After my recent reflection on the subscription economy and its grip on consumers, I finally did something I’d been putting off for months: a complete audit of my tool stack and personal productivity system.
Working solo again meant I could no longer hide behind “I’ll get to it eventually.” So I sat down, opened every app on my devices, and started asking the hard questions.
My wife and I, we’re an Apple household through and through. I’m talking full commitment with enough hardware to stock a small Apple Store. I wasn’t always a true believer.
As someone who spent years as a devoted MacBook and Mac Mini user, my entire perspective shifted when my wife surprised me a few years ago with an iPad Pro M2 12.9-inch. The whole package: Magic Keyboard, Apple Pencil, and additional accessories.
The iPad Pro Changed Everything
It was one of those products I never knew I needed until it was in my hands. That moment when you realize something has quietly become essential to your daily life? That was the iPad Pro for me.
I’m still using that same M2 model today, and not just for sentimental reasons (though yes, it was a gift from her).
The truth is, I haven’t felt any compelling reason to upgrade to an M5. The performance hasn’t dipped. There’s zero wear and tear. It just keeps going.
These days, 90% of my work happens on the iPad Pro. My MacBook has become the backup player, brought in for specific edits or tasks that need its muscle. That ratio alone tells you how much this device has reshaped my workflow.
But that shift created a new problem: I needed to rebuild my entire productivity system around the iPad. And here’s where things got frustrating.
The iPad App Desert
For some inexplicable reason, most mature companies I ever used treat iPad apps like afterthoughts. They’ll pour resources into their web apps and mobile phones, but the iPad?
It’s either ignored entirely or given a half-baked version that barely works. And when companies do invest in a solid iPad experience, (like Dropbox Paper did) they inevitably sunset it to chase the latest trend.
This left me in a tight spot. My options were severely limited, and even when an iPad app existed, it often came riddled with bugs or crippling limitations.
My biggest struggle became finding “the right productivity tool.” I became a serial tool-hopper, cycling through:
- Notion
- SuperThread
- Nuclino
- Slite
- Craft
- Obsidian
None of them delivered a truly great iPad experience. I kept circling back to Apple Notes like a homing pigeon, even as I resisted it.
Here’s what I learned the hard way: a decent knowledge management system needs months to compound and show its real value.
By constantly switching tools, I was sabotaging myself. Every time I jumped to a new platform, I was hitting the reset button on potential momentum. I was choosing the illusion of “the perfect tool” over the reality of consistent progress.
Even when I settled on Notion, because it came closest to offering a solid iPad experience. something still felt off. So this week, I made a decision that felt both liberating and terrifying: I eliminated everything non-Apple from my personal productivity stack.
I went all-in with Apple’s native apps:
- Apple Reminders
- Apple Calendar
- Apple Mail
- Apple Numbers
- Apple Pages
- Apple Notes
- Apple Freeform
This cleared away so much mental clutter. No more second-guessing. No more comparing features across platforms. I know these apps work seamlessly across all my devices, especially my beloved iPad Pro.
There’s barely a learning curve because they all follow the same Apple logic, the same shortcuts, the same button placement, the same design philosophy. It doesn’t demand precious mental energy to remember how things work.
Are any of these apps perfect? Of course not. Nothing ever is. But building a system sometimes means accepting the right compromises rather than chasing an impossible ideal.
My Biggest Fear: Apple Notes
Apple Notes scared me the most. It’s not known for advanced features or fancy automations. It’s simple, almost to a fault. But then again, that simplicity is exactly what I’ve come to love about it.
For a long time, I dismissed Apple Notes entirely. It felt too basic, too limiting. Then I started learning Chinese and needed to take structured, organized notes. Something clicked. The app’s simplicity became its strength. Still, making it my primary notes app? That required a leap of faith.
Apple Notes, even when paired with Apple Numbers, isn’t a Notion replacement. It can’t be, and that’s okay. Because Notion on iPad has become increasingly buggy. Its offline functionality is still limited despite years of users begging for better support.
And honestly, I felt like they started pushing AI features a bit too aggressively for my taste, prioritizing flashy updates over core stability.
I realized my fear stemmed from comfort, not logic. I’d used Notion every day for years. It was familiar. But when I looked back at those years, I saw a pattern: constant frustrations, endless “Notion optimizations” that ate up hours, and a steady decrease in actual productivity.
I can’t replicate Notion’s database features in Apple Notes. But I don’t have to. I just need to adapt.
