April Showers
The weather has been rainy, windy, and cold for the last few weeks so I have spent more time than normal around a computer thinking about productivity tools, so I decided to focus on those this week.
Apps I’m using
Nativefier turns any web page into a desktop application. I use this tool for any website that I have to visit daily and that I need to quickly navigate to using ⌘-tab.
I use Nativefier for Toggl (previously Harvest previously Freckle), Buffer, Gmail, Trello, Mastodon, and for several Django applications that I wrote that I want quick access too. Again, if I use a website several times a day, every day, then I create an application for it.
Nativefier does require some setup and configuration to roll your own client, but I found their documentation to be straightforward and easy to follow. Getting the application badge images just write took some trial and error though.
Nativefier is free and also open source.
Apps I’m using
WebCatalog is another native client for any website similar to Nativefier. WebCatalog is more user-friendly and comes with pre-built clients for many common websites. Creating new applications is much quicker than Nativefier and everything can be created using their UI.
WebCatalog clients are much smaller than Nativefier and the clients are always up to date.
WebCatalog is free and also open source.
Apps I’m using for Trello
I recently graduated from Nativefier to Paws for Trello which I absolutely love. Paws is a beautiful Trello client for Mac and Windows which supports native notifications and multiple windows. I missed not having tabs with Paws until I realized I could have multiple windows which are really handy.
Paws is only $2.99 in the Mac App Store which to me is a deal.
I look forward to seeing this team join Trello some day because the app is that good.
Apps I’m using for Gmail
Kiwi for Gmail is my go to for managing multiple Gmail and Google Apps accounts. If you have more than one Google Account then you’ll appreciate how easy Kiwi makes this normally frustrating process. I’m honestly not sure how people manage without Kiwi.
Kiwi even has Boomerang support which I find to be as useful as the Kiwi client.
Kiwi has a free Lite Version which will give you a taste for the experience is like. The Full Version is $9.99 in the Mac App Store and well worth every penny.
Service I’m using
Tiny Reminder is great service for solving the problem of “I need (something) from (busy client) by (date).”
Even if you don’t work with clients, Tiny Reminder is an excellent way to let someone know exactly what you need and when you need it while outsourcing the reminders.
Thanks to Heather Luna 
for advice on and corrections to a draft of this article. She’s amazing.