Zoho for professional email: I've tried other providers for @seanmcp.com
but keep coming back to Zoho. It's cheap, customizable, and provides all the
features that I want.
Notes
A private repo with shell scripts. Mobile notes are written in Google Keep
and manually backed up.
To-Do
Todoist: I don't use most of the features, but I love the keyboard shortcut
on Mac to quickly add a TODO.
Phone Photo Shooting:
Default Android app
Photo Management
Google Photos (though I'm sad they removed the free tier for photo storage)
Calendar
Google Calendar: My wife and I have personal calendars and then a shared
family calendar.
Cloud File Storage
Google Drive and Git
RSS
Feedbin: I could probably get by on the free tier of another service, but
Feedbin is so nice and simple. I don't have to think about it when reading,
and I'm not being upsold at every opportunity.
Contacts
Google Contacts: It recently added a new feature to add birthdays to the
calendar and give you a notification ahead of time. I almost built an app
that would do the same, and I'm glad it's now a feature.
Browser
Microsoft Edge: Chromium-based with vertical tabs and the ability to remove
most features.
Chat
Text or WhatsApp
Bookmarks
A private repo with shell scripts. I migrated from Raindrop last Fall, and
it has been smooth enough.
Read It Later:
I leave things unread in Feedbin
Word Processing
Google Docs and VS Code
Spreadsheets
Google Sheets
Presentations
Google Slides: I've tried code-based solutions, but it generally leads to
more tinkering and less preparation. I use all the default layouts and then
tweak the design once I'm finished.
Shopping Lists
Google Keep: A note for groceries and another for shopping that are shared
with my wife
Meal Planning
Google Keep (though this is mostly handled by my wife)
Budgeting and Personal Finance
A Google Sheet that is updated 1-2 times per year.
News
National: AllSides, the Atlantic
Local: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PublicSource, and Spotlight PA
Music
YouTube Music: It's included with a YouTube Premium subscription and has
access to the all the music I want.
Podcasts
Pocket Casts: I like that it is focused on being a podcast player. I've
tried other all-in-one options and keep going back to Pocket Casts. I've
listened to 94 days and 22 hours since 2016.
Password Management
Bitwarden
Code
VS Code: I've tried Zed and Cursor as potential replacements, but neither of
them provide the right features with the right form.
Terminal
Terminal (Ubuntu): Not bad enough to look for alternatives
iTerm2 (Mac): I like that it isn't trying to be anything other than a
terminal. I used Warp for a while but it became clear that their product
roadmap was not in the terminal space.
Search
DuckDuckGo: I'm skeptical of AI summaries, and DDG is the only provider I've
found that allows you to disable them. That said: the results aren't great.
If you have an alternative, please let me know.