What’s a tool that quietly changed how you work — but nobody’s talking about?
Hi everyone!
We always hear about the big, popular productivity tools — but I’m more interested in the quiet game-changers. The tools that aren’t in every headline but made a huge difference in how you work or build.
I’ll start:
I created NovaStart because I often struggled to come up with fresh business ideas when brainstorming new projects. It’s an AI-powered idea generator that gives structured, actionable business concepts in seconds — and it’s become a go-to resource whenever I’m planning something new.
Now I’m curious about yours. What lesser-known tool or product has had an outsized impact on your workflow or creativity? Let’s swap recommendations
Excited to discover new gems 👇
Replies
Product Hunt
One I don't hear enough people mention is @There It's super helpful for working with a distributed team and quickly knowing what time of day it is for people. Lives in the mac menu bar and just works super well. I love a good hyper focused app and that one does exactly what I want.
There
@jakecrump Aww! So happy that you love the app Jake!
cc @denasohrabi
One tool that helped is @Huly.io
It’s a simple task management app that keeps me organized without too many features. It’s great for indie builders or small teams who want clarity over complexity, worth checking out.
@milansurelia Thanks for sharing — I’ll definitely check out Huly.io. I’ve been looking for a lightweight task manager that doesn’t overwhelm with features. Sounds perfect for staying focused!
I'm not sure how narrow you'll define "productivity". But smaller tools that really helped me get more productive are Hugo (static site generator), Bruno (local API client) and Marp (a local markdown-to-slides tool). And I use TextMate (a text editor for macOS) quite a lot. Of course, for coding it's VS Code, but TextMate is always running and I have typically lots of windows open to draft prompts for ChatGPT or to jot down some notes during a remote meeting. Also very helpful are GrandPerspective, a little macOS tool that shows you what folders on your disk are eating all the valuable disk space and Magic Number 2, a great calculator.
@stefanfis are part of the Hugo team? I ask because we're working on something similar and would love to connect to exchange some insights and ideas.
Product Hunt
@Text Blaze is pretty cool for snippets and it has a gmail integration to pre-populate emails with the person's first name (or anything) which saves me a ton of time.
One tool I recently discovered — and built with — is Firebase Studio. Not many are talking about it yet, but it quietly became my MVP-builder in minutes.
Using Firebase Studio, I built Prioritize Now — a lightweight, open-source productivity app based on the Eisenhower Matrix for prioritizing tasks. From idea to live deployment (on a custom domain!) took me just under 30 minutes — no backend, no fuss.
🔗 https://time.pratikbutani.com
📦 GitHub: https://github.com/pratikbutani/prioritize-now
It's clean, fast, and proves how powerful Firebase Studio can be for prototyping focused tools.
Would love feedback or collab ideas from others who value productivity + dev speed! 🚀