Over the years, I have worked with a long list of tools that helped me build my business. Here are my favorite ones.
To-do List apps
TickTick
My current To-Do list app is TickTick. It offers all the functionality I need and has some awesome extra options. Here are the ones that I use the most:
- Organize tasks in lists
- Organize lists in folders
- Add sub-tasks
- Even add notes to your tasks (with editing)
- Calendar Integration
Amazing Marvin
Before I switched to TickTick, I used Amazing Marvin (affiliate link). The name says it all: Marvin is really amazing! So why did I switch? Well, Marvin offered too many options I didn’t use, so I looked for something more simple. So, realize that Amazing Marvin offers a lot more than just this:
- Calendar Integration
- Lists and sublists
- Sub-tasks
- Projects
- GTD- and other workflows
Reminders (Mac)
The default Reminders app on Mac is actually pretty good, and with the recent update that makes it possible to add sub-tasks, it’s even better.
Still, this app lacks some of the functionality I want, so this is not my favorite.
Outlook
Not many people use the tasks functionality in Outlook, even though it has been there for as long as I can remember. Maybe it’s because the original task list was a nightmare from a visual point of view. But with the To-Do bar on the right side, it got a lot better.
Paper
Okay, now let’s be honest: I love writing on paper. There’s just nothing like it in the whole world. So, I always keep a notebook and pen next to my laptop. My favorite notebooks are the ones with the Atoma system, which enables you to flip out pages and put them back in a different place.
Note-taking Apps And Tools
Note-taking is so important for any entrepreneur! You need it to catch all your ideas, stay up-to-date during a meeting, or research the topics you are writing about.
Notion
I just like the way Notion looks. It’s awesome for all of the things I listed here and a lot more. I use it a lot for writing and research, for which I have created a database. And of course this is also the place where I write and design my online courses. All my notes can be found in Notion.
OneNote
When I was still working on a Windows machine, my place for all those notes, research and writings was OneNote. With its sections, subsections, pages and subpages there are more than enough ways to organize everything.
One of the things I really loved about OneNote are the colored tabs and the way it reflects a paper notebook.
Also, the connection to Outlook (and recently the Copilot feature) makes this a great note-taking app for Windows lovers. By the way, it’s also available on Mac.
Website and Stuff
Having a business means having a website. So here are my favorite tools for maintaining mine.
WordPress
My first website was written in HTML, and I maintained it myself (making webpages in a Word document !). A few years and several tools later, WordPress became my go-to CMS.
No need to build extra tools, just choose a good template, install a WordPress plugin if you need extra functionality (some paid), and you are good to go.
Hostinger
Instead of paying separately for each domain + website, I switched to a web hosting plan that allows me to host multiple websites. Hostinger (affiliate link) offers me everything I need, including a pretty good chatbot that helps me with almost all of my questions.
Stay on the lookout for a deal around Black Friday and lock in a price for a few years, and you can set up multiple sites for as little as $50 a year (domains excluded).
Financial
Being an Excel expert, I started out with keeping my books in a spreadsheet. I wanted to write ‘simple spreadsheet’, but the truth is – it wasn’t simple anymore.
Moneybird
After trying something else first (don’t even remember what tool it was), I stumbled across Moneybird (affiliate link). Seamless bookkeeping, sending invoices, and lots of automation make business a lot easier.
From Dutch origin, Moneybird offers an online accounting tool for entrepreneurs in 14 European countries.