OpenAI's AI assistant — the other 20% of my AI work. I find it better at certain jobs; for me those are code reviews and design work.
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Anthropic's AI assistant, and roughly 80% of my day-to-day AI work: strategy, drafts, builds, analysis. Chat for questions, Cowork for multi-step tasks, Claude Code for systematizing how the whole business runs.
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Visit Claude - Claude 101: Chat vs. Cowork vs. Claude Code (Which One, When)
- Plug Claude Into the Rest of Your Stack
- Set Up Claude Like a New Hire
OpenAI's answer to Claude Code: an AI agent that works directly in your files and repos. In the stack for second opinions — and as proof your second brain should never be locked into one vendor.
Visit CodexAn autonomous AI agent that runs whole projects instead of answering one prompt at a time. The other half of the research department: analysis and the bigger research projects.
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Visit Manus An AI search engine that answers with cited sources. Half of my research department: deep research I can actually verify, and lately, multi-step task automation.
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Visit Perplexity Model Context Protocol: the standard plug that lets an AI read (and, where you allow it, write to) the apps you already use. Set it up once under Settings → Connectors and never think about the acronym again.
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Visit MCP A messaging app with one killer feature: free, scriptable bots. The pipe that lets my assistants text me — the meal plan on Sundays, the briefing every morning.
Visit TelegramAnother voice dictation tool, in the rotation depending on context. The point either way: stop typing.
Visit MonologueSystem-wide voice dictation that works in every app. Talking is roughly 3x faster than typing, and dictating helps me process my thinking, not just record it.
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Visit Wispr Flow - Wispr Flow 101: Getting Started with Dictation That Actually Works
- The Sunday Brain Dump Prompt That Runs My Week
- Build Your Own AI Personal Assistant in 3 Days
A shared team inbox, so client email belongs to the team instead of one person's mailbox. Wired into my assistant's morning briefing instead of ambushing me at 3 PM.
Visit FrontGoogle's email — where the mail actually lives. Connected to Claude for the morning triage: flag, archive, draft. I review and send. Roughly an hour back per day.
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Visit Gmail Team chat, organized into channels. Where the week-of content plan lands every Sunday night — hook, angle, format, three lines per post.
Visit SlackAn email client built for speed: minimal, beautiful, keyboard-first. Email I don't dread opening, and triage that's genuinely fast.
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Visit Superhuman Where developers store and version code — and the best free home for an AI-readable second brain. My client folders sync here daily so every tool reads the same source of truth.
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Visit GitHub Cloud file storage, and home of the client folder architecture: one folder per client, a README on top, everything in a known place.
Visit Google DriveAn AI notetaker that captures meetings, phone calls, and 2am thoughts — with no bot joining your calls. My ride or die: meeting notes are the richest record of your business, and Granola is how mine get read constantly.
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Visit Granola - Granola 101: Getting Started with the AI Notetaker I'd Save in a Fire
- Automate Meeting Notes with AI: From Call to Task List, No Data Entry
- Automate Meeting Prep with AI: Set Up a Daily Briefing (So You Never Walk In Cold Again)
Project management, and my longest relationship on this list (5+ years). Everything lives in there — client work, content, personal life — and every brain on the team gets its own view of the same work.
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Visit ClickUp - ClickUp 101: Getting Started (One System, a View for Every Brain)
- Plug Claude Into the Rest of Your Stack
- Build Your Own AI Personal Assistant in 3 Days
The calendar. Read-only for Claude, which is exactly enough: it can see the week for Sunday planning without being able to move a single meeting.
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Visit Google Calendar Perplexity's AI browser, with the research engine built into every tab. In the browser rotation alongside Dia.
Visit CometAn AI browser with a separate workspace per client, so logins and pinned tabs stay apart and my day stays clean.
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Visit Dia Collaborative design software — where the creative work lives. Connected so Claude has eyes on briefs and reviews with the actual files in view.
Visit FigmaAn AI creative studio for generating images and video — product shots, ad creative, UGC-style clips. Where the visual experiments happen before anything ships.
Visit HiggsfieldAn AI image upscaler and enhancer: it takes a good image and makes it crisp, detailed, and editorial. The finishing pass for visuals before they go anywhere public.
Visit MagnificA smart ring that tracks sleep, HRV, readiness, and activity. The live data my Health bot plans meals and training around — the bot that makes no business sense and changed my life anyway.
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Visit Oura Ring