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Thomas Frank

Video creator focused on productivity, learning, and personal development.

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@ThomasFrank
Capture6Sound5Editing and post76Platforms12Desk9Everything else5

Capture

Cameras1

  • iPhone

    first cited October 2020

    “…but personally, as somebody who's been using an iPhone, since, I think, 2011 or 2012, this has been something that I had been wanting for a really, really long time.”
    View source at 0:31from October 2020

Camera equipment5

  • ULANZI ST-03 Phone Tripod Mount

    first cited July 2021

    “And on the end of that is just a really cheap phone mount that I got from Amazon.”
    View source at 6:30from July 2021
  • Switchpod

    $119.95first cited July 2021speaks highly of it

    “It is the SwitchPod, which was actually created by my friends, Pat Flynn and Caleb Wojcik, and it just one of my favorite pieces of video gear ever made.”
    View source at 6:12from July 2021
  • Pocket Tripod

    $49.95first cited July 2021speaks highly of it

    “It's this thing called the pocket tripod. So it looks like a credit card. It is about the thickness of maybe one and a half credit cards.”
    View source at 8:26from July 2021
  • Music stand

    first cited January 2021

    “Now, while filming, I pulled up that script on my iPad which sits on a music stand next to me so I can look at the lines and then to say them into the camera.”
    View source at 12:07from January 2021

Sound

Headphones5

  • AirPods

    $119.95cited in 4 videosfirst cited July 2021speaks highly of it

    “Next up we have the AirPods Pro, which are one of my favorite things that I own actually. And these things last forever in terms of battery and the noise cancellation is a game changer when I'm in places where I don't necessarily have my big headphones but might need some cancellation.”
    View source at 8:53from July 2021+ 3 more sources
  • Bose QuietComfort 35 (gen 1)

    cited in 2 videosfirst cited July 2021mixed views on it

    “Next up, we've got trusty wireless headphones and I'm actually in the process of testing new wireless headphones because my trusty Bose QC 35s are starting to die and there are newer ones on the market.”
    View source at 3:44from July 2021+ 1 more source
  • Sennheiser HD 650

    $299.00first cited March 2020mixed views on it

    “By contrast, open back headphones, like these Sennheiser HD 650s, which are honestly my favorite headphones.”
    View source at 7:56from March 2020
  • Bose QuietComfort 35 II

    $152.00first cited March 2020speaks highly of it

    “So these are the Bose QC 35s. I've had these for several years now, and if they were to break, I would probably go out and buy the exact same pair once again. I absolutely love these headphones, but that said, these and most noise canceling headphones are actually quite pricey.”
    View source at 7:00from March 2020

Editing and post

Editing software2

  • Adobe Premiere Pro

    positive about it

    “…and in recent years, I spent a lot of time learning the ones for Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere, all of which make my video editing process a lot more efficient.”
    View source at 1:46from March 2019
  • Adobe After Effects

    positive about it

    “…and in recent years, I spent a lot of time learning the ones for Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere, all of which make my video editing process a lot more efficient.”
    View source at 1:46from March 2019

Recording software4

  • ShareX

    cited in 2 videosfirst cited February 2022speaks highly of it

    “Sharex is a screenshot tool for Windows. It's free, it's open source. And I use the heck out of it because I take a ton of screenshots in my work and I do this for multiple different purposes.”
    View source at 1:09from February 2022+ 1 more source
  • Skype

    first cited August 2020mixed views on it

    “And essentially we would just hop on Skype, because these were the Dark Ages and that's kind of what we had, and we'd just get on a call where really nobody would talk, but we would each be on the line with the other person, knowing that they were getting their work done.”
    View source at 9:42from August 2020
  • Voice Memos

    first cited December 2020positive about it

    “I've got the voice memos app on my watch or my phone so I can record the thoughts and insights that come to me.”
    View source at 6:35from December 2020
  • Voice Notes app (phone voice memo app)

    first cited July 2020

    “If you look at my Voice Notes app on my phone, there are literally hundreds of voice memos that are me just singing song ideas into my phone.”
    View source at 0:36from July 2020

