It's ready! 💫 A new blog post in which I list of all the tools and apps I've been using for work, plus all my opinions about them. maria-antoniak.github.io/2024/12/30/o... Featuring @kagi.com, @warp.dev, @paperpile.bsky.social, @are.na, Fantastical, @obsidian.md, Claude, and more. - ThreadSky

mariaa.bsky.social • 56 days ago

It's ready! 💫

A new blog post in which I list of all the tools and apps I've been using for work, plus all my opinions about them.

https://maria-antoniak.github.io/2024/12/30/organizational-toolkit-2024.html

Featuring @kagi.com, @warp.dev, @paperpile.bsky.social, @are.na, Fantastical, @obsidian.md, Claude, and more.

Reposted from Maria Antoniak

So far the blog post draft is winning the distraction battle. Prepare for a very long and opinionated update about all the new tools and apps I’ve been using for work.

Comments

maosbot.bsky.social•56 days ago

I love this—thanks for all the tips! Have you tried Mailmate? https://bsky.app/profile/maosbot.bsky.social/post/3lec4wh2a6s2c

maosbot.bsky.social•56 days ago

On keyboards, having suffered from RSI in my wrists and fingers for ten years, I VERY STRONGLY the Kinesis advantage https://www.sono.dk/kontormobler/ergonomisk-kontortilbehor/ergonomiske-tastaturer/kinesis-advantage2-kb600-nordic-496054.html

maosbot.bsky.social•56 days ago

I've just been using Fantastical's openings for meeting scheduling—is https://cal.com a big step up?

PS sorry—above I meant to write “VERY STRONGLY ENDORSE”

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

I haven’t tried Fantastical’s booking system (will definitely look into it) but if it’s similar to Google, then yes, https://Cal.com has many more features that I care about. Scheduled time zone changes, custom max per week, etc.

maosbot.bsky.social•56 days ago

Thanks a lot, I'll check it out! While I've got you, have you tried Orion, the Kagi browser?

maosbot.bsky.social•56 days ago

I'm just trying it out myself

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

I haven’t, I can’t remember why not though 🤔

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

Are your hands tilted using this keyboard? It looks like the model’s hands are flat which is what I want (I think)

maosbot.bsky.social•56 days ago

Your hands should be absolutely flat, hovering above the keyboard. I've been using the keyboard exclusively for ten years and it seems to have basically solved my wrist issues!

motorcityadam.com•56 days ago

Seconded.

This keyboard changed my life.

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

I haven’t but will try it!

strickvl.bsky.social•55 days ago

+1 for MailMate

warp.dev•55 days ago

We're in great company on this list. Thanks for the feature, Maria!

dmimno.bsky.social•55 days ago

I love how you emphasize not just how tools work but how they make you feel

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

Written in a five hour burst on my flight back to Copenhagen. Apologies for any typos.

Shoutout to @mimansaj.bsky.social and her amazing writeup which inspired me: https://mimansajaiswal.github.io/posts/mac-softwares/

corbieailin.bsky.social•54 days ago

📌

dizzyzaba.bsky.social•54 days ago

📌

kencf0618.bsky.social•55 days ago

This tracks. "Once you've set it up, you're really only going to use four or five things routinely". I'm not a good teacher, but even I know enough not to say "And you can... And you can... Etc." The configuration space is very large.

mimansaj.bsky.social•48 days ago

Yeah, I like trying out apps for fun, but I make sure not to use multiple apps, or to replace an app if need be.

desertthunder.dev•56 days ago

The font on your website is awesome! My ChatGPT subscription expires soon and I think you've pushed me towards Claude.

mellymeldubs.bsky.social•56 days ago

Always love your takes!! Also you made me lol multiple times

andrewsyvic.bsky.social•55 days ago

That was a good article about your set up.

peck.phd•55 days ago

📌

rebound.liberalrepublic.org•56 days ago

📌

danlarremore.bsky.social•55 days ago

This is great. Thanks for posting!

jonassmith.bsky.social•55 days ago

Very useful - so much to try out! 💪🏻

paperpile.com•49 days ago

Thank you for including us in your organizational toolkit, Maria! You might like to know that Paperpile for Firefox is in beta. Learn more here: https://new.paperpile.com/Paperpile-on-Safari-and-Firefox-04918e67e83449a1b9c8674f85dddd7b

mariaa.bsky.social•49 days ago

I discovered this and have been using it today! I LOVE it! Will post an update after a little more testing.

