Free Software for Productivity Nerds

If you’ve found any of these applications to be useful, please consider a donation - Thanks!


As I’ve stated many times before, I get paid to write software. Personally, I think it’s pretty much the coolest job ever (most of the time) because when I find a process or practice that can be automated or otherwise streamlined, I can write little programs to do just that. I’ve hacked out tons of little one-off utilities over the years, several of them I still use to this day.

And as you might’ve noticed (if you’re a regular reader of this here blog), I’ve written a handful of utility applications aimed specifically at the productivity-minded user. Here is a list of said applications, ready for your downloading pleasure:

  • Two Minute Timer - A free alternative to the application offered on David Allen’s website (his costs $10 US). This guy runs for two minutes, then makes a sound. It has start, reset and pause buttons. Not a whole lot to it, but it certainly gets the job done! Here’s a screenshot:

    timer

    Download TwoMinuteTimer.exe (requires version 2 of the .Net framework)

  • Two Minute Timer for Mac - A glorified Automator action, this app notifies you with a Growl notification when 2 minutes has expired (as well as a nifty little audible bit, in case you’re not looking at the screen). Simple, but it does what it’s supposed to :)

    Requires Mac OSX Leopard (10.5 or later) and Growl.

    Download the Two Minute Timer for Mac OS X!

  • WinStikker - A windows application that allows you to quickly and easily create Stikkits from your desktop. Enter your Stikkit API key, type your stikkit content and hit “Stikkit!”. Very helpful if you’re adding new stikkits in rapid-fire mode. Screenshot:

    WinStikker

    Download WinStikker.exe (requires version 2 of the .Net framework and a Stikkit account)

    You can also hack on WinStikker yourself by checking out the source code - more about that here.

  • Gmail Contacts to Stikkit Peeps - A short python script that takes your Gmail contacts (in the form of a CSV file) and attempts to create Stikkit “Peeps” for all of them. A little rough around the edges, and not for the faint of heart. Warning: command line hackery required.

    You’ll need the Python language runtime environment and your Gmail contacts exported as an Outlook-ready CSV. Really crappy documentation here.

    Download the script!

If anybody has any suggestions for other tools that might be useful, I’m listening :)