Over the past couple of months, I’ve been rebuilding the way I manage my work, learning, projects, and personal life.
The goal wasn’t to find one tool that does everything. Instead, I wanted each tool to have a clear purpose and for the tools to work together without duplicating information.
This is the productivity stack I’m currently using.
No affiliate links – just the tools I actually use every day.
Table of Contents
🧠 Notion – Personal OS & Knowledge
Notion is the central knowledge and organization layer of my system.
I use it for:
- Goals
- Projects
- Knowledge
- Notes
- Reviews
- Ideas
- Information I want to keep and reference later
I don’t use Notion as my primary task manager. Its job is mainly to answer:
“What is this, and where does it belong?”
✅ Todoist – Tasks & Actions
Todoist is where concrete actions live.
For example:
- Reply to an email
- Book plane tickets
- Finish a blog post
- Check an account issue
The rule is simple:
Todoist = What do I need to do?
Deadlines belong here, but I don’t automatically put every task on my calendar.
📅 Google Calendar – Time & Commitments
Google Calendar answers a different question:
“When am I actually going to do it?”
I use it for:
- Work
- Appointments
- Meetings
- Personal commitments
- Study sessions
- Deliberate time blocks for important work
Todoist tells me what needs to happen.
Calendar tells me when I’m going to do it – and forces me to make a commitment to actually do it.
📧 Gmail – Communication & Incoming Requests
Gmail is my communication layer.
I don’t use my inbox as a task manager.
When an email requires an actual action, I turn that into a Todoist task.
For example:
“Please send me the document by Friday.”
becomes:
Send the requested document
in Todoist.
The email remains the communication record.
🔖 Raindrop – Things I Want to Read Later
Raindrop is my read/watch later system. I’ve been using it for over 3 years, and honestly, it’s been a life changer.
I use it for:
- Interesting technical articles
- Microsoft documentation
- YouTube videos
- Resources I don’t have time to consume immediately
The distinction is important:
Raindrop stores the resource.
If I actually learn something useful from it, that knowledge can later go into Notion.
💻 GitHub – Code & Technical Projects
GitHub is where the actual code lives.
I use it for:
- PowerShell projects
- Scripts
- Modules
- Technical experiments
- Version control
- Collaboration
Notion can contain the idea and context around a project, while GitHub contains the actual implementation.
💻 VS Code / VSCodium – Development Environment
VS Code and VSCodium are my main development environments.
I use them for:
- PowerShell scripting
- KQL development
- Editing configuration files
- Working on technical projects
- Git/GitHub workflows
- Testing and experimenting with code
The distinction is simple:
VS Code / VSCodium → where I build
GitHub → where I store, version and collaborate on the code
🤖 Claude/Claude Code – The AI Layer
Claude sits on top of the stack as the AI assistant that connects the different parts of the system.
It can work across:
- Notion
- Todoist
- Google Calendar
- Gmail
The idea isn’t for Claude to replace these tools.
Instead, Claude helps me make sense of them together.
For example, I can ask:
“What should I do today?”
or
“What are the pending tasks that I have for this week?”
Claude can look at my calendar, tasks, projects and emails and help me decide what actually deserves my attention.
It can also take approved actions, such as creating a Calendar time block.
The Simple Rule of my Productivity Stack
The whole system can be summarized like this:
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 🧠 Notion | Information, knowledge, goals & projects |
| ✅ Todoist | Concrete actions & deadlines |
| 📅 Google Calendar | Commitments & time blocks |
| 📧 Gmail | Communication |
| 🔖 Raindrop | Resources to read/watch later |
| 💻 GitHub | Code & technical projects |
| 💻 VS Code / VSCodium | Development & scripting |
| 🤖 Claude | AI layer connecting the system |
The goal isn’t to have more productivity tools.
It’s to make sure each piece of information has one clear home – and that I can move from information → decision → action → time without having to maintain everything manually.