Productivity apps are one of the most crowded categories in the Mac App Store, and most of them make promises they do not keep. This list focuses on tools that earn long-term use: apps that solve real problems without requiring you to change how you work to accommodate them.
For writing: iA Writer or Markdown editors
iA Writer is a focused writing app with a clean interface and nothing to distract you from the text. It saves in Markdown, supports iCloud sync, and has a focus mode that highlights the current sentence. The yearly subscription is modest. If you write regularly — anything from blog posts to long emails to documentation — it is worth the cost. Alternatives: Typora (one-time purchase), Bear (good for shorter notes with links between them).
For tasks: Things 3 or OmniFocus
Things 3 is a task manager that manages to be both comprehensive and simple to use. You can capture tasks quickly with a keyboard shortcut, organize by project and area, set deadlines and reminders, and review what is coming up without the interface getting in the way. One-time purchase with separate Mac and iOS apps. OmniFocus is the more powerful alternative for people with complex project structures, but it has a steep learning curve and a higher price.
For notes: Obsidian or Apple Notes
Apple Notes is underrated and sufficient for most people: searchable, syncs across devices, supports images and drawings, and requires no setup. If you want something more: Obsidian stores notes as Markdown files in a folder you own, creates links between notes, and has a plugin ecosystem. It is free for local use. The combination of Apple Notes for quick capture and Obsidian for longer notes and reference material works well for many people.
For window management: Rectangle
Already mentioned in the menu bar apps list, but worth repeating. Rectangle gives you keyboard shortcuts to snap windows to half screen, thirds, corners, and full screen. After a few days of use, resizing windows manually feels frustratingly slow by comparison. Free and open source.
For clipboard history: Pasta or Maccy
A clipboard manager keeps a history of everything you have copied, so you can paste something from ten minutes ago without copying it again. Maccy is free and open source with a simple popup you activate with a keyboard shortcut. Pasta has a more visual interface and a one-time purchase price. Either one quickly becomes something you notice the absence of on Macs where you have not installed it.
For automation: Shortcuts
Apple Shortcuts is built into macOS and more capable than most people realize. You can automate file organization, send templated messages, resize images in bulk, convert document formats, and trigger multi-step workflows from a keyboard shortcut or menu bar icon. There is a learning curve, but the built-in Shortcuts gallery (open the Shortcuts app and browse the Gallery) has ready-made examples you can use without building anything from scratch.
For email: Mimestream or Airmail
If you use Gmail, Mimestream is built specifically for it and uses the Gmail API rather than standard IMAP, which makes it noticeably faster and more reliable. It supports labels, filters, and keyboard shortcuts in a way that native Gmail in a browser matches but Apple Mail does not. Subscription-based. Airmail is the multi-account alternative with more customization and a one-time purchase option.
A note on subscriptions
Many good Mac apps have moved to subscriptions. Before dismissing a subscription on principle, consider: a $20/year app used daily costs about 5 cents a day. If it saves you 10 minutes a week, the maths are easy. The apps worth avoiding are those with subscriptions priced as if they were enterprise software for something a free alternative does adequately.