informor.bsky.social•37 days ago

So useful! Shared with my group. Trying a bunch of these now. I wanted to try https://cal.com but seems like they ask for *full* access to my Outlook cal? I don't know why they can't just ask for "write"+"available" -- I feel full access is a little too much given the sensitive links/info in my calendar.

mariaa.bsky.social•37 days ago

Hmm I unfortunately did not notice that! Will look into this 🧐

informor.bsky.social•37 days ago

I emailed their help. Let's see what I learn

informor.bsky.social•33 days ago

@mariaa.bsky.social -- expected but partially reassuring: "Unfortunately, Microsoft requires ReadWrite access for creating events, which is why we need it. However, rest assured, we don't read or save any of your data. You can check our open-source code on GitHub to verify this."

informor.bsky.social•33 days ago

Now, can we verify that they run the code they publish? (I know, active area of CS research...)

mariaa.bsky.social•33 days ago

That's great they're open source though! Definitely makes me feel a bit better

hltn.bsky.social•56 days ago

Thank you - this is extremely interesting, constructive and useful. Plus bonus points for introducing me to Potato which is not only fabulously named but answers a problem I only just realised I have. Outstanding. Thank you!

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

Potato is *wonderful* and integrates very well with Prolific.

hltn.bsky.social•56 days ago

I'm reading the docs as we speak! 🙏

basus.me•56 days ago

Love Fantastical and Things, but I'm old school on most of the rest. Monitor-wise, I'm probably getting this for myself in a couple of months: https://www.dell.com/en-in/shop/dell-ultrasharp-40-curved-thunderbolt-hub-monitor-u4025qw/apd/210-bmcx/monitors-monitor-accessories

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

wowww 😍

basus.me•56 days ago

It is pricey, but it's the screen real estate of two monitors and integrates a Thunderbolt hub and a ton of ports.

shan-nav.bsky.social•55 days ago

Amazing! Thank you so much !

mimansaj.bsky.social•56 days ago

Oh, and recs for keyboard: Moonlander (saved my partner from wrist pain). For monitor, you need high ppi (>200) to feel the same as retina monitors. Any monitor in that range will feel similar (including studio display)

anseljh.com•56 days ago

Another keyboard recommendation if you’re getting carpal tunnel: Goldtouch. I have one at my office, a second at my home-office desk, and a third (the portable Bluetooth one) for traveling. Worth every penny.
https://www.goldtouch.com/ergonomic-keyboards/

mimansaj.bsky.social•56 days ago

Ooh this is fun! I need to check out potato soon (iirc it is developed by people from UMich!). You might like schej instead of when2meet, and you might like spark for email (unsure if it supports microsoft mail), and you might like noor instead of slack (has a generous free plan)

mimansaj.bsky.social•56 days ago

I wish I liked obsidian (I have tried it 10 times till now 😭, I like rich text block based writing). You might want to check out morgen in place of things+fantastical btw.

mimansaj.bsky.social•56 days ago

I am surprised you do not use Raycast 😅 At this point, I do not think I can live without raycast 🫣

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

I think this is the first I’m hearing about it! Need to find and try all of these suggestions, thank you so much 🙇‍♀️

zacharykstine.bsky.social•31 days ago

This is great! Do you do any paper drafting in obsidian, or do you use something like overleaf for that?

mariaa.bsky.social•31 days ago

Oh good catch. I use Overleaf for all paper drafting and writing (unless forced by venue or colleagues to use something else, happens rarely).

lessem.org•56 days ago

Thunderbird will work with CU's Exchange (have OIT enable imap for you if it doesn't). Different annoyances than Apple Mail, so hard to say if it's better. Tbird calendar is bad, but can be ignored.

uncaughtexception.com.au•48 days ago

Nice one! I’m going to pick out any interesting ones for my blog… I’d love if you did the same for mine!
http://www.uncaughtexception.com.au/unfraught-perception/tool-much-fun-14
Next edition coming soon I promise!

soldaini.net•56 days ago

since you are asking for reccs: studio display is expensive but worth every penny https://bsky.app/profile/soldaini.net/post/3lbbqnjo7s22g

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

tempted 👀

umagunturi1.bsky.social•55 days ago

I needed this!! Thank you for this amazing blog post. Also, loved the ending, especially highlighting physical tools like tote bags—definitely my favorite part

mariaa.bsky.social•55 days ago

It’s hard to find a good tote!

