10 Best Productivity Tools in 2026

I have tried many dictation apps in the past. After all, I am a writer and spend most of my times translating my thoughts onto the screen.

The problem I often ran into was that dictation apps would dictate every single thing I said, every "um" and "like" and "I think" and I would spend just as much time editing what I wrote afterwards.

And that was when they actually worked. Because I can't tell you how many times I've tried using dictation only to realize it didn't actually capture what I said! So after saying the same time three times in a row...I gave up on dictation as a method of working. That is, until Wispr Flow came along.

Wispr Flow was the first dictation app I used that works reliably and that's because it uses AI. Immediately, I noticed the difference.

If you correct yourself mid-sentence (e.g. let's meet Tuesday -- oops, I mean Thursday!) it will just output "Let's meet Thursday" removing all your fumbles. Looking at my stats, Wispr Flow has made over 10,000 fixes for me 😅

It also has a clipboard for anything you dictate so if for whatever reason the app you're writing is glitches and it doesn't paste, you have a backup.

I started using Wispr Flow on my phone to answer text messages. Then I got it on my computer and started using it to answer Slack messages, emails, and even writing first drafts of articles.

When I can't use it (e.g. someone is on a call next to me), I feel the pain. I feel the time slipping away as I type something that could have taken me seconds to speak.

• One shortcut replaces the clunky "open app, find thing, copy thing, paste thing" dance
• Clipboard history alone solves a workflow problem that hits me all day
• Team snippets let us share links, messages, and business details across computers
• Free version is genuinely useful, so there's no real downside to trying it
• Beautiful UI and a deep extension ecosystem that replaces a bunch of separate tools

• Raycast AI feels underwhelming if you want deep, context-aware AI work
• Snippets and team features won't add much if your team has no repeatable language or links
• Mac only

I truthfully cannot live without this one.

It's the feature that made Raycast stick for us. Normally your Mac only remembers the last thing you copied, but with Raycast you can pull up your full clipboard history and paste any of it.

So when I copy a link, then another link, then a piece of text, I'm not bouncing back through tabs to re-copy something I already had. It sounds unimportant until you realize how often it saves you.

Snippets are saved pieces of text you reuse without rewriting them, like UTMs, our business mailing address, and NDA language.

The team version is what sold us on paying after using the free version for ages, because Alex and I can share the same snippets across both our computers.

If your business has recurring sales, ops, hiring, or partnership messages, it's genuinely worth it. If your team doesn't have repeatable language, it won't do much for you.

The developer community and growing library of extensions is something I wish more tools had.

I'd much rather compress an image through a Raycast plugin than go to some sketchy image conversion site, which I totally haven't done before. It means a lot of little tasks stay inside your launcher instead of scattering you across random apps and websites.

Dashlane started as a password manager for consumers (B2C)—as at the end of the day, people need to manage passwords their many passwords across personal/work—and in the past few years, they've been focusing their efforts in building out the B2B (team management) component of Dashlane.

This is important because having used password managers built for companies, not people (e.g. IT Glue/MyGlue), you see first-hand that a powerful password manager is nothing if the end-user doesn't actually, well, use it... User-adoption is the most critical factor for a password manager to be successful.

That's where Dashlane stands out, because they were first-and-foremost a B2C company that built an exceptional end-user experience for everyday people, and have moved to the B2B market. This gives them a unique advantage in the space.

Take the mobile app (for iOS and Android), it's far and above the most modern and visually appealing of all the other password managers I've listed here.

That said, there is one area that lacking a bit with Dashlane (likely because they haven't been in B2B as long), and that's their API.

Once you're using a password manager like Dashlane, you can also set up 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) from right within the existing password that you save for a site. So instead of using the insecure SMS 2FA (which won't work if you're without or in spotty cell connection, which also brings with it sending delays of up to 5 minutes. Not to mention being prone to spoofing, phishing, and social engineering attacks), you can instead set up a time-based code, which will even autofill when logging into a website while still adding a second layer of security (e.g. if your password leaks, someone still cannot login to your account without the additionally changing code). From over a decade in the IT space, I know all too well that never does higher security also mean higher convenience, but with Dashlane, it actually does:

• Dia has one of the most performant browsers out of all the current AI browsers on the market.
• Backed by the same team as the beloved Arc Browser, much of what made Arc great has been making its way to Dia.
• Since getting acquired for $610M, they now have the full backing of a $20B+ publicly traded company (Atlassian), to experiment and build in one of the most expensive and competitive spaces in the market.

• Dia hasn't decided to go the path of Agent Mode (controlling your browser for you), type features that both ChatGPT Atlas and Comet have gone deep into. So if you're looking for that, it's not likely coming.
• They can't currently use your actual ChatGPT history, so while their chat experience is beautiful and works well, I do at times wish I had more of the context from my ChatGPT account.
• They don't yet have a mobile app for iOS or Android, which feels important for something as core as your browser.

The same powerful (optional) sidebar that first put Arc Browser on the market, and that everyone else copied (including ChatGPT Atlas and even Chrome), is in Dia, and more refined than ever.

If you're someone that likes the idea of being able to have pre-built prompts that can be ran that interact with and take into consideration the content on the page you're visiting, then you'll love their "Skills" functionality.

• Automatically schedules tasks onto your calendar
• Eliminates constant manual planning and rearranging
• Fully mapped-out daily schedule

• Not ideal for people who enjoy customizing and constantly reorganizing tools
• Less focused on aesthetics or perfectly polished layouts

You come in, look at your calendar, and everything is laid out. You know what needs to get done, and your team has a clear picture.

Motion places your tasks directly onto your calendar so you don’t have to decide what to work on next. You open your day, and it’s already planned.

Workflow Templates in Motion are reusable project templates that define exactly how your work gets done from start to finish. They remove mental overhead by clearly mapping out every step of your process, so you can jump straight into execution without second guessing what comes next or forgetting critical steps.

They include your roles, stages, tasks, and key details so every project follows the same structured process. Once set up, Motion uses the template to automatically schedule everything on your team's calendars and adjust timelines when things change.