#getchirp

[stoweboyd]

Tools I Am Using

I’ve switched nearly all my tools more than once in the past six months. I’m restless, and tools have not been helping, but I have settled on a few recently.

Bookmarking -- This is an obsession, and I have returned to using Tumblr to keep bookmarks. It's a full editor, so I don't have to struggle with the limitations of tools like Refind and Stash.ai, which are grudging in their support for styling text. Tumblr has unlimited tags, various sorts of posts, although I mostly have links and a few images. My bookmark stream is Edglings.

Blogging -- Personal stream here on Stowe Boyd is Tumblr. Work Futures is Medium, where I am about to try for-fee posts, as well. Traction Report is Medium, too. I'm thinking of retiring Next Year's Words, a Medium pub, because I can't keep so many balls in the air.

Productivity -- I've moved to a 'work processing' orientation to my work management. I was using Quire for a few months, partly because it supports markdown in task descriptions, plus it has a three-state model for tasks, and other sensible features. However, I've shifted increasingly to a journaling approach to keeping up with all my projects, and now I am using Quip for that. I'll write a post soon about how it all works, but it is dramatically less focused on managing lists of tasks, and is instead more about journaling ideas, progress, and plans for various projects, as well as a daily journal. I wrote about a dream task management assistant in Task Management: Not Good Enough which could be integrated with Quip, perhaps.

Workchat -- My pals at Traction use Slack, so I do when working with them.

Files -- I keep some materials in Google Docs, but increasingly I am using markdown to write, which I sync in Google Drive, but it could be anywhere. Several posts got their start in Quire and Carat. I am also drafting in Quip, which has a rich text style UI.

Email -- Gmail. Nothing fancy.

Chat -- I like Appear.in, but I am ambichatstrous.

Calendar -- Google Calendar, but I don't like it. I wish Quip had a calendar, like NotePlan does. I was using Sunsama but I am want my meeting-related notes and agendas in the same place as all my other journaling, so I transitioned. I will keep my eye on what they dream up, though.

Twitter -- I use GetChirp as a Twitter tool a lot.

Disqus -- I turned Disqus comments back on here at stoweboyd.com. Maybe the trolls will have died down.