My Productivity Tools as a Software Engineer

Staying organized is hard. As a software engineer, writing code is probably 1/4th of the battle. You have to stay on top of your knowledge for long-term storage. You need to keep a Dev journal to record your insights. You need an interstitial journal to reflect and switch contexts mindfully. You need a way to securely and privately track your time spent on projects and to track future-events and meetings.

This is why I delegate my second brain (long-term) into different apps that handle one and only thing.

These are the tools I use to manage my projects and my life. They are mostly found in the Apple ecosystem, but alternatives are listed below.

Bear: for knowledge-base

• Private Markdown Notes for iPhone, iPad and Mac | Bear App
• For permanent notes (zetels) and trees (mind garden)
• For literature notes and reference notes as well
• For long-term knowledge
• Good for code-snippets, syntax highlighting is available
• Premium is required for Mac OS and iOS sync
• Alternative: Joplin - an open source note taking and to-do application with synchronisation capabilities

Agenda: date-focused working notes with a project context

• Agenda - Date-focused Note Taking.
• For notes that do have a project context
  • some notes you took on a project or meeting
• Assign notes that are “On The Agenda” for focus
• This is great if you keep a dev journal or an interstitial journal
• Alternative: Joplin - an open source note taking and to-do application with synchronisation capabilities

Trello: project and life management

• Trello
• A kanban (signboard, in Japanese)
• Visualize work
• Limiting work in progress
• Follow Personal Kanban for how to manage life
• Follow Agile methodology to manage projects

Standard Notes: secure raw notes

• Standard Notes | A Simple And Private Notes App
• For secure cross-platform (iOS, Android, Web) notes
• These are good for ephemeral, raw notes without a project context
• Also works as a small password manager
• Alternative: Joplin - an open source note taking and to-do application with synchronisation capabilities

Note: Yes Joplin can replace Standard Notes, Agenda, and Bear.

Apple Calendar: appointments and time-blocked events

• Speaks for itself.
• Alternative: Google Calendar

Apple Reminders: one-time and recurring reminders

• For recurring reminders (“Take Out Recycling for collection”, “Wash bedsheets”)
• Also good for one-off reminders
• Integrates with Agenda
• Alternative: Google Tasks

Timewarrior: time-tracking

• Timewarrior - Done yet?
• To keep track of the time spent on a project or activity
• Cons: command-line only
• Still looking for a simple, cross platform solution (Web, Desktop, Mobile)
• Alternative for Mobile: GitHub - hamaluik/timecop: A time tracking app that respects your privacy and the gets the job done without being fancy.