Rebuild my system. Reset my expectations. Because within the Apple ecosystem, every action, page, and note can interconnect naturally without creating the tangled mess I’d been managing.
I Feel Less Stressed About Productivity
Now that I’ve made the full switch, even while I’m still in discovery mode, learning the nuances of each app, I feel dramatically less stressed. I’m not constantly looking over my shoulder for the next new tool.
I don’t care as much about how sleek or impressive a productivity app looks. And I have genuine confidence that these tools will exist and function in the Apple ecosystem for years to come.
The exhausting part of tool-hopping isn’t just the switching itself. It’s the constant iterations, the learning curves, the endless mental checklist of requirements. Every time I considered a new tool, I had to pull out my bingo card:
- Can I use Apple Writing Tools?
- Does Grammarly work properly for editing blog posts on my MacBook?
- Is the company focusing on web apps and letting their iPad app stagnate?
- Does basic copy and paste actually work? (You might think that’s a joke, but Notion’s implementation is genuinely terrible)
- Will this app still be supported next year?
- Can I trust my data won’t be held hostage by a subscription increase?
The list went on and on, making it feel impossible to find the right toolkit. Maybe that’s exactly why I was stuck in this cycle. I was so focused on finding perfection that I never gave myself permission to build a system that simply worked.
Which Apps & Tools Did I Replace?
This deserves more than a quick rundown, which is why I’m planning an entire series to dive deep into each tool and replacement. But here’s the overview of what got replaced:
Google Workspace → Apple Mail, Numbers & Pages
I’d been paying for Google Workspace primarily for the “professional” email and the collaborative features I rarely used. The reality?
Apple Mail with a custom domain handles my communication beautifully, and for the occasional spreadsheet or document, Numbers and Pages do everything I need. The offline-first approach means I’m never stuck waiting for a web app to load.
Superhuman Email → Apple Mail
This one hurt. I loved Superhuman’s speed and keyboard shortcuts. Sure, it’s not cheap for $30/month. Apple Mail might not have the same flash, but it’s reliable, deeply integrated with iOS and macOS, and costs exactly $0. The money I’m saving goes toward things that matter more.
Notion & SuperThread → Apple Notes
The big switch. Both Notion and SuperThread promised to be my “second brain, and project management tool” but they became maintenance projects instead. Apple Notes won’t give me linked databases or complex automations, but it gives me something more valuable: frictionless capture. When I have a thought, I open Notes and write. No loading screens, no syncing issues, no feature bloat getting in my way.
Microsoft Office → Apple Numbers & Pages
I kept Microsoft Office around “just in case,” even though I rarely touched it. The subscription felt like insurance I didn’t need. Apple’s alternatives handle 95% of what I actually do with spreadsheets and documents, and for that last 5%? I’ll find another way or realize I didn’t need it in the first place.
I found MS Word of Google Docs both infuriating because there’s a lack of Grammarly Support. Apple Pages has that covered.
Notion Calendar → Apple Calendar
Notion Calendar was beautiful, I’ll give it that. But I was essentially using a specialized tool to view what was already in my Apple Calendar. Cutting out the middleman simplified my workflow and eliminated another point of potential failure.
The cherry on top was when Notion acquired Cron Calendar and rebranded it as Notion Calendar. I had high hopes for a better version, but unfortunately, they fell short, just like Notion Mail, by not building an iPad app. This complete switch isn’t considered a loss, but I perceive it as a significant improvement.
Final Word
Consider this post a preview or a warm-up to a larger productivity series I’m launching.This shift from third-party platforms to Apple’s native ecosystem didn’t happen overnight, and the full story deserves more than a single blog post can contain.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be comparing each tool and its replacement in depth. No fluff, no sponsored content, just unfiltered thoughts on what I had to compromise, where I found unexpected improvements, and what genuinely works better now. I’ll walk through the specific workflows I rebuilt, the features I thought I’d miss but don’t, and the surprising capabilities I discovered in apps I’d previously dismissed.
Some of you might think I’m crazy for giving up powerful tools like Notion. Others might be considering a similar move but haven’t pulled the trigger. Wherever you are in your own productivity journey, I hope these upcoming posts help you make better decisions for your own workflow.
Because at the end of the day, productivity isn’t about having the most powerful tools. It’s about having the right tools that get out of your way and let you do your best work.
And for me, right now, that’s all Apple.