Tools I Use: Excalidraw

#reflection

My brain is terrible at visualizing and tracking how various concepts fit together. Excalidraw helps make my brain be better. It’s a free low-fidelity whiteboarding tool that I’ve been using for system design interviews, brainstorming, flow diagrams, wireframe/mockups. Anything that I used to draw on a piece of paper is now being done in Excalidraw. It has basically everything you need to diagram, and if you need more, there is a plugin library to get extra shapes.

The low fidelity look and feel reduces the friction of creating diagrams. I don’t need to worry about perfection, I can slap together a few shapes add some text, and I’ve mapped out what was in my head.

Here are a couple of random things I’ve made in Excalidraw:

Flow chart of how my personal website is structured Flow chart of how my personal website is structured

Brainstorming a side project Brainstorming a side project I’m working on

Want to stay connected?

Subscribe to my newsletter

Weekly, bite-sized, practical tips and insights that have meaningfully improved how I code, design, and write.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.