I’ve been running an AI agent against my Obsidian vault for a few months. Not a chatbot that answers questions about my notes. An agent that opens files, reads them, rewrites them, and creates new ones. It runs on a schedule. It does this while I’m at work, sitting in front of the computer, or asleep.

This is not theoretical. This is my actual setup. And I want to walk through what it actually means before the think pieces about “agentic AI” turn it into something unrecognizable.

What “agentic” actually means

When most people talk about AI and their PKM, they mean asking ChatGPT to summarize a note they paste in. That’s useful. It’s also just a slightly faster search bar.

An agent is different. It has access to tools and in this case, the ability to read files, write files, run shell commands, and call external APIs. When I talk to my agent, it doesn’t just process what I paste. It can go find the thing. It can check yesterday’s journal entry, read three related files, and write a summary without me feeding it anything.

The technical setup is Claude Code (Anthropic’s CLI tool) plus Model Context Protocol, which gives the agent the ability to interact with external systems. For Obsidian, that means it treats the vault like a filesystem because that’s basically what an Obsidian vault is. If I don’t want to use a robot to edit a note, I can just go in myself to create or edit a note.

What it actually does

Let me be specific, because “AI manages my notes” sounds either amazing or horrifying depending on how you hear it.

Here’s what my agent does on a regular basis:

Generates content ideas automatically. Every Monday morning, it searches productivity communities and recent articles, pulls out ten content ideas for this newsletter, and writes a dated file into my vault. I find it there when I open Obsidian. I didn’t ask for it that day. It just happened. (This very article started as one of those automatically generated ideas.)

Transcribes and processes podcasts. My podcast workflow is fully automated. New episodes are downloaded, transcribed locally, and written into my vault with show notes and a full transcript. I open a note and the work is done. I have links to everything the hosts talked about whether they linked them in the show notes or not.

Maintains a session log. After every work session, the agent writes a summary of what happened, what was done, what changed, what’s pending. The vault has a running memory I don’t have to maintain myself. There is no way that I could keep up with everything that it’s creating. So, I let it maintain itself.

Acts on inline instructions. If I write @COG: anywhere in a note, it picks that up and executes the instruction the next time I interact with it. For example, whenever I am dropping a note in my inbox about making a meal plan, I can put @COG: research health meals for four kids and put them in a list for the week so that the kid’s meal plan is done and then I can add whatever I want on the menu and the AI does nothing to what I write. I don’t have to remember to follow up. I flag it and move on. This also helps out determining whether I just had an idea that I need to work on or if it’s something that I want the robot to just do without having to ask me.

None of this required me to write code. I set up the system in plain markdown files, basically a set of instructions that tell the agent what to do and when.

The part that actually matters

The thing people get wrong about agentic systems is treating it as an all-or-nothing question. Either AI does everything or you don’t let it touch anything. The practical reality is that you hand it tasks with clear, bounded success criteria and you keep it away from decisions that require your judgment. It’s going to make mistakes. It’s going to misinterpret a request. That’s why you need to review what it makes and ensure that the output is what you wanted.

My agent can write a draft. I edit it before it goes anywhere. It can create a summary. I decide whether it’s accurate. It can flag a note for review. I decide what to do with it. What I don’t let it do: delete anything permanently, send anything external, or make judgment calls about what matters. Those stay with me. The guardrails are not complicated. They’re just decisions you make once about what “done” looks like for a given task.

Whether this is for you right now

I want to be honest about the current state: this setup requires comfort with a terminal, some tolerance for friction during configuration, and a willingness to think in systems rather than apps.

If you’re not there yet, that’s fine. What I’d suggest is watching this space closely, because the friction is dropping fast. Also, I’m not the only person doing this already. Six months ago this was significantly harder to set up than it is now. In another six months it will probably be a few clicks.

What you can do now, regardless of technical level, is start thinking about your vault differently. Not as a container you fill and occasionally search, but as something that could participate in your work. What would you want it to do automatically? What decisions would you never hand off?

Pick one task in your vault you do manually every week. Write down exactly what done looks like. That’s the first thing worth automating.

