What are the 5 tools you simply couldn't do your work without?
This could be related to your industry, or even a side project you're working on.
Here are my 5 (I couldn't function without them):
Grammarly – proofreading my texts, not just posts, but also client communication
ChatGPT / Claude – mostly brainstorming, help with copy, and summarising
Figma – I can put the basic graphics together quickly.
Translator – sounds incredibly old-school, but English is not my mother tongue
Gmail – and not only for communication, but also for storing ideas and sending myself email reminders for posts
What are your five?
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hey @busmark_w_nika My 5 would probably be:
Claude / Fable for coding, planning, and thinking through product logic
ChatGPT / Nano Banana for visual generation and creative experiments
Notion for notes, ideas, and keeping messy thoughts organized
Awish for building and testing automation workflows
Product Hunt / Reddit for seeing how people actually talk about problems
The last one is underrated. Tools help with execution, but communities help you understand the language, objections, and real context around a problem.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@alpertayfurr Nice edition – and it is true that on my daily list are PH and LinkedIn too :)
@busmark_w_nika Yes also linkedn of course:)
ArkTabs
If "simply couldn't do your work without" then
VS Code
Terminal
Edge/Chrome
File Manager
Image Viewer
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@nabeelalihashmi from the stack can see you are a dev, right? :)
ArkTabs
@busmark_w_nika Yes! 🎉 Human, Problem Solver, Programmer!
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@paramjeety another developer? :)
Hey , my some of fev
Gemini, Chat gpt , Quillbot , Gmail , Canva.
these tools save me hours every week and make content creation, research, and design much easier. 🙌
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@vikramp7470 apart from Quillbot, I am using all of them :)
Figma — obviously, it's basically an extension of my brain at this point. I think in frames.
Claude — not just for copy, honestly use it as a thinking partner when I'm stuck on a design decision or trying to articulate why something feels off.
Loom — async is underrated. I'd rather record a 3-minute walkthrough than write a 10-minute spec that nobody reads.
Linear — keeps the chaos at bay. As a founder you're always fighting fires, it at least tells you which fire is most important.
Arc browser — sounds boring but the way it handles tabs changed how I research and context-switch. Feels like it was designed for the way I actually think.
The common thread: tools that reduce friction between thinking and doing. Anything that slows that loop down gets cut eventually.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@atherkildsen Is Arc really that good? Because I thought that the company shut down :D or?
@busmark_w_nika imo yes.. haven’t found one worth replacing it with yet.. still sad it shut down..
@riya_pariyar funny how things change.. Granola is awesome, though I haven’t really moved beyond meeting notes.
What do you use Canva for, if you have Figma?
@Cursor is my daily editor and harness for my agents for building app
then : ghostty, orbstack, supergrok, and linear
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@roniardynt I went from ChatGPT to Grok too, but after the decision to disable the latest model in the EU, I do not know... maybe i will not pay for something that I cannot use :D
It's not surprising to see that many people now list AI as part of the list.
5 or 10 years ago, the list would have been totally different....but here's my 5:
1. AI (Claude, Gemini, Deepseek Grok) - yes can't live without them these days.
2. VSCode - the workhorse Coding Editor
3. Cloudflare - first time using it this year, nice hosting but quite confusing on the layouts and various options.
4. GitHub - You'll need this if you want Cloudflare
5. Google - love them or hate them, they are required.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@invengineer now started thinking what would be my tech stack 10 years ago :D
@busmark_w_nika the days of photoshop/illustrator/audacity - fun but slow going.
My five would probably be:
ChatGPT - for brainstorming ideas, organizing information, and helping me analyze data.
Nano-Banana - for generating images or making quick image edits.
Canva - for simple photo and social media design work.
Translator - for checking wording and making sure my expression sounds natural.
Company email - for daily communication, customer support, and keeping track of user needs.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@evakk Interesting, I tried Nano banana, but I think it was not such good.
@busmark_w_nika Haha, I actually thought it worked pretty well the first few times I used it.
1. Claude – my main AI assistant
2. MemPlato – my own MCP memory server so Claude actually
remembers context between sessions (launched it today on PH)
3. Termux – runs the server on my Android phone
4. Namecheap – domains
5. Perplexity – research
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@vadym_cherkavskyi thank you for the hint, I will have a look at the no4 :)
auratracker: habits & goals - use it mainly for tracking my tasks + habits + long term goals + reflection journaling etc - my own app :)
chat gpt + claude - chat gpt for generating mocks, general idea brainstorming etc., claude for design & implementation
warp + iterm - where i code -> moved away from vs code now.
apple notes - project management (i prefer to keep it simple)
chrome - browser of choice !
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@vinitvr apple notes... it reminds me that I use apple reminders :D