January 4th, 2025

My Weekly Software Stack (2025 Edition)

What I use at home and work each week

On the success of my Five apps I use every day to organise my life (2024 Edition), I thought I would list all the apps I use personally and professionally. This will not be an in-depth post. It’s just a bit of fun to share what I use each week. There are more apps I use, but they are accessed less frequently than the list below.

I’ve tried to link as many of the applications to their respected developer’s website. Hopefully, the UK links redirect to your country’s website.

I’m sure I will write about some of these apps this year to share my thoughts, experiences, and use cases for them. If you are interested in me writing about one of the apps, please let me know.

Personal

My software stack for home is now Apple-centric because I have given up on Windows and Linux. I believe it is easier to manage when I don’t have to find cross-platform software. However, there are a few gems dotted among my list.

Calendar — Apple Calendar
Notes — Apple Notes
Tasks — Apple Reminders (mostly recurring tasks)
Email — Apple Mail
Browser — Apple Safari with Adblock Pro (Referral link)
Productivity Suite — Apple Pages, Numbers & Keynote
Music — Apple Music
Podcasts — Apple Podcasts
Navigation — Apple Maps
Quick notes/tasks/journal — Twos App (Referral link)
Writing — Ulysses
Voice — Voicenotes
Focus — Forest
Focus tasks — Bento Method
Habits — Streaks
Meditation — Calm
Reading — Apple Books / Amazon Kindle
Workouts — Apple Fitness / Streaks Workout
Sketching/annotation — ElementNote
Social Media — Mona for Mastodon
Coding — VSCodium
Password Manager — Bitwarden
System maintenance — CleanMyMac X

Work

At work (school), we are not allowed to install any software, so we are limited to Microsoft 365 suite for Education. Canva and Craft Docs were kind enough to provide free professional accounts to their services, which I am eternally grateful for (thank you). Both of these services run through my browser.

Craft is installed on all my personal devices because I can take notes for work, research and record learning in Craft as well as create learning content for students & staff. I get ideas for work all the time.

Calendar — Outlook Calendar
Notes — Craft Docs
Tasks — Craft Docs / Microsoft To Do
Email — Outlook
Browser — Microsoft Edge
Productivity Suite — Microsoft 365
Communication — Microsoft Teams
Coding — Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Creation — Canva Education
Focus — Timer on Apple Watch
Quick capture — Voicenotes / Apple Reminders on Apple Watch
Mindfulness — Calm on Apple Watch

Thoughts

I would say I am happy with the current selection of apps I use right now. There is no plan to change anything soon. However, my subscription to Ulysses ends in August. I am debating whether to switch to iA Writer or not. My current interest in plain text and markdown has me looking at the longevity of my data. I can’t see plain text disappearing anytime soon.