That sounds obvious, but it explains why so much of it falls apart the second real life shows up. The advice assumes you can sit down for a weekly review with coffee and a clear desk. It assumes you have an hour to rebuild your task manager. It assumes your problem is that you have not found the right framework yet.

Sometimes the real problem is that you have eleven minutes before the next thing, your brain is tired, and every task on your list looks bigger than the amount of energy you have left.

That is the situation the 5-Minute Task System is built for.

The Trap of the Big System

I love productivity systems. I wrote about my larger setup in Building a Magpie’s Nest: My Scavenged Productivity System, but this is the smaller emergency tool inside that bigger approach. I would not have started The Productive Magpie if I did not enjoy picking through tools, templates, apps, workflows, automations, and weird little methods that make life run better.

But there is a trap in all of it.The bigger the system gets, the harder it is to use when you are already behind. When your task manager has twelve areas, four priority levels, custom filters, nested projects, contexts, tags, energy states, someday lists, and recurring reviews, it can be wonderful on a calm day. It can also become one more room you have to clean before you are allowed to do the work.

That is backwards.

A productivity system should help when your day is messy. If it only works when your life is quiet, it is not a system. It is decor. The 5-Minute Task System starts from a different assumption: you are busy, interrupted, and probably carrying more open loops than you can comfortably name. So instead of asking, “What is the perfect way to organize everything?” It asks, “What can I move forward in five minutes?”

Why Five Minutes Works

Five minutes is too short to intimidate you.

It is also long enough to matter.

You can answer the text.
You can put the receipt where it belongs.
You can unload part of the dishwasher.
You can write the ugly first paragraph.
You can open the document and leave yourself the next sentence.
You can schedule the appointment.
You can pay the bill.
You can rename the file.
You can send the follow-up.

None of those feel like a dramatic productivity breakthrough. That is the point.

I had to call about my medications to answer questions as required by my insurance. I had been putting this off all day because it meant talking on the phone with another human being. As I was leaving the studio, I just decided I was going to get it done, so I pulled out my phone and was finished with the call by the time I got to my truck. Something that had been bothering me all day was completed in under 50 steps.

Most of the pressure in a busy life does not come from one giant task. It comes from the pileup of tiny unresolved things that keep asking for attention in the background.

The unanswered message.
The thing you need to return.
The form you need to fill out.
The appointment you need to make.
The note you need to capture before you forget why it mattered.

Each one is small enough to dismiss. Together, they turn into static. The 5-Minute Task System is a way to lower the static.

The System

Here is the basic version. Make a list of tasks that can be moved forward in five minutes or less. Not completed necessarily. Moved forward. That distinction matters.

“Clean the garage” is not a 5-minute task. “Throw away the cardboard by the garage door” is.

“Write the newsletter” is not a 5-minute task. “Write three possible openings” is.

“Get my finances together” is not a 5-minute task. “Download the bank statement” is.

The move is to break tasks down until the next action is so small that your brain stops arguing with it. Then, when you have a weird gap in the day, you do one.

Waiting on coffee? Do one.

Five minutes before a meeting? Do one.

Sitting in the car before walking inside? Do one.

Your energy is low and you cannot face the big thing? Do one.

The Magpie Version

The Magpie Method is not about pledging loyalty to one productivity religion. It is about stealing what works and leaving the rest.

This system steals from a few places:

• Getting Things Done gives us the next action.

• Atomic Habits gives us the idea that small actions compound.

• Bullet Journaling gives us permission to keep the list simple.

• Plain old survival gives us the truth that busy people need systems that work in bad conditions.

I wrote more about that identity side in The Identity of a Productive Magpie, but this system is the ground-level version: one small action, then another. I do not care whether the list lives in Obsidian, Apple Notes, Todoist, TickTick, Notion, a sticky note, or the back of an envelope. Use whatever you will actually open.

What Goes on the List

A good 5-minute task should be specific enough that you know exactly what to do when you see it.

