My rule of thumb to download a new tool is to wait until I Google a tool to solve one of my problems, and then integrate it into my workflow. So, I would treat this list as an "exploration" step, and download the tools which you think are useful to your workflow.
- 🫴 Rectangle: Smooth window management app.
- 🫴 Raycast: Supercharged spotlight search. Easy to:
- access clipboard history
- search emoji (I found this more useful than the Rocket app)
- translate from/to any language
- search on Google
- search notes in Obsidian
- search for synonyms or missing letters
- get/generate Bitwarden passwords
- get 2FA codes saved in Authy
- do a speed test
- set timers
- 💵 BusyCal: Allows me to see reminders on the calendar, and add events/tasks using NLP.
- 🫴 Meeting Bar: Shows the next event on the menu bar.
- 🫴 Obsidian: Note taking app that supports markdown, is customisable with plugins, smoothly syncs between iOS-MacOS using iCloud. Easy to:
- 🫴 Arc browser: Chromium browser focused on distraction-free GUI. Killer features:
- split view multiple pages/tabs
- open existing tab instead of creating a new one
- distraction-free GUI
- 🫴 or 💵 🔁: Grammarly: Checks my English grammar. I tried LanguageTool, but I prefer Grammarly because it catches more grammar mistakes and is less buggy.
- 💡 🫴 How do I make my mac not connect to my bluetooth headset's microphone?
- 🫴 AirPodsSanity: If the method above doesn't work, install and open AirPodsSanity which will be visible and configrable on the menu bar.
- 💡 🫴 How to kill the delay to hide and show the dock?
- kill delay:
defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 0.0001; killall Dock - restore to normal:
defaults delete com.apple.Dock autohide-delay; killall Dock
- kill delay:
- 💡 🫴 How do I lock vertical resize of the dock?
- lock vertical resizing:
defaults write com.apple.dock size-immutable -bool yes && killall Dock - unlock vertical resizing:
defaults write com.apple.dock size-immutable -bool no && killall Dock
- lock vertical resizing:
- 🫴 Cd to...: Finder Toolbar app to open the current directory in the Terminal.
- 🫴 ColorSlurp: Color picker
- 🫴 DevToys: Developer tools to compare text, decode/encode url/jwt, format json/xml/sql, generate hash/uuid...
- 🫴 Terminal.app extensions: Install Oh My Zsh to be able to install plugins (i.e., zsh-syntax-highlighting). Install Powerlevel10k theme along a supported font to have a fancy breadcrumb for Git and timestamp for each line. Lastly, import a nice base theme such as Gruvbox theme.
Result:
- 🫴 Monitor Control: Control the brightness of each connected monitor.
- 💵 Lunar: Control brightness of your monitors in more detail. I bought it to automatically turn off my built-in display when it's connected to an external display.
- 🫴 Shottr: Copy and paste screenshots effortlessly.
- 🫴 Owl OCR: Copy text in images.
- 🫴 Espanso: Text expander. I use this and not the MacOS text expander since it is possible to write mulitple line or variable (i.e., todays date in a nice format) texts.
- 🫴 CapsLockNoDelay: Removes the annoying delay after pressing on the caps lock key.
- Add this to startup: System preferences > Users & Groups > Select a user on the side bar > Login items > +
- 🫴 Pure Paste: Paste as plain text by default.
- 🫴 MOS: Smooth scroll reverser that doesn't bug out.
- 🫴 SteelSeries Exact Mouse: Removes mouse acceleration for real.
- 💵 SoundSource: Sound controller that doesn't bug out and easy to use.
- 🫴 Hidden: Hides icons on the menu bar.
- 🫴 Coconut Battery: Displays extra battery info on the menu bar (i.e., how many hours of usage is left).