Being productive on the run

It’s not easy to be productive when I’m away from my desk. Over the years I gathered some tools and solutions to most common productivity woes.

Catch literally everything with a task manager

I use a mix of iOS Reminders and Things3 app as my task manager. When I am on the run, and idea strikes, I simply ask Siri to save a reminder, or type it myself on the phone keyboard.

It’s an amazing comfort, not to waste mental capacity on remembering things.

Journalling tools

There are two journals I keep, both digital: a morning hand-written organizer note in Notability, and short day summary of the day saved in DayGram.

Organizer note helps me keep the focus, and integrate muscle memory into my day: I note everything in the morning, and can revisit it during the day.

Evening journal entry is a way to reconcile with the day, in my own words document how I felt about my progress, and how I felt in general.

Smart tools for note-taking

There are several tools I use for note-taking during the day. All of them are installed in my iPad Pro (with Apple Pencil): Notability for handwritten notes and drawings, iOS Notes for snippets, iA Writer for texts.

Using applications in this way helps me compartmentalize bits of informations, and keep them focused.

Programming on the go

Since few years I don’t keep a personal laptop with me, because... I don’t need it. I have a stationary computer at home, and for emergencies on the go I have my... iPad.

There are several tools that I use in order to be able to develop on the go: Working Copy for git access, and code editing, Blink for remote ssh/mosh access to the developer server, Ergo Web Tools for testing and console access.

In a way, that makes my iPad a perfect little developer machine (keeping in mind I still need to have a remote developer server, which is not that hard to maintain with DigitalOcean or just a mini RaspberryPi!)

Design, photography, videography

There are many good mobile solutions for designers and photographers, but I feel most _at home_ with Affinity by Serif software.

Affinity Photo is basically a Photoshop replacement, and I use is for more advanced edits. For the simple ones, like Instagram posts, I use Snapseed. I have a series of tutorials on how to use it to achieve professional looks in planning, so stay tuned!

Affinity Designer is an amazing UI/UX tool, among many other uses. It’s a creative powerhouse! I use it to design websites, and decompose them into exportable assets and slices.

LumaFusion is a professional video editor and composition tool, allowing up to 3 4K video sources at the same time!

To manage my custom fonts on the go, I use AnyFont, making it a breeze to use custom fonts on the iOS devices.

Ending words

It’s not hard to be productive on the go, as long as you accept the limitations, and keep focused on the “can-do” instead of “cannot dos”!

The most important thing to remember is: keep focused. You can achieve everything, as long as you keep your eyes on the goal!