Bad:

• Work on taxes

• Clean kitchen

• Fix website

• Plan content

Better:

• Find W-2 and put it in tax folder

• Clear the left side of the counter

• Check if the homepage button works

• List five newsletter headlines

The test is simple: if you read the task while tired and still understand the next move, it belongs on the list.

If you have to think, rewrite it.

What Does Not Go on the List

Do not put fake 5-minute tasks on the list. You know the kind.

“Outline entire course.”

“Organize all photos.”

“Fix my life.”

Or one that I find myself using often, “Admin tasks.”

Those are not tasks. The system only works if you are honest about size. Five minutes means five minutes. Maybe seven if you are already moving. If it turns into forty-five minutes, it was not a 5-minute task. Break it smaller and tackle the smaller parts so they add up.

Why This Helps Busy People

Busy people do not always need more ambition. They need fewer stalled objects in the path.

When you are juggling work, family, side projects, appointments, errands, health stuff, house stuff, and the strange administrative fog of modern life, your brain gets tired of holding all the tiny things.

The 5-Minute Task System gives those things somewhere to go. More importantly, it gives you a way back in. That might be the most useful part. When you fall off your system, you do not need a grand reset. You do not need to spend Saturday rebuilding your Notion dashboard. You do not need to declare a new era. You need one small task you can finish. Then another... Then another. Momentum usually returns after movement, not before it.

A Simple Starter List

If you want to try this today, start with ten.

• Reply to one message

• Put one loose paper where it belongs

• Clear one surface

• Start one load of laundry

• Write one bad paragraph

• Rename one file

• Schedule one appointment

• Pay one bill

• Capture one idea

• Delete or archive ten emails

Do not make this precious. Do not build the perfect template first. Do not go app shopping. Write ten small tasks and do one of them. This is the same reason I love tiny systems like my Q shortcut. Small bits of saved friction add up.

The Product

I turned this into a small product because I wanted the system to be easier to start than to overthink.

The 5-Minute Task System for Busy People gives you a ready-made structure for capturing tiny tasks, breaking down bigger ones, and keeping a short list of actions you can use when the day gives you a spare pocket of time.

It is not a life operating system.

It is a pressure valve.

You can grab it here:

The 5-Minute Task System for Busy People

If you are already behind, do not start by rebuilding everything.

Start with five minutes.

Disclosure: This article includes an affiliate link. If you sign up through it, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

If the button above does not work click here: The 5-Minute Task System for Busy People

One of the reasons that I love the letter Q is because it is very easy to find on the keyboard. Q sits right next to my left pinky. I could find it blindfolded.

I work with my left hand on the keyboard and my right hand moving back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse. My left hand is always great for text automation macros and quick access because of this.

Why Q Works

It’s the best letter for automations and macros because it is one of the least used letters in the alphabet. When I started setting up shortcuts, I used semi-colon, period or Z. These all cause conflicts at some point with words or with other shortcuts like semi-colon being used for emojis in Slack.

You may be asking why the letter Q when X and Z are right there too! My thought is that Q is almost always followed up by the letter U, which no other letter follows as much as the letter Q does. Doubling up on Q (qq) makes it even rarer as no English word starts with that.

How I Use It

You might be curious about how a letter can be used as an automation, but with Keyboard Maestro, you can set up hot key automations based on text strings. I can type the letters ‘qq’ and then start typing words that can trigger automations. I have almost 100 macros set up that start with ‘qq’. It’s as simple as typing ‘qqaddress’ which automatically inserts my address.

Need some examples?

• qqemail → your email

• qqsig → email signature

• qqbio → short bio

• qqcal → “Here’s my calendar link: ...”

You don’t use Keyboard Maestro? No problem, simply add it to Apple’s text replacements and you have access on all your Apple devices with a quick and easy text replacement to save time and your thoughts.

