My workflow apps

There are so many apps out there that make life easy for a writer and researcher. In fact, it’s almost negligent not to use them.

Here’s a short list of the apps I use to make me more productive.

I’ve divided the list into the following categories:

• Reading & research

• Note taking

• Project management and scheduling

• File storage

Reading and research

Kindle app: easy for reading ebooks on the iPad. I use the highlights function a lot.

GoodNotes 5: my app of choice for reading articles. That said, I’ve recently revived my Instapaper account. I will start using Instapaper because of its integration with Readwise. Only issue here is that Instapaper does not support PDFs, so I’ll have to continue using GoodNotes 5 for articles in PDF.

Readwise: this app collects all my highlights from Kindle (and, very soon, also from Instapaper) and delivers them to two other apps, Notion and Roam Research. I spent a lot of time in these other two apps, so it’s really helpful to read my highlights in there.

Note taking

I use several apps for note taking.

Ulysses: for journaling – I like the clean pages, especially great in dark mode.

Notion: for blog posts. Notion is a great project management tool. All of my main projects live in the app. It’s easy to create blog posts in Notion (lovely interface, etc), but it can be a bit tricky to export them. I’m sure there’s a smooth way to do that, but I haven’t yet discovered it.

Roam Research: I use this app for writing technical articles. It’s great for its bi-directional linking function – a huge plus for researchers. Also, as my highlights (from Kindle, and soon also from Instapaper) also fetch up in here (via Readwise), it’s good to have my research close by while taking notes.

Apple Notes: for quick notes, e.g. ideas, brainwaves, interesting quotations, etc.

Project management and scheduling

Notion is my main project management tool. That’s where I plug in and track all my main projects. I use Trello to keep track of my high-level goals. So, Trello does the overview, while Notion does the detail.

I also have a to-do list app, Todoist. It’s a clean and simple app, does what it says on the tin. I like that it operates in an intuitive way. For example, if you write ‘Tues 9am’, it will know exactly what you mean.

I use Fantastical as my main calendar. It contains both my home and work calendars, which is mighty convenient. Also, it integrates well with Todoist, so my to-do items also end up in the calendar. It’s a great feature.

File storage

I use iCloud for file storage. It ensures all my files are accessible to me, irrespective of the device I am using. I hardly save files locally. Having much of my work in the cloud makes it easy for me to access anything from whichever device is handy at any given time.