My 2022 Productivity Suite

#productivity #tooling #opensource #git

Introduction

Some of you may have read my article from last year about my Productivity Apps for 2021. It's always a good read, especially if you're like me, looking for a new applications all the time. That list is slightly outdated as I have dropped some of the applications there and have found better options for them. In this post, besides listing the new applications I am using, I will also talk a little bit my daily workflow and how I combine the ~~perhaps too~~ many apps I am using.

Let's start with the apps that have replaced last year's picks.

Apps

Before we head into the list itself, a disclaimer: These apps are supposed to help you be more productive. None of the following will do your work on its own, you must make use of them. Therefore, allow me to explain the factors that will make me actually want to use an app:

Cross Platform Compatibility 💻
- I use Windows, Linux, Chrome OS and Android, so being able to use the same app across all my devices is a MUST.
Offline Support 📵
- I did not think I needed it, until I did.
Dark Theme 🕶️
- Because I do not like wear sunglasses when looking at my screens.
Desktop Client 📦
- For the desktop apps, I prefer to have them as a separate window instead of something attached to my browser.
Price 💸
- Because I spend too much money on crypto without any meaningful return.

Password Manager

Bitwarden

💻 Linux, Chrome OS, Browser, Windows, macOS & iOS
📵Offline Support
🕶️ Grey/Nord Theme
📦 Desktop Client & Browser Extension
💸 Free

Bitwarden is not new to me. I have used it before switching to MYKI last year. However, MYKI broke completely on my PopOS machine and after speaking with the devs via Reddit, I was not getting anywhere and kind of needed my credentials.
Looking at the Free options in the Password Management department, there aren't many options out there. Bitwarden is safe, open source, and cross platform.
I decided to give it another try and I must say I was positively surprised with the improvements I have found since I used the app for the last time.
One of my biggest complaints, was that unlike MYKI, Bitwarden didn't prompt you to Save passwords unless you had the client open & unlocked, and I honestly don't know if they already had the Vault Timeout setting back then, but by setting my Vault to lock on my computer restart solved that issue.
Two great additions to Bitwarden were the dark/nord theme which I can't remember being there back when I first tried it.
The UI is not the prettiest, in my opinion, but it is very intuitive and fast.
Overall, it does everything you'd expect from a password manager: you can save passwords, credit cards, tokens, just about anything really... Also has this neat feature that allows you to send self-destructible notes to your friends and colleagues. Specially useful if you want to onboard someone on a project.
Another cool addition was the Windows Hello integration which I'm 99% sure was not there in the past.

Project Management

Ora.pm

💻 Linux, Browser, Windows, Android & macOS
📵Offline Support
🕶️ One of the most beautiful apps on the list
📦 Desktop Client
💸 Free/Premium

Like the application above, Ora.pm is not new to me. In fact, I have used it pretty much throughout the whole development of MDyna.
Last year, I gave YouTrack a try and it does a solid job as a JIRA alternative. I'd use it as a JIRA alternative. But that's not what I'm looking for, now is it ? Besides only having a browser version, no offline support and a terrible theme, I wan't something a little lighter to manage my side projects. So after building my webside using YouTrack, I decided it was time to look for an alternative. And oh boy... did I look.
I think this is one of the thoughest applications of my stack because of the crazy amount of PM apps birthed every day, each with 5 or so different pricing plans.
I wanted an application which filled the above criteria, but also something that would not limit me according to their pricing plans. I did a comparison chart of a few select PM tools, combining price with the features * I valued*, and Ora.pm came up second, after YouTrack. And that is because YouTrack is 100% free, so their price/feature is always going to be 0.
Ora.pm is prehaps the lesser known application on this whole list, unfairly so. It's feature rich, affordable, and their themes are stunning.
Full disclosure, there are a few issues with it, for example, I've found that the GCal integration is better left unused if you like to move deadlines around in a Gantt Chart.
However, you get Sprints, Burndown Charts, Unlimited Tasks, Custom Fields & Milestones for free. I ended up paying for a plan because developing I wanted tasks relationships for developing Epoch Rift and it's totally worth my 6$/month.

Notes

Obsidian

💻 Linux, Windows, Android, macOS, iOS
📵Offline Support
🕶️ Plenty of themes to choose from, super easy to customize them with CSS
📦 It's a desktop app
💸 Free (but...)

The first debutant in this list.
Obsidian has been one of the most pleasant surprises I came across last year. For those who don't know, it's a Markdown notes application and replaces Notion on this category. Last year I went on vacation to a rural area and my connection was either painfully slow or non-existant at all, and since I don't keep Notion open all the time, I had no way to access it.
If the best part of Obsidian are the Plugins which you can install right out of the client, and there are 2 or 3 I would consider 'core' to make your overall experience better. The second best part is that it works offline across your devices, with a minor caveat... Sync is premium (and a bit pricey in my opinion). There are workarounds like using a cloud provider like OneDrive or Dropbox, I'm using the git plugin which basically backs up my vault to a Github private repo. While it's not practical to use on mobile, I will go into detail later how I deal with it.
If you don't know Obsidian I suggest you check it out, I've migrated everything from Notion and despite the fact that it took me about 4 hours to do so, I regret nothing. The writing experience is pleasant, there are hundreds of themes, which can be easily customizable if you know basic CSS, and all the data is private and owned by you, unlike other alternatives. The downside is missing the sync on mobile, but there are apps which may force your cloud folders to update on Android (and I believe in iOS aswel).

