I’ve had no luck with any app in particular over extended periods of time. Spotify has been good, but will occasionally only recommend me stuff I’ve heard a million times for a few weeks straight. My best luck has been following music reviewing sites, or going through playlists featuring artists I like on spotify. This is best with smaller bands, there are less generic playlists with them. Finally, my best bet for finding new music from small artists is simply browsing bandcamp. I’ve found many great artists who aren’t on spotify, and many who are.
As a metalhead, I’m a fan of angry metal guy, as far as reviewers go. RABM on reddit is good too.
I use obsidian for notes and non-todo organization
Im a huge fan of taskwarrior, and I use it to keep myself organized, and use the burn down functionality to keep myself motivated to complete large tasks, and I’ve even gamified it which has led me to becoming very, very productive when I was in college. It’s a CLI tool, so it might not be good for everyone. I use inthe.am for calendar integration
I use a pomodoro timer and journal (in obsidian, since I’m often using it when working or studying) to keep myself on task, and no matter how bad the adhd gremlins scream in my ear to browse the internet, I can still be productive when I see that I can take a break for 5 minutes, or that I’ve only worked for 7 minutes so far. Heck, I’ve recently made some of the breaks slightly longer and I’ll do some cleaning during them and my living space has slowly become much cleaner :)
For my calendar, I just use my system default calendar, but I’ll be moving onto either apple calendar, proton calendar, or make my own calendar system in the future for better integration. Taskwarrior has a calendar function, but it doesn’t work for me.
For budgeting, I don’t have any app or tool for privacy reasons. I tend to use cash when possible. It makes me spend way less money because I’m better able to limit myself and keep track of day-to-day spending. Living near an ATM makes this very easy for me. I try not to withdraw money on weekends because it makes me splurge on random bullshit way less. I read my bank and credit card statements to see if I have been wasting money.
For self care, the best I’ve been able to do is put 1-2 hours aside before bed for just relaxing, taking a break from the screen if I can. I often find myself listening to music, podcasts, video essays, or reading a book. Sometimes I’ll end up engaging in some other hobby, though I try not to game. I might make decaf coffee, or drink tea. Not only does this help me sleep, but it frequently lets me be calm while lying in bed rather than stressing about things. If you can, set an alarm for an hour or so before you go to bed (don’t use something loud and obnoxious if you have roommates or family) and when it goes off, finish up what you are doing, and take time to do stuff you actually want to do.
The other thing I do for self care is talk with a close friend about my stress and anxieties. We’ve helped each other out in the past either things like this, so we have a mutual understanding about it, and we’ve helped each other through extreme stress or low points.
To prevent burnout I’m lucky to be able to spot signs of it approaching, then I examine why I’m feeling burnout, and try and address the cause of it, whether it means taking a break for a little while, or forcing myself to do the task less obsessively, or for a different reason. It’s helped me avoid burnout in cases where I’m not being forced to do things.
If I realize my burnout is because what I’m doing feels insurmountable, I break it down into small pieces, give the pieces some sort of point value based on time consumption, difficulty, and fun factor or desire to do it, and then start tracking how many points I’m doing. I use taskwarrior for this, but in the past I’ve been forced to use Trello for a very similar purpose.