Timeless apps I can’t use my Mac without
A few well-crafted utilities that have been quietly buying me back time for years. Pretty sure I will still be using all of these in five years.
A color picker that works everywhere
As soon as I got serious about design, I started grabbing colors from everywhere — palette generators, references, specs. From the browser, Figma, Word, a video player, Photoshop, a game you launched… you name it.
To keep the flow, I installed a system-wide eyedropper. Hit a hotkey, point at any color on screen, paste the HEX where it belongs. It’s clean, stays out of the way until you invoke it, and plays nicely with macOS.
Bought it in 2018 and never looked back.
Copy and paste but on steroids
Heard this trick years ago on on my favourite Apple-nerd podcast. Their pitch was simple:
You copy/paste tons of stuff all day — links, names, IDs, numbers, pics/screenshots — and sometimes it really saves your bacon to be able to go back and see the history of it all.
When you’re collecting bits — links, names, numbers, pictures, screenshots to paste, etc. — you usually don’t want (or can’t even get) one big blob. You want separate items in a specific order.
Copy → swipe to switch apps → paste → swipe back… treadmill is annoying.
The fix is a rolling clipboard history — jump back to anything you’ve copied and re-copy it with a shortcut — or go full batch mode: copy, copy, copy with ⌘C, then paste, paste, paste with ⌘⌃V in sequence. Less context switching and hands stay on the keyboard.
I’ve used Pastebot for years for exactly this. And for the digital-security nerds — you can blacklist password managers (or any app), so sensitive info never hits history. After a week of using it, a Mac without it feels broken.
An actually fun window manager
Swish is a unique window manager for macOS. Forget moving the cursor — or worse, memorising window-moving shortcuts (eww) — you use simple gestures to fling, resize, and arrange windows across one or multiple desktops in seconds.
Pinch to go full screen, two-finger double-tap to centre, Control + two-finger swipe to move between desktops, etc. I’ve never used a window manager that feels more native and intuitive. I basically can’t start working until I’ve two-finger double-tapped every window so it’s perfectly centred.
A to-do app you’ll love for the rest of your life
Things 3 has sat at the top of a brutally crowded category for ~10 years without chasing every trend. Why? It knows the ins and outs of how we actually manage life — and it does the “last 20%” of polish most big companies won’t ever prioritise.
A to-do app has one job: remind you and gently reduce procrastination. The lighter and more pleasant the interface, the more you want to tick boxes. Things 3 nails this — every interaction is thoroughly considered. It’s the app for minimalist designers.
Sure, there are a trillion options that look more feature-rich/cheaper/more modern. But Things 3 stays the dream app for people into GTD and quality over quantity. My dream is to make products like that.
Bonus
Check your hair before the call
Not quite a time saver, but a dignity saver. Since COVID started, I tap Hand Mirror in the menu bar before every meeting so I can see if I still look half-decent or have to be slightly late (lol).
Made by Rafael Conde — a great product designer & Layout podcast co-host. Since launch, he’s been cranking out small quality-of-life touches — detachable window, mirroring toggle, virtual-camera support — and “it just works”.