State Of The Apps 2024
State of the Apps is a yearly review of the technology I use regularly in my life and work.
Looking back on past yearly reviews of the apps and tools I use, it’s clear how willing I’ve been to experiment with new products. This year has been different. Very little change. A lot of sticking with things that work.
Once again I haven’t had a studio or dedicated home office. The focus of my work and the rhythm of my days has been consistent. Writing has been my main creative output. There have been no big music or photography projects.
My CalNoteDo Stack
There are three core parts of any personal productivity stack: a calendar, a notes app, and a tool to manage tasks and to-dos.
I’ve been tempted to save a few dollars and go back to Apple’s Calendar app. Generally speaking, Apple’s native apps are great and massively under-rated. But I’ve stuck with Fantastical because of how it handles time zone differences (and Daylight Savings Time chaos). There hasn’t been a month in 2024 when I didn’t have to deal with the half-hour time difference between Adelaide and Melbourne. Or Zoom calls with the UK or USA.
Omnifocus continues to be my task management app. I’m not sure I’d automatically recommend it any more. Omnifocus is expensive, especially if you want to run it across Mac and iOS. It has features missing, such as Kanban boards. And it’s a bit intimidating to learn. But it’s a solid, reliable tool. Designed to work with GTD principles. And blazingly fast to use. Given how much time I’ve already invested in mastering Omnifocus, it makes sense to stay with it.
For notes, I use Apple Notes and Obsidian. Everything that could be considered “research” (notes from things I read, ideas for future writing, observations about life) goes into Obsidian. That is my “second brain” so to speak.
Apple Notes is for jottings about work in progress. It’s a glorified stack of post-its. Sometimes I tap out first drafts into Notes while waiting for a plane to take off. I make shopping lists in Notes. And agendas for meetings. Rather than fish around in e-mail for important information, during the day I will create a note and cut and paste the details I need. I frequently add a link to notes into either Fantastical or Omnifocus so I can have supporting information for an appointment or task.
My Creativity Stack
In 2024 I got back into music notation. I finally put down the money for a full copy of Dorico. I find the process of writing guitar studies soothing, and practising guitar studies meditative and relaxing. Among the languages I’m fluent in, music is the most comforting.
I quit Abode’s main Creative Cloud plan this year. It costs too much and they’re smuggling too much AI junk into it. Now I’m on the much cheaper Photographer Plan. I haven’t regretted cutting down my Adobe tools to only Photoshop and Lightroom. I still make digital sketches with Procreate.
Scrivener is still my writing tool of choice. I’ve gone back to paper for a lot of my reading but I use a Kindle while travelling. I wasn’t looking to upgrade but I got a Kindle Coloursoft for Christmas and it’s lovely. Reader by Readwise is my RSS and “read later” app. And I collect highlights and quotes using Readwise. My current streak for reviewing highlights stands at over 1,400 days.
I’ve felt no temptation to go back to Notion. Everything I did there, I now do somewhere else. Mostly in Numbers. For some reason I’d forgotten how solid, fast, and reliable spreadsheets can be.
Other Fun Things
JustWatch is a service that lets you see which films and TV shows are available to stream in your region, and the platform on which they are available. This saves time looking for how and where you can watch something. And if you travel frequently, JustWatch is great for tracking down a show that’s on one platform at home and on a different platform in another country.
Flighty didn’t have to work as hard this year for me as in previous years, but it still helped me track 31 flights and 80,307 km travelled.
Chargefox is a new app on my iPhone this year. I have an electric vehicle now. Maybe the car will be part of the State of The Apps 2025! Chargefox is the largest charging network in Australia. And the one that features the charging stations introduced as part of South Australia’s cross-state regional charging plan.
Finally, social media definitely isn’t fun any more. But I’m delighted the big exodus of people from X (formerly known as Twitter) in recent months has mostly landed at Bluesky. It’s far closer to the original spirit of Twitter (pre-2013) than any of the alternatives. You can find me there.
A General Trend
While it might look like I haven’t experimented much, there’s no need to try new apps in order to have new experiences. This year I’ve found myself exploring features, trying new settings, making small tweaks to how I use things.
In other words, making the tools, and my experience with them, my own.
Avoiding the presets and default settings might be the one idea that rings through my experience of apps and tools this year. It’s a way to get the most out of the things you’ve already bought and paid for. It could also be a helpful guide to life in general.
