👋 Good morning from sunny Lisbon. I’m Connor and this is One Percent Wisdom, a newsletter exploring living well and working well.
I have to admit: I’m a bit of a tech junkie.
I love testing new technologies, buying the latest gadgets, and reading about what’s coming next (have you seen the new photorealistic avatars Meta just demo’d? 🤯)
And at the same time, I put a lot of energy into making sure my attention isn’t monopolized by these same technologies.
For example, I’ve deleted all social apps from my main phone, blocked news sites, religiously use my iPhone’s various Do Not Disturb modes (even with customized backdrops when I’m in Work Focus or Mindfulness Focus), and continue to experiment with various digital detox formats.
But hey, there’s still a lot of good stuff technology can give you.
If used correctly, it can provide us tremendous leverage and free us up to focus more on what matters most to us.
And in this post, I’m going to share some of my favorite apps and tools that I use in my personal life as well as in the day-to-day of Forgewell.
Shoutout to my friend Charlotte Grysolle who inspired this post and publishes her Tech Stack each year.
What’s a Tech Stack?
This is a common term in the tech world that refers to the various technologies a company uses to power its business.
What’s a Life Tech Stack?
Same idea, but instead of a company, think of a person. A Life Tech Stack is all the tools, apps, and technologies I use in my daily life.
Just as Charlotte did in her 2022 post, I’m going to highlight which apps I’ve removed from my stack (🛑) and why, and which ones are new (🆕).
This is a bit of a nerdier post, but I’m sharing as I often find inspiration in posts like this and wanted to pay it forward. 🤓
Note: none of these are affiliate links, just apps I use and love <3
My Life Tech Stack | 2023 Edition
My Top 3 Apps of the Moment
To start off, I wanted to share the three apps I use practically every day and that I don’t think too many people are using or have heard of yet.
Y’all know I’m a bit health-obsessed, so it should come as no surprise that they’re all basically in the Health & Well-Being categories.
🆕 Othership
Use it to for breathwork to feel good and function well
If we’ve hung out in the last two years, you’ve heard me babble on about breathwork. It’s an incredibly potent tool to regulate your nervous system, process emotions, create calm, generate natural energy, and more.
This app has been on my daily rotation for many months now and I absolutely love it.
Think Headspace for Breathwork. Mixed with incredible music.
Each day, there’s an Up practice (to upregulate your nervous system and give you a boost) and a Down practice (to downregulate and calm you down). Plus longer ‘journeys’ and other goodness all based on the breath.
Insight Timer
Use it for meditation, Yoga Nidra, or NSDR to train or relax the bodymind
This has been my go-to meditation app for quite awhile now. If you’re unfamiliar, Insight Timer is a massive library of teachers and practices. It started with meditation, but has expanded to include live yoga, breathwork, courses, music, and more.
My personal practice has mainly been Vedic Meditation the past 3-4 years, which is a simple 20-minute mantra-based meditation practice. For this, I use the beautifully designed (and recently upgraded) timer function to create custom timed sequences with the gongs and chimes I like the most.
Then when I’m seeking some variety, I dip into guided practices from some of my favorite teachers like Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield, or Travis Eliot.
I also am a huge fan of Yoga Nidra (a.k.a. NSDR) to restore my energy in the afternoon dip, and while I often head to YouTube for the Madefor practice or Rod Stryker’s guided Nidra practice, I’ve been exploring some of the tracks on Insight timer as well.
🆕 Pliability
Use it for mobility, flexibility, and deep relaxation
I recently wrote about my approach to movement and how I’m more focused than ever on mobility, flexibility, and longevity.
I’ve done quite a few different mobility and flexibility programs over the past few years, including The Ready State from Dr. Kelly Starrett, Bodyweight Warrior from Tom Merrick, and some personal 1:1 coaching with the incredible Alex Nino.
But lately, I’ve fallen in love with Pliability. The app serves up daily mobility & flexibility videos, usually about 20 min long, and very similar to Yin Yoga (longer 3-4 min passive holds) if you know that style. Additionally, the app has longer practices, warm-ups and cooldowns, and lots of other movement goodness.
It’s become one of the habits I most look forward to each day. I usually delve in about an hour before bedtime. It drops me into a deep state of relaxation and I love it.
The Apps & Tools We Use to Run Our Business
Whilst running a business is challenging, it’s also incredible to step back and recognize the leverage that technology provides the modern business owner and just appreciate how easy it can make things.
Claire knows that I’m constantly adding and revising the “Tech Stack” for Forgewell, and while sometimes I get distracted by the lure of fancy tools, I also have come to realize that I enjoy testing new things and so I embrace this part of my personality.
