9 High-Tech, Low-Drag Tools For Daily Use

My love affair with technology is no secret. Heck, I make a living on the internet so it’s tough not fall prey to the glitz and glamor of new tech and services, “Ohhh, shiny!”

Truth be told, though, I’m actually more of a low drag operator. Word processor? Too bloated. Yeah, I have one but you’ll always find a text editor open on my desktop. High-tech, low drag, no bloat. They do one thing without unnecessary bells and whistles.

Anyway, thought I’d share some of the essentials that I find myself using every day:

1. Evernote – an awesome service. While it’s great for taking notes, I tend to use it more as a swipe file – come across a headline, button, page layout, or ad that I like I save and tag it for later reference.
2. Mindjet Mindmanager – This program makes it into my videos quite a bit. It’s a great mindmapping software for laying out ideas, articles, etc in a graphical format. Mindmanager easily makes the best mindmapping software out there.
3. Firebug – I can’t imagine developing websites without this Firefox add-on. With a click I can see a page’s CSS code and layout making it easy to troubleshoot that WordPress theme.
4. Roboform – Click a button and you’re automagically transported to your website of choice, your username and password entered, and automagically logged in. Killer password/bookmark manager. I introduced my wife to it, who then got her entire company hooked on it.
5. Notetab Pro – I write everything with this full-featured text editor. Seriously, everything gets written in this program. Client commissioned sales letters, emails, articles. This is my tool of choice.
6. tr.im – a url-shortening, link-tracking service with a pretty decent interface (sorry cli.gs but you’re ugly as hell.) Great for sharing URLs on Twitter or in emails.
7. Read It Later – Like most online workers I click over to a a bunch of cool articles without the time to read them at the moment. This killer Firefox add-on makes it easy to save those articles for later reading. Just be sure to clear it out 😉
8. Blackberry – This little thing is a big essential. It lets me handle my email, twitter, google maps and more. Ipod, schmipod. I dig my BlackBerry.
9. Moleskine Notebook – okay, not high-tech but this is a low-drag essential for me. This is in my back pocket everywhere I go. I can whip it out and take a note quicker than with my BlackBerry, it never locks up, and doesn’t require batteries. It’s my main tool in daily planning and provides a great tactile feel when crossing something off “the list.”

This stuff gets used daily. Check ’em out and let me know what high-tech low drag essentials you rely upon.