Coding software8

  • GitHub

    cited in 2 videosfirst cited October 2023speaks highly of it

    “And here on GitHub, this is an example of a repo. I have my notion voice notes dot MJS file.”
    View source at 35:45from November 2023+ 1 more source
  • Pipedream

    cited in 2 videosfirst cited October 2023speaks highly of it

    “And the reason that I'm listing this as a secret weapon is I have found Pipe Dream allows me to build and ship really useful workflows incredibly quickly.”
    View source at 18:29from November 2023+ 1 more source
  • Prettier

    first cited November 2023speaks highly of it

    “And then we also have Prettier, which is a formatter that will basically just format your code with indentations and line breaks as needed. I love that.”
    View source at 34:40from November 2023
  • Quokka.js

    first cited November 2023speaks highly of it

    “Another extension that I highly recommend that is a great learning tool is called Quokka, quokka.js right here.”
    View source at 33:33from November 2023

AI software1

Productivity software54

  • Notion

    cited in 43 videosmixed views on it

    “So that means in Notion I have a centralized database of all of my highlights, all of my research from not only Kindle books, not only physical books because you can actually take pictures of physical books and highlight that way in Readwise, but also all the articles I read.”
    View source at 3:47from January 2021+ 42 more sources
  • Readwise

    cited in 7 videosfirst cited January 2021speaks highly of it

    “Additionally, you can go even further than simply highlighting in the Kindle app or in the iBooks app, because there is an app that I use every day called Readwise.”
    View source at 6:07from December 2021+ 6 more sources
  • Slack

    cited in 5 videosfirst cited October 2020mixed views on it

    “I've got a Slack DM button here. So I've got several people across different Slack workspaces who I DM on a daily basis. And it's kind of a pain to switch workspaces in the Slack app, so using deep Slack URL linking, I can open up, say, a DM with Tony, basically instantly.”
    View source at 2:38from October 2020+ 4 more sources
  • AutoHotkey

    cited in 4 videosspeaks highly of it

    “For example, I'm using a program called Auto Hotkey on my PC to bind my home address to the keyword HADR. Now at least on Windows, Auto Hotkey is probably the best way to do this. Number one, it is absolutely free and number two, it is incredibly powerful.”
    View source at 0:40from March 2019+ 3 more sources

Creator tools7

  • Getty Images

    cited in 16 videosfirst cited December 2020

    “Video clips supplied by StoryBlocks and Getty Images”
    View sourcefrom January 2022+ 15 more sources
  • Loom

    cited in 2 videosfirst cited November 2020speaks highly of it

    “It's called Loom. So I take a lot of screenshots and a lot of screen casts to essentially document what I'm doing, but Loom lets you quickly record your screen and then instantly gives you a link you can copy and paste to share with somebody.”
    View source at 6:32from November 2020+ 1 more source
  • Storyblocks

    first cited February 2022speaks highly of it

    “And Story Blocks allows us to get a lot of that which allows us to make our content a lot more engaging.”
    View source at 13:58from February 2022
  • Creator's Companion

    first cited March 2024

    “Creator's Companion (The best Notion template for creators)”
    View sourcefrom March 2024

Platforms

Hosting platforms3

  • Nebula

    cited in 36 videosspeaks highly of it

    “Which is why I got together with a bunch of other educational creators and built Nebula. If you haven't heard about it, Nebula is a completely self-funded streaming service that lets you avoid ads, and allows us to create what we want without worrying about YouTube's algorithm. You'll find my content there, alongside people like CDP Gray, Wendover Productions, Kurzgesagt, and more.”
    View source at 5:16from November 2019+ 35 more sources
  • WordPress

    first cited October 2020

    “These include things like learning PHP and making tweaks to my website's WordPress theme”
    View source at 0:59from October 2020
  • Spotify

    first cited June 2021mixed views on it

    “Yep, I have finally switched over to just using Spotify as my default podcast player. I resisted it for a very long time, I was a Pocket Casts fan, but it's good enough now in Spotify.”
    View source at 11:16from June 2021

