Throughout my typical day of coding and designing I can’t help but bow my head to the wonderful productivity software aiding my workflow, software that I couldn’t live without. This article covers software I use on a daily basis to improve and assist with my productivity as a designer & developer. Before diving into the list, I must throw out a disclaimer: I am an Apple fanboy and most of these apps are mac specific… sorry w1nd0ze users!
The List—Workflow & Productivity Software:
Alfred!
- Alfred is like a personal assistant. Just like Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred is always there when you need him/it. Alfred is Spotlight on crack.
Droplr
- Easy, integrated drag, drop, and share service much like Drop Box but without a lot of the bulk. Droplr also offers the added bonus of using your own custom domain for public URLS to semi white-label your downloads.
Sparrow
- The Sparrow mail app for Mac has been around for a bit and has a lot of nice features the standard Mac Mail app doesn’t include. They ceased development for a bit, but the good news is that our favorite mail app for Mac just got acquired by Google so we’re excited to see what may come of it!
FrankDeLoupe
- Your new favorite color-picking friend, built into Mac’s toolbar.
ChronoMate
- We love FreshBooks for project invoicing and thus, ChronoMate brings a wonderful solution for project time tracking by adding a powerful timer to the desktop and toolbar.
CrashPlan
- Protect your data with CrashPlan, an online backup solution. Sure external hard drives are a great way to protect your files from catastrophe, but they aren’t guaranteed either. CrashPlan is a wonderful affordable and secure option that allows you to backup all your files online.
Coda 2
- Coda 2 offers clean, easy and powerful syntax and code editing with built in FTP integration.
PhpStorm
- While Coda is like a multi-purpose tool, PhpStorm is like the Swiss-army knife attached to your utility belt! It extends itself beyond just PHP and has become a weapon of choice for many web developers.
CodeKit
- As quoted from their home page: “It’s like steroids for web developers.” It compresses, minifies, compiles, and much more. If you’re developing with a lot of SASS, LESS, or heavy PNG images, CodeKit is a must have.
Tower
- Easy, efficient, and powerful Git Management and control interface without command line.
Project Lisa
- Lisa HQ is an amazing Project Management system originally designed for our industry that expanded to be an all-encompassing, versatile tool for project organization and client management. Developed by the Fabric Eleven Design team, this web app is currently in development and you can join the beta testing at the link above.
The UnArchiver
- Simple, effective alternative for mac users to extract compressed archives.
Max-Gif
- Amazing website for productivity. Whenever we need inspiration or focus we look no further than Max-Gif….
Thoughts?
There you have it, my list of some of the apps and other pieces of workflow and productivity software that get me through my day. I hope they help, and, of course, let us know about anything you can’t code without in the comments.