Advice

Ask Tim Ferriss

By The Editors / October 7, 2014 9:00 am

Because every man wants to improve himself, and sometimes even actually tries to, we’re proud to present Ask Tim Ferriss: a series in which the lifestyle guru and bestselling author answers your questions and helps you live your best life. Have a question? Just Ask Tim Ferriss.

Hey there, all. Tim here.

Ever since I published The 4-Hour Workweek, people have asked me for tools and tricks that save time (or a headache). With that in mind, I’d like to kick off this column with one of the questions I hear most often:

Are there any apps or tools you’d be lost without?

Evernote is the motherlode.

I use it 10+ times per day — for all research, saving webpages for offline reading, de-cluttering paper from the house, remembering wine labels, etc. It’s the Swiss army knife. (Ed. note: Tim even sends us his column via Evernote!)

For writing — specifically — I rely on Scrivener, the word processor I used for The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Chef.

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Unlike Word, it doesn’t crash every five minutes, and it was originally designed for screenplays. I can also look at multiple docs at once in the same window. It’s wonderfully minimalist.

Combine that with JumpCut (free), which lets you expand your clipboard to 30+ copied items, and you’ll be in flow heaven.

For caffeine: the AeroPress, designed by the Stanford engineer behind the Aerobie, is the easiest way to get the perfect cup of coffee.

Aim for 12g of coffee to every 200g of water at 175-180 degrees F. Clean up takes literally two seconds. Check out the video demo I did for Jimmy Fallon.

Last, to logistics — Uber has saved my ass more times than I can count, whether avoiding long taxi lines at the airport or delivery charges from BestBuy, etc.

In cities like San Fran, it’s far less expensive for me to use Uber daily than to own a car.

Parking, car insurance, gas — all things I can do without.

Cheers,

Tim Ferriss
Author and human guinea pig

Tim Ferriss is an early-stage investor (Uber, Twitter), author of The 4-Hour Workweek, and host of the (usually) #1 business podcast on iTunes. Have a question? Ask Tim Ferriss. Tim also offers his own newsletter, which you can sign up for right here.