Down to only two app subscriptions 👏🏻

My quest to minimize apps is finally paying off, literally; I’m down to only two app subscriptions, not counting Apple One. My two app subscriptions are:

  1. Ulysses
  2. 1Password

Annual total: $76

I could eliminate Ulysses leaving me only 1PW, which I consider best in class and worth it.

As to “needing” Ulysses, I’m on the fence.

Non-book writing

I’ve tested using Apple Pages to write blog posts and pasting them to the blog—it works perfectly fine. Pages also is sufficient for all of my personal and work related articles, communications, and presentations.

Book

I could finish my book with Pages, then export it to Word for my editor. The challenge is managing chapters. This is hard, though not impossible, with Pages. I’m going to experiment for a while before making a final decision. I currently have the text of the incomplete draft in both Ulysses and Pages so experimenting is not too hard or time consuming.

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To eliminate Ulysses have you considered iA Writer?

I’m also struggling with this, chasing all the productivity pr0n made me try a lot of useless things, fortunately I never committed to more than 1 month.

Right now I’m paying for Bear, DTTG, 1 Password and YNAB.

here are my subs:

1Password
iCloud+
Inoreader

These 3 services/softwares provide so much joy and productivity to me.

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You are an inspiration, @Bmosbacker!

My current subs:

  • Craft
  • Dropbox
  • iCloud+ 200gb
  • Fastmail
  • HEY
  • Readwise
  • 1Password
  • Backblaze
  • Apple Music
  • Letterboxd

Fastmail, Readwise, and Letterboxd might be on the chopping block.

I could probably save a lot of money if iCloud was more reliable because I would get Apple One and drop Dropbox. I’m trying to simplify subscriptions but I’m worried about the state of iCloud syncing.

What was your thought process in getting down to two app subscriptions? I’m impressed!

Yes, I have iA Writer and overall I like it. The problem for a book project is that managing chapters is difficult using plain text files. To keep them in order one has to number them and then change all of the numbers if one changes the order of a single chapter. For a long book, which mine is, that is tedious and a waste of time. That said, iA Writer works fine for all other writing needs but that is true for Pages as well.

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@Bmosbacker at one point I thought you were moving to Craft for your notes. Are you sticking with the free tier?

It is simple though getting there was not. I know that that sounds like a contradiction. Let me explain.

Reading this forum and listening to MPU, Connected, Apple Insider, and similar podcasts have been a two-edged sword.

On the one hand, I have learned a lot. I’m closing in on being a “power” user despite my lack of technical coding knowledge or interest in automation. And everyone on this forum has been accommodating and kind. As I’ve said before, this forum is what the internet ought to be.

On the other hand, reading and hearing about all of the latest and greatest apps, the advantages, and disadvantages of markdown, the power of OF, the beauty of Things, the “efficiency” of Keyboard Maestro and Shortcuts, the awesomeness of Craft, NotePlan, Obsidian, and more, has led me down rabbit holes. While rabbit holes can be fun and educational, they have resulted in lost productivity and cost me money.

Going down rabbit holes is entirely my fault. No one forced me to keep trying new apps or spend money on them.

While I’d never presume to speak for others, the fact is that for me, most of the touted apps and productivity systems are not necessary. I’ve concluded that I/we are in danger of making things far more complicated and expensive than necessary. Again, speaking only for myself, here is what I’ve concluded:

  1. The key to productivity is setting aside time to work on what needs to be done and being disciplined enough to do it consistently with minimal distraction. The tools, while important, are less critical than the dedicated work and time.
  2. We can accomplish most of our work with free or non-subscription apps. For example, I need:
  • a calendar (Apple Calendar)
  • a word processor/text editor (still working on this one)
  • a place to store and access files (Finder and Obsidian)
  • a mind map app and outliner (iThoughts and OmniOutliner)
  • note taking app (Apple Notes IF I can trust it with sync–but per my prior post, I’m not confident; I’m still wrestling with this. Notes is syncing perfectly and immediately now–I still have no idea how Apple fixed it). :man_shrugging:t3:
  • communication tools (Apple Mail, Messages, phone)
  • a project/task manager (Reminders)
  • a few specialized apps, e.g., password manager and possibly an app specifically designed to handle something like a book. Though even in this case, the “need” is questionable given that books have been written for thousands of years with everything from a quill pen to a typewriter.

Although I’ve been providentially blessed to afford as many subscriptions as I like, I am responsible for being a good steward of what I’ve been given. I’ve concluded that some subscriptions reflect good stewardship (1Password being an example), while others may be unnecessary and wasteful.

For my needs, most of the stock and non-subscription apps allow me to accomplish what I need to get done. They may or may not be as powerful or as beautiful as “app. x,” but they are sufficient for the tasks and, once mastered , are efficient. Generally speaking, the fewer apps, the more efficient we become with them.

So, aside from my struggle to decide on the app to finish my book (Ulysses, iA Writer, or Pages), I’ve settled on mostly stock and non-subscription apps.

As to Ulysses, it is a great app–I enjoy using it. But it is an intermediary app. First, I write the text and add my references to it. But, then the text must be sent to another app, e.g., Pages/Word, for final formatting and to correct conversion issues (Ulysses sometimes produces hyphenated words in the middle of sentences and incorrectly formats some footnotes when sent to Word).

That said, here is what is in my dock:

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What would you please Fastmail with?

I could not possibly “heart” this post hard enough.

