Ask HN: Which tools increased your productivity the most?

18 points by hugodutka ↗ HN
For me it's been Gitpod (https://gitpod.io). It's like CI for development environments. It integrates with Git and lets me build my project continuously, and then create a containerized environment with the latest artifacts that I connect to with my IDE. I like it so much I decided to build a self-hosted alternative. It's at https://hocus.dev if you want to check it out.

What are yours?

12 comments

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by far, without being a computer snob, vim

It's incredible how far you can get with a good editor config

Isn't it problematic to work on it via ssh on high latency connections?
Doing any online work with high latency connections is problematic.

Vim can be used perfectly well on your own local machine.

Honestly, same (except using neovim these days). Once you invest the time to really learn it and configure it to your exact needs it is an incredible experience to use.
Goland by Jetbrains for Go. It's such a joy to use and makes me highly productive.
Todoist - Browser extension and phone app for checking off todo items. I get a slight dopamine hit every time I complete something.

Obsidian - Note-taking desktop app with a nice UI, good extensions, tagging, and more.

Leechblock - Browser extension that blocks certain sites during specified time periods. I've got a similar app on my phone, but its free version only allows 3 apps to be blocked.

- jira-cmd (which I maintain) for managing jira at work - org mode for planning - plantuml for making personal diagrams - Emacs for text editing - gnucash for finance - ublock origin browser extension for zapping out certain css elements which get attention - stylebot for changing css of pages to lower the cognitive load of those websites have
For me it's hardware: two large monitors give me one screen for IDE, one for VScode and the native for references. I also desperately need a good mouse -- tried one defualt/basic logitech one and a "vertical" one but neither is really satisfactory.

On software side a good IDE is really helpful. Jetbrain really excels in this field.

Obsidian transformed the way I work with information - personal and work related.

Mylifeorganized for infinitely customizable, hierarchical, advanced GTD-like to do lists.

Atimelogger (Android) for time logging, to see where my time goes and prevent procrastination.

OBS studio and Otter.ai for meeting recordings and notes.

I know some are tired of this but... chatgpt by far.