Make no mistake, there is a war raging right now for your attention. Everything from the apps you download, to the software you’re using, to the advertisements taking over your Facebook feed, is literally being created with the intention of being addictive.

And these days, while a lot of people are complaining about this, I’d like to take a different approach - an approach of extreme ownership over your individual life. Your attention is your currency. What you choose to give a fuck about determines how your day-to-day life unfolds.

So now, more than ever, your focus isn’t just necessary to get things done, it’s mandatory. How you navigate your monkey brain and the digital economy at large will directly impact your productivity and the work you actually want to get done.

Mark Manson said this better than I’ll ever be able to, so let’s quote him before we get into the actual tools and apps that can help with arguably the most important aspect of my professional life: productivity and focus.

23. Kill Facebook Newsfeed

If you’re passionate about almost anything in life, you’ll want to start by minimizing distractions. Turning off your Facebook newsfeed is how it starts. Trust me, you won’t miss it.

24. Win the Day

An awesome Chrome extension for habit tracking. In the Hyperbits Masterclass, we talk a lot about the importance of real deadlines. Anything you do to instill consistent habits will directly affect your overall output and progress by and large. Win the Day is our favorite app for this.

25. Forest

You can stay focused and present with this app. It’s similar to Win the Day in that it is pegged for habit tracking, but this app takes a more gamification approach. Funny how the potential answer to avoiding distraction is to gamify your habit tracking...but hey - whatever works!

26. Momentum

A Chrome extension that gives you a combination of 4-5 features every time you open a new tab: a beautiful picture, the time, a quote, the temperature, and a reminder to focus on one big thing for the day (which you can customize). I’ve found this extension to be strangely awesome, comforting and enjoyable. Everyone is always asking about it!

27. Grammarly

I’m a terrible speller, and my grammar is fairly sub-optimal (especially because I tend to write in a more conversationalist style). Grammarly is like spell check from Microsoft Word, except it also helps with grammar and will appear on anything you are doing on the internet. Writing that email to a record label? Reaching out to vocalists? Composing a bio in Evernote? Whatever you’re doing - it’s best to keep it clean and professional, and Grammarly helps with that like no other. I consider this a must-have tool.

28. MyHours

Want to actually see where your time is going? How much time are you really spending working with your DAW open? Or are you just jumping off to Reddit all the time? The free version of this app will get the job done and help you become more aware of your own habits and impulsive behaviors.

29. Streaks

Choose up to 12 habits per day that you’d like to implement into your daily life and track the progress. A super powerful tool and another way to gamify some positive changes you are trying to make in your life. 

30. Trello

This is by far my favorite project management tool I’ve ever used. I still love good old fashioned to-do lists, but unfortunately (or fortunately) there are simply too many moving parts in my life and business to not warrant using something like Trello. It’s free and super simple to use and honestly, it’s aesthetically pleasing as fuck to work with.

31. Asana

This is the most popular online project management tool out there and while extensive and powerful, the task-based approach is most likely overkill (or at least I felt it was for me). I'd still recommend it because the alternative of not using project management software is pretty unacceptable if you ask me.

32. Noisli

Improve focus + boost your productivity by mixing sounds from the world. I absolutely love this web-based tool. Not feeling the music your neighbors are playing? Not feeling the construction outside your window? Is it simply too quiet? Mix in some ambient forest and ocean sounds and you’ll get honed in on your tasks in no time. This one is strangely comforting. 

33. Sattva

The first of 3 meditation apps we are listing here. Does it have anything to do with music production? No. Does it have everything to do with self-acceptance, focus, clarity of mind, and creativity? Yes.

34. Headspace

Another amazing meditation app. This is by far our favorite when it comes to getting started with meditation, but the membership does feel a bit pricey at $12.99 per month. Start with the free version and consider upgrading from there. I'm fairly certain that using this app consistently for over 2 years (and meditating almost every) rewired my approach to life, changed my priorities, and made me a hell of a lot more self-aware. 

35. Calm

Another meditation app alternative. I haven’t actually used this one for any prolonged period of time (aside from a few one-off tries), but I firmly believe in meditation and this is one of the most popular and highly reviewed apps out there so I figured it was worth including. 

