What do I use?

A list of tools I use daily to work efficiently, stay focused, and keep organized.

My newest project is Pharm450.com, the easiest way to learn pharmacology for USMLE Step 1. Pharm450 packs an entire course on medical pharmacology into a set of entertaining videos that leverage your visual, spatial, and emotional memory so you learn faster and retain more.

The right mix of tools can save you hours a week, or cost you hours. I’m always looking for better ways of doing things and new ways of getting leverage. Here are lists of the hardware, software, and services I use daily.

Hardware

• Macbook Air 11” with thin padded case and power cord protector
• iPhone with Tech21 case and apps:
  • Instapaper – instead of reading everything at the moment, I queue up articles to read later using their bookmarklet and Kindle integration.
  • Sleep Cycle to wake me up gently at just the right time
  • for Facebook and news, I just use Safari. I want to use Chrome, but Apple insists on Safari as the default browser (reminiscent of Internet Explorer bundling).
• Kindle Paperwhite for carrying around a small library of interesting books and articles. The backlit screen is fantastic in low light. I got the 3G model which has come in handy fetching new books while traveling in the US and abroad, but Wifi-only is sufficient. Integrates with Instapaper.
• Audéo earbuds while working at the computer, expensive but superb sound and snug fit

• TaoTronics Bluetooth Headphones for listening on the go. Good sound, excellent price, great for commute and cordless jogging

Software

• Chrome web browser with extensions:
  • AdBlock to knock out advertisements
  • LastPass to keep all my passwords safe, quickly log me into sites, and fill out tedious forms
  • Vimium to quickly navigate and search pages without moving to the mouse
  • The Great Suspender to suspend and save inactive tabs, saves CPU cycles and memory and battery
  • Overwrite Downloads to avoid accumulating downloads Foo (1), Foo (2), Foo (3), … instead overwrite Foo
• Spectacle to move and resize windows with hot keys
• MenuMeters to keep an eye on CPU, memory, internet speed, etc.
• AltTab to switch between the individual windows of an application (Mac OSX only lets you switch between full applications with Command+Tab, and Command+` between windows within one application; Witch lets you switch between individual windows in separate applications, just like Windows)
• Caffeine to keep my Mac from going to sleep while I’m presenting or surfing
• F.lux to alter my laptop’s screen colors to the time of day (blue light is bad at night). If you’re on a Chromebook then use G.lux.
• SelfControl (Mac) and ColdTurkey (Win) to keep me off facebook, email, and the news when I need to be productive
• Emacs/vim/bash/screen/git. Copy my dot files.
• Monolingual to remove unused language files and object code (architectures), eg. you only use English and use a 64-bit Mac so get rid of Russian language files and PowerPC libraries
• AutoRaise moving the mouse over a window gives it focus (no need to click)

Services

• Google Apps - get Gmail, Calendar, Drive, etc all using my own domain (jgmalcolm.com)
  • send the current page/quote
  • learn shortcuts to quickly add events
  • find out which company has sold your email address with this Gmail trick
• Google Apps Scripting lets you write powerful scripts to manage Gmail, Drive, Calendar, etc.
  • Gmail Snooze lets you push an email out of your inbox for a few days, highly recommend
  • Gmail Schedule Send lets you draft an email and specify a time for it to be sent
• Wikipedia interface tricks to navigate and view images more efficiently
• IFTTT - I use facebook and twitter to share articles with friends and family. IFTTT records all my tweets and facebook posts so I can keep track of interesting articles. It’s also setup to cross post facebook article shares over to twitter, so I don’t have to post to both accounts. I use the Facebook bookmarklet to quickly post.

Bookmarklets

Instead of installing browser extensions that constantly chew up resources, bookmarklets are efficient for simple tasks. Each of these is a little snippet of JavaScript. To use one, drag it to your Bookmarks (toolbar).

• post the current page on Facebook or Twitter or send via Gmail
• send this page to Instapaper
• create a blank Google Doc or Sheet in a new tab