Browser

Brave

💻 Linux, Windows, Android, macOS & iOS
🕶️ Chrome Theme Store
💸 Free

So, it seems I have spent a year without changing browsers 🎉
Brave is the first app that returns to this list, the privacy-focused browser is still my main (and in most cases, only) browser.
I think it is closely tied with Edge as the fastest browser I have used on macOS, Windows and Android. The last time I checked Edge, it still did not support account Sync, so I ditched it for Brave and haven't looked back since.
Ads are blocked by default and it’s easy to make changes to the shields when they inadvertently block things that you want to see. Brave’s privacy focus is a huge selling point especially for people who follow tech and have noticed just how creepy the predictive algorithms are getting.
And the best part is that you can actually earn Brave Attention Tokens -BAT- from watching ads, which on its own has valued around 300% during the last year. We are still at the begining of what Brave promises to be a revolution in the way online advertising works, competing directly with Google and Facebook's model.

Code Editor

Our Lord and Savior

💻 Linux, Windows, macOS & Browser (preview)
🕶️ I'm using this theme
📦 Electron Based 😔
💸 Free I have been using VSCode since 2018, when I started working as a front end developer. Back then, I was using Atom and when I made the switch, the powerful extension ecosystem had me hooked to it from the start. Over the last year they've added the Settings Sync with your Github account, which makes me rely on one less extension. I've also gotten into the Github Copilot beta and I completely recommend anyone who's reading this to do so aswell as the experience at first feels like your machine is under a dark voodoo magic spell. I've written a post with my settings & best extensions a while ago, I recommend giving it a read if you're looking to customize or improve your VSCode experience

To-Do Lists

Google Keep

💻 Browser, Android & iOS
📵Offline Support
🕶️ Broken dark theme
📦 No desktop client, only mobile apps
💸 Free

In my opinion, this is one of the most neglected apps, with great potential in the Google Cloud ecosystem.
There are no desktop clients for this and the API is enterprise-only.
The dark theme looks like they just added filter: invert(-1) on the <body> of the HTML.
There aren't many reasons to check out Google Keep in 2022, however I still use it, mostly on my phone, for two reasons:

Acts as inbox for quick notes & lists or for when Obsidian isn't synced on my Android device
Google Assistant integration for my shopping list, which I share with my girlfriend's Gmail account

Microsoft ToDo

💻 Browser, macOS, Windows, Android & iOS
📵Offline Support
🕶️ Beautiful theme, except for the browser.
📦 Linux users are limited to the browser version
💸 Free

This is one beautiful application, if you run it on Windows, macOS or on your mobile. It's the result of Microsoft absorbing Wunderlist and I use it for all my non virtual ToDos. For free, you get lists, repeatable tasks and reminders. Its main feature is the 'My Day' list which suggests you task to plan your day.
The only downsides are the fact that you need a Microsoft account, the lack of integration with the Google Assistant (which would make me ditch Keep) and the fact that there's no Linux application.
There's a browser app in your outlook panel, and I could live with that, but unfortunately, there is no dark theme on the browser app.

Charts & Whiteboards

Excalidraw

💻 Browser
📵Offline Support
🕶️ Night Mode works well
📦 Browser, but I'm using the Obsidian Plugin
💸 Free + Premium

I had the need of a charts app when I was developing a small prototype for a code challenge and wanted to present a diagram of what I was going to do.
Like project management tools, diagrams apps seem to be all the rage these days, and they spawn like rabbits in the spring.
The biggest issues with most of them is that they actually charge you for having more than n boards. Which I understand, but sucks. I won't use a whiteboarding tool that often, however, I don't want to limit the boards I can have saved. Excalidraw also does this as a monetizing strategy. However, they allow you to export your charts. I can save all my diagrams in my drive and open them later.
I won't like and tell you that Excalidraw was my first choice, however, they have an Obsidian plugin which integrates seamlessly and keeps my diagrams in my Obsidian repo for later.
They also have a huge shapes library which I totally recomend digging upon.

Git GUI

Gitkraken

💻 Windows, Linux, macOS
🕶️ Beautiful theme, except for the browser.
💸 Free + Premium (4.95€/mo for private repos)

Like VSCode, Gitkraken has been with my for the best part of my career.
In my first job, I had no git knowledge besides checkout, push, pull & commit, and was working with a senior developer who insisted on using a rebase workflow. For some time, I actually became known as 'rebases' on the co-working space due to the (admittedly too many) times my senior would re-explain the rebase workflow to me. Then I found GitKraken and really got the hang of wtf was going on in a git repository. Now I can do almost anything with a git repo. I don't buy into that CLI vs GUI war. CLI is fast, and knowing the commands will save you a shit load of time and may prevent you from looking like a fool in conversations, but when you have a complicated git workflow/large teams/branch-palooza 🎉, actually looking at the branches state in a clean neat way will save you hours.
They've just launched their CLI which allows you to control Gitkraken from the comand line while watching everything happening in the branch interfance.

Bonus

Anytype.io

Anytype is built on web3 and is an open source Notion alternative. I got a chance to get in the Early Alpha, and I honestly thought it was not polished enough to replace Obsidian. However, I have high hopes for this one.
It's 100% free, works on all platforms and syncs your data across devices. Theming is not the best, but it has a dark theme.
It's like Notion but not quite, in the sense that everyone is can have a different type (not just notes/databases) and each type has different properties. Which is great for templating and whatnot.
I'm still holding for the application to be a bit more robust, but I can't say I wouldn't choose this over Obsidian if I had gotten into the Early Access earlier. So sign up for the Early Access or subscribe to their newsletter because I honestly believe this one is going places 🚀

This is it for now. Feel free to share what apps you are currently using or if you actually checked out and liked one of the apps I've suggested here 🙂