Setting It Up

How to set up text replacements on Mac:

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacement

2. Click the “+” button to create a new replacement

3. In the “Replace” field, enter your shortcut (e.g., qqphone)

4. In the “With” field, enter what you want inserted (e.g., your phone number)

5. Click “Done” and the replacement is live immediately

How to set up text replacements on iPhone/iPad:

1. Open Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement

2. Tap the “+” in the top-right corner

3. In the “Phrase” field, enter what you want inserted

4. In the “Shortcut” field, enter your trigger (e.g., qqphone)

5. Tap “Save” and it syncs via iCloud to all your devices

The beauty of this approach is that it works everywhere! Mail, Notes, Messages, browsers, any app with a text field. Once you set it up, you never have to type those long strings again. It saves me from typing long strings and from forgetting the ones I’d otherwise have to look up.

Quick Recall Markers

It’s also great at finding sections of written work, so if I need to come back and review something, I can type QRM for Quick Recall Marker. I got this inspiration from using TK because the letters T and K are rarely put together in any English word, but I’ve but some people I know have names that contain TK, which tripped me up. Honestly, I would forget the letters also. TK is a journalism/editing convention which means “to come” as a placeholder for missing info. This got me thinking of what I could use.

So, I use QRM in any text field to quickly recall something or bring my attention to the surrounding text. QRM only shows up as technical acronyms and never as informal English words. This makes it a great way to search and find text that I might want to recall later. QRM sticks in my head because it actually means something and it’s not just random letters to me.

I use this whenever I need to come back and check something that I’ve written, or as a way to remember what I’ve done. For instance, if I’m writing a story and need to fact check, like I did earlier on the letter Q being the least used letter in the alphabet, I just type QRM and come back to check later. Whenever I’m ready to post, I search for QRM and jump right to it.

The Real Win

Small systems like this (finding the right letter, setting up one shortcut) compound into hours saved over a year. The real win isn’t Q or QRM. It’s choosing a system that fits how you work and sticking with it.

Be a Magpie and steal the letter Q from me.

It also knows not to use em dashes. I hate em dashes.

This didn’t happen by accident. I built it that way. And today I’m packaging the whole thing so you can use it too.

The Problem With AI Assistants

Every AI tool you’ve used has the same flaw: it forgets you the moment the conversation ends.

You spend five minutes giving it context. It gives you a great answer. You close the window. Next session, you’re a stranger again.

The productivity community’s solution to this has been prompt templates and custom instructions. Paste your context at the top of every conversation. It works, barely. It’s also exhausting and still doesn’t account for anything that changes day to day.

I wanted something different. I wanted an assistant that actually knows me and gets smarter about me over time without me having to repeat myself constantly.

Obsidian as the Brain

I already lived in Obsidian. My notes, my journals, my health log, my media library. All of it was there. The problem was it was static. I could find things, but nothing was connected to action.

The insight was simple: what if I gave Claude a folder in my vault and told it to treat that as its memory?

That’s the whole idea. Claude doesn’t “remember” me but it reads files that do. Every session it boots up and reads:

• A file about who I am (family, job, health conditions, preferences, communication style)

• A running log of every session we’ve ever had

• A list of active projects and where they stand

• A set of skill files that tell it exactly how to handle specific tasks

That last part is the key. The skills aren’t prompts. They’re documented workflows that are step-by-step instructions for recurring tasks, stored as plain markdown files in the vault. There’s one for morning briefings. One for logging health data. One for processing my inbox. One for logging movies and TV. One for weekly reviews. One for shutdowns.

When I say “log a movie,” Claude reads the media-log skill, pulls metadata from the web, creates a properly formatted note in my /Movies folder, and moves on. No fumbling, no clarifying questions, no “as an AI language model.” It just does it.

What This Looks Like in Practice

My mornings start the same way. I open Cowork (Claude’s desktop app), type “good morning,” and within about thirty seconds I have:

• Current weather and what’s coming later in the day

• Everything on my calendar pulled from all my Google calendars in parallel

• A quote worth reading

• Any open loops from the last session I need to know about

• An inbox count

Then it asks if I watched anything last night that needs logging. If I say yes, it handles the whole thing (title, cast, gene, cover image, rating, my notes) and files it in the right place.

Why This Works When Other Setups Don’t

I’ve tried the custom instructions approach. I’ve tried pasting context blocks. I’ve tried dedicated AI apps that promise memory features.

