In addition to the workflow I shared previously here, I have drastically reduced the number of apps and utilities that load and run. This keeps things running extremely fast and extends battery life even further on my M1 MBP.
Preloaded Apps:
Menu Bar-utilities:
I aspire for this. 
I also decided (and I freely admit I’ve been of two minds on this) to drop the Fantastical and Carrot weather subscriptions. This was my original position but then I changed my mind after Carrot’s recent update and because I really like Fantastical’s natural language processing and GUI.
But, as nice as the feature sets and GUI’s may be, I just can’t justify the recurring annual cost, especially given that for my area the default weather app is more accurate (uses the Weather Channel as a source) than the sources used by Carrot weather. Fantastical is, well, Fantastic, but the default calendar app is good enough, after all, all I need is to add a periodic appointment (my EA manages most of them) and look to see what is next. I don’t need to be paying a subscription for that and a pretty interface. 
Now, the only thing I’m wrestling with is whether to keep using Craft for all my note taking or give Obsidian a try.
No, the M1 has been great. I’m just OCD about these things. Seriously, if you look at my office desk–no paper, no clutter. It is almost embarrassing when someone walks in; I’m afraid they think I’m not working! My office study and vehicles are the same as shown on the photo below. Basically, I don’t like unnecessary “clutter” in any form, including digital clutter. Even my M1 desktop is clean.
I did not clean up my study for this photo–it is just “me.”
Can’t see your images, but guessing that it is very minimalistic set-up. At one point I wanted to get rid out of third-party applications as much as possible that I even started to consider replace Drafts with Apple notes. Quickly threw away this though since it is still not possible to duplicate a note in Apple notes.
Are you still using Ulysses for writing Or it has changed as well?
That is strange, the images are showing in the forum on my laptop. Hmmm, I’ll reload one here–do you see it?
I agree about Apple Notes–nice app but not adequate.
Yes, I’m using Scrivener for long-complex writing projects–currently a book I’m working on. Nothing beats Scrivener for this kind of writing.
I only use Drafts for small “writing” for example, composing a sensitive email.
Now, I’m debating between Craft and Obsidian for all other writing, e.g, longish work communications, meeting notes, blog articles. etc.
Perhaps we have too many options?
Why MBP vs MBA? Thank you
Is that question for me or someone else?
Thanks, that is my home study. God has been gracious in blessing me beyond anything I deserve.
The iMac is tempting! But, I tend to like to move to office side recliners, outside, or the coach rather than sit long at the desk so I’m afraid I would not get my money’s worth from an iMac.
Forgot to mention that I’m blind 
Which type of book you writing? Fiction, non-fiction or something else?
Yes I understand you, there is a lot of writing application out there, but still, perfect text editor doesn’t exist. Since I’m blind, one of my favourite features is ability to jump to header to header. At the moment it possible in Drafts, nvUltra, Ulysses (uses VO command). I hope that iA Writer will add support for this feature in near future.
Sorry RDK, I did not realize you are blind. I genuinely admire you! How you write so well on a forum like this without eyesight is amazing and inspiring!
I am writing a non-fiction book on private school leadership for Heads of School (CEO, president, etc.). Most of the content is applicable to any private school leadership (or leadership in general for that matter) but is specifically targeted for the Heads of School of private Christian schools like the one I lead, here.
Video intro here.
Edit,
Sorry RDX, as soon as I posted that I realized that you can’t see the school in the link. We/I do seem to assume a lot don’t we!
I’m nowehere near the level you are, but I like to reduce clutter (and overhead) and I just started doing that again a couple of days ago in light of Backblaze consuming lots of energy.
So far I have removed Backblaze (moved it to a networked Mini), uninstalled Dropzone (was using energy), and a couple of maths and GIF apps I never really use. I also stopped iMazing, Downie, Gifox and Air Server from automatically starting.
I also have HomeControl that I haven’t gotten into as my Home is still being set up, and that appears to be using unnecessary energy. I’m going to give it more time to prove itself, though.
I like parring things down. I just make a final change. I switched from Craft to Obsidian due to a recent Obsidian plugin that scrapes Kindle highlights and adds them to Obsidian. That is perfect for my workflow!
I switched TO Craft and subscribed to the Pro version based on your enthusiastic posts earlier this year. Now you’ve moved away??? 
I really do like Craft and it meets my needs perfectly, at least until a more perfect (for me) app comes along. Thanks for your continued thoughtful and informative posts on this forum.
Man, now I feel bad! I too like Craft and I would not change except for the new plugin that scrapes one’s Kindle highlights and imports them into Obsidian. This is perfect for my writing projects. Now I can easily connect ideas and concepts based on book topics/chapters I’m working on. This was not possible in Craft so I had to keep DT open to reference my highlights that were manually downloaded into DT from Amazon. The plugin works perfectly. Also, @Rob_Polding shared a Drafts action that sends a Drafts note to Obsidian. This means I can use Drafts for taking notes and immediately send them to Obsidian as markdown.
Though I don’t like the GUI of Obsidian, and like others I’m no fan of electron apps, the advantages of Obsidian for my research, writing, and note taking outweigh the advantages of Craft, for me.
You too are making me feel bad, not nice!! 
This was not meant to make you feel bad. I really appreciated your enthusiasm for Craft. I had tried Craft last year but it did not work for me. Had it not been for you I, most probably, would not have given Craft another try. Craft works for me, Obsidian works for you. It seems like we’re both happy with our choices. That’s a good thing.
Would it have helped if I’d have used an LOL instead of a 
?
I knew you were not criticizing and I was tongue in cheek with my comment.
What is really amazing is that by combining Obsidian with Drafts for note taking, I don’t need to preload DT. Obsidian is indexed in DT so anything I put in Obsidian is in DT. Additionally, the DT Finder inbox remains so I can throw PDF, etc. into that folder so those files end up in DT without using the resources to keep DT running.
So, with my recent workflow changes, I now only have the applications showing below, plus Alfred, running.
And, that is NOT a UFO in that picture. I took a pic of my desktop monitor and one of the ceiling lights is reflected in the photo. It does look like a UFO.
Ok. I’ll ask.
What’s a M1? Mach 1?
I don’t know what “M” stands for but the M1 is the designation for Apple’s new chip in its computers. Is that what you are asking?
