My Favorite Tools, Apps, and Services of 2021

By Roger Hyttinen / December 31, 2021

People are always asking me about the tools that I use to be productive, so I thought I’d do one of those, “end of the year” type of posts where talk about my favorite tools, apps, and services that I used most in the past year. I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but here are the ones off the top of my head.

Tools

For tools, my iMac and my iPad Pro top the list. In the past year, I have used my iPad Pro more and more, especially since recent updates made the operating system even more powerful and more flexible. I do a lot of my writing on the iPad these days and typically only use my Mac when heavy lifting is required, such as photo and video editing (though I do plenty of photo editing on the iPad). Oh, and I suppose I should include my iPhone as well, given that it never leaves my side.

Though I do a lot of work on the computer, I also enjoy analog note-taking/journaling. I’ve been a Field Notes subscriber for many years now, and I always have one of their notebooks with me wherever I go. I use them to jot down story ideas, bits of dialog I overhear, things I need to do, things I need to buy…you get the picture. They basically serve as a “brain dump” tool, and I use them for anything I want to remember later — those short-term memory tidbits that pop in out of nowhere.

For physical journaling, I use a Moleskine Classic Notebook XXL ( 8.5″ x 11”), and this is what I use for my bullet journal. This is where I keep all of my lists, trackers, calendar and daily to-dos. It’s also where I do my long-form journaling. I used to keep a separate journal for long-form writing but have since migrated them into one. These days, my long form basically consists of things that happened during the day that I might want to look back on or otherwise remember. I’ve also begun transcribing my notebooks into Day One, a popular journaling app for the Mac — which brings me to my next category:

Apps

Without a doubt, my most used app is Ulysses, a markdown text editing app for the Mac. It’s the app I use to write novels, blog posts, and ideas — pretty much everything, truth be told. I used to use Scrivener for novel writing but have recently moved that to Ulysses, and so far, it’s been working out great. If, for some reason, I need to use a rich text word processor, I’ll use Apple Pages. Though I also have a subscription of Microsoft Office 365, I’ve been moving away from it recently and will most likely cancel it when it expires in the coming year.

Given that I’ll be moving away from Excel, I use Google Sheets for my spreadsheet needs. This is where I maintain my bookkeeping spreadsheets and any other ones related to my business.

I also subscribe to Adobe’s Photography subscription, which consists of Lightroom and Photoshop, my main photo editing applications, and it only costs $10 per month. I occasionally use a few other photo editors such as Luminar and Photomatix, but the Adobe apps are my main ones.

Another app that’s been part of my arsenal for many years now is DevonThink, a powerful database app for the Mac. This is my “storage” app, and I use it to store tidbits that I might need later. Once Evernote started charging $80 per year, I migrated over to DevonThink and have been quite happy with it.

There are a couple of writing tools that I use to check grammar and spelling and the like, and those are: Grammarly and ProWritingAid. They each have their individual strengths so instead of choosing, I subscribe to both of them.

My blogging platform is WordPress, and I’ve been with them from the very beginning. I’m using the self-hosted version of WordPress (wordpress.org) as opposed to the hosted version (wordpress.com) because I love tinkering under the hood. It truly is a flexible platform, and I love all of the options, themes, and plug-in available for it. I briefly tried Squarespace, but it didn’t work out so I went back to WordPress. Speaking of blogging, I use MarsEdit as my blogging editor. My process is: 1) Write the post in Ulysses 2) Copy it as HTML and paste it into MarsEdit 3) Add images and send the post to my blog. MarsEdit is another app that I’ve been using for many years, and I’m thrilled with it. Among other things, the lack of MarsEdit support was one of the reasons I dumped Squarespace.

I also can’t neglect to mention Todoist, my go-to task/project management app. I’ve tried many of them over the years, including Things, Omnifocus, Google Keep, To Do, and Remember the Milk, but Todoist is my favorite, and I always find my way back to it. It’s not only extremely powerful, but I love its natural language ability, making it a snap to add new tasks. I use this several times a day, rendering it probably my most-used app.