Bonus: Right Inbox

Right Inbox is a very useful and effective email productivity tool I've recently started to use.

Dealing with different timezones? Feel inspired at night but only want your email to land the next morning? With Right Inbox, you can write emails at a time that works for you, then have them sent at a time that works for your recipients.

Let’s face it - high quality graphics and images aren’t easy to consistently create, even if you are a graphic designer. Luckily, these tools and photo depositories are awesome. And they are all free and easy to use.

36. Canva

A free, mini Photoshop with plenty of templates that span across the majority of dimensions and sizes needed for social media. I honestly can’t recommend this tool enough. As someone who was somewhat of a photoshop snob at one point, Canva has resulted in a significant uptick in productivity when it comes to creating high-quality graphics & images. You do NOT need to be a graphic designer to use this tool.

37. Album Cover Rules

I’ve been using this site forever. If you are in need of high-quality cover art or album artwork, the first place I’ll start is with some general inspiration. Album cover rules will get ideas flowing in a hurry, and hey, ideas are everything. 

38. Reshot

This is just the first of three free photo libraries we love to use. The internet is awesome right? Use these photos at will, for whatever you'd like.

39. Pixels

Another free, massive photo library. Thank us later.

40. Unsplash

One more free photo library (this is probably our favorite one - why not save the best for last?).

41. Fiverr

Graduating from making your own artwork in Canva? Or simply want to work with someone who is better at graphic design than you’ll ever be? Fiverr is great for freelance work on demand for graphics, recording voice-overs, or whatever you might need someone’s expertise for. A slightly better, more professional alternative is Upwork. I've had better luck there, but it does tend to attract better quality workers which are a bit more expensive. 

42. Snapseed

This is an app that uses Google’s high-quality filters. My favorite is the high definition filter - it gets the job done for landscape photos every time.

43. Pixlr

Another photo editing app, not quite as good as Snapseed, but close. Worth checking out if you truly enjoy the option of additional filters. If not, stick with Snapseed + Instagram.

Bonus: PlaceIt

This platform does everything for you, from a logo, mockup, design template to a video. If you want to save time with your marketing visuals, make sure you try it. Placeit has plenty of free templates and they are adding new designs made by professionals everyday. Perfect for startups, business owners and artists.

Bonus #2: Voice Recorder

The VEED.IO solution to recording your voice online. Free, easy to use!

The numbers are officially in - email is still a more effective medium than social media according to Agency Analytics 2017 industry reports. I know, it sounds crazy, but it's true. For starters, more people have email than Facebook (by 2x).

Also, people still use email more often per day than social media. On top of that, according to Agency Analytics, email marketing campaigns outperform social media marketing campaigns with an average ROI of 122% versus 28%, respectively. That’s extremely significant.

To keep things simple: email isn’t dead. In fact, it’s thriving. And you have to participate if you want to be relevant, regardless what you are trying to build: an artist brand, a business or anything in between.

This means collecting emails to grow and nurture your fanbase at all costs as it will help your bottom line in everything - from merch sales to hard ticket sales, to music sales, to offering your services.

And by the way - if you don’t have a website to push traffic to, it’s time to get one. Social media is like leasing a car - you don’t actually own the property or contacts (ie. the fans), and you’re subject to rules and algorithms inside whatever social media platform you’re using. You can take back control with these tools.

44. Mailchimp

A powerful and tried/tested email management service. It's free to use under 2000 contacts, but prices increase in a hurry. I would recommend Mailchimp as a solid starting point, but I’d move on once you start to collect a lot of emails.

45. Email Octopus

Email Octopus runs through Amazon Web Services which means one big thing for me and you - low prices. In fact, it’s only $15 for 10,000 subscribers a month. In the email marketing world that is dirt cheap!

46. Mail-Blast

Touted by Heroic.Academy as the best option in the market, MailBlast is arguably one of the most affordable email marketing platforms out there. It also runs using Amazon Web Services and for just $15 a month, you can set up email automation to 15,000 subscribers.

47. Mailerlite

Another solid service with some beautiful email templates. We recommend keeping email design pretty simplistic, but another great feature is the email lead-generation forms that you can publish and use to collect more leads. Pricing is slightly more expensive than Email Octopus or Mail Blast, but it’s still very competitive.

