I use a lot of software. It is a ubiquitous part of our lives. I am trying out new apps or learning the ones I have. Next year I imagine this list will have changed because software and devices that run software are constantly evolving.
My business runs on software. Here is a quick glance at the software which helps run my business. I don’t go into the industry specific software I use like Portfolio Center Hosted or services like Finametrica because that is going to be a later post. I use a lot of software. It is an ubiquitous part of our lives.
The Essential Software toolkit:
Start with the web browser and it would be Chrome. It gives me seamless functionality across all my devices and locations. I have access to all my contacts information, email, and the internet. With the office migrating everything to the Cloud, it has become essential to have the most functional browser and that is currently Chrome with Firefox a close second. That’s it. I could run 95% of my business from the internet.
The Core Desktop Toolkit:
I currently use Microsoft Office as it is the standard worldwide for documents and spreadsheets. Adobe Acrobat Pro is used for creating, editing and publishing PDF files. GIMP is an open source image manipulation program that I am learning to use for the images you see on the website. There is a snipping tool that comes with Windows 8 that is great for grabbing a quick image from the desktop or web. Evernote is great for keeping track of notes across all devices and Picasa is great for organizing photos.
The Mobile Apps Toolkit:
Chrome & Evernote have been mentioned already and the others bits I use include: my TO DO list is currently Wunderlist,Camera Awesome for Photos, Wolfram Alpha for math, and WordPress for updating the website. Calendar and contacts all sync across devices. Also, Capture Notes which is impressive in its functionality. I use it mostly at conferences where it will record the audio of a presentation while I can take notes on the screen and add in sticky notes for when I need to do something or reference something later and it ties it into the audio portion of the presentation.
The Life Hack Toolkit:
The Fitbit Ultra and Fitbit app along with Runkeeper for keeping track of my fitness and activity levels. Grocery IQ which syncs with my wife’s mobile devices to keep the grocery list up to date. Starbucks app for finding a clean restroom on the road along with replenishing my caffeine levels. Music is iTunes, Spotify, and Pandora.
This post is part of a series modeled on the popular How I Work series on Lifehacker.com