Mine is email to calendar to Slack to a doc and then back to email. Every single decision goes through that same circuit. The actual thinking takes two minutes. The switching takes ten.
What does everyone else's version of this look like?
Counted today while working on a feature. VS Code, Figma, Linear, Slack, browser with four tabs. Five apps for one piece of work.
Which combos do you find yourself constantly switching between? Wondering if there's a pattern or if it's totally different by role.
Counted for a project today. Email for the brief, Notion for the draft, Slack for feedback rounds, Drive for the file, FreshBooks for the invoice, email again to confirm. Six apps to send one thing to one client.
Is this just what freelancing looks like or do people have a tighter setup?
Had a moment today where I tried to handle one fairly simple work task and ended up jumping between multiple apps, checking a document, pulling some data, messaging someone, and then sending the final response.
By the time I was done, I’d used 4–5 different tools.
As a small business owner, this kind of context switching feels like it eats up a lot of time.
Is this just normal now, or have you found ways to simplify your workflow and reduce the number of tools you rely on?
Curious how others are handling this day to day.
When I'm deep in something it's Figma for the work, Notion for specs, Slack for feedback, Chrome for reference images. Sometimes Linear too. I feel like I spend as much time switching as designing.
What are other designers constantly jumping between?
Not talking about automation tools. Just the pair where you find yourself doing the same copy-paste move ten times a day because they don't talk to each other.
Mine is Notion and Gmail. Every single time.
We're thinking about integrations and trying to understand which manual handoffs actually hurt people the most. Not looking for a generic answer like ""everything with everything."" What specific combo do you wish just worked without you in the middle?
For a medium-sized project I touch Linear, Notion, Slack, Google Docs, and usually someone's Figma file. That's five tools to track one thing. Updates have to be manually synced across most of them.
What's everyone else working with?
Tried to answer one question from my manager today. Needed to check the doc, pull the data, cross-reference another doc, ask someone in Slack, then write the response in email. Five apps for one answer.
Is this just how work works now?
I have been thinking about this more than I probably should. An API key with a spending limit and no other permissions doesn't seem that scary. But a lot of people treat it like handing over a password.
Am I missing something or is the threat model pretty limited here?
Not asking for passwords or OAuth. Just a scoped API key. But from user interviews, a huge chunk of people won't do it. They don't really understand what an API key is and ""paste this into our app"" feels scary.
Has anyone built through this problem? What actually helped?
I self-host a lot specifically because I don't want to hand credentials to random services. But then I paste my OpenAI key into a productivity app without thinking twice.
Where do you actually draw the line? Is it open source vs closed? Data handling policy? Reputation?
I've given my OpenAI key to like five different apps at this point and I honestly couldn't tell you what any of their privacy policies say. I just paste it in and move on.
Is anyone actually careful about this or is the risk pretty theoretical?
Building a tool that integrates with a few common services. The technical users get it immediately. The non-technical ones see ""paste your API key here"" and the conversation dies.
What has actually worked for explaining this in a way that feels safe?
The product works well but the onboarding drops off hard at the API key step. I've tried explaining what it is, showing that it's stored encrypted, adding a doc on how to revoke it. Still losing people.
What did others do when they hit this?
I’m working on a product where users need to connect their own API key during onboarding.
From what I’ve observed so far:
- Around ~40% of users drop off at this step
- Users who complete it tend to stay and actively use the product
I am the founder of this product.
I’m trying to understand whether:
- This kind of drop-off is expected when requiring API keys early
- Or if it usually indicates a UX/trust issue
For those who have built similar tools:
- Did you face similar onboarding friction?
- What changes helped reduce drop-off (if any)?
Would really appreciate insights from others who’ve dealt with this.
My post comply with the rules.
I use a few tools that require API keys to connect services. n8n, Zapier, some newer ones. For the established ones I just do it. For newer tools I hesitate.
What's your actual decision process here?
I've had Paste installed for two years. I use clipboard history maybe twice a day and that's it. But I keep seeing people rave about clipboard managers like they're life-changing.
What are you actually doing with yours that makes it worth it?
I copy so many things throughout the day. Snippets, IDs, tokens, URLs, error messages. Half of them I overwrite before I use them.
Do developers actually use clipboard managers or is this not a solved problem for most people?