Being boring to be more productive

I, like most of you I’m sure, fall into the trap of getting caught up with whatever the latest craze is. Whether it’s a new piece of kit, new app to try out, latest JavaScript framework, or these days, latest AI assisted IDE.

For me, it’s often all of the above; so I am trying something new that might help help you as well.

Being boring on purpose.

Not personality wise - though that is for you to decide I guess - but being boring as in choosing what apps, tech stack, etc. I want to use and sticking with them in an effort to quit playing around and getting more done.

How do you choose what to use and what not to?

The best part is, if you are only doing things for yourself, you get to choose. You don’t need to keep up with the latest and greatest. For example, let’s say I am choosing a backend as a service (BaaS) product and have tons of experience with Supabase but have been hearing a lot about Appwrite lately. How do you choose what to use?

Sure, Appwrite probably won’t take you too long to pick up and get comfortable with, but this is where you need to make a decision…

What is your primary objective?

Are you looking to learn something new or are you building a portfolio project to encompass all that you have learned so far? Perhaps you want to build a Subscription as a Service (Saas)? Only you can answer this.

For the record, I do not think there is anything wrong with building to learn, however from our example above, you need to decide if you are looking to use Appwrite to learn Appwrite or if you care more about building a project where your energy will be better put elsewhere?

All of our experiences are different so let me tell you what has kicked this off for me. I have been trying to build make things that are beyond a scope I am comfortable with and this has led to stagnation. I know what I want to build and am aware of what tools/technologies I need to do so, however, there are too many holes in my current knowledge to do so. Therefore I end up feeling overwhelmed and have nothing but another landing page I spent more time on than I should have because it was the fun and easy part.

How I am attempting to solve this problem

Inspired by a conversation I had with Brad Garropy when recording an episode of my podcast, I am figuring out what tech stack I want to stick with for my personal projects for the time being. This is all in an effort for me to be more productive and add projects to my portfolio that show off my current skills better than what is currently up there.

In the episode (which is not out at the time of writing) Brad mentions he feels like he is in his “Old Man Phase” because he wants to stop toying around with different tools and just build. As you can tell this resonated with me and I do not see anything wrong with it if it helps you reach your goals. With that, I am expanding it from my tech stack to the apps I use every day for my notes, calendar, to-do list, etc.

My current tech stack

While this is not set in stone nor 100% complete, I am leaning towards the following tools and technologies for my current and future projects:

1. Next.js - React framework

2. Tailwind CSS - CSS framework

3. shadcn/UI - Component library

4. Clerk - Authentication

5. pnpm - package manager

6. Vercel - Deployment

Some of you that know me may be surprised that I’m not looking at Astro as my main framework, and I’m not giving up on it. But with React being what I see in demand for the jobs I am interested, I feel I may as well stick with Next.js. Astro will always be there for me and any side projects I feel are appropriate for it.

My current app stack

App stack; weird term I just made up but let’s stick with it.

1. Notion - Notes, writing, and project database (such as podcasts)

2. Notion Calendar - Calendar app of choice

3. Todoist - To-do list app

4. Spark - Email client, though I am looking forward to giving Notion Mail a shot when it’s available

5. Session - Pomodoro timer and app blocker

6. Arc - Web browser

7. iCloud - Cloud storage

8. Cursor - Code editor

9. Meld - Streaming client

Summary

This is all something that I have been working on over the last couple of weeks and thought it may interest you or be of some value. What are your thoughts? Of course, having a plan is one thing, but executing is perhaps even more important. So, let’s see how this goes for me over the next few months!

If you got this far, thank you for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts so if you have any feel free to respond via email, or you can find me on X/Twitter and Bluesky @ryandotfurrer.