48. Send in Blue

Another affordable email management tool that is all about offering competitive pricing as you scale. Think 40,000 contacts for only $30 per month with unlimited sending. Again, in the email marketing world, this type of pricing is unheard of!

49. Yesware

This little email app can actually help you stay on top of those manual outreaches to labels, A&Rs, as well as blogs/curators by tracking email opens and activities from your contacts.

50. Hunter

A very underrated tool that allows you to find anyone’s email address. Access is everything.

Aside from Hunter, another great tool is Contact Out which allows you to find anyone's personal email and phone number.

51. Unlock.FM

A nifty, clean little widget which offers fans a simple way to preview your music and download it in exchange for joining your email list or tweeting a message. This is a great way to build social engagement or grow your email list.

52. Squarespace

If you need a starter website, this is the best place to start. If you have a few images, you can create a beautiful site in under an hour - it really is that easy. Eventually, you might want some more custom options - but when it comes to getting started, Squarespace is in a field of its own.

53. Wordpress

Once you’ve graduated beyond the limitations of a Squarespace website, you’ll want to shift over to something more open source like Wordpress. If you are half decent at code or tech stuff, you can modify literally thousands and thousands of themes to your liking, or install plugins for virtually everything you could ever want. Find a place to host your website and you'll be good to go!

54. Sumo

Ever wonder how websites are going about creating those enticing pop-ups that are great at collecting email addresses, in return for some sort of value? Yea, they are using apps like Sumo, not coding it from scratch. Another amazingly simple but powerful tool.

55. Drift

Want to actually chat with people on your website in real time? Drift is free to use and can do just that. It comes packaged as a powerful widget that you can install on almost any website.

Despite the continuing popularity and success metrics behind email, social media isn’t going anywhere either. There is no better way to connect with a fan base than to showcase your personality and lifestyle. Here are some of my favorite tools to grow & manage your socials.

56. Hubspot

The mother of all social media management & inbound marketing apps, Hubspot has a solid free option to get you started.

57. Crowdfire

A very powerful social media management tool that allows you to get tailored posts for every social network, pre-schedule all of your content, publish content from your own blogs and sites, and even optimize your social media accounts.

58. Instagress

The majority of popular artists and music producers use Instagress or a tool very similar to it. At the end of the day, all this is doing is liking posts based on specific hashtags to help grow your following. The best part? It actually works and is super affordable. If you aren't grandfathered into Instagress, they might not be accepting new accounts. Try these alternatives: Social Drift, Social Network Elite

59. Buffer

A very popular tool that allows you to schedule Instagram posts - you’ll still have to hit “publish” after you’ve scheduled it, but still very helpful nonetheless. Also, there is a new feature that allows you to repost other Instagram posts!

60. Grum

Grum is actually the only tool that allows you to schedule posts to go out automatically on Instagram without you manually having to press “publish” (that we know of). You can set a schedule and, as a bonus, you can actually upload the content straight from your desktop.

61. Ink361

With a clean looking dashboard, this tool will help you post more of the types of content that your Instagram followers actually engage with, as well as analyze similar or competing accounts to help grow your brand awareness. 

62. Iconosquare

A powerful, premium Instagram analytics tool. Learn which hashtags perform the best for you, as well as the optimal time of day to post to get the most engagement.

63. Fun Tweets

At the very least, this page is some solid comedic inspiration. It can help you think of some funny tweets (you know, if humor just isn’t your thing) or provide a much-needed laugh since most Twitter feeds seem to be complaining about Trump or some other hot social issue these days.

64. Tweetdeck

Schedule your tweets with this free Twitter tool. It can help maintain some consistency and help you grow your audience with engagement.

65. lnk.to

This service provides smart links for music marketing. I'd consider this a must-have tool for all of your future releases.

Some Final Thoughts...

Do you need to be using all 65 of these tools? Of course not. Can they dramatically help improve your day-to-day focus, increase your productivity, and help you achieve your dreams? Absolutely. 

What other tools are you guys using? What can we add to the list? Let us know by getting in touch!

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