Productivity Tools

Essentials

Handbrake 🏆 Good video converter

brew install --cask handbrake

Paste - Clipboard Manager 🏆 The best clipboard to have in macOS

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/paste-clipboard-manager/id1020667032apps.apple.com

If you have already previously installed this:

mas install 1447797058

Rocket 🏆 Gives you that slack-like experience of entering emojis

brew install --cask rocket

raindrop.io 🏆 Great bookmarking app

brew install --cask raindropio

App Cleaner 🏆 Fully uninstall apps including its preferences

brew install --cask appcleaner

Jumpshare 🏆 A quick and instant way to share files using a public link

brew install --cask jumpshare

Neardrop Want to "airdrop" files from your Android phone to your Macbook? Now it's possible using Google's Nearby Share protocol on your Mac. Check it out.

brew install grishka/grishka/neardrop

Krisp.ai 🏆 Removes the background noise during your calls

brew install --cask krisp

Caffeine 🏆 Prevents screen from falling asleep / turning off with one click

brew install --cask caffeine

Effortless 🏆 Effortless is a Mac menu bar app that helps you stay focused on one thing at a time. It allows you to create a simple plaintext to-do list

‎EffortlessApp Store

If you have already previously installed this:

mas install 1368722917

🪦 Honorable Mention

ToothFairy Connect AirPods (or other Bluetooth headphones) to your Mac with a single click or keypress.

If you have already previously installed this:

mas install 1191449274

However, with the recent updates to the Bluetooth widget on Big Sur. I don't really need this much anymore.

f.lux 🏆 Changes your screen color during nighttime (before Apple implemented their very own NightShift)

brew install --cask flux

Daisydisk Great for inspecting your HD on to know which files are taking up too much space

brew install --cask daisydisk

Transmission 🏆 Best torrent client out there

brew install --cask transmission

Numi 🏆 A beautiful calculator app for Mac.

brew install --cask numi

The Unarchiver 🏆 For extracting alot of zips

brew install --cask the-unarchiver

VLC Player 🏆 Best media player ever

brew install --cask vlc

Spotify 🏆 Music while working

brew install --cask spotify

Reflector 3 🏆 Airplay directly from your iphone to your mac

brew install --cask reflector

Karabiner Elements A powerful and stable keyboard customizer for macOS

brew install --cask karabiner-elements

Proton VPN 🏆 A good VPN to use

brew install --cask protonvpn

Geekbench If you're into benchmarking and comparing performance of your diff machines

brew install --cask geekbench

Hazel Automation and housekeeping on your mac

brew install --cask hazel

Around https://www.around.co

brew install --cask around

Screen Studio The most elegant way to do a screen recording. https://www.screen.studio

brew install --cask screen-studio

Multi A very promising app that helps teams collaborate faster. https://multi.app

Documents, Spreadsheets & Presentations

Microsoft Office They're recently switched to a subscription-based model like Adobe

‎Microsoft 365App Store

WPS Office A promising cross-platform that is like Microsoft Office but better than LibreOffice

brew install --cask wpsoffice

Keystroke Launchers

Raycast 🏆 The best keystroke launcher out there.

brew install --cask raycast

🪦 Honorable Mentions

Ueli Keystroke launcher for Windows and macOS

brew install --cask ueli 

I got used to using option + cmd to open keystroke launchers (Alfred) before it was implemented natively in macOS. Alfred is a paid service, but Ueli is free. And customization is really nice with this app.After installing, add this under Settings > Application Search/System/ApplicationsDisable everything except: - Application Search - Calculator - Operating system commands - Operating system settings

Alfred The original Spotlight Search! (Before Apple sort of copied it. hehe)

brew install --cask alfred

Screen Recorders

Kap 🏆 A minimalist way to record videos / gifs on your screen.

brew install --cask kap

Loom 🏆 Record audio/video of you and yourself and instantly share it from the cloud

brew install --cask loom

Why Loom?

Loom is great and seamless, especially for sending screen recordings + video of your self to clients. However, the free tier only offers 5 minutes.

System Monitors

Stats 🏆 A free macOS system monitor in your menu bar

brew install --cask stats

iStat Menus A paid macOS system monitor in your menu bar

brew install --cask istat-menus

Calendars

Fantastical 2 🏆 Best calendar ever, syncs to everything including Google calendars and FB events!

brew install --cask fantastical

Why Fantastical

It's really smart when adding events - which autodetects the time, location and place!