The difference here is that the memory lives in a place I already control, in a format I already use, and it’s updated automatically as part of the workflow itself or I can go into the .md file and edit it myself.

I don’t have to use tokens if I want to make a change.

When I log something, the log gets updated. When a project changes status, projects.md gets updated. When I shut down, a session summary gets written. The system maintains itself because maintaining it is built into every skill.

It also means I can read my own logs. I can see what Cog (that’s what I call my robot) did two weeks ago. I can search my vault for any decision I made or any task that came up. It’s not locked in some proprietary memory system I can’t inspect or export.

The Magpie Vault

I’ve been running this system for a while now. It’s become the thing I use more than anything else on my computer.

So I packaged it all up.

The Magpie Vault is an Obsidian starter pack built around this exact setup. It includes:

• The full Robot Assistant skeleton CLAUDE.md, all the core skill files (morning, journal, health, media log, weekly review, inbox, shutdown, and more), and the memory file structure

• A health tracker template pre-built for daily logging

• A media log template for movies and TV

• Weekly and monthly review templates

• A full README walking you through setup step by step

You bring your own Claude account. Everything else is in the vault.

It’s $19. One time. You own it.

Get the Magpie Vault →

If you’ve been wanting to use AI more intentionally and not just for one-off questions but as an actual part of how you work, this is the place to start. The skeleton is already built. You just have to fill in the details about yourself and let it run.

That’s the Magpie Method. Steal what works, leave the rest. This one works.

Questions? Hit reply. I read everything.

When the doctor told us she was allowed 4,000mg of acetaminophen every 24 hours and not to exceed that, I went and asked it to keep track of how much acetaminophen was in each of her medicines. I was able to put that in, and then it gave me a graph at the top showing how much she had taken in the past rolling 24 hours and how much she was allowed to take.

Once things calmed down, I was able to look around on the App Store to see if there was something on the market that gave me this level of customization and I found nothing. There were no apps that met everything I needed, yet this application that took me 30 minutes to get started and 20 minutes here and there to customize was exactly what I needed when I needed it. Her surgery went well and pain management was phenomenal, so she was able to get off the pain medicines within a week. I just didn’t open the web app anymore.

I didn’t have to uninstall anything, didn’t have to unsubscribe, didn’t have to pay for any of it (other than my Claude subscription). Had I downloaded an app, there more than likely would’ve been a subscription, a one-time fee, or some kind of payment for something I only used for one week.

I don’t know what that means for app development and what it means for the future of software, but I was blown away by how easy it was to get it going, customize it to exactly what I needed, and use it for when I needed it.

Before this, my default move was opening the App Store and searching until I found something that was close enough to what I needed (and then paying for it anyway). Now my default move is opening Claude and just building it. I wonder how many of you are still searching the App Store when you could just build exactly what you want in 30 minutes. Are you still doing it the old way?

I am still in the early stages of the Productive Magpie concept. I have learned not to hoard tools but to build systems that reinforce who I am and how I work. After finishing Atomic Habits by James Clear, this concept was further fleshed out as I looked to build in those systems into my magpie approach.

Identity Over Goals

One of the ways that has helped me is to think that “I am a writer” instead of “I want to write blog posts.” I could create a goal to write this blog post, but once I have finished it, I would have to set a new goal of another blog post. Constantly moving the goal posts is not beneficial. So, I think of my system. I write my ideas in Ulysses and then start writing what is on my mind. I might not finish the post, but I have the idea out of my mind and into something functional. You need to move away from goal setting and work toward identity building.

Downloading TickTick doesn’t make me organized,

but using it every day does.

A magpie doesn’t collect things because it wants the most things, it collects things to build a stronger nest. In my previous blogs, I would focus on one blog post and set that as a goal to write one blog post at a time. I thought that was being productive. I now realize that I was not being a writer, I was just writing. That may be why all those other posts failed and why I quit writing there. Writing was a chore, it wasn’t just what I do.