Here’s the full breakdown of the tech we’re using:
Notion: The home base for our business
Google Workspace: Email, calendar, sometimes docs and spreadsheets
Loom: Async communication, training, etc.
Zoom: Video calls and online workshops
Calendly: automates meeting scheduling and calendar management
ChatGPT: A.I. helper for writing, summarizing, idea generation, etc.
Time Out: break reminders
Typeform: surveys and forms
Webflow: website hosting for connorswenson.com and forgewell.co
Mentimeter: facilitating interaction and engagement in workshops
Otter.ai: transcribing and summarizing meetings
AudioPen: converting messy audio notes into structured ideas
There are probably a few things I’m missing here (and I left out some more boring stuff like Xero for accounting, Monzo for banking, etc.) but these are the core building blocks.
Let’s explore each in a bit more detail.
Notion
Use it for an all-in-one workspace for docs, projects, etc.
One of the biggest internal changes we’ve made in the past year is to go all-in on adopting Notion as our business home base. Previously, we were using a collection of Google Docs and Sheets, which worked to a point, but doesn’t have the same powerful “wiki” feature of Notion, so it’s harder to use it as a home base.
Notion does has a learning curve, and so we’ve been constantly iterating and improving how we use it and still have a ways to go. But it now serves as our CRM, Project Manager, Task Manager, and go-to place for all our communication.
We’re investing right now into the next level of operations for our business, so we actually just hired a Notion consultant to help us customize a few key areas of our workspace (specifically the CRM < > Project databases) to really make it shine.
Google Workspace
Use it for email, calendar, and sheets
As an ex-Googler, I’m very partial to Google’s product suite. I was practically raised on Gmail and Google Drive, so I rely on these tools in a big way.
Further, I find that sometimes the spreadsheets and databases in Notion are not quite as easy or effective as Google Sheets, so I still use Sheets when I need to.
I also use Google Calendar to run my life, and while I know there are lots of cool, new A.I.-powered calendars and such out there, I like the simplicity and reliability of Google Calendar.
I’m curious to see how the new Bard integrations into Workspace will play out as well...🤖
Loom
Use it for asynchronous communication, training videos, etc.
Loom is probably the biggest game-changer in my workflow of the past 2 years. It is a huge enablement tool that makes communication so much easier and more effective.
Basically, Loom allows you record your screen and make simple video messages.
It sounds basic, but it removes the need for so many meetings and it effortlessly allows you to create content that can be reused, rewatched, and recycled again and again.
I use it multiple times a week when I need to give feedback to a vendor, to share context to a written proposal I’ve sent a client, or create a training video for our assistant.
If you are working in a remote, hybrid, or async way, you need to be using Loom.
Zoom
Use it for online meetings, workshops, and webinars
The big three of virtual meetings & video calls seem to be Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.
I use all three depending on the client, but Zoom is far and away my favorite.
It’s a much slicker interface, has way more features that I need as a workshop facilitator (better breakouts, screen sharing, music, chat, etc) and I find the reliability and quality of the video and audio is just better.
Like so many things in TechLand, when one company focuses all their energy on just one problem (or product), it seems to turn out better.
Zoom is a great example. Despite probably billions that Google and Microsoft have spent on their video communication technologies, Zoom just does it better.
Calendly
Use it to simplify calendar management
I’m always looking for ways to save time, and Calendly saves me a lot of it.
Rather than back-and-forth email chains trying to schedule a meeting across multiple timezones, I rely on Calendly to display my availability and let anyone with my link book time directly with me.
I do still book meetings manually, or my assistant helps me, but I probably use Calendly 75% of the time these days.
🆕 ChatGPT
Use it for…everything?
Man, I love my little robot friends in ChatGPT. I brainstorm with them, ask them to write me better copy, generate event descriptions, summarize lengthy emails, create prompts I use in Midjourney, and the list goes on.
Earlier this year, Claire and I agreed that we would try and use ChatGPT every single day to better understand its potential. I now use it hmmm 80% of my days? and love it.
I even subscribed to ChatGPT Plus as an accountability mechanism to make sure I was really pushing myself to utilize this incredible technology.
Sidenote: Over the past month, I’ve been getting more into Google’s Bard and gotta say, it sometimes is better for me than ChatGPT. It’s interesting to give it the same prompts and see what it spits out. Bard is definitely better at some prompts.
Time Out
Use it to take mindful breaks, surf ultradian rhythms, and move ya body
I’ve written the past about the importance of taking breaks and I do really prioritize them during my days. I use this simple Mac timer to remind me every 20-25 min to rest my eyes and stretch, and every 90-120 min to take a real break in-line with my ultradian rhythms.