Cron 🏆 A very promising alternative to Fantastical.

brew install --cask cron

🪦 Honorable Mentions

Calendar 366 II A good free alternative with Fantastical-like functionalities

brew install --cask calendar-366

Itsycal Another good free alternative with Fantastical-like functionalities

brew install --cask itsycal

VPN

NordVPN Pricey but worth it. Speeds are fast.

brew install --cask nordvpn

NTFS Tools

MacOS can't natively write files to NTFS formatted drives (most likely your external drive). Here are some solutions:

Tuxera Disk Manager 🏆 A paid way to copy NTFS drives without much configs needed

brew install --cask tuxera-ntfs

NTFS-3G The free and open-source way to copy over NTFS with much configs needed

brew install --cask osxfuse

then:

brew install ntfs-3g

then follow the rest of the instructions here: https://medium.com/macoclock/enabling-ntfs-write-in-macos-10-15-catalina-the-open-source-way-a5fd0d1cb32e

🪦 Honorable Mentions

Paragon NTFS A paid way to copy NTFS drives without much configs needed

brew install --cask paragon-ntfs

Communication

Slack 🏆 Team communication

brew install --cask slack

Skype Client communication

brew install --cask skype

Zoom 🏆 Great for group video calls

brew install --cask zoom

Discord 🏆 Great for group video calls

brew install --cask discord

Gitter Checkout the community

brew install --cask gitter

Facebook Messenger 🏆 Checkout the community

brew install --cask messenger

Telegram Used once for a project's main communication tool

brew install --cask telegram

Whatsapp 🏆 Used as a main communication tool in some projects as well

brew install --cask whatsapp

Grammarly Desktop 🏆 Effective communication and writing is an underrated skill for designers. If English isn't your first language, this definitely helps a lot.

brew install --cask grammarly-desktop 

Password Managers

Bitwarden 🏆 It's free and it just works!

brew install --cask bitwarden

LastPass My password manager of choice

brew install --cask lastpass

1Password A good password manager

brew install --cask 1password

Email Apps

Airmail 5 🏆 A better email app then the default one

‎Airmail 5App Store

Edison A better email app then the default one

Free Email Client for Mac - Unify All Your Inboxes — Edison MailEdison Mail

Spark A better email app then the default one

‎Spark – Email App by ReaddleApp Store

Menu Bar Organizer

Vanilla 🏆 A simple, fast, and freemium menu bar organizer.

brew install --cask vanilla

Bartender Customize your menu bar & hide unwanted icons.

brew install --cask bartender

Dozer A free menu bar manager

brew install --cask dozer

I used to be on team Bartender. But the ease-of-use and simplicity of Vanilla is too hard to pass. Best of all, it's freemium.

Cloud Storage

Google Drive 🏆 I used this to backup my whole machine.

brew install --cask google-drive

Dropbox The cloud for backing up

brew install --cask dropbox

Notebooks

Notion 🏆 The best notebook I've ever had. It's more affordable than Evernote. Only missing is offline mode.

brew install --cask notion

Craft

A really good contender against Notion.

brew install --cask craft

🪦 Honorable Mentions

Evernote My first favorite app for note-taking projects

brew install --cask evernote

Of course, there are runner ups I've tried such as Bear, Milanote, Boost and many more. However, it just didn't really stick with me.

Window Management

Rectangle 🏆 My favorite window manager

brew install --cask rectangle

Why Rectangle?

Mainly because I'm super familiar with Spectacle before and it follows the same shortcuts such as:

• cmd + option + arrow key to cycle thru 1/2 and 1/3 to the direction you want it auto-arrange

Settings

Some shortcuts that I don't normally use conflict with the other apps that I frequently use (like Figma's copy merged)

• Go to Preference and disable the shortcuts for:

  • Top Left

  • Top Right

  • Bottom Left

  • Bottom Right

  • Maximize

  • Almost Maximize

  • Maximize Height

  • Make Smaller

  • Make Larger

  • Center

  • Restore

• Check Launch on login

• Check Hide menu bar icon

• Set Repeated commands -> cycle 1/2, 2/3 and 1/3 on half actions

• Set Gaps between windows -> 8px

Magnet Window manager

brew install --cask magnet

Moom Window manager too

brew install --cask moom

Amethyst 🏆 A tiling window manager. ... Also, it supports global shortcuts for moving, focusing and changing size of the windows, as well as cycling through the layouts

brew install --cask amethyst

Gaming

OpenEmu 🏆 Emulator for playing retro games on macOS

brew install --cask openemu

Steam 🏆 For Dota 2

brew install --cask steam

Battle.net 🏆 Launcher for Diablo III and Starcraft II

brew install --cask battle-net