Services

I wrote a blog post a while back about how I seesaw back and forth between music services. Right now, my main music streaming service is Spotify, and it has been for quite some time. I always mange to find my way back to Spotify and have no plans to leave it anytime soon.

For TV/Movie streaming, I subscribe to a couple of them: Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV+ and Dekkoo. This is rather amusing given that I hardly ever watch television, usually preferring to curl up with a book. However, I recently have started watching shows while I’m working out on the treadmill so I can feel as though I’m getting my money’s worth from my streaming services. I also have a weekly movie night at home so I end up watching a few movies a month. I subscribed to Disney+ last year because there were a few things I wanted to see but will probably not renew it this year. I’ll stick with the others for the time being.

I also subscribe to Audible Premium Plus and Book of the Month, the original book box service. I’ve belonged to both of them for many years now and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. I listen to a lot of audiobooks during the year, so Audible is a no-brainer. I listen while I’m cleaning, cooking, eating etc. so I manage to tear through at least a few books each month I subscribe to the 24 credit per year plan, which equates to less than $10 per book. I also love Book of the Month because it helps me discover books that I normally wouldn’t have read. Both are worth it, in my opinion.

For file storage/cloud storage, I use Dropbox. I use this service to store any files that I want automatically backed up in the cloud as well as anything that I’ll be sharing or collaborating on with others. I also have a 200 GB Google One subscription, a family plan, which I mainly use for photo storage and access to the Google Suite of applications. For cloud backup, I use BackBlaze which backs up my computer seamlessly in the background.

Additionally, I use BitDefender and Malwarebytes to protect my computer against viruses, malware, and ransomware.

Those are the Main Ones

Those are some of the main tools, apps, and services that I use. There are many more which I’ll probably chat about in future posts (because I’m a geek and like to talk about this kind of stuff). I don’t plan on deviating too much from this in the coming year, but who knows? Last year I gave Notion and Obsidian a brief test drive but ultimately decided I didn’t need them. Though they are powerful and impressive, they didn’t fit into my workflow. Given that my main focus in 2022 will be novel writing, I’ll probably stick with what I’m currently using…but then again, maybe not.

How about you? What are some of your favorite tools, services. and apps?

My Favorite Tools, Apps, and Services of 2021 Read Post »

The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge

By Roger Hyttinen / December 13, 2021

I mentioned in a previous post that I was doing the 2022 PopSugar reading challenge, one that I typically do every year. While I was impatiently waiting for the prompt list to be released, I came across another similar challenge entitled “The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge.” This one has 52 prompts and like PopSugar, runs from January 1 to December 31st; that is to say, you read 52 books in 52 weeks. I found a few books that meet both the PopSugar and the 52 Book Club challenges but I’m mostly going to try to read unique books for each challenge. I tend to read about 140 books a year so I should be able to pull it off (though I do read a lot of ARCs and New Releases).

There is also a Goodreads Group for the challenge so you can find ideas for books to fit the prompts as well as discuss books and share your progress with others. There is also a Facebook Group as well, if that’s your bag.

I’ll post the prompts below and if you like what you see, then feel free to join in on the fun!

Reading Challenge Prompts:

A Second-Person Narrative
Featuring A Library Or Bookstore
Title Starting With The Letter “E”
Title Starting With The Letter “F”
Chapters Have Titles
Household Object On The Cover
A Non-Fiction Best Seller
Involving The Art World
A Book That Sparks Joy
A Book Based On A Real Person
A Book With Less Than 2022 Goodreads Ratings
Set On At Least Two Continents
Includes A Club
A Character With Superhuman Ability
A Five-Syllable Title
A Book You’ve Seen Someone Reading In A Public Place
A Book Picked Based On Its Spine
Jane Austen-Inspired
A Book That Has An Alternate Title
Related To The Word “Gold”
Published By Simon & Schuster
An Unlikely Detective
Author With An X, Y, Or Z In Their Name
Addresses A Specific Topic
A Wealthy Character
Has An “Author’s Note”
Includes A Map
Award-Winning Book From Your Country
Over 500 Pages Long
Audiobook Is Narrated By The Author
Technology Themed
A Book That Intimidates You
A Bilingual Character
Author’s Photo On The Back Cover
From The Villain’s Perspective
Recommended By A Favorite Author
Set In A Rural Area
Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover!
A Middle-Grade Novel
A Book With Photographs Inside
Involves A Second Chance
An Indie Read
Author Who’s Published In More Than One Genre
An Anthology
A Book With Illustrated People On Cover
Job Title In The Title
Read During The Month Of November
Redo One Of This Year’s Prompts But With A Different Genre
Book Title Starts With The Same Letter As Your First Name
A Person Of Color As The Main Character
The Word “Game” In The Title
Published In 2022