Courses9

  • Skillshare

    cited in 9 videosfirst cited August 2020speaks highly of it

    “Also on Skillshare, you're gonna find a few classes from yours truly. I've got one on productivity for creatives, which has a whole section on building that creative writing habit, which can also be applied to any other creative work.”
    View source at 11:27from April 2021+ 8 more sources
  • Samurai Guitarist's music theory class

    first cited August 2020

    “And if you're taking an independent online class, like I currently am with Samurai Guitarists class on music theory, then everything is independent.”
    View source at 2:05from August 2020
  • Weird JavaScript course by Fireship

    first cited November 2023speaks highly of it

    “For example, when I was going through this Fireship course, my YouTube algorithm took notice and started recommending me lots and lots of JavaScript related content on my home feed.”
    View source at 12:51from November 2023
  • freeCodeCamp JavaScript course

    first cited October 2023mixed views on it

    “I started with free code camps, free JavaScript course at the absolute basics, learning how to set variables and build loops and all that kind of stuff. Very quickly abandoned that course after the first couple of modules because I learned enough to start actually going out and building.”
    View source at 37:55from October 2023

Desk

Computers2

  • iPad

    $449.00cited in 5 videosfirst cited January 2021speaks highly of it

    “We also have the 11-inch iPad Pro. And on a lot of days, if I'm just gonna go to a coffee shop or something, I will often not bring the laptop because this thing functions as a pretty complete laptop replacement, as long as I don't need to edit or do some kind of like photo manipulation or anything.”
    View source at 2:22from July 2021+ 4 more sources
  • 16-inch MacBook Pro

    first cited July 2021speaks highly of it

    “So that includes a 16-inch MacBook Pro. A couple of years ago, I had this brief flirtation with a Windows laptop, that was very brief. This is just so much better in terms of portability and build quality than any Windows laptop I have tried.”
    View source at 2:00from July 2021

Monitors1

  • Dual monitor workstation

    first cited October 2021speaks highly of it

    “…if I'm editing a video or designing a new template in Notion, I love having my dual monitor workstations so I can see everything all at once”
    View source at 10:01from October 2021

Peripherals3

  • Magic Keyboard

    $99.00cited in 2 videosfirst cited January 2021mixed views on it

    “The Magic Keyboard is a big improvement on its own, but the addition of the touch pad here and the touch pad drivers in iOS means that this kind of operates almost like a laptop.”
    View source at 8:09from January 2021+ 1 more source
  • Apple Keyboard

    first cited July 2021speaks highly of it

    “I've also found that the Apple keyboard case is actually really nice.”
    View source at 2:58from July 2021
  • Corsair K95 keyboard

    $199.99first cited November 2020positive about it

    “So I've got a Corsair K95 keyboard and that comes with this Corsair software and I have multiple profiles on here.”
    View source at 11:54from November 2020

Storage1

  • Google Drive

    cited in 5 videosspeaks highly of it

    “And I also configure my default screenshots to live inside of Google drive. So all my screenshots are available to me across all my different devices.”
    View source at 2:43from February 2022+ 4 more sources

Office furniture2

Everything else

Other5

  • YouTube AdSense

    first cited August 2020mixed views on it

    “AdSense can be a decent revenue stream, I make about seven or $8,000 a month on it but it is one of my smaller income streams and I don't rely on it”
    View source at 14:08from August 2020
  • MDN Web Docs

    first cited November 2023speaks highly of it

    “And the third one that I'm going to mention, which I think makes up the trifecta of the ultimate JavaScript learning resources, in my opinion, is the MDN Web Docs.”
    View source at 11:05from November 2023
  • Audible

    first cited June 2021speaks highly of it

    “Next up on our list is Audible, which is an app that I've been using for a very, very long time, but I've actually been using a lot more heavily recently because I am now riding an e-bike to my downtown coworking office on any day where I don't have to sit in this chair and film videos in my studio.”
    View source at 9:57from June 2021
  • Ortlieb City Commuter Pannier Bag

    first cited July 2021speaks highly of it

    “So this is an Ortlieb City Commuter Pannier bag for a bike. And it's got this killer feature here, which is the ability to automatically hook on to a bike rack.”
    View source at 0:37from July 2021

Instagram setup

@tomfrankly
Editing and post1

Editing and post

Productivity software1

  • Beeminder
    “…or I'll use a tool like beeminder which will literally charging money if you don't blog habits or if you do log habits depending on how you set it up”
    View source at 2:49from August 2019

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