Top 5 Productivity Tools I Actually Use (and Why Notion Isn’t Always Enough)

#startup #productivity #ai #opensource

Every year, there’s a new wave of productivity apps promising to “10x your output.” Most of them don’t last longer than a week on my desktop.

I’ve been through almost everything — Notion, Trello, Todoist, ClickUp, Asana, Evernote. Some stuck, some faded away, but a few have actually shaped the way I work every single day.

Here’s my honest, no-BS breakdown 👇

Press enter or click to view image in full size

FlowTask — One Prompt → A Workspace I used to spend way too much time setting up systems. Templates, tags, labels — it all felt like admin work before the real work.

FlowTask solved that for me:
👉 I type one prompt → it instantly creates a workspace with tasks, deadlines, and docs.
No “setup tax.” No wasted time figuring out structure. It’s become my quick-launch pad for small projects, last-minute assignments, or anything with a tight deadline.
I still keep Notion for long-term documentation and big projects, but when it comes to execution speed, FlowTask wins.

AI Working + Notes Flowtask

Google Calendar — Still Undefeated Sounds boring, but nothing beats it. Fancy AI schedulers are cool, but at the end of the day, blocking time on a calendar is what actually makes me commit. It’s not about complexity. It’s about accountability.

Slack (or Discord) — Team Productivity Productivity isn’t just personal, it’s collective. Async + chat beats endless Zoom calls. Slack’s integrations keep everything in one flow, but honestly, it sometimes feels like another inbox. Discord, on the other hand, feels lighter for small teams. Either way, the principle is the same: good communication beats more meetings.

ChatGPT (or Any AI Assistant) This one’s a game-changer. Drafting emails, brainstorming blog outlines, summarizing research — AI easily saves me hours on small, repetitive tasks. The catch? It’s only as good as the prompts you give it. The real boost comes when AI is built into your workflow (not just sitting in another tab). That’s actually why I added an AI assistant directly into FlowTask — so it works in the context of my notes, projects, and docs.

Notion — The Swiss Army Knife (Okay, this one’s personal.)

Notion is probably the app I open the most. It’s flexible, powerful, and has endless community templates. It really is like a digital “second brain.”
But here’s the downside → flexibility can become a trap. You can spend hours creating the “perfect system” instead of actually doing the work.

So my takeaway: Notion is amazing for knowledge storage, documentation, and big-picture planning. But when it comes to fast execution, it can slow me down.