Clear famously says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

The Magpie Workflow

You have to create a system to get to where you want to be. I have an input system of RSS feeds that bring in articles of interest for me to read. I weed out what I want to read by sending the articles to TickTick so that I can make any notes in the description as well as setting a due date if it is something that I want to focus on. This also allows for articles to sit until I have time (like on a weekend morning) to get to them. Sometimes these gems of articles and ideas pop up then that didn’t resonate when I skimmed them throughout the week. Once I have an idea, I can send that topic over to Ulysses and start typing away.

The Power of 1%

James Clear also emphasizes that if you improve by just 1% every day, you will be exponentially better within a year’s time. That is my hope for the Magpie method. I want it to improve and for others to discover the benefits of stealing from different areas and actions that they come across. So, if I learn one keyboard shortcut today, that will help me work faster the rest of the year possibly saving me hours throughout the year. I could take the time to better my system by creating a template so that later on when I need to work on a similar project, I can implement that template and cut out some of the duplicate work that I would have to do if I built it from scratch. Those 1% improvements add up. That is the essence of being a productive magpie, gathering small wins that add up to a massive advantage.

What is one 1% improvement you’re making to your system this week?

Watch a magpie build its nest and you’ll see a creature that refuses to be loyal. Magpies are thieves with taste. They don’t commit to one tree or one yard. Instead, they scavenge, hopping from fence post to garden to parking lot, selective about what catches their eye. A shiny wrapper from the parking lot, a bit of wire from the construction site, a lost button from the playground. Each scavenged bit comes from somewhere different, and none of it matches.

Together, it builds something functional: a nest that works.

The magpie’s superpower isn’t finding one perfect source of materials. It’s knowing what to steal and what to leave behind. It takes what serves its purpose and moves on, building a nest from a dozen different places.

This is exactly how I approach productivity. Not committing to one system, but stealing the best pieces from everywhere. Being productive means different things to different people. Most productivity advice pushes you toward one ecosystem: Apple or Google, Notion or Obsidian. That’s the trap.

Breaking Free from the Algorithm

I use the app Reeder as my only view into social media and the news. It’s a finite feed, and once I read through it all, I’m finished. There’s no endlessly refreshing and pulling up new content that the algorithm thinks I might like. I read from people I want to follow and sources I want to learn from. This keeps me from wasting time endlessly scrolling through the news or slop of the day.

I’ve spent years on social media, RSS, and simply reading articles on the web. I’ve found sources that have come and gone. In doing so, I’ve resonated with certain writers, so I follow those writers wherever they contribute. Unfortunately, most still use some type of social media that doesn’t integrate with Reeder (looking at you, Instagram), which makes it difficult or impossible to see everything they post. I’ve learned that’s okay. I don’t have to see everything all my favorite people put online. If it’s something they find important, they’ll post multiple times or mention it somewhere else so I pick up on it. And if not, I simply don’t get that content. The world keeps spinning.

When I first switched from an algorithmic feed to a finite one, the biggest change I noticed was how much time I gained in my day. I had set up lists on Twitter to only see people I wanted to, but what did the app do when you first opened it? Go straight to the algorithmic timeline. And of course, something interesting was at the top of the list, and away I went scrolling down to get another hit of dopamine.

I borrowed the best of online social connection while rejecting the algorithmic trap.

Scavenging Software That Works

As I stated in a previous post, I’m using Setapp. This post contains paid links. If you purchase Setapp through my link, I receive a commission at no extra cost to you. This allows me to test many different applications to find what suits me best for one subscription. The Magpie approach to software means I don’t have to commit to one ecosystem. Instead, I use Setapp to find different applications that serve different aspects of my life.

I write my posts in Ulysses, which is part of Setapp, because I like the way I can have material articles marked as references for my posts. The design is minimalist while having Markdown support. I brought this into my workflow after testing Obsidian, Notion, and others. I learned that I don’t like block-based text editing and love writing in Markdown.

Another app that’s part of Setapp is Craft. I use this tool to keep up with work projects. I like it because I’m able to create a Notion-style database within a document. This allows me to keep my tasks together and see visually where the project currently is. I’ll dive deeper into these tools in the future.

