I’ve compiled a list of apps, sites, and tools I use throughout my professional and personal life.
Content + Publishing
FocusWriter – Desktop word processing program which hides everything except your words. You can also set goals on word count, time, etc. The big reason I was able to complete NaNoWriMo in 2010! Free.
CRM
Nimble – Customer relationship management meet social media. Free Trial + Paid Options.
Design
Bootstrap – Web UI framework from Twitter. HTML, CSS, JS, grid, responsive, a fantastic starting point for any website. Free.
Balsamiq – Rapid mockup and wireframing tool. Free Trial + Paid Options.
COLOURlovers – Color palettes and patterns. Free.
LucidChart – Online diagram and flowchart creator. Free Trial + Paid Options.
placekitten – Kitten-themed placeholder images for developers. Free.
Developer
AppHarbor – It’s like Heroku for .NET. Free + paid options.
FireBug – Edit, debug, and profile JavaScript, CSS and HTML live, within the browser. Free.
IFTTT – “If this, then that.” Easily create automated workflows between all sorts of popular web apps. Free.
jsFiddle – Shell editor for JavaScript, CSS, HTML. Great for testing and sharing your JS code online. Free.
LINQPad – Quickly execute LINQ code. Indispensible if you’re using LINQ on a project. Free + Paid Options.
Snipplr – I store my frequently used code snippets here, as well as those snippets which are just full of awesome and should be kept for posterity. Free.
Sublime Text – My editor of choice when I’m not working in Visual Studio. Free Trial + Paid Options.
Mobile
Pomodroido – App that lets you manage and track your pomodoros (based on the Pomodoro time management system). Free + Paid Options.
Personal
My Fitness Pal – Calorie, weight and fitness tracker. Autocomplete makes it easy to enter your data daily. Free + Paid Options.
Mint – I manage all my personal finances and budgets using Mint. Incredibly easy to use and yes, I do trust them. Free.
Spotify – It’s like iTunes if you had access to practically every song in the universe. Free + Paid Options.
Songza – Pandora who? Songza is way more interesting, hip and ad-free. Free.
Projects
Asana – Gorgeous project management application. I use it for personal task management but it could easily handle group/enterprise needs. Free.
Sprintly – Hosted Scrum/Kanban/Agile project management. It’s a combination of different methodologies and it just plain works. Paid.
Trello – What would happen if Kanban and Pinterest had a love child. Free.
Productivity
EverNote – Online notes. Simple, works. Syncs everywhere. Free + Paid Options.
Readability – Strips away all extraneous clutter on a web page and leaves content with clear, minimal presentation. Also lets you save pages for reading later. Free + Paid Options.
Security
Last Pass – Online password manager. Free + Paid Options.
Social Media
Google Reader – Manages the hundreds of RSS feeds to which I subscribe and lets me share items with selected friends + family. Free.
HootSuite – My online Twitter client of choice. Easily lets me manage multiple Twitter accounts and schedule Tweets. Free + Paid Options.
