Tmux Transformed How I Use My Terminal

The window manager of terminals that revolutionized my workflow.

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I've lived in the terminal ever since I moved to Linux and eventually macOS. Whether it was programming projects or writing notes, the terminal was where I was. However, I never actually used tmux, rather preferring to resort to the use of window managers.

I will be honest, I was hesitant to add tmux to my toolbox because altering a workflow to become second nature would be a huge hassle. Yet recently, I brought myself to it. And it has completely changed my development workflow.

Before I started using tmux I didn’t see any reason even to touch it. I thought it would add another step to my workflow — an unnecessary step that any window manager could fulfill. I was, however, mistaken.

Now every time I open a new terminal window I have the option to land in numerous directories. Moreover, tmux's ability to have split panes and multiple windows is impeccable when needing to run a quick command or have several files open.

For those who don’t know, tmux is a terminal multiplexer. According to tmux’s GitHub, “you switch easily between several programs in one terminal, detach them (they keep running in the background), and reattach them to a different terminal.” If you are…