/uses
This page documents my current setup and tooling. See uses.tech for more examples.
💻 Hardware
MacBook Air 13” (M1, 2020)
Odys XP32 Pro 32”
I’ve spent most of my life working exclusively on a 13” laptop screen but I’ve recently started to incorporate a larger second screen for some development tasks (including keeping an eye on longer-running processes in Claude Code).
iPhone 17 Pro
I use a privacy screen protector, a leather case and a sticker to attach strap or chain (very cool and highly recommended). At my desk, I use a magnetic phone stand with MagSafe charger integration.
Apple AirPods 4
I use my AirPods daily and I especially like this model because it’s comfortable and still has decent noise cancelling. I also have an an older version of the AirPods Pro, but I mostly use them for traveling when I need more powerful noise cancelling.
Røde NT-USB
While my AirPods are typically fine, I use this microphone for podcast and video recordings.
Oura Ring 4
I love my Oura ring and have been wearing it 24/7 for several years now, especially for its sleep and activity tracking features. (If you want to try it, you can use my referral link for a discount.)
👩💻 Code
iTerm 2 with zsh and oh-my-zsh
Claude Code
My coding assistant of choice, and I use it via the terminal and sometimes via the Visual Studio Code integration. I also dabble with various other tools for work and experimentation purposes.
GitHub Desktop
I’m a visual person who likes desktop apps if they’re done well – and I find GitHub Desktop much more pleasant than rawdogging Git. I also recommend it to everyone who is starting out because it does a good job of visualising concepts like commits, branches and merges.
Dracula Pro theme (Buffy)
My go-to theme that supports all my development apps, including code editor and terminal. I especially like the dark purple background and it still makes me happy to see colourful and nicely highlighted code.
JetBrains Mono font
One of the best font families for code in my opinion, and I use it locally and for many websites I’ve built (including for Explosion and spaCy). Plus, it’s open source!
🎨 Design
Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator
I started dabbling in design as a teen and have been using Adobe’s design suite ever since. See my slide design guide for some tips and most important features to learn if you’re a beginner.
Sketch
For illustrations like diagrams and simple vector graphics, I also like using Sketch because it was easy to learn and feels more lightweight than Illustrator.
RightFont
I wrote about font managers in my slide design guide and they’re a great way to organise and browse my ever growing font collection.
Eagle
I use Eagle to collect design assets and effects, as well as inspiration I come across all over the web (and IRL). It also comes with a handy browser extension that makes it easy to clip pages and screenshots.
Keynote
I use Apple’s Keynote app to assemble and design slides for my talks and I’ve written extensively about my process and tips. For more details on tools and services I use for slides, see part 7 of my guide on tools and resources.
🚀 Productivity
Arc
My main browser and I love the UI and UX, preview features, customisation and mobile app, Arc Search. See my productivity tools review for more details. I also sometimes use Chrome and Firefox Developer Editions as secondary browsers, e.g. to isolate video calls or for development.
Missive
Collaborative email client I use privately and for work, and a real game changer. See my productivity tools review for more details.
Fantastical
An upgrade to the native macOS calendar app with some great added features, including event templates and task list integration, and a great mobile app.
Bear
A simple but powerful Markdown editor, which I use for writing and all kinds of note-taking. It also comes with nice themes and mobile app sync.
DayOne
I use DayOne as a planner, todo list, log and diary hybrid, and it’s been my daily companion for several years now. I have a sophisticated tagging system to log what I do and how I feel, and try to write at least a few bullet points every day. I’ve tried so many todo list and planning apps over the years and nothing ever stuck until I discovered DayOne and this workflow. See my productivity tools review for more details.
💡 Other
Raycast
Replacement for the ⌘+space spotlight search that gives you an input bar to do pretty much anything, from search and opening apps to window and clipboard management and various tool integrations. My most-used features and plugins include clipboard history (a lifesaver!), dictionary, thesaurus, OCR, color picker and Lorem Ipsum.
Rocket
Emoji integration across all apps via : shortcuts and options for customisation.
Vanilla
Simple menu bar icon manager for Mac.
Dato
I mostly use Dato’s menu bar integration to easily view, calculate and schedule things across time zones.
Quitter
Sets a timeout and automatically hides or closes apps, for instance after 10 minutes of inactivity. I love this app because it keeps things tidy and never gets in the way. I typically forget that it’s even there.
Timing
Automatic time tracker that runs in the background. I love stats and I mostly use it to see how my usage patterns and productivity change over time.
Fliqlo
My favourite screensaver – simple and stylish.