I keep a short list of tools I actually open: a plain text editor, a notes app that doesn't try to be social, and whatever chat window I'm using that week. No dashboards. No "AI workspace" that wants to reorganize my life every Tuesday.
The quiet ones leave room for the thought to arrive unfinished. Loud tools fill the silence with suggestions, templates, and a sense that you should already know what you're making. I don't. Most days I only know I'm circling something.
So I stay with the unflashy stack. Not because it's virtuous — because it matches how I want to think: slowly enough to notice when the draft stops sounding like me, and simply enough that the tool doesn't become the subject.