Sounds like you're already doing my number one tip: take the time to write tools to automate repetitive tasks. If you do anything more than a few times and it c

Sounds like you're already doing my number one tip: take the time to write tools to automate repetitive tasks. If you do anything more than a few times and it can be automated then it's worthwhile to do so. Python is a great language for writing tools IME though you could use anything you're comfortable with (and has the requisite libraries). Buying tools, even if they only do one thing, is worthwhile as well. For me the price point where I'll buy is around $20. If you have a simple app that does one or two things I need on occasion -- and the app is relatively current and bug free -- then I'll buy it. I've rarely been disappointed with $20 tool purchase. Beyond that I haven't found that code editors really have that much advantage over any other (I'm an experienced Vim user and I've used a handful of popular editors with project management features). Sometimes you're forced to use an IDE, like Xcode, or have to work on a different computer/OS, so there's not much point in finding the ultimate editor.