Happy Tuesday!
As usual, let's start off with my progress for week 2 of the second quarter of my 2025 Consistency Challenge project:
- I deleted 52 files comprising ~8 GB (not much this time around)
- I sorted 38,069 files comprising ~66 GB
My overall progress crept upwards from 15% to 16%, which does not put me on track to finish by the end of the quarter. I need to step things up a bit. 😬
I hope at least some of you are making a dent in your own goals. I'd love to hear from more of you about whatever you happen to be working on and how it's going.
Finding the Right Tools
We have to manage some disruptive flooring work being done at home this week. To save time, today I just want to point out a relevant and useful website I learned about recently that is, quite frankly, awesome.
I made a comment in passing last week about using good tools to help manage the flow of information in your lives: "Look for tools that are made to streamline the work (or fun!) you want to do, then practice using those tools as designed to accomplish your goals."
But what if you don't know how to do the first part? Where do you go to look for tools that might be a good fit for your digital data management needs?
While some of us might be adept at using popular search engines for this purpose, many don't feel so confident. And even if you could manage your own search from a generic starting point like Google or Kagi, or even a new AI-powered research tool like Perplexity, what if there was a more efficient way?
Ladies and gentleman, I'd like to present the aptly named Tool Finder website:
This is a curated collection of well-known (and many not-so-well-known) programs and online applications covering a wide variety of topics, including calendars, to-do lists, note-taking apps, project management tools, habit trackers, and dozens more. The site has 786 (!) apps as of the time of this writing.
Rather than only providing a boring list with a few summaries, the database of tools provides many ways to search and filter not only by category but also cost, platform support, integration options, popularity, and other attributes. You can even use natural language to search for whatever combination you want, like "task manager for under $10/month for Mac."
Even better, most tools also have review videos made by the guy who runs the site, plus a collection of real (and apparently non-astroturfed) written reviews by actual users. For example, check out this collection of reviews of Amazing Marvin, a task management app that is as customizable for that purpose as Obsidian is for note-taking.
This is the kind of site that's worth bookmarking, and I don't say that lightly. It's just that good.
(Tool Finder is free for visitors like you and me; they make money by using affiliate links for outgoing clicks to the actual tools. This is a great model for all involved, since any sign-ups they generate result in a small kickback for them without increasing the price for the user.)
I would caution you against actually installing a zillion tools at the same time, as tempting as that might be for some (since I know it is for me...shiny object syndrome in the digital world is certainly real). Instead, think of Tool Finder as a research tool that does a bunch of legwork for you, giving you a one-stop shop for showcasing the functionality and aesthetics of many things that might be valuable to you. It's a great way to learn what tools exist, how they work, and how other people like them for their workflows.
Are there any specific tools or general categories of tools you'd like to know more about? Let me know! In addition to whatever you might find on Tool Finder, I'd love to provide feedback on anything I've used personally.
Have a great week, and happy data-taming!