The Productivity Stack: Apps and Tools We Actually Use Every Day (TPS614)

Discover the real-world productivity stack the Asian Efficiency team relies on daily. We move beyond the hype to explore how tools should support your systems, not create overhead. Learn our criteria for choosing apps by role, when simple tools beat complex ones, and our specific recommendations for capture, task management, calendars, and automation. Whether you're looking to audit your setup or simplify your workflow, this episode provides concrete examples of what works, what we abandoned, and how to build a stack that supports your time, energy, and attention.

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Listen to this episode (MP3)

Cheat Sheet

🎙 Top 3 Productivity Resources 2:29

🦖 The first category of apps about to be replaced by your AI chat window 7:17

🔌 The hidden feature that decides which apps survive the AI era 10:44

⚡ The boring task an Atlassian button quietly killed for Brooks 14:26

🧠 Brooks’s surprising “central hub” for everything he does — and it isn’t his task manager 20:52

📊 Why Thanh ditched his task app for a spreadsheet (and let agents work the board) 25:37

🧮 The beautiful little app Thanh thinks AI is about to eat 30:55

🔑 The password manager trick that lets AI agents log in for you 35:48

🛠 The “tried and true” apps still earning their place after the AI takeover 37:32

🪣 The drag-and-drop trick that ended Brooks’s AppleScript problem for good 45:12

🤖 Why Codex might be a quietly great choice for desktop automation 47:43

💭 The apps we’d build tomorrow if we had a free weekend 50:39

🚀 Inside the “mission control” dashboard Thanh built to fire off agents with one click 51:57

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