scfrank.bsky.social•49 days ago

Thanks for this! I will 2nd previous recs for Morgen (calendar that brings together gcal and outlook calendar, plus scheduling, though I haven't used that) and Vivaldi - chromium-based, good community, robust, very customizable, workspaces, side tabs if you want, adblock etc ❤️❤️

javiercha.bsky.social•56 days ago

I've somehow managed to keep all my email inboxes centralized in Gmail! I also hate Outlook with a passion. It's one of the first fights (a bit hyperbolic but I become very pushy) I have with the IT department when I start a new job.

mariaa.bsky.social•56 days ago

I tried, believe me!

namer.bsky.social•55 days ago

since you mentioned wanting to try new themes for VSCode, try Catpuccin!

I think it's along the general aesthetic you prefer, but the new icons are a gamechanger compared to just colour palette swaps that most themes do.

mariaa.bsky.social•55 days ago

Yess I will definitely try this!

https://bsky.app/profile/soldaini.net/post/3lek534r2ej2a

arnicas.bsky.social•56 days ago

wow this is great! useful tips.

hannawallach.bsky.social•55 days ago

Thank you!!!! 😍

lauretig.bsky.social•55 days ago

“Mastodon-style reply guys” might be one of the most devastating burns I’ve seen in a while

rohandas.net•54 days ago

Browser: I switched to Brave last year after having used Firefox forever. It is chromium-based, (supposedly) privacy-centric, and tabs live indefinitely by default. However, I think Vivaldi is the most like for like replacement for Arc - never tried it since it is an overkill for my needs.

rohandas.net•54 days ago

Email: Having tried tons of different email clients over the years, I like Spark Mail the best (which is what I use on my phone/tablet, and probably one of the few services I would pay a subscription fee for. But they don't support Linux, and so on my laptop I am stuck with Thunderbird with a

rohandas.net•54 days ago

dodgy solution for CU's implementation of O365 Mail/Exchange Online.

rohandas.net•54 days ago

Terminal Emulator: A switch to Termius last year massively sped up my somewhat complex workflow that interfaces with CU's HPC cluster. It has mostly everything that Warp offers (I think?) + smart SSH and FTP client, port forwarding, and automation routines.

rohandas.net•54 days ago

IDE: I can't recommend PyCharm enough for Python heavy workflows. The good folks at JetBrains truly deserve some flowers, and I think everything they build is chef's kiss! I love PyCharm's debugger and python shell implementations (I dislike notebooks with a vengeance.)

adamtupper.com•55 days ago

Tempted to try Obsidian (for the 3rd time?) again now… 👀

nocookies4u.bsky.social•55 days ago

Thanks for sharing. Looking through your tool list, you might like scibase for research, and maybe simtheory for access to new models and ways of working with the

nocookies4u.bsky.social•55 days ago

oops, I might have even meant scispace... https://typeset.io/

henrik.nyh.se•55 days ago

Great read! I’ve been nerding out on travel gear ahead of a trip (and inventorying the same in Obsidian) so those parts were an especial delight.

Have you tried Raycast (@raycast.com)? Useful in a ton of ways including some convenient AI tooling.

mariaa.bsky.social•55 days ago

No but another person recommended it too! Definitely will try

rnv.bsky.social•55 days ago

I can recommend Raycast as well!

ryanplain.bsky.social•48 days ago

I’m into my journey of switching from Notion to Obsidian. Agree with you that some of the quirks are worth it to own all the notes as markdown - but dang it I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to get some of these emojis to work!

mariaa.bsky.social•48 days ago

Emojis are important 😔

strickvl.bsky.social•55 days ago

Btw you can turn off the auto-deleting/archiving tabs completely in Arc. It took me a while to find but there is def a setting for that

mariaa.bsky.social•55 days ago

I’m pretty sure there isn’t.

strickvl.bsky.social•55 days ago

Support request submitted ✅

strickvl.bsky.social•55 days ago

Oh you're totally right! I somehow feel like they changed this? I also had the same reaction as you and then I saw it was possible to set it to never archive, but turns out it's been archiving all along!

mariaa.bsky.social•55 days ago

Yeah this is one of their "core features" that they refuse to change, and there is a vocal, angry contingent of their users who will attack anyone who criticizes this "feature." I've gone deep down this particular rabbit hole!

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