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🧰 My Top Tools to Kickstart 2026
Published about 1 month ago • 5 min read
🧰 Smart tools. Useful tips. Weekly.
Hola friend 👋,
I’m Josep. Each week, I hunt down practical tools and productivity hacks to help digital doers like you do more with less effort.
This week marks our 30th issue, and it’s a special New Year's edition!
Over the past 30 weeks, I've tested over 100 tools for you. Thanks for letting me in your inbox ❤️.
My goal for this issue is to inspire you to start something new in 2026, whether it’s learning a new skill, launching a new business, or finally automating those repetitive tasks.
Speaking of goals, here are mine for 2026:
Keep growing this newsletter – I love being in touch with you all.
Go deeper into the world of AI (I even started an AI-focused YouTube channel on the side in Spanish).
Help Tooltester and EmailTooltester implement AI in our processes to do more, and hopefully, do it better.
I'd love to hear what your goals are, too. Just hit reply and let me know!
To help you get started without worrying about your wallet, we snagged some exclusive discounts on some of the tools for you.
Know someone who’d love this newsletter? 3,000+ readers already do (thanks 🙌). Share it with friends & colleagues so they can join too Join for free here.
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What if there was a tool that turned you into the most efficient, best version of yourself, instantly?
Psst… It’s Already Here. Omnisend is on a mission to cut down your busywork and let AI handle the boring stuff.
Here’s what you can expect:
Write emails faster
Personalize effortlessly
Segment smart, not hard
Turns out, letting AI steal the boring tasks feels great. Take back your time and discover what your day can look like.
I’m obsessed with automation and AI. My wife gets the full rundown at dinner every time ChatGPT or Claude launches something new. If there's one tool that truly unlocks automation for businesses without needing a team of developers, it’s n8n.
This tool lets you connect different apps (e.g. Trello, email, Google Docs, Sheets, OpenAI, etc) to create powerful workflows that handle your repetitive tasks for you (e.g. create Google Drive folders and a Google Doc each time you receive a new lead). Think of it as a super-powered Zapier, but one you can host yourself for next to nothing. I use it to create AI workflows that are already saving us a ton of time producing content at Tooltester.
If you feel like you’re drowning in tasks, you have to check out n8n. You can get it hosted cheaply and easily on Hostinger, their hosting is n8n-ready out of the box – which makes the setup a breeze.
Like most people, I started my AI journey exclusively with ChatGPT. But as I’ve explored other assistants, Perplexity has become my go-to for one key reason: research.
While I still use ChatGPT for heavy-duty writing, Perplexity is always there for quick research and fact-checking. But the real game-changer was their browser, Comet, which I raved about back in September.
Comet integrates the AI directly into your browsing experience. It can summarize webpages, fill out forms for you, and even take control of the browser to do things like shop on Amazon. It’s what finally convinced me the $20/month subscription was worth it. ChatGPT has its own browser now, but I’m sticking with Comet for now.
If you’re not using email marketing yet, you might be leaving money on the table. It consistently has one of the best ROIs of any marketing channel. And if you’re looking for the right tool, Brevo is my top pick to get started.
It's an all-in-one platform that handles everything from newsletters and automated campaigns to live chat and SMS marketing. We use it at EmailTooltester for our email marketing-focused newsletter, and the experience has been fantastic – it’s powerful without being complicated.
I previously mentioned I was going to start a financial newsletter in Spanish, but I’ve since ditched that idea. Instead, I’ll be launching an AI newsletter in Spanish, and you can bet I’ll be using Brevo for it. It has the perfect mix of powerful features at a price that’s cheap as chips compared to competitors.
Perfect for anyone serious about building a direct relationship with their audience.
🛠️ Alternative to: Mailchimp, ConvertKit, MailerLite
Using AI through a command-line interface (like Terminal on a Mac) might seem intimidating, but it unlocks a new level of power. Now you are giving your AI a new set of tools.
Solutions like Codex (from OpenAI), Claude Code, and Gemini CLI let you interact with AI models directly, giving you a few superpowers:
Access the latest models: You often get to use new and experimental models before they’re widely available.
Bigger context windows: You can feed the AI much more information at once, giving it a better "memory" for complex tasks.
Multi-model usage: It's easier to switch between different AI models (like Claude, Gemini, and GPT) to find the best one for your task.
Create local agents: You can build simple AI agents that can access your computer's files to organize documents, summarize notes, or write code for you.
The main drawback is the setup. You'll need to be comfortable with the command line (may require a couple of hours to get used to it), and you might need to pay for API credits. But if you’re ready to geek out, it’s a game-changer.
🍿 Plot Twist of the Week
As drive-thrus increasingly adopt AI assistants, one Taco Bell customer decided to see if he could outsmart the system (source). And he succeeded, hilariously.
A TikToker discovered a glitch in Taco Bell’s AI-powered checkout process that allowed him to order an absurd amount of cheese for just a few dollars. He then found another bug: if you order a water cup (which is free), the AI lets you add any food item to the order, also for free.
He ended up with a feast of cheesy fiesta potatoes, a chalupa, and more – all without paying a dime. The video went viral, and while Taco Bell likely patched the bug, it’s a funny reminder that AI isn’t foolproof. Sometimes, human creativity (especially when free food is involved) will always find a way to break the system. 🌮
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading! Next time, we’ll talk SEO and discover some (affordable) tools you should check out.
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