3.15 - Other digital tools

A grab bag of tools that solve specific problems well:

• texts.com - combines multiple messaging services (iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack DMs, and others) into a single desktop app, so you can deal with all your messages from one place rather than juggling many apps.

• Wispr Flow - voice-to-text on Mac, Windows, and iPhone. You speak; it types into whatever app you're in, accurately and fast. We speak three to four times faster than we type, so for long-form writing, drafting emails, or anything where speaking would be faster than typing, this saves an enormous amount of time. Works in any app, on any text field. The most useful tool I've added to my daily workflow in years.

• Text expansion (TextExpander, Espanso, or built-in macOS snippets). Save anything you type repeatedly (your email signature, your address, common responses, code boilerplate) and trigger it with a short shortcut. Within a few weeks of use, you'll wonder how you typed the same phrases hundreds of times before.

• AI meeting notes (Granola, Otter, Fathom). These tools record meetings, transcribe them, and produce structured notes and action items automatically. If you spend significant time in meetings, the time saved on note-taking and follow-up is substantial.

• A good password manager (1Password, Bitwarden). Generates strong, unique passwords for every site, autofills them, syncs across devices. Removes a daily small friction from logging into anything, and meaningfully improves your security at the same time.

This list will grow over time. The general principle: if a small annoyance happens to you daily, there's almost always a tool that solves it. The few hours of setup are usually worth it.