the mouse almost entirely. This is a game-changer for efficiency, as keyboard shortcuts can significantly speed up your workflow.
The level of customization and extensibility Raycast offers is unparalleled. Some of my favorite extensions include Linear, Brew, Window Manager, Arc (my preferred browser), Raycast AI, Snippets, Spotify, and so many more.
Check out their website for a comprehensive overview of these.
In addition to its extensive customization options, Raycast is way faster than Spotlight when searching for things. Whether you're looking for files, apps, or running commands, Raycast gets you there in the blink of an eye.
The integrated interface with ChatGPT allows me to get quick answers without changing context while I’m working. I’ve assigned a shortcut for this: ⌘-⇧-?. This feature is incredibly useful for on-the-fly queries and small tasks that would otherwise require opening a browser or another application.
Raycast is also beautifully minimal and honestly just works exactly how you want it to… every time. The care and attention that have gone into its development are second to none in my opinion!
The Why Not?
The only downside is that the fully baked version isn’t free, but I’ll happily pay for it and strongly believe that I've gotten my money's worth tenfold in terms of time and efficiency. There will always be a cost for perfection.
The Notes: Markdown
I previously worked for a startup that is rethinking the whole approach to notes. While I think the product we were building is incredibly powerful, I have landed on a much more stripped-back way of taking, viewing, and maintaining my notes.
The critical points for me when developing this workflow revolved around speed, context, discoverability, and recovery.
My Entire Notes Setup
Here's the entirety of my notes setup: three aliases in my shell config!
#-------------------
# Notes
# ------------------
alias note='cd ~/Notes && nvim ~/Notes/$(date +"%B_%d_%Y").md'
alias editnotes='cd ~/Notes && nvim ~/Notes'
alias notes='ls --tree ~/Notes'
With these three commands, I can quickly create new notes, find old notes, view any note, and edit/organize all of my notes.
The How?
I started by creating a Git repo in my root directory named ~/Notes. Since I use the terminal almost exclusively for managing work, files, etc., I simply type note from any command prompt and a new markdown file is created in the root of my notes directory and that note is opened in nvim. From here, I can write in markdown and save quickly fleeting notes, knowing that they will be easily findable later based on the date.
I also regularly organize my notes using my nvim setup via the editnotes command. Creating new folders, renaming notes, and searching for specific notes or strings in any of my notes is a breeze with telescope and nvim-tree.
This setup has proven to be exactly what I needed and is easy to back up to GitHub or another remote Git repo manager. Since I use Warp, I can also preview my notes or share them with the team on a call using the notes command, which displays a tree of my notes and folders and allows me to click through them and preview right in the terminal as rendered markdown. Sick...
Not Your Vibe?
I think Stashpad is an amazing alternative app if this setup isn't for you. It’s fast, flexible, and beautiful to boot. However, in my case, I haven't found anything more reliable or faster than these three commands combined with nvim in my terminal.
The Email and Calendar: Superhuman x Notion Calendar
When it comes to managing my email and calendar, the combination of Superhuman and Notion Calendar keeps me on track and productive. These tools, while not tightly coupled, serve as perfect complements to each other.
Superhuman for Email
Superhuman is a game-changer for managing communication. It's blazing fast, making inbox zero achievable. Every action has a keyboard shortcut, which boosts productivity and helps maintain focus. Features like read receipts and snooze allow me to manage follow-ups easily, and the clean, minimalist interface keeps distractions at bay.
Notion Calendar for Scheduling
For scheduling and managing tasks, Notion Calendar is my go-to. It's integrated with my notes, allowing me to link tasks with relevant notes and documents.
Customizable views let me switch between calendar, list, and Kanban views, and its collaborative features make it easy to share calendars and tasks with team members.
Combining these capabilities in an all-in-one workspace helps keep everything organized and accessible. The one keypress “jump into a meeting” feature provided by the Raycast extension is also a huge plus. Lastly, the system toolbar interface is perfect to quickly see what’s coming up and take action if needed.
Downsides and Final Thoughts
The only downside to Superhuman is its cost, but the time saved and increased productivity make it worth every penny.
Notion Calendar can be overwhelming with its many features, and it occasionally has performance issues, especially with large databases, but on the whole, it seems like the same solid product Cron was offering before the acquisition by Notion.
Overall, the combination of Superhuman and Notion Calendar provides a powerful, integrated solution for managing emails and scheduling, keeping me organized and efficient.
Conclusion
In a sea of productivity tools, finding the right combination can significantly impact your workflow. The Productivity Super Stack is my streamlined toolkit: Warp for a powerful terminal, Raycast for a versatile command palette, Superhuman and Notion Calendar for integrated email and scheduling, and a Markdown repo for simple, effective note-taking. Each tool plays a crucial role in optimizing my speed and efficiency, helping me stay focused and productive. Find your essentials, fine-tune them, and watch your productivity soar.