🆕 Typeform
Use it for more beautiful surveys and forms
To my point in the Zoom section above about one company focusing on one problem being better than the Big Tech approach, enter Typeform.
You thought Google Forms were good enough. Then you tried a Typeform.
While we haven’t totally left Google Forms, we’re now paying suscribers of Typeform and leaning more this tool. It makes surveys like 10% more joyful to complete and that makes a difference when it really is tough to get people to fill out feedback surveys.
Webflow
Use it for responsive and fast websites
The first version of my personal website was on Squarespace, which I think is still the best platform to get started on. I switched us to Webflow as I started to see some of the best sites out there using this platform.
I’m not a web designer or developer so I still struggle with the usability aspect, but I’m generally happy with our two sites at the moment: connorswenson.com and forgewell.co
Sidenote: Unlike other businesses, our online storefront is important but not essential. Most of our clients come through word-of-mouth and referrals, so while we try and maintain a decent standard for our websites, they get less than 10% of my attention in an average month.
Mentimeter
Use it for more engaging and interactive workshops & meetings
This is more for the workshop & facilitation side of my work. Mentimeter is a fantastic tool that I use in nearly every workshop to do polls, take questions, generate word clouts, vote on ideas, and more.
🆕 Otter.ai
Use it transcribe and summarize meetings & voice notes
This is a new tool I am experimenting with in my daily meetings. Otter has an AI-powered tool called OtterPilot that joins my meetings, records the content, and spits out a pretty accurate summary and transcription.
It’s pretty good at capturing action items and key points.
Additionally, I sometimes use it to record personal voice memos I record to capture my thoughts on an idea. Unlike Apple’s Voice Memos app, which I’ve used for years and still do, Otter creates an accurate transcription so then I can go back and rework the text and turn it into something more valuable.
🆕 AudioPen
Use it to convert rambling voice notes into coherent thoughts
This is an even newer tool I’m playing around with and loving. Basically you record a voice note, and AudioPen will take your ramblings and generate more coherent written paragraphs from it.
I use this when I have a rough idea that’s at a brainstorm phrase, but want a lower friction way to start clarifying it than sitting down to write about it. It’s pretty magical.
🛑 Todoist
I used Todoist as my task manager for the past 2-3 years, but now that we’ve centralized our workspace to Notion and built a task manager in there, I’ve sunset my usage of Todoist. Great app, just not one I need anymore.
🛑 Mailchimp
I’ve moved this newsletter twice now, first from Squarespace to Mailchimp, and then from Mailchimp to Substack. More on that switch here if you’re curious.
The Apps & Tools I Use In My Personal Life
Now many of the apps listed above also flow into my personal life as I don’t have such a black and white divide between work and life these days.
But I thought it might be useful to highlight a few apps I use primarily for personal use cases.
Spotify: music & entertainment podcasts
Apple Podcasts: educational podcasts
Readwise: book highlights and personal knowledge management
Readwise Reader: read-later for articles
Google Photos: photos and memory dividends
Evernote: personal notes and personal knowledge management
LastPass: password management
Bluelight Blocking Glasses: circadian rhythm protection
As with my business stack, this isn’t an exhaustive list, but I’ve tried to include the apps I consider to be my main go-tos.
Spotify
Use it for music and entertaining podcasts
Spotify is probably my most-used app in terms of actual hours spent. I listen to music every day, for most of the day. While I’m working, walking, cooking, etc.
I even curate little playlists of my favorite tunes, although I’ve really fallen off the bandwagon on this creative project (!!).
Here are some of those past goodies: crs vibes 14 // crs vibes 12 // crs vibes 10
This past year, I also started listening to more and more of my podcasts on Spotify. I find it much smoother and less bugg-y than Apple Podcasts.
One small personal customization is that I use Spotify for when I want to listen to a podcast for entertainment and Apple Podcasts when it’s for education.
Apple Podcasts
Use it for educational podcasts
I like having different spaces for different activities. I like to read in a different place than I work, for example.
I’ve been applying this personality quirk to my digital spaces as well.
When my intention is to learn from a podcast, I use Apple’s Podcast app.
When my intention is to be entertained, I use Spotify.
This also helps me pause before consuming content and be clear with my purpose.
Readwise
Use it to save notes while reading to my "second brain”
Readwise is a really cool app that allows me to sync up the highlights I make on my Kindle or scan highlights I make in a physical book and compile them in one place.
This is one of the biggest inflows of information into my own “second brain” which is essentially a personal store of all the knowledge and information I consume and that resonates with me.
This is such a helpful repository of information, and I rely on this when I’m creating courses or designing workshops.
