What are the 5 tools you simply couldn't do your work without?
This could be related to your industry, or even a side project you're working on.
Here are my 5 (I couldn't function without them):
Grammarly – proofreading my texts, not just posts, but also client communication
ChatGPT / Claude – mostly brainstorming, help with copy, and summarising
Figma – I can put the basic graphics together quickly.
Translator – sounds incredibly old-school, but English is not my mother tongue
Gmail – and not only for communication, but also for storing ideas and sending myself email reminders for posts
[and soon one more that I am working on – SafeLimit – prevents me from being banned on LinkedIn, so I will not lose my account.]
What are your five?
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My 5
Gemini
ChatGTP
Gmail
PuTTy/Bitvise
GCP
Trace-AI
1, Obsidian - All my random notes, action trackers, brainstorming etc
2, Zotero - All the papers, research notes etc ordered for my references
3, Grammarly - I even forgot when I started, but I can't write without that
4, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini - Claude to brainstorm ideas, Gemini's to do deep research, ChatGPT to copyedit
5, Google news- Keeps me updated
Perhaps contrarian, but I do just fine using Claude alone.
It helps me do the following:
Structure and write emails
Create presentations
Act as a sound board for thoughts and ideas
I think there is something powerful about having a single place, that acts as a flywheel, and compounds with the more it knows about you. For everything else, I do manually - including writing down meeting notes. The big items (risks, actions, decisions) should be super obvious at the end, if not, the meeting was not run well.
my top 5:
Claude - analyse data, help with research
Figma - presentations, landing designs
Google meet + gemini notes - i used to note everything manually, ai notes are a game-changer for me
Notion - planning
BizDraft - for freelance agreements
ChatGPT – product brainstorming, research + everything in between
Canvas – quickly putting together designs and ideas
Cursor + Codex – building and shipping side projects ridiculously fast
Notion – notes, planning, and keeping ideas organized
GitHub – keeping all the code and projects organized
my 5:
1. claude — the thinking partner, not just autocomplete
2. cursor — the actual coding surface
3. linear — if it doesnt get a ticket i forget it exists
4. ia writer — plain markdown for when i actually need to think
5. loom or granola — pick whichever lets you say something once instead of typing it three times
honorable mention: raycast for the 40 tiny tools that dont deserve their own app.
my 5:
Claude/Chatgpt: brainstorming, research
Crawler Vision; for AI SEO
Grammarly
Quillbot
Google search console/Analytics
Mine would be:
Claude Code / Codex – AI pair programmer.
Obsidian – External brain.
modelARch – Think about the business before the code.
NotebookLM – Research companion.
Stitch – Fast UI prototyping.
It's interesting that only one tool is actually about writing code. The rest are about understanding, organizing, or validating ideas.
Claude/Claude code
Browser
Gmail
Notion
mobile Claude app
That stack is practically a modern founder's survival kit. Grammarly and the AI models do the heavy lifting, but using Gmail as an inbox-zero idea locker is an underrated productivity hack—I do the exact same thing when inspiration hits on the go.
The mention of SafeLimit is fascinating, too. Relying on LinkedIn for distribution is high-stakes, and getting hit with a ban or restriction can quietly wreck a growth pipeline overnight. Building a tool to solve your own platform-risk pain point is usually where the best micro-SaaS ideas come from.
My stack currently leans heavily on Cursor for coding workflows, Notion for keeping the team aligned, and a mix of Claude and ChatGPT for everything from brainstorming to technical documentation. What made you finally pull the trigger on building SafeLimit instead of just living with the risk?