What productivity tools do you use and why?
Today, the productivity domain in tech is very well developed - there are tools for almost any need!
But at the same time, there’s always a feeling that there might be something else, something better. All the time.
What I like about this space is that once people start using tools like Miro, Notion, Trello, ClickUp, etc., they tend to keep testing new things and experimenting with different tools.
I see that there are pros and cons to basically any tool out there.
I personally loved ClickUp, but at some point it became too much for me in terms of features and how the app started to look. It feels overwhelming.
I love Notion and still use it from time to time. But they don’t allow access to AI features without a Business subscription, which I don’t need.
I like Slite - especially its design. But it’s developing too slowly and has very limited functionality.
Now i mostly use my own app Dokably, obviouly. But still there is a feeling it can be much better))
When it comes to AI, for me as a non-developer, ChatGPT is often more than enough. Other AI tools still feel a bit raw - but I believe that in a few years they’ll be much better at truly helping with automation, task execution, content generation, and decision-making.
That’s why I’m curious to learn what you all use and like 🙂 Or don’t like?
Replies
minimalist phone: creating folders
For me, it is pretty clear:
Notion
Apple Reminders
Jira
ChatGPT
Grammarly
Toggl
These 6 repeat every single day. + I sometimes send emails via Gmail to push myself more to some things 😅
Dokably
@busmark_w_nika I went away from grammarly as it is too much of it on my computer.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@sasha_dikan What do you mean by that? Too many notifications or is their UX/UI too invasive?
Dokably
@busmark_w_nika too invasive, in my opinion
This really resonates. Productivity tools almost never “fail” — they just slowly drift away from how you actually want to work.
I’ve felt the same with ClickUp (powerful but overwhelming) and Notion (flexible but gated in annoying ways). There’s always that tradeoff between simplicity and capability, and most tools eventually tip too far to one side.
I think that constant experimenting you mentioned is kind of inevitable. As soon as a tool starts adding friction instead of removing it, people start looking again. AI is similar right now — ChatGPT feels solid because it’s simple, while a lot of other tools are still rough around the edges.
Curious to see if the next wave is fewer features, better defaults, and AI quietly doing the boring parts instead of becoming another thing to manage.
Dokably
@alpertayfurr agree)) though often chat gpt is not enough and we still need to use some other regular saas tools
@sasha_dikan My "boring" stack hasn't changed in years.
Asana
Clockify
Google Calendar
Apple Reminders
Don't get me wrong – I use tons of AI tools daily (probably trying new ones weekly), but when it comes to the core productivity backbone, these three just work. I think there's a difference between Experimentation layer (AI tools, new apps, shiny objects) and Foundation layer (task management, time tracking, calendar) which needs to be rock solid. :) But who knows – in this new era this can change very quickly. :)
vibecoder.date
If I were doing a large scale project, https://taiga.io/
Better than trello, better than jira (that's not a a high bar tho)
I don't usually have that many tools, I if something has a good sdk or api I build the rest myself.
Taiga has an excellent DX
Artist Pages
I generally use:
Miro
Notion
GDrive & GCal
Apple Notes & Reminders / Google Keep
Been getting into NotebookLM, Perplexity as well as continuing with ChatGPT for organizing knowledge & LLM interactions around projects.
Just started using Trello again after a long break! The paper and Apple Notes to-do lists started getting absurd.
I don't feel a ton of friction with the tools themselves but I do feel some frantic daily pivoting from one tool to the other - which is probably taking up more of my energy and time than I realize. Right now I'm just trying to find an IDE (coding environment) with Agentic AI integrated as that seems to be creating the most of my friction (looking at Claude Code, Codex, Cursor etc). But my next step will definitely be to look at my productivity stack and see where I can optimize and streamline.
Simplicity is joy. Looking forward to trying to Dokably!
Lovon AI therapy
The most important tools for me are Notion Calendar, notes, and our internal OKRs in Google Sheets.
All of us have a lot of different tasks every day, and I find it very helpful not to keep everything in my head. So all tasks should always be written down somewhere.