Some of the most frequent requests I get from readers are about tools recommendations.
So I was already thinking to write an article about my favorite tools, when, a few weeks ago, I found Brian Lovin’s website. It has a fantastic section about his stack and I spent some good 45 minutes on it, checking out every item I didn’t know. That gave me the final push — and I started to write this.
This article lists the ~30 tools I use the most for work and life. They are organized into four categories:
🎒 Personal Productivity
👓 Reading & Writing
🎽 Team / Project Management
🔨 Dev Tools
Whenever relevant, I don’t just mention the tools, but tell you how I use them. Sometimes, in fact, tools by themselves aren’t much useful if you don’t know the process, too.
I work on a Mac, so some of these (few) are Mac-only. When it is so, I write it beside the tool name to save your time.
As I always do, I include suggestions from friends and people from the Refactoring community. They made me try many new ones and I found new favorites this way.
Finally, paid subscribers get special discounts 🎁 on many of these tools. When it is so, I put the discount beside the name.
Let’s dive in 👇
🇮🇳 A message to my friends in India
Before we get into the article, I know that many Indian readers are having issues with payments for the newsletter subscription. If you are one of them, please reply to this email and I will give you an alternative payment link + a discount because of all the hassle.