João's portrait

Software I use, gadgets I love, and other things I recommend.

I get asked a lot about the things I use to build software, stay productive, or buy to fool myself into thinking I’m being productive when I’m really just procrastinating. Here’s a big list of all of my favorite stuff.

Workstation

  • 14” MacBook Pro, M1 Pro, 16GB RAM (2021)

    I used to use a 16-inch Macbook Pro, with an i9 and 32GB RAM. The change was huge. I never had to worry about high processor temperatures in my notebook again. I never had any processing problems with my old laptop, but the M1 Pro has also always performed with complete ease.

  • Husky Tempest 34” display

    This monitor has been a game changer for my productivity. Having the fluidity of 144hz, the 2K QH resolution and the ultra-wide workspace gain are points that I never give up in my office. Having space to work with multiple tools is a nice productivity gain.

  • Keychron K3 Ultra-slim Wireless Mechanical Keyboard (Version 2)

    I have tested many keyboards during the past years, aiming at both gaming and work. The Keychron K3 V2 was the one that delighted me the most. The tactile and sonic feel of the mechanical keys, plus its small size and lighting are the main factors that have kept me using it for years.

  • G703 LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Mouse

    I love the freedom of using a wireless mouse. The Logitech G703 gives me that freedom, along with the absence of delay, extremely durable battery, very comfortable hand fitting for long hours of work. I have had this mouse for a few years now and have never had any problems with it.

  • Baseus: Monitor light bar

    I never thought that a monitor light fixture would help me so much. By being able to regulate the temperature of the white light along with the intensity, I can perfectly adjust the lighting at my workstation according to the time of day and have my eyesight be much less tired by the end of the day.

Development tools

  • VS Code

    The best IDE I have ever used. I have many extensions to improve my productivity in the projects I work on. I can program in several languages, back-end, front-end or mobile projects. VS Code is my favorite.

  • Warp

    Warp has a very clean and simple interface. I love the fact that it is built around boxes, it is much easier to control and manage the results of executed commands. On top of all this it is very light, performant, and has assistance with artificial intelligence for your commands. Don't know a command to perform X action? Ask the AI!

  • DBeaver Community Edition

    Free and very complete solution for my day-to-day work with databases. I confess that I started using DBeaver again recently. Before I used DataGrip, which remains my all-time favorite.

  • Postman

    The best tool to handle restful APIs. I have several collections in my Postman. It is very easy to work as a team, share collections and keep several APIs properly organized.

  • Arc

    Arc is the best browser I have ever used. It reinvents the way we use the internet and dramatically increases my productivity and privacy.

  • OrbStack

    OrbStack is the fast, light, and easy way to run Docker containers and Linux.

Design

  • Figma

    Figma is the tool I use for prototyping, drawing ideas and documenting design systems for my projects.

  • Pixelmator Pro

    I don't know much about photo editing, but this tool has great tutorials and amazing support, including AI to edit and optimize your images.

  • TailwindUI

    I decided to buy TailwindUI for speed in my personal projects. It helped me a lot to focus on other more crucial points and have a very high speed in the development of interfaces, always responsive and accessible.

  • CleanShot X

    CleanShot X is a very complete tool for taking screenshots and recording videos. It has several features that make my life easier, such as the ability to take screenshots of specific windows, highlight specific areas of the screen, record the screen, and much more.

  • Screen Studio

    Screen Studio is the tool I use to record my screen when I need to record a high quality video.

Productivity

  • Raycast

    Simply amazing. I fell in love with the tool from the first moment I used it. Raycast allows me to customize many things, greatly increasing my productivity. I use Raycast so much in my routine that I contributed to the open-source community script repository, as I ended up creating my own script to generate authentication tokens using Firebase.

  • 1Password

    I am a person who is very concerned about safety. So I already add up my 250+ credentials in 1Password properly secured.

  • Notion

    Notion has become the main platform I use in my day. In it, I keep notes of studies, of routine, of ideas, of everything. I also use Notion to document my company's knowledge base.

  • Spark Mail

    Spark is my favorite e-mail client. It supports all my email addresses and has a great built-in AI to help me organize my inboxes.

  • Cron

    Cron is a desktop calendar application. I'm really enjoying the super accessible usability, with many shortcuts, very fluid and complete for my everyday life. Cron was acquired by Notion... I don't think that needs much comment.

  • Todoist

    Todoist is my favorite task manager. I have been using it for months and I have never had any problems. I have several projects, with several tasks, and I can manage everything perfectly.