Productivity & Creativity Tools
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I built a portable tools folder instead of cluttering my system with random installs
Uncover how a single folder of portable tools can revolutionize your PC experience, from creating bootable USB drives to monitoring hardware health.
I stopped opening Task Scheduler after discovering VS Code's hidden automation layer
Who knew their editor could also automate tasks?
This note-taking app is OneNote on steroids and I can’t recommend it enough
The note-taking app that makes OneNote look basic
I finally found a self-hosted notes app that doesn't feel like work
Poznote lets me organize my notes without bloat.
Krita's AI plugins do what Photoshop charges $120 a year for, and the results surprised me
I'm not going back to Photoshop
Obsidian Bases turned my notes into a database, and I cancelled my Notion plan
This setup lines up way better with how I work
After years on Figma, I finally found a free alternative I'd actually switch to
Not quite taking Figma's spot, but it's closer than anything else
Terminal agents are replacing VS Code as the center of my development workflow
The agent is doing the actual work, and VS Code is just a window.
My favorite alternative to OneNote isn’t Notion or Obsidian: It’s something way cooler and productive
Ditched OneNote for an app nobody is talking about.
Notion, Obsidian, and Apple Notes all lost to a plain folder of markdown files
My notes don't live inside apps anymore
I tested every open-source notes app on mobile — and only one actually competes with Notion
Not all of them are worth keeping installed
Encrypting DNS queries through Pi-hole is where the real privacy happens, and it only took 10 minutes
It made my network security so much better
I stopped paying for Obsidian after discovering VS Code can handle my notes just as well with the right extensions
There's really nothing VS Code can't do
Python in Excel is more powerful than I initially estimated
A surprisingly powerful partnership
Replacing paid productivity apps with a self-hosted setup helped me save money, but I had to make some compromises
But it was worth the extra effort
I just started using n8n to automate my workflow, and I wish I had sooner
It's easy to use and offers endless automations
Adobe Acrobat costs $15 a month, but BentoPDF does everything locally without a subscription
BentoPDF is the feature-rich Adobe Acrobat alternative you must not ignore.
5 reasons I'm finally quitting OneNote – and what I'm replacing it with
My next note-taking chapter
VS Code is the best productivity app on my PC, and I barely use it for coding anymore
The best code editor might actually be your best everything editor.