In case you missed it, here’s a link to my post on the PopSugar Challenge.

The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge Read Post »

Back to Dropbox

By Roger Hyttinen / December 5, 2021

I mentioned in a previous post that I was reevaluating all of my monthly subscriptions, including my cloud services. I’ve been meaning to combine my cloud accounts for some time now, as it was becoming challenging finding my files as I often could not remember on which cloud drive they were located. It was getting to the point where I was spending way too much time trying to find my stuff. It was time to make some changes.

The Dilemma

Once I sat down and took a look at my infrastructure, I realized how out of control it had gotten. For example, I had files scattered over the following services:

iCloud Drive – This is Apple’s cloud service which I used for those apps which sync with iCloud such as Ulysses. I also use this for files I create using Apple’s work apps (Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. Cost: $1.99/month
OneDrive – I receive 1 TB of free space on OneDrive because I’m a Microsoft Office 365 subscriber. On here, I only store files that I access with the iOS versions of Microsoft Office. This has proven the most unreliable (and most annoying) of all services. Cost: Free with Office 365
Google Drive – I have a family account on which I share space with my spouse. This is used to sync our Google Photos. I also stored files that I didn’t need to access all that often. Cost: $99/year
Sync.com – I used this as my main cloud service, on which I stored the majority of my files. I loved how secure they are and the fact that they’re located in Canada. Unfortunately, some of my favorite iOS apps were unable to sync with them. Cost: $129/year (for 3TB).
Dropbox: I had the free account, which I only used to sync those apps which didn’t work with other services. For instance, Scrivener only syncs with Dropbox — well, to be truthful, it does sync with others, but the author of Scrivener strongly advises against it). Likewise, the iOS version of Scrivener only syncs with Dropbox (and does it quite clunkily, I might add). I left Dropbox several years back because I wasn’t too happy about certain privacy-averse members of their board of directors. I wasn’t sure if I trusted their privacy policies.

The Result

With all that being said, you might be surprised that I decided to go with Dropbox at the end of the day. I was kind of surprised too. One of the main reasons for this was that I use the iOS Scrivener app almost daily (it’s my main long-form writing app that I use to write my novels), and the only service that Scrivener safely syncs with is Dropbox. Additionally, I have some other iOS apps that will only sync properly with Dropbox, so there’s that as well. Thus, Dropbox seems to be the service that most apps use as their preferential syncing service.

As for my other services, I downsized my Google Drive subscription to 200 gigs for $29 per year, which is more than enough space for my and my spouse’s photos. Any other non-photo files were moved to Dropbox. Then, I completely got rid of Sync.com and moved all those cloud files to Dropbox. Even though I was paying for 3 TB of space on Sync.com, I was using way less than 1 TB, which worked perfectly with a Dropbox subscription. I kept the iCloud Drive service active, given that I use it to sync all of my Apple photos, and it’s relatively inexpensive. Given that OneDrive is free with my Microsoft 365 account, I didn’t make any changes there — I don’t really use that account for much anyway.

But…what about security?

I mentioned that I wasn’t too keen on Dropbox’s privacy record, which is still true. I’m not sure that I completely trust them with my data. However, most people I’ve talked to seem happy with them and trust them. But I took the extra step in encrypting most of the files I’ve stored on Dropbox — the sensitive ones anyway. While I have a wickedly long and difficult password as well as two-factor authentication enabled, I feel confident that with the extra step of encrypting my files, my data is as safe as it can be. That’s not to say that I won’t reevaluate down the road, but I’m content with my decisions for now.

