Hardware

  • 13-inch Macbook Air M4 - my main computing device. I still prefer macOS over iOS or iPadOS for general computing. It does get hot sometimes (which is expected since it has no fans) but I haven’t experienced any slowdowns.

  • iPhone 13 Mini - my main phone. I love the size (wish it was smaller even!) but the battery is slowly becoming an issue.

  • Fujifilm X100V + Minolta X-700 - I love Fujifilm cameras. The X100V is small enough to be carried in a sling bag. I’m also now experimenting with film using the Minolta X-700.

Software

For software, I’d like to adhere to the principles of digital minimalism (Cal Newport). I have to ensure that I optimize, be intentional and do not clutter unnecessarily.

  • Things - my task manager. I’ve successfully stuck to it for 2 years now, and I’m looking forward to continue using it. I found that it’s not the best at maintaining random lists (of which I relegate to Reminders).

  • Bear - my note-taking app. I’ve also successfully stuck to it for 2 years now. It’s still a bit simple at times, but I just love how fast and native it feels. I use it for personal notes and zettelkasten. I don’t love how backlinks work (they’re not prominent enough) but it has basic wiki-links capabilities.

  • Streaks - my habits app. I’m always in search of a better habit tracking app with better visualization or stats, but none have been without subscription or concerning privacy policy.

  • Reminders - my random list app. It’s my groceries list, wish list, gift list and sell list.

  • mymind - my inspo app/bookmark manager. mymind is really expensive but it really is an easy-to-use app. I just dump in images and links and it will categorize them for me. Maybe a bit too simple sometimes.

Health

  • Strong - my workout tracker. It’s a simple and straightforward application, but I’m finding it difficult to get statistics out of it to measure my progress, so I’m leaning towards moving to Hevy or Liftin.

  • Gentler Streak/Peak - my general health app. I want to be able to easily see my health stats and progress and these apps do it much better than Apple Health. I can’t stick to one as each of these apps have their pros and cons. Gentler Streak is really pretty but not stats focused and goes on vibes. Peak is very stats-focused, but it doesn’t feel like a full health app. Might want to build my own for this purpose.

  • Foodnoms - my food tracking app. It’s such a beautiful application and a joy to use. I just wish food tracking is easier.

  • Health Auto Export - exports my health stats in a json that I can then utilize. So far I’ve built a monthly steps script, but I want to expand further. It also acts as a backup so that I’m not locked-in Apple’s ecosystem.

Finance

  • YNAB - my budgeting app. Looking towards moving away from it to Actual Budget in 2026 as YNAB is becoming more expensive and the reports aren’t working for me.

Media

  • Feedbin -> Reeder - my RSS reader. I’m now experimenting with Reeder as I wanted to stop paying for Feedbin (and Reeder is significantly cheaper). I don’t really like the organization of Reeder (it’s really hard to organize by topic) but it’s sooo pretty and I enjoy using it. Having first class support for Mastodon and Bluesky is really nice too.

  • Matter - my read-it-later app. I haven’t been reading-later as much, but it’s a pretty app and works fine free. I wish I could get a cheaper subscription on it so that I can get text highlighting.

  • Letterboxd/Goodreads/Backloggd - my movie/book/game tracker. I mainly love Letterboxd, and looking to drop Goodreads and Backloggd if better alternatives come my way.

  • Plex/Jellyfin - my media server. It’s so nice to have my own self-hosted media server, but managing external access (without Tailscale) is a pain.

Utilities

  • 1Password - my password manager. For the subscription I’m paying, I might be looking towards moving to Bitwarden or Apple Passwords as 1Password doesn’t feel like a seamless password manager anymore.

  • Alfred - my application launcher/search tool. I cherish it most for the Bear workflow, as it makes me search my notes so much faster.

  • Keyboard Maestro/Shortcuts - my automation tools. I need to figure out what kinds of automation I should keep where (including Alfred). Of course, Shortcuts should be automations that I want available on my phone, but it’s so buggy. Keyboard Maestro, on the other hand, feels complicated. Maybe I should explore and learn about Keyboard Maestro more.

  • Karabiner Elements - remaps my caps lock to a meh key (Ctrl-Opt-Shift). Assigning it to meh instead of a hyper allows me to have a second layer of keyboard shorcuts by holding caps lock and cmd together. Honestly I wish this could be done by Alfred or Keyboard Maestro so that I don’t have to have this installed.

Things to try in 2026

  • Sofa
  • Actual Budget