Your Turn

Productivity isn’t about finding one perfect system that solves everything. It’s about being a Magpie: picking the best bits from various sources and building a workflow that actually serves your life instead of consuming it. Take a look at your own digital diet this week. Are you scrolling through an endless algorithm, or are you intentionally choosing what to consume so you can get back to the things and the people that actually matter?

Build a nest from diverse sources instead of living in someone else’s pre-fabricated cage.

My heart sank as I realized I had forgotten to set up the room. I was driving to work when my boss called about a meeting with physicians that morning. The details were in my work calendar, humming away on my office PC, completely useless to me in the car. That’s the moment I became a magpie...

A magpie builds its nest out of anything useful. It uses twigs, string, wire, and mud. It doesn’t care if the materials match. It only cares if the nest holds. That is how I now approach productivity. I don’t force myself into a single ecosystem. I take the task manager from one company, the notes app from another, and the calendar from a third. I combine them to build a workflow that actually supports my life.

I am a magpie.

If a new app launches, I download it. If a new workflow trends, I test it. I scavenge the internet for the best tools and tips, pick out the shiny parts that actually work, and bring them back to my nest. I discard the rest.

I have spent more time organizing my work than actually doing it. Many of us have. It is time to stop searching for the ultimate tool and start building a system that works.

Here are the shiny bits I used to build my productivity nest in 2025.

The Task Manager: TickTick

I used Todoist for years, back when having my tasks sync between my phone and computer felt revolutionary. I subscribed and never looked elsewhere because money was tight and it worked. But when Todoist raised prices to add AI features I’d never use (looking at you Ramble) I had to move on.

TickTick has a few other benefits like a Pomodoro Timer, Countdowns, and a Habit Tracker on top of being a fantastic task manager. I like the aesthetics of Todoist (probably since I have been using it for so many years), but TickTick prioritizes function over form. I was able to convert over to TickTick with ease as it has great recurring tasks support that is a must-have in my productivity nest.

The Project Hub: Craft

When I need to think deeply or plan a work project, I open Craft. It is visually beautiful and makes organizing complex thoughts feel effortless. While TickTick is for doing, Craft is for building. I collect all my work and meeting notes here. I haven’t built a complex system here like I once did in Notion. It just works seamlessly for me.

The Personal Archive: Apple Notes

Simple. Fast. Native. I use Apple Notes for anything that I want to archive or reference later. It has zero friction, so it’s great to snap a picture of the dog food bag and share the note with the family so everyone knows how much to feed her. I know I’m not going out of Apple’s ecosystem, so having a permanent free notes app is a great choice for me to save things that I might need to reference later.

The Timekeeper: Google Calendar

Years ago, before I knew what ‘time blocking’ was, I created an ‘Every Hour’ calendar and logged everything I did, updating it throughout the day. It was half planning, half journaling, and completely obsessive. I’ve scaled back since then, but Google Calendar remains the backbone of my system. My wife and I share calendars for appointments. I track my favorite college football team’s schedule (Go Vols!). If it’s on my calendar, it exists. If it’s not, it doesn’t.

The Toolbox: Setapp

When I finally saved enough stimulus money for a MacBook Pro in 2020, after years of rendering videos on a work laptop that got as hot as the sun and sounded like a jet engine, I went app-crazy. I downloaded everything. After that initial binge, I realized I was hemorrhaging money on subscriptions. Setapp solved this. One subscription, dozens of premium Mac apps including Craft. It’s the best value in the Apple ecosystem, especially for former Windows converts like me who are still discovering what’s possible.

I’ve tried Trello, Notion, Microsoft ToDo, Evernote (okay, not Evernote, I never got on that bandwagon). I spent more time trying to fit my workflow into a crafted system that someone else created instead of actually working. My nest still isn’t perfect, and it will probably look different next year.

I wasted years searching for the ultimate system when I should have been building a functional one. These five tools keep my life running right now. They might not work for you, and that’s fine.

Build your own nest.

What’s the weirdest app combination you’ve made work? Subscribe and reply to let me know the one app you cannot live without this coming year.