Back to Dropbox Read Post »

Weekly Roundup – December 4, 2021

By Roger Hyttinen / December 4, 2021

Welcome to my Weekly Roundup where on Saturday, I post links to things I shared on social media throughout the week that I thought were interesting. I’ll also include book news, cover reveals, and more goodies.

Speaking of book news, I released a new book last week! It’s an M/M Christmas Romance novel entitled Christmas Cookies That Sparkle. It’s free if you have Kindle Unlimited. If not, it’s $2.99 on Amazon. Here’s a link to a post that I wrote about it.

By the way, I also send out this weekly round-up list each week to my newsletter. So if you wish to receive my weekly roundup in your email inbox each week, you can subscribe HERE.

So on to the roundup.

15 Things I Thought Were Worth Sharing

Fascinating article on Indigenous Authors: How Indigenous Authors Use Horror Rooted in Tribal Traditions
Someone Unearthed A 1997 Wired Article Predicting ’10 Things That Could Go Wrong In The 21st Century’ And Nearly All Of Them Came True
I love these stories about entitled people: This Online Group Shames People Who Deserve A Special Place In Hell For Being Annoyingly Entitled
After you’re gone, your files, photos, emails, and more stay behind. You can choose who can access them: How to Decide What Happens to Your Data When You Die
New Google search features make it easier to find the right doctor: Making healthcare options more accessible on Search
The year is winding down quickly: Here are 10 Fantasies to Let Go of Before the New Year
Life balance for writers: Seven writers talk about balancing their creative lives with their day jobs, from bartending to construction
Some interesting food for thought: 30 Americans Who Left The US Share How Their Lives Have Changed After Moving To Europe
The Ironic Twist of Age: What It’s Like to Keep Writing at 91
Just for fun: Some Photos Of Funny And Strange Things Spotted On The Subway
A new crime fiction anthology looks at police oppression: S.A. Cosby on the Conversation Around Policing in America – And Why It Needs to Change
It’s the holiday season meaning many of us will be taking a lot of photos. Here are Five tips for photographing during the holidays
Looking to diversify your reading life? Here are 50 Notable African Books of 2021
Eye-Candy: The Winning Photos from the Hasselblad Masters 2021 Competition
“First you must believe you’re a writer: “How to Say “I’m a Writer” and Mean It

Oh, and in case you missed it: This looks amazing! “A Surreal New Bookstore Has Just Opened in China”

Weekly Roundup – December 4, 2021 Read Post »

No More Phone Calls

By Roger Hyttinen / December 3, 2021

Recently, a friend wanted to use my phone to call their spouse (they’d forgotten their phone at home). So I handed them my phone, and a moment later, they asked, “Where’s your phone app?”

“Oh,” I replied. “It’s on the last screen.”

“Huh. I take it you don’t use your phone very often?”

“Never.”

It’s been quite a while since my phone app was on my Home screen. These days, I only answer calls from people in my “Whitelist” because any other call is bound to be a 1) spammer, 2) scammer, or 3) a Robocall. For a while there, I was getting upwards of 20 of these types of intrusive calls per day — calls that would cause me to put down whatever I was doing to answer them. Calls that would completely derail my train of thought. Calls that I found more and more irritating.

They finally got so bad that I permanently put my phone on Do Not Disturb mode. That means that any caller who is not in my approved caller list goes directly to voicemail. Doing this certainly has helped my peace of mind as well as my productivity.

While talking to others about this issue, I learned that I’m not the only one to have taken this step. Apparently, many other people are no longer answering their phones because of telemarketers and robocalls. In fact, most of my friends and family use text messages or email to contact me those days — though I do still receive the occasional phone call from a non-techy family member. I can’t help but wonder if the concept of calling someone on the phone will eventually disappear, especially given that fewer and fewer people are using their phones as a….phone.