I also subscribe to daily emails from Readwise that resurface highlights from books I’ve previously read, which is a great way to remember more of what I’ve read.
Here’s a Highlight from today:
But if you take away just one thing from this book, I hope it’s this: on the other side of deprioritizing work is prioritizing life. (Location 2,357)
Shoutout to
who I featured in OPW #86 about “The Good Enough Job” for supplying this little nugget of wisdom.Readwise Reader
Use it to save articles to read-later
This is a really important part of my overall approach to information consumption.
I used to get lost in all sorts of rabbit holes when I’d click an interesting article while scrolling my Twitter feed or reading the news, and feel like “I must read this NOW!”
These days, I time-shift almost all of my information consumption by using Readwise Reader. It saves articles, Tweets, even videos, to the app and syncs it across my devices.
Then, when I have some time that I want to devote to reading, I have a curated list of interesting things to choose from.
What’s fun is that when I come back to what I’ve saved, 50% or more is no longer interesting to me so I save a ton of time that would have been lost by reading it in the moment when it felt so compelling and interesting by time-shifting my consumption and eventually just discarding it.
Google Photos
Use it to save your photos and memories in the cloud
It’s been years since I switched my Apple’s Photos App to Google Photos, and I still love it. I keep all my personal photos backed up with Google, and whilst I do now pay for some personal Google storage so I can keep the higher-res versions of my photos, it’s still great value to store literally endless amounts of memories.
Evernote
Use it to take personal notes
I take a lot of notes and this is my digital notebook of choice. I track workouts here, write down on-the-go ideas that pop into my head, take notes on podcasts I enjoy, write down random lists of ideas, and much more.
Evernote is great as it’s fast and easy, is pretty reliable when offline, and just does what it’s supposed to.
LastPass
Use it for managing passwords and sensitive information
I’ve got what feels like a million passwords. Creating and memorizing unique passwords would be impossible. Using the same password would be dumb.
So I use LastPass to do this for me.
While I know that even password managers are vulnerable to attack, my read of the situation is that they are still more secure than alternatives.
Blue Light Blocking Glasses
Use them to avoid blue light in the evenings.
With all this tech, we gotta have some precautions to protect your most valuable asset: you.
While the jury is still out on how effective these glasses are from a scientific standpoint, I’ve been using them since February and I do notice a difference in the evenings.
I wear them from around 8-9pm onwards, and I think even as a signalling device to my bodymind that sleep is coming, they are helpful.
I really don’t have a brand recommendation for glasses yet. I bought a pair from Swanwick, which seem to be solid and better than the cheapies on Amazon. Some people seem to say Ra Optics are a good choice (if you’re in the US) and it’s also what the legendary Rick Rubin is wearing, as my friend
recently pointed out in his Substack.🛑 Oura
I used and enjoyed Oura for two years (Dec ‘20 - Nov ‘22) and did get some great insights and value from it.
For example, it helped me to see the impact of certain behaviors on my sleep (e.g. eating late at night) and that did shift behavior. It also showed me trends (e.g. drinking too much coffee on Thursdays to compensate for my fatigue from the work week) that allowed me to create more sustainable routines.
But the effectiveness wore off, and I didn’t like the low-key guilt and anxiety the sleep and readiness score gave, so I just stopped wearing it towards the end of last year.
🛑 Airr
I was using this podcast app for a couple of years because it allows you to save voice snippets from your favorite episdoes, which is a great feature. Unfortunately, it’s just been too buggy for me and after enough small irritations, I’ve given up on it and returned to Apple Podcasts and Spotify.🛑 Oura
I used and enjoyed Oura for two years (Dec ‘20 - Nov ‘22) and did get some great insights and value from it.
For example, it helped me to see the impact of certain behaviors on my sleep (e.g. eating late at night) and that did shift behavior. It also showed me trends (e.g. drinking too much coffee on Thursdays to compensate for my fatigue from the work week) that allowed me to create more sustainable routines.
But the effectiveness wore off, and I didn’t like the low-key guilt and anxiety the sleep and readiness score gave, so I just stopped wearing it towards the end of last year.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve read this far, I’m impressed. I honestly thought this would be a quick email and then spent 5+ hours writing it. Lol.
There is one caution I’d advise: try to avoid analysis paralysis when it comes to trying out new tech tools.
If you’re an optimizer like me, you can spend hours reading about the best newsletter platform, watching in-depth comparison videos on YouTube, and so on.
Sometimes that effort is worth it, but in my experience, it’s better to just choose one, give it a free trial, and see how it goes.
Productivity apps can often be one more distraction from the real thing so be aware of that as you tinker, test, and try out new stuff.
Thanks for reading!
Connor