No affiliate links. No sponsored recommendations. Just the tools that have earned a permanent place in how I research, think, write, and work — and why each one made the cut.
This list is personal. Every tool here is something I use regularly — not something I was paid to mention. I've tried to explain not just what each tool does, but what it does for my specific way of working. That context is the useful part.
Where everything lives. Research notes, framework drafts, client briefs, book chapters. The external hard drive for my thinking. I've tried every alternative. Nothing else has the same combination of flexibility and speed.
Daily useEvery academic paper I've read — annotated, tagged, and searchable. The 100+ papers that built the Psychomarketing framework are all in here. If you work with research seriously, nothing else comes close for organisation.
ResearchFor building idea connections across different frameworks and papers. The graph view shows me when two research papers from different fields are saying the same thing — which is often where the best insights come from.
FrameworksFirst stop for quick research questions that need sourced answers. Faster than Google for finding the right academic starting point when I'm exploring a new area of buyer psychology I haven't read deeply yet.
ResearchFor stress-testing frameworks, finding counter-arguments, and working through complex psychological concepts. Not for generating content — for thinking harder. The best use is asking it to argue against your current hypothesis.
ThinkingShows whether a research paper has been supported, disputed, or contradicted by subsequent studies. Essential for working with behavioural science research — the field moves fast and some foundational studies have been challenged.
ResearchEvery first draft starts here. The distraction-free environment is not a feature — it is the product. Writing well requires single-task focus that almost no other tool forces. iA Writer forces it.
First draftsAfter the first draft. Catches every sentence that is doing too much — which in psychology writing is a constant problem. Dense ideas need clean sentences. This enforces that discipline when my natural instinct is to over-explain.
EditingThe primary distribution channel for the work. Where the ideas meet the people who need them. One post daily. The discipline is not the writing — it is the decision to publish before you feel ready.
DistributionThe Buyer's Mind newsletter. The only platform that gives a serious writer the tools to build a serious audience without compromise. The analytics tell you exactly what landed — which matters when every send is an experiment in psychology.
NewsletterFor quick visual content — carousels, quote cards, framework diagrams. Not a design tool — a speed tool. The best use is for translating a framework into something visual fast enough to keep pace with the writing.
VisualsFor editing podcast appearances and recording framework explanations. Editing audio by editing text is one of those tools that permanently changes how you work once you've used it. No going back.
Audio · VideoNot for vanity metrics — for behaviour patterns. Where in the funnel does the buyer hesitate? What pages do they return to before buying? GA4 answered differently than UA. It took time to trust the new model. Now it's the first thing I open on any client audit.
AnalyticsThe closest thing to watching the buyer's brain in action. Session recordings show you exactly where the safety scan fails — the scroll stop, the back-button, the hesitation on a price. No other tool gives you this.
ConversionFree alternative to Hotjar with surprisingly good rage-click and dead-click detection. Rage clicks are a psychology data point — they tell you where the user's expectation was violated. I run it alongside Hotjar on client sites.
UX ResearchThe retention platform of choice for D2C. The flow builder maps directly onto psychological sequences — post-purchase identity reinforcement, re-engagement loss aversion triggers, winback belonging signals. The tool is only as good as the psychology behind the flows.
RetentionWhere the 1-hour consulting sessions live. The fastest way to get a focused hour with me — book, pay, show up with your specific problem. No preamble. No sales process. Direct access.
$100 · 1 hourFor retainer clients. Async communication that respects both sides' deep work time while keeping the feedback loop fast enough to be useful. The discipline is not the tool — it is the channel structure that makes it work.
Client workMandatory when you're working across multiple countries, networks, and devices. The cost of a compromised account is higher when you're nomadic — support is slower, verification is harder, consequences are worse. Not optional.
SecurityFor working from cafés, hotels, and co-working spaces across Southeast Asia. Non-negotiable when client work and personal data share the same machine on an unknown network.
Nomad essentialReceiving consulting fees from international clients without the bank cutting 3-5% on every transfer. The real cost of international banking is invisible until you calculate it. Wise made it visible — and fixable.
FinanceTimezone-aware scheduling across India, Vietnam, and wherever else the work takes me. The friction of coordinating time zones manually is a hidden productivity tax. Calendly eliminates it entirely.
SchedulingNoise cancellation that genuinely works in a busy café. Deep work requires the ability to control your auditory environment regardless of where you physically are. These headphones are infrastructure, not a luxury.
HardwareEvery research-adjacent book I read goes here first. The highlight export to Notion is the most underrated workflow in reading seriously. Every highlighted passage becomes a searchable note inside the same system as my frameworks.
ReadingThe most common mistake with tools is treating them as the answer. They are not the answer. They are the infrastructure that lets the actual thinking happen faster and more reliably.
A great analytics tool in the hands of someone who doesn't understand buyer psychology produces better-looking wrong answers. The psychology has to come first. The tools amplify it.
That's why this list comes with explanations — not just names. The why matters more than the what.
The stack is interesting. The results are the point.