When I was growing up, everyone had a landline because no other options were available. Now there’s a myriad of ways to contact people, such as text messaging, social media, and email. It is a shame that the telemarketers, spammers, and scammers have ruined the phone for many people, but truth be told, I’m not overly heartbroken about it. I’ve never been a phone person myself and generally dislike talking on the phone. So when text messaging came along, it was a no-brainer of a transition for me.

I wonder, however, if the annoying and unwanted calls ever came to a stop because of technology or legislation, would people flock back to using their phones? I’m guessing not, but then again, there are plenty of people who enjoy talking on the phone. I’m definitely not one of them.

How about you? Do you think phone calling is dead?

No More Phone Calls Read Post »

The PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge

By Roger Hyttinen / December 2, 2021

Yesterday, the PopSugar people dropped the list for their annual reading challenge, which I try to do every year. What is is, is 40 prompts (with 10 optional “Advanced” prompts”) for which you choose appropriate books. The goal is to help you broaden your reading horizons and perhaps read books you normally wouldn’t. It’s a fantastic way to diversify your reading. An example of this year’s prompts include “Read a book that takes place in the 1980s” and “Read a Hugo Award Winner.” You may consider me strange, but I get super excited every year when the challenge is announced. I then run to my bookshelves and begin choosing the books that I plan on reading for it.

Many people choose their books as they go but I always like to do mine ahead of time. I derive enjoyment from planning out my reading for the coming year so I know in which direction I’m heading. Now this isn’t necessarily restricting my reading as I read a lot of Advance Reader Copies that come my way during the year as well. I also can’t resist reading new LGBTQ books that come to my attention.

You can get involved as much or as little as you like. If you’d like to reach out to others who are also doing the challenge, there is a Goodreads group where people post their reading lists, track their progress and chat about the books they’re reading. If you’re stuck on ideas for a particular prompt, there are also lists of ideas for each prompt, which I often find incredibly helpful. There’s also a quite popular PopSugar Book Club on Facebook which is a fantastic place to hang out. You’ll find me in both places, chatting about the prompts and posting my progress. If you’re more of a Twitter user, you can follow the progress of others by using the hashtag #popsugarreadingchallenge.

This year, I made the challenge especially challenging for myself by limiting it to books that I already own. I really want to work through my physical TBR in the coming year so this is the perfect excuse to do so. I was able to find books for almost all of the prompts so that made me quite happy. Additionally, I’m doing a second reading challenge, which I’ll mention in another post.

I’ll post all of the prompts below for those of you might be interested in doing it this year. Check out the Goodreads group for a lot more information on the challenge. Good luck!

PopSugar Book Challenge Prompts

Book published in 2022
A book set on a plane, train or cruise ship
A book about or set in a non-patriarchal society
A book with a tiger on the cover or “tiger” in the title
A sapphic book
A book by a Latinx author
A book with an onomatopoeia in its title
A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid
A book about “found family”
An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winnder
A #BookTok recommendation
A book about the afterlife
A book set in the 1980s
A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title
A book by a pacific Islander author
A book about witches
A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022
A romance novel by a BIPOC author
A book that takes place during your favorite season
A book whose title begins with the last letter of our previous read
A book about a band or musical group
A book with a character on the ACE spectrum
A book with a recipe in it
A book you can read in one sitting
A book about a secret
A book with a misleading title
A Hugo Award winner
A book set during a holiday
A different book by an author you read in 2021
A book with the name of a board game in the title
A book featuring a man-made disaster
A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page
A social-horror book
A book set in Victorian times
A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title
A book you know nothing about
A book about gender identity
A book featuring a party
An #OwnVoices SFF book
A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR challenge

Advanced

A book with a reflected image on the cover or “mirror” in the title
A book that features two languages
A book with a palindromic title
A duology (1)
A duology (2)
A book about someone leading a double life
A book featuring a parallel reality
A book with two POVs
Two books set in twin towns, aka “sister cities” (1)
Two books set in twin towns, aka “sister cities” (1)

The PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge Read Post »

Wordless Wednesday – Flamingo in Water

By Roger Hyttinen / December 1, 2021

Wordless Wednesday – Flamingo in Water Read Post »