Staying Organized, Maximizing Productivity, and Streamlining Workflows

📝 Note

Table of Contents

Introduction

As a productivity enthusiast and a tech-savvy person, I always look for ways to optimize my workflow and increase my productivity. Recently, I have discovered several new tools that have dramatically impacted my workflow, day-to-day productivity, and overall organization/life management. We’ll start with talking about some general tools before looking at some tools that are more specifically designed for composers/producer.

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Raycast

I originally installed Raycast to solve some Spotlight indexing issues, and then I quickly realized there is so much more it can do. Raycast (free) and Raycast Pro are like the Mac Spotlight search app, but so much more! You can launch apps, complete tasks, calculate complex equations, share common links, and install extensions to add even deeper control and integration with the apps you use every day. The Pro version adds Chat-GPT as your personal assistant for things like asking questions, drafting emails, or translating text.

Some of my favorite features are:

Here is a link to the Raycast Manual.

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Arc Browser

Arc Browser is an internet browser designed to increase productivity and streamline workflow. Some of my favorite features include:

https://arc.net/gift/3e36e830

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Toggl Track

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Toggl Track is a time-tracking app that aids productivity by monitoring work hours and identifying efficiency patterns. It features one-click timers for easy task tracking and provides detailed reports of time spent on tasks, which is useful for understanding work trends or calculating billable hours. It’s versatile, with support for web, desktop, and mobile platforms (iOS and Android).

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Notion

Notion serves as my foundation for constructing and managing my “Second Brain,” a term and concept coined by Tiago Forte. A “Second Brain” is a digitally-aided extension of our biological cognition, offering an external space for storing and organizing ideas, notes, and tasks. The aim is to minimize cognitive load through the effective use of technology for daily information management. Applying Forte’s PARA Method to this external, organized “brain” can fortify creative thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving by converting accumulated knowledge into actionable insights.

The PARA Method

Forte’s PARA method forms a robust structure for organizing information. The acronym stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives.

Projects: consist of ongoing tasks with a definitive endpoint. Once the objectives are accomplished, the project is deemed complete, such as ‘Composing the soundtrack for film X’ or ‘Designing sound effects for game Y’.
Areas: represent constant aspects of life or work in need of routine maintenance and care, unlike projects. An area could be ‘Musical Skill Development’ or ‘Software & Equipment Maintenance’.
Resources: serve as topic-focused reference materials and can be a collection of documents, notes, or links, such as ‘Sound Design Theory’ or ‘Music Composition Techniques.’
Archives: are completed or inactive items from the other three categories. This is a storage hub for completed, inactive, or seldom-accessed files.

My Organizational Method

Although my Notion isn’t flawlessly organized, I’ve devised a few systems and structures to maintain general orderliness. Nearly everything is structured in a Database, often presented on a Page dedicated to that specific database or unifying several related information segments.

Page: Resembles a website or document.
Database: A collection of pages, all sharing a uniform set of Properties.
Properties: Shared attributes common amongst all items in a database, such as creation date, associated projects or people, status, tags, and more.

In Notion, I use a system of pages and databases to primarily organize my content into four central databases: Projects, People, Tasks, and Resources.

I then establish Relationships among databases to track connections, such as which People are involved with which Projects, as well as the related Tasks and Resources. Relationships play a pivotal role in creating a “Second Brain”, augmenting the utility of Notion and other similar tools.

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TouchOSC

TouchOSC, by Hexler, is a versatile MIDI and OSC (Open Sound Control) mobile application that functions as a customizable modular interface for manipulating software and hardware like sound systems and lighting. It enables users to design personal layouts with control elements for interactive use, supports wireless and USB connections for sending and receiving MIDI/OSC data, and provides real-time feedback from the controlled equipment. With compatibility across various platforms, including Android, iOS, and dedicated software like TouchOSC Bridge, it serves as an effective tool for DJs, VJs, producers, lighting technicians, musicians, and digital creators who require a tailor-made control interface.

TouchOSC Online User Manual

TouchOSC

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Metagrid

Metagrid by Metasystem.io is a customizable touchscreen interface app designed to streamline your workflow in creative applications. It allows you to create custom sets of buttons with assignable actions from a wide variety of professional software tools, enabling users to control and automate complex tasks with the touch of a button.

Key features include:

Extensive support for various professional software like Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and many more.
UI customization allows you to design your ideal control interface.
Support for multi-touch and gestures for more complex commands.
Ability to switch between different views for different tasks, expanding the range of controls available at any one time.
Wireless connectivity for greater flexibility.

With Metagrid, you can significantly speed up and simplify your workflow in creativity and productivity software, making it a valuable tool for professionals in areas like music production, graphic design, video editing, and more.

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PlugSearch 3

Specific to Logic Pro, PlugSearch 3 speeds up the process of finding, adding, removing, and managing plugins in Logic.

For version 3.4, Speakerfood, the makers of PlugSearch, teamed up with MetaSystems and Babylonwaves to introduce a cutting-edge Articulation switching solution for Logic Pro that allows you to automatically view and switch between the available articulation on the currently selected track via Metragrid Pro.

Logic users you might also wanna checkout Auto Bounce for speeding up your stem and mix export process:

Auto-Bounce - Automate Stems and Mixes for Logic Pro

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Keyboard Maestro

Keyboard Maestro is a powerful productivity software for Mac OS that allows users to automate tasks. With Keyboard Maestro, users can design their custom macros that are activated using various triggers like keypress, mouse click, script or even a web event. Actions in Keyboard Maestro can range from simple actions like opening web pages, inserting text, selecting menu items, opening or closing apps, to more complex ones like looping, conditionals, manipulations of windows or clipboards and more.

Some key features of Keyboard Maestro include:

Smooth automation of common actions, reducing repetitive tasks.
Customizable keyboard shortcuts for almost any action.
Powerful scripting with a variety of languages including Applescript, Shell script, Javascript and Swift.
Managing clipboard history for ease of access to copied items.
Ability to control applications, windows, menus, and system functions.

In essence, Keyboard Maestro aims to make your Mac work more efficiently by automating tedious tasks and boosting productivity.

Here is an example of using Keyboard Maestro to speed up typical tasks in Cubase.