As I’ve said before, this forum is what the internet ought to be.

Absolutely. The one other forum that I’ve found that I enjoy and is as welcome and helpful as this is The Samba for VW enthusiasts.

I’ve concluded that I/we are in danger of making things far more complicated and expensive than necessary.

Oh man is this the truth. This is why I’ve stopped using Keyboard Maestro, why I don’t have a text expander, why I don’t have an alternative launcher like Alfred or Raycast. (Or LaunchBar or Quicksilver, etc…) Simplicity is the key, being able to tune out everything else and focus on the work in front of you.

The key to productivity is setting aside time to work on what needs to be done and being disciplined enough to do it consistently with minimal distraction. The tools, while important, are less critical than the dedicated work and time.

:100:

They may or may not be as powerful or as beautiful as “app. x,” but they are sufficient for the tasks and, once mastered , are efficient. Generally speaking, the fewer apps, the more efficient we become with them.

No task manager in the world will help if you decide not to look at it. No notes system will help you stay organized if you don’t put time and thought into making sense of the information contained within.

Overall, this forum and Apple “stuff” in general is a fun hobby, a diversion when I need to let my mind rest for a bit.

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It is fascinating to read threads like this and watch people evolve in their usage of the Mac and in the apps they choose, sometimes involving strong emotion.

Perhaps someone can identify “The Five Stages of Productivity” as Kubler-Ross did for the stages of death (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). :slightly_smiling_face:

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I think I would call that step “Despair.” :rofl:

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Never. I spent over 20 years with Windows and PCs. In fact, I would venture to say that I was more of a power user of Windows and PCs then I currently am of the Mac. Windows is perfectly adequate, but the overall experience and most of the hardware is subpar compared to Mac and Apple hardware. That said, aside from being cluttered, Microsoft makes best in class software for business use.

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That seems definitive … so, how many MPU forum members will not be surprised by a post in the coming days from @Bmosbacker entitled, “Why I’m Switching Back to a PC?” :rofl:

Well, I admit I’ve done a lot of app switching but only within a relative small group of apps. I am confident in saying I’ll never go back to Windows. :joy:

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Yes, but adequate. I stated above that they could be subpar. :wink:

I find it useful to distinguish between apps and services when it comes to categorizing subscriptions.

The only app subscription I have is Drafts Pro, which I’m not planning to renew this year as I don’t require the Pro features for my usage.

Services I subscribe to include Apple One, Backblaze, and Fastmail.

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That is a fair observation, but two things I would note:

  1. I did not say exclusively free apps, I said subscription free apps. :slight_smile:

  2. While I have certainly struggled to find the right mix of apps, (I believe I’m in pretty good company on that score in this forum) I have done so within a relatively narrow group of apps, and I have found myself coming back around to where I started - subscription free, as well as default apps. :wink:

The problem I had with Apple Notes was not of my own doing, it was an Apple issue that developed unexpectedly pretty much after I’d settled on my apps of choice. That has now been resolved, and as I said above, I have no idea how. Apple Notes is syncing immediately and reliably. My issue at the moment is, can I trust AN to continue doing so. I do not know yet.

I’ll have one other mitigating factor in my “defense”. :blush: I accidentally allowed my Craft subscription to expire because I never received a notification that it was about to expire or needed to be renewed. I suspect that is because it is set up as an educational discount. Given that the subscription had expired. I decided not to renew it and see if I can in fact, stay with Apple Notes as I had originally planned.

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I’m really on a fence here. I will keep my Mac hardware (MacBook Air, Mac mini - can’t beat the hardware) but I think I’m going to head to M365 for my productivity. So that will be a subscription, eventually, of AUD100/yr. It isn’t for the foreseeable future because of where I work and my tenure.

I’m also not using my iPad Mini 6 with Apple pencil 2 how I thought I might, so they are for sale I sold them.

The main reason for this quandary is this …

And I just want to write, take notes, add tasks and reminders and take my stuff with me. If I choose Ulysses, I can’t use it at work, neither Omnifocus or Things.

My workplace has locked down iCloud (again), yet Evernote and Google remain fully open. :man_shrugging:

MS keeps adding features to their suite, which I won’t have access to if I leave the business suite, but the updates to Teams, OneNote and the all encompassing Excel are enough for my needs. Not a fan of Word but I mostly write in OneNote anyway and Word only when writing missives for Execs.

Kinda weird stage in my software life but MS prevents me from swapping apps left right and centre because of the lack of alternatives (no suggestions please! :wink:) and, with OneDrive, I have everything I need anywhere I am.

(okay, I’ll see myself out, perhaps literally! :rofl:)

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@Bill_Aus that was an enjoyable read. The practical mixed with humor, I like it. :blush:

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I’m down to 1Password (for families because it makes my life that much easier) and Drafts when it comes to subscriptions.

I’m not in love with Drafts, but when it comes to composing something quickly and sending it to my blog, which is now on GitHub, it’s just so easy. But, honestly, I’ve done this just as often by clicking on a shortcut in a Finder window to the directory and composing in Typora or VS Code.

I admire your loyalty to Ulysses, Bmosbacker, but when I write long essays and books, I’m doing that in Scrivener. No alternative to my mind in terms of ease of use both in composing and structuring. I don’t keep as much research in there as I used to, preferring to let Devonthink and/or Bookends handle such things, but, Scrivener is such a pleasure to work in. Full stop.

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