Some tools I think you should know if you don't already

By Jonas Søvik @ 2025-02-02T23:34 (+47)

Huh, didn't expect my first post to be this, but here we are..

 

Please share your own favorite tools in the comments and give suggestions - I will update sporadically!

(also let me know if there are versions of the things I suggest which you think are better)

 

Some are basic. Some are new & neat. Most also have an app. I use many of them on a weekly or even daily basis. Here we go!

 

Beeper (pc & app) - (OhMyGodILoveThisSoMuch) for messages

 

Calendly (pc & app) (or similar booking service)

Allows people to book a time in your schedule without having to go back and forth suggesting dates. Such a mental energy saver! (but beware of setting your availability well and make sure Calendly checks for conflict with your other events)

Other scheduling

 

Everything (pc) - search all your pc files instantly

super fast (as opposed to my windows search!) and simple to use

https://www.voidtools.com/ 

 

Focusmate (pc & app) - accountability calls with strangers

I know several EA's who use it.

Very simple, you jump on when it suits you, mark how much time you're working for, and it will match you with someone. You quickly say hi, what you're working on - and get to it. At the end you do a quick check-in with how it went - and boom, you were hopefully less useless!

There's also an EA co-working Discord: https://discord.gg/T5K4kJV8 

 

Justin Sung - My learning guru

He runs ICanStudy, which as far as I can tell is the best, most comprehensive and evidence-based learning system there exists.

He also runs a Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@JustinSung  Where he shares most of his knowledge. I highly recommend his stuff on mindmaps for notetaking

If you're at uni I highly recommend checking him out on Youtube and making the decision whether to try out his program (30 day money back)

 

Napkin.ai - visualizes your text

My EA co-organizer just shared this with me, and it's what sparked me to actually start writing this - my very first - post (thanks @Johannes Rothe!)

It's pretty cool. I can see many uses of it already

It created this diagram based on the text i spent 1 minute on. You can even lightly edit them!

Canva (pc & app) - for designing presentations, posters & much more

If you still use Powerpoint - don't. IMO Canva is /way better/ and you should at least try it out

For the EA design-style & graphics/logos:

 

File sharing & converting

Libraries

Seriously. They are so rich with awesome stuff and so underutilized.

Not a resource, but if you live in the Northern hemisphere for the love of God rationality take vitamin D in the dark seasons!

(especially if you have darker skin) Lots of research on it. look it up yourself; I'm lazy.

 

Clickup (pc & app) - my new favorite productivity app

I have been through a few productivity apps before (primarily Todoist) and recently came upon Clickup, which just does it better IMO.

 

Habitica (pc & app) - if you like gamification of your habits

 

Waking up (pc & app) - Sam Harris' meditation app

I'm only sharing because you can get it for free if you want. I'm not much fan of that style of meditation myself, but much of the content is still good.

https://app.wakingup.com/scholarship 

 

Fighting phone over-use

 

Hope any were helpful, much love!

Joseph @ 2025-02-03T16:07 (+3)

Thanks for sharing your list. Several of these are new to me, and look useful.

I want to second the recommendation for Everything. It is much faster and easier than the built-in search function on a Windows computer, and it also allows for a variety of parameters to the search. If I want to quickly list out all the files I have related to a particular topic, Everything is what I use. As a simple example "Documents\Docs to Read\" !pdf market|promo would search for files within the Docs to Read folder that have either market or pomo in the title (which would capture marketing and promotion), excluding and PDFs. You can even use regular expressions.

I also want to second the recommendation for Libby for free, legal access to audiobooks and digital books through public libraries.

Vasco Grilo🔸 @ 2025-02-03T14:14 (+3)

Thanks for sharing, Jonas! Relatedly, I liked My current AI toolkit by Thomas Manandhar-Richardson (Richie).

Tristan Cook @ 2025-02-03T13:47 (+3)

Thanks for the list! Napkin AI is particularly cool. 

Your LibGen link isn't working for me. Its Wikipedia page usually has live (& safe) links in the infobox. Same for Sci-Hub.  

One recent service I've found is Readwise. It's similar to Pocket/Instapaper in adding web-pages to read later, but you can also upload your own EPUB and PDFs.  

AxellePB 🔹 @ 2025-02-03T20:17 (+2)

Thanks for sharing! Another great tool for group scheduling is https://schej.it/. Best user interface imo :)

Nithin Ravi @ 2025-02-03T19:59 (+2)

Side note: beeper will kill the e2e encryption for any messaging platforms you trust. It looks like a good tool for everything but signal for me personally!

Jonas Søvik @ 2025-02-03T20:16 (+1)

I was not aware - thanks for this!

The utility still outweighs my non-existent privacy concerns but it's good to know

Jeroen Willems🔸 @ 2025-02-04T14:04 (+2)

Same, I love it as well. Though my Facebook connection is broken and will likely never be fully repaired. I can remain logged in until I send a picture, then the connection breaks. And I keep forgetting. I've talked with the support team about it and it seems quite hopeless.