As we’ve established, I’m a faithful user of Apple’s built-in system apps. But as I was putting together my Default Apps list, I was struck by how many of the tools I use everyday don’t fall into the same categories as the ones that Apple provides.

While I get a ton of use out of Notes, Reminders, Safari, and the like, they don’t do everything I want my devices to do. So rather than turn to third-party apps as alternatives to Apple’s offerings, I rely on the App Store for software that accomplishes things my device can’t do out of the box.

I thought it was only fair that I share my go-to apps for these categories as well.

For day planning, I use Structured. I could block schedule everything in Calendar, but that would stress me out and mix critical meetings with mundane tasks that aren’t as time-sensitive. Structured puts my tasks, appointments, and day plan together in a way that makes perfect sense to me.

I consider my writing app to be something separate from a word processor. While Pages is the go-to for anything I plan to print, iA Writer is where I do the vast majority of my writing, including these blog posts. Markdown feels like second nature to me and provides just enough formatting options without getting in the way with too many.

My habit tracker is Awesome Habits. Could I piece together something similar in Reminders? Probably, but it wouldn’t be as nice, or as focused.

Everlog is my journaling app of choice. Technically, this still isn’t an alternative to an Apple app until iOS 17.2 ships, but I don’t think I’ll be straying anytime soon. The Journal app is iPhone-only for the time being, and that’s just a nonstarter for me.

An app that’s become really important to me lately is Mango Baby, which bills itself as a newborn tracker. It’s how I know when my son needs to eat, how many diapers I’ve changed in a day, and whether or not it’s bath night. I’d be lost without it, and trying to create something similar in a shared note or spreadsheet just wouldn’t be as helpful.

I save YouTube videos I want to watch later in Play. Safari Reading List might be able to save links, too, but I like Play’s auto-tagging system, and it’s got a big update coming soon that I’m quite excited for.

All of my media tracking is done in Sequel, which I mostly use to keep up with movies and TV shows. Nothing could ever fully replace Apple’s TV app for me, but Sequel is a great complement to it and my go-to for checking on what’s coming soon and where I’m at in a particular show.

Chronicling can be used to track anything you want, but I use it specifically to log household chores and make sure I’m keeping up. Again, Reminders could do this, but not nearly as well as Chronicling does. It’s a little silo just for household tasks, and I love it for that.

Finally, for countdowns I use Up Ahead. There’s some overlap between events in this app and my calendar, but I find it helpful to have a widget telling me how close certain big days are so I can plan accordingly. Up Ahead is instrumental for that in a way calendar alerts never could be.

While I find so much value in the system defaults provided by Apple, I also wouldn’t be able to get by without my favorite third-party apps. My devices would feel broken without them. I feel like I’ve struck a good balance between using the defaults for the basics while going beyond them with other tools when my needs grow.

It’s constantly changing, but it’s a lot of fun. I’m thankful for every app on this list, and my Default Apps list before it, because they each make my life better in some way.