Productivity tips for Mac users
1. Use separate spaces for On time and Off time.
If you have separate machines for work use and for personal use, this tip may not apply to you. However, unless both machines are in the same room—if not adjacent—then… this tip probably still applies to you. 😄
See Apple’s user guide on working in multiple spaces.
2. Use Safari profiles.
This allows you to separate your work and personal browsing contexts. Put the work profile in your work space and the personal profile in your personal space.
Note that the profiles feature is new as of macOS Sonoma.
3. Use Spotlight to open apps.
Using Spotlight is the most efficient way to open apps. The more you use an app, the less you have to type to bring it up.
You can open Spotlight with the Command+Space shortcut.
4. Quit apps when you’re done using them for the moment — especially distracting ones.
This reduces clutter in your space. Just use Spotlight to reopen the app when you need it.
The shortcut for quitting apps is Command+Q.
Individual contributors: Quit Slack the moment you’re done chatting so you can focus on your task. If the team really needs your sudden attention, they should be getting it by blocking your calendar or paging you. Quit Discord so you’re not tempted by pings. 😉
Unless the app has a painfully slow startup, there’s no reason to leave apps lying around. This of course does not apply to the app that is the primary object of your focus—a code editor or word processor, for example. Or perhaps Slack if you’re a people manager.
5. …But don’t quit Safari.
Over the years I’ve built up a bad habit of quitting Safari when I’m done doing research, so that I can focus on the coding task at hand.
While this is generally a good habit, for the browser it’s a bad one because of how often one needs it. Having to re-open a new window with the right profile is a bit of a pain.
The solution? Break the habit by setting the Quit Safari shortcut to an absurd keystroke that one would never type by accident and would never want to type on purpose.
As shown in the screenshot above, one also has to override the Command+W shortcut so that it doesn’t close the window when closing the last tab.
Shoutout to GPT4 for suggesting the “void keystroke” solution. When I asked them where they got the idea, they said:
The concept is not unique to any single source but is a synthesis of common advice found in productivity forums, software user experience design principles, and habit formation techniques discussed in various productivity and technology-related articles, blogs, and books. It leverages the understanding that humans are creatures of habit, and by tweaking our interactions with technology, we can foster more beneficial habits and minimize those that are not helpful.
… Alright then OpenAI, carry on. You’d better not be lying…
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Thanks for reading. Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments!
