My Quieter Toolkit 🌙

Mornings are for deep work. Afternoons are for everything else — teaching, planning, thinking, movement, and meetings. This is part two of my daily kit. Part one covered my morning apps. Here are the apps and gadgets that carry me through from noon to bedtime. I’ve included a few AI tools, but mostly the quieter tools that don’t get as much attention.

Catch up on Part 1 👇

12pm: Midday Break

Healthy Minds 🧠

This free app helps me with mindfulness. The 5-10 minute audio lessons work well as walking meditations. I sometimes also use Headspace or Calm for meditation or focus music.

Libby 📚

I rely on Libby for free library audiobooks. I listen when walking to lunch or commuting. Here are tools I rely on for finding great books.

Lunch

* Resy and OpenTable 🍱 for quick reservations nearby

* The Infatuation for opinionated local restaurant recommendations

* Too Good To Go for trying heavily discounted (66% off) dishes from local restaurants, bakeries, and juice bars. The fixed-price mystery bags reduce restaurant waste. Sometimes you get a delicious bargain, but the quality varies. I’ve occasionally gotten a weird bread or a bland pastry.

* MealPal When I don’t bring my own lunch, I like MealPal, a lunch subscription service. Local restaurants offer one dish a day as part of the subscription, which costs about $6/day. I like the variety: you can choose which restaurant to try on any given day. It’s available so far in 12 cities.

1-3pm: Preparing to Teach

After lunch, I continue developing teaching plans or work on other school-related projects for my job as Director of Teaching and Learning at CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. (More of my thinking in a recent Columbia Journalism Review interview).

Craft 📄

My go-to for creating visually engaging digital handouts. It’s easy to use and works wonderfully on mobile or desktop. See my post on why Craft is so useful.

Wispr Flow, Text Blaze and Raycast

* I often use Wispr Flow to type with my voice. It works in any app. I just hold the function key and talk.

* When I do type with my hands I use Text Blaze keyboard shortcuts to add snippets into my email and documents. It works for email addresses and signatures, search prompts, and phrases I type a lot.

* Raycast also works well for these shortcuts. Why I rely on Raycast.

Notes by Hand 📝

I like writing notes away from my laptop periodically to get my eyes off the screen and to change my brain mode. I alternate between:

* I use a Rocketbook reusable notebook for lists and reminders.

* A giant whiteboard helps me draw connections and play around with ideas away from the glowing distractions of my screens.

* My reMarkable Paper Pro tablet hosts notes I will return to repeatedly. What works for me, paper vs. digital

Keynote for Slides

This Mac presentation software works reliably offline or on for in-person and remote classes and workshops I lead. Keynote is now part of Apple’s new Creator Studio, a package of software that includes video and image editing tools.

I haven’t found the Keynote AI features useful so far, but the basic software is excellent for designing and delivering compelling slides.

Pricing: Keynote is free with any Mac. I wouldn’t recommend the subscription upgrade, at $129/year or $30/year for students and educators, unless you’re a heavy user of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, or the other pro software tools.

iA Presenter

I vary slide apps to keep things interesting. I sometimes write a lesson outline and paste that text into iA Presenter, which turns it into clean, typographically sharp slides. Like Keynote, it works offline. For more on why this app is so useful, watch the demo video or read my post.

Kahoot, Padlet, and Slido 🤔

I rely on this trio of teaching tools to power activities that promote active learning in classes or workshops — rather than passive listening. Here are more of my favorite apps for teaching.

Time Out for Screen Breaks⏳

I set this app to remind me to give my eyes a screen break every 15 minutes. It pulses over the screen to nudge me to stretch or look out the window. The Raycast Focus Mode also helps, blocking email and distractions during short, focused, deep work sprints.

3-5pm: Meetings 👥

I try to schedule meetings for the late afternoon to conclude the day with collaboration, after starting with more creative work.

Granola for Summaries🤖

Granola weaves my own notes into its summary, sends no bot into my Zooms, and lets me search across meetings for tasks, patterns, or insights. My full post about it👇 describes 10 of the features, along with tips, limitations, and alternatives.

Camo for Webcam Customization

Camo lets me modify my camera to zoom in, adjust lighting, or add overlays during video calls. It also lets me use my phone or other external cameras. Prezi Video and Airtime enable lower-thirds, annotations, and overlay visuals I occasionally use for presentations.

Sony UX570 Voice Recorder for Interviews

My reliable backup for recording audio. I like that it doesn't require an open laptop or running phone. I often transcribe the audio files with MacWhisper.

6pm: After work

Snipd for listening to podcasts on my commute

This smart podcast app lets me preview podcasts and save highlights to my notes. I triple-tap my AirPods to save my favorite moments to Readwise, a service that acts as a repository for highlights from my online reading, Kindle books, and other apps I use.

A recent favorite: The history of Trader Joe’s episode of the excellent Acquired podcast, which features multi-hour deep dives into remarkable companies.

Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones

I splurged on the $460 WH-100XM6 headphones to block noise on the exhaustingly loud New York City subway. I had my previous pair (WH-1000XM3) for seven years, so hopefully this investment will prove equally durable. I use them for commuting and focus music.

Nex for Games and Exercise Breaks

I love playing the sports and workout games on this family video game system. They’re all active games played with your body, not your thumbs. I play solo or with my wife & daughters. It’s like a next-generation Nintendo Wii, which we also still play (especially the balance board games).

To get away from screens, we also play these family tabletop games.

11pm: Bedtime 🌙

Glocusent Rechargeable Reading Light

This tiny $13 light clips onto any book. The battery lasts for months.

Yogasleep Dohm White Noise Machine

This $50 gadget masks random night sounds, making it easier to sleep.

Peakeep “Invisible” Alarm Clock

I turn off the display on this $13 bedside clock so it doesn’t glow at night. I tap the top to see the time if I need to. Its morning alarm lets me keep my tempting phone out of the bedroom.

That’s my noon to night kit. What tools carry you through your day?

What’s One Tool You Recommend? Leave a Comment👇