My (new) list of favorite apps.
For the 4th (or possibly the 5th time), I’ve written an article detailing the apps I use the most. The reason I do this so many times is because there are so many new apps getting developed. My curiosity demands I check out these new apps. Occasionally, a new app replaces an older one in my work spaces. While this always leads to lost time as I transfer data from the old to new, I think the lost time is worth it.
In the past, I’ve used this app for project and task management and for writing. It has the virtue of being quite simple compared to other task management apps. Now I use it for writing only and mostly articles (such as this one)
Bear:
This app has a lot of similarities with Craft and I use it for my personal notes.
Gemsnotes:
I discovered this web app during the summer. I previously used Hepta, but transferred all my notes to Gemsnotes. I love the search function and the ability of the app to search for and identify similar notes using AI. I restrict this application to a library of notes associated a few topics.
This is a screen shot of what the notes look like (reduced in size to fit onto the page).
The groups are color coded: Blue for fiction writing; orange for self-publishing; green for book marketing; red for author business and yellow for creativity. The grouping with multi-colored notes is for recent articles.
Prior to finding Gemsnotes I used Obsidian, Hepta and a few others. In my opinion, Gemsnotes beats them all.
Reflect:
This is one I recently added. I’m using for managing projects and to-do lists. Curiously, I’ve found the quickest way to find a piece of information is to use Reflect’s map function. Double clicking on an item opens it up for revisions. Here is the map for my current project.
I recently found this app and I absolutely love it. I constanly use my iPad and pen to scribble notes and to analyze issues and problems. Scribbles allows me to do this conveniently and easily. And it has a web version that syncs instantly. I can’t ’scribble’ on the web version but I can add text boxes to it. Below is a screen shot of one of my typical notes. I’m sure you’ll have no problem reading my handwriting :-)
Scribbles replaces an app called Nebo. It’s similar to Scribbles in many respects but is an iPad only app. Scribbles is much more flexible.
What can I say about Canva that hasn’t already been said online. Instead of using stock photos from Unsplash for an article graphic, I create my own unique graphics in a few minutes (such as the one for this article). Granted, Canva has a bit of a steep learning curve, but once you get past that obstacle, what you do with the site is limited only by your own creativity.