the toolkit

a collection of toys to superpower artists, athletes, and entrepreneurs

As many of you know, I’m currently juggling a ~50-hr/week in-person internship in SF while enrolled in 18 units at Berkeley. I am pretty busy. To optimize my productivity, health, and focus, I employ a collection of tools that I’d like to share with you.

This list, and many of the tools in it, were inspired by Maxx Yung – a good friend of mine and fellow Senior Researcher at Contrary. Check out his List of Productivity Apps and the rest of his writings.

If there’s anything in addition to the below list that I should try, please let me know :)

Essentials

Browser: Comet (after trying Dia, Arc, Chrome)

Default AI Assistant: Claude Pro (superior writing)

Email: Superhuman Business* (FAST)

Calendar: Google Calendar (irreplaceable)

Blog: Substack (highest-signal app one can have on their phone)

Voice Dictation: Wispr* (duh)

* free month using link :)

Productivity

Personal Notes: Apple Notes (after trying Obsidian, Notion)

Brainstorming: Pen (from Jua) + Notebook (from 8VC)

To-Do’s: Subspace

Collaborative Notes: Notion

External Notes / Projects: Google Docs

Deep Research: Grok & Perplexity Pro

Image Editing: Gemini Nanobanana

Image Generation: ChatGPT

Meeting Notetaker: Granola

Messaging Aggregator: Beeper

Wireframing: Excalidraw (Lo-Fi) + Canva (Mid-Fi) + v0 & Lovable (Hi-Fi)

Flowcharts: Lucidchart

IDE: Cursor

Calendar Bookings: Cal.com

CRM: Lightfield

PRM: Dex* (Organization & Tracking) + Attio (Enrichment)

Hardware

Mouse – Logitech MX Master 3S + Logitech MX Vertical

Keyboard – Keychron Q11 Split (Red Switch)

Headphones – Airpods Max + Bose QC Ultra

Earbuds – Airpods Pro 2

Power bank: Anker MagGo

Water bottle – Kinto Travel Tumbler 500mL

Supplements

Strength

• Creatine

• Ashwagandha

Sleep

• L-Theanine

• Magnesium Glycinate

• GABA

• Lemon Balm

• (Blackout Curtains, Earplugs, BedJet, Lavender Essential Oil)

Brain

• Triple Strength Omega 3 Fish Oil (1500mg EPA, 570mg DHA, 50mg DPA)

• KSM-66 Ashwagandha

Body (bones, muscles, nerves, bloodflow)

• D3

• K2

• C

• Calcium / Magnesium / Zinc

• Manuka Honey

For Fun

Fitness: Apple Watch SE + Strava

Food: Beli

Translation: DeepL

Personal Finance: Copilot

Gambling: Robinhood, Coinbase, Phantom, Kalshi, Polymarket

Flights Search: Google Flights (Cash) + Roame, PointsYeah (Points/Miles)

Credit Card Management: coming soon…