I Ranked Every Productivity Tool From Worst to Best

By Bill Jackson November 12, 2026 2 mins read 111879 Views

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Hey friends, over the last 15 years I've tested dozens and dozens of productivity apps and tools. Some have been genuinely life-changing, and others just weren't worth the effort of keeping them up. So in this video I'm tier ranking the tools I still use today, from the nice-to-haves all the way up to the ones I literally can't live without, based on how much each one actually moves me towards the goals I care about. Hope you enjoy xx

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO

📗 Essentialism by Greg McKeown: https://geni.us/essentialism-ali
📘 Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman: https://geni.us/fourthousandweeks-ali

Tools from the tier list:
- Readwise: https://readwise.io
- Opal: https://opalapp.com
- Zapier: https://zapier.com
- Obsidian: https://obsidian.md
- Superhuman (1 month free with my link): http://superhuman.com/abdaalali
- Wispr Flow (1 month of Pro free): https://ref.wisprflow.ai/ali_youtube
- Todoist: https://todoist.com
- Voicepal: https://go.aliabdaal.com/voicepal/ytd
- Things 3: https://culturedcode.com/things/
- Hermes Agent: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com
- Toggl Track: https://toggl.com/track/
- Forest: https://www.forestapp.cc
- Notion: https://www.notion.com

⌚️ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:52 Readwise
2:23 Spotify
3:25 Slack
4:21 Opal
4:56 Zapier
5:31 Obsidian
6:16 Apple Notes
8:28 Superhuman Mail
9:11 Wispr Flow
10:25 To-do lists
12:16 Voicepal
13:27 Why tier lists start at S
13:53 AI agents
17:29 ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity
18:20 A physical journal
19:40 Time tracking
20:39 Google Calendar
21:16 Superfocus
23:50 Notion

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