As a software developer, I spend most of my work life on my Macbook Pro. It’s important to me that I have all the tools I need to stay productive and organized. Below, I’ll share the top productivity tools I use every day for macOS.
Procitivity Tool: Rectangle
For my work setup, I use three thirty-inch 4K monitors, so the fact that macOS lacks any form of proper window management gets frustrating. Fortunately, there is Rectangle, a free, open-source window management tool for macOS.
Rectangle allows you to snap windows in various positions, a utility Windows users have had for years. Rectangle offers many keyboard shorts cuts to position your windows in a variety of ways. These are my favorite shortcuts:
- control+option+left or right arrow – snaps a window to the left or right half of the screen.
- control+option+u/i/j or k – snaps a window into the top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right of the screen respectively.
Rectangle – Free
Procitivity Tool: Fantastical
Managing my calendar and staying on top of meetings is an essential part of my day. I’ve tried a few different calendar applications, including the default calendar app in macOS. But, Fantastical has been my favorite by far.
It includes an excellent status bar widget that allows you to join the next meeting on your calendar quickly. My calendar often includes meetings for various virtual meeting platforms. Conveniently, Fantastical opens the correct software and joins the call with one click.
At times, I am heads-down working on a problem and lose track of time. The iPhone and iWatch app allow me to get friendly reminders for meetings, right on my wrist, ten minutes in advance. Although it comes with a small price tag (a little more than $3 per month with an annual subscription), it is well worth the money.
Fantastical – $3.33/month with an annual subscription
Procitivity Tool: Bear
I am an avid note-taker, and I’ve tried many tools over the years. Recently I have started using an app called Bear.
What brought me to this app was the support for markdown syntax and its support for hundreds of different programming languages. You can organize your notes with hashtags, and it allows you to link your notes together.
The free version has many of Bear’s great features. But, the pro version will enable you to encrypt individual notes, sync your notes between all your Apple devices, and use advanced export options.
Bear – Free
Bear Pro – $1.49 monthly or $14.99 annually
Procitivity Tool: Grammarly
At Atomic Object, I am not just a software developer; I am also a consultant. So whether I am writing an email, a user story, or a pull request, I want to make sure my writing is correct and clear.
The Grammarly Chrome extension checks just about every text field I type into in the browser. Grammarly can also tell me how my writing tone sounds. For example, the text might sound friendly, confident, or aggressive. Grammarly Premium also offers a full desktop app, which I used to write this article.
Grammarly – Free
Grammarly Premium – Starting at $11.66/month
Many tools are available to keep you productive, but these are my top choices when it comes to macOS productivity tools.