So, on the way to drafting up a killer piece about my nifty smart folder setup in Mail.app, I remembered where I go all of those useful tips from. All of these are gems and I use them daily years later.
It was not until recently that I realized something about my workflow. Please forgive me if this is all “Big Duh!” to you. I have a document escalation path. – a definitive point of creation for the most basic needs and a progression of steps for when the item outgrows those needs. My flow generally goes something like this (links to other posts here where appropriate):
- TextEdit – All writing on my Mac begins here. I have it set to default to plain text, 90 characters x 50 lines, Menlo for my font (after a long flirtation with Droid Sans). If longtime readers here have not caught on yet, I am a big fan and think this is one of the most underrated programs on the Mac. This can do the job I need to get the words down on a blank space. If I need to do more than that then the escalation path continues to…
- TextMate – If I need to do some markup to the content, for instance, to publish to the web, then this is the next stop. I usually format in Markdown and then use the convert to html tool from there.
- Bean – If I need to format into Rich Text for print or PDF, here is where I turn. I’ve discussed Bean here before and it had a few added and very useful features for RTF creating that do not exist in TextEdit. These include full screen mode and word and character count.
- Pages – If I really need to do some advanced word processing, including style management, headers and footers, inserting images, etc. I use Pages. That said, I rarely have to do so because the options above are enough for me. That said, as word processors go, and despite it’s shortcomings, I really think it is the most elegant word processor available today. I have created some stunningly beautiful work with it.
I hate to be disturbed. I try to end every day with an empty “Today” list in Things and an empty Inbox in Gmail. I don’t want to be interrupted while I’m working on one task. Most of the points below are tricks that help me empty my Things inbox and complete projects. In other words : they help me get things done.
About the Finder :
- I use a dark background (the fewer details the better) and the Mac OS Graphite theme so that only the colors get my attention (that means notification in the Dock).
- I dumped most of the icons from my task bar : I don’t care about the volume (I have three dedicated keys on my keyboard), I don’t care about how much battery I have unless the icon turns red. Jumpcut is a very useful utility for clipboard history.
- I removed most of the icons from my Dock : I only left the applications that are always launched (Tweetie already has an icon in the task bar, but we can’t remove the one from the Dock, yet). I use Spotlight to launch the other applications.
- I use Command-Option-H to hide every application but the one I’m using : I almost never need more than one window to focus on.
- I don’t use any notification system : no Growl, no Gmail Notifier, no Facebook notifier, and Tweetie task bar icon is set to never turn blue except when I got a direct message.
- I don’t use NetNewsWire on my Mac anymore. I only check my RSS feeds in the morning during my commute to work, using the new iPhone app. Breaking news make it through Twitter. Interesting-but-long articles go into Instapaper, I read them before going to sleep.
- Hazel’s default configuration help me empty my Downloads folder.
Safari :
- I removed the previous/next buttons : I use trackpad gestures for that.
- I removed the bookmarks bar : Command-L is my friend, and for the small amounts of bookmarklets I use, they’re all in the dedicated bookmarks menu.
- I hide the status bar. The prefpane Secrets offers the possibility to show a link’s URL if you move the mouse over the link.
- My homepage is Start.io : it’s clean and shows the links I open in the morning when I sit in front of my Mac.
- I watch YouTube videos within Quietube : video without the distractions.
- I read ugly online newspapers within Readability.
- I use ClickToFlash to get rid of the worst thing that happened to the web : Flash.
Gmail :
- I realized I don’t either need to read my e-mails every minute, nor to answer e-mails the minute I received them : I only check my e-mails when I’m not focused on a task. It’s more productive and less intrusive than a Growl notification.
- I make a smart use of Gmail filters so that only important e-mails get to the Inbox, and I immediately archive the one I read (and answered if needed). Gmail Labs provide a useful “Send and archive” button for that.
- j/k/x/e are my friends : I use these keys to quickly select and archive e-mails.
Interested in uncluttering your Mac? Read Minimal Mac.
I noticed a few days ago while using Pages that I never used the toolbar, the format bar was all I really needed. Disabling the toolbar gives Pages a very clean look.
(Submitted by Rickard)
#RUN THESE IN SSH AS YOUR MAIN USER:
setfacl -m u:syc:—x ~setfacl -R -m u:syc:—- ~/webapps/*
setfacl -R -m d:u:syc:—- ~/webapps/*
setfacl -R -m u:syc:rwx ~/webapps/syc
setfacl -R -m d:u:syc:rwx ~/webapps/syc
# RUN THESE IN SSH AS YOUR FTP USER:
ln -s /home/cmc/webapps/syc www
Google Analytics
If you are a user of Google Analytics, you may want to use the service with one of your Textpattern installations. Create a form called google_analytics Assuming you already have a Google Analytics account, login and get the Analytics code for your site.Enter the above into your new form, and make sure to add your user account id. Save as type misc. Place a call to Google Analytics in your page template Just before the closing
A list of rules or suggestion how to run a computer smoothly in an happy way.
