I’ve written about Spaces before, but I feel the need to do so again. Spaces is one of the most powerful tools in Mac OS X, yet it’s often forgotten.
Computers today, and Apple computers especially, are extraordinarily powerful. Incredibly fast processors, lightning fast hard drives, and gigabytes upon gigabytes of RAM. All this computing power makes it very tempting to multi-task like crazy. After all, your computer can handle 10 or 15 applications open at once, so why not go for it?
The problem isn’t the computer, it’s you.
Your Mac can handle just about anything you throw at it. It doesn’t care if you have one app open or 16. It will keep chugging right along without a care in the world. However, all those things going on are sure to keep you from focusing.
All those applications will keep you from working, instead of helping you get work done.
You’re faced with two choices here. First, you could close everything that you’re not actively using right now. While that’s a very minimalist solution, it’s not always the smartest. You’ll probably need those closed apps before too long, which will just result in you opening them back up again. Not very efficient.
The second choice, and by far my favorite, is using the brilliant tool built right into Leopard and Snow Leopard – Spaces. When it comes time to hunker down and actually do something, hit F8 and move to a new space. Open up your writing / coding / graphics / whatever tool and work. You won’t be distracted by all those open windows – because they are off in another Space. Everything is still open and easily accessible if you need it, but it’s no longer distracting you.
Spaces is an amazing productivity tool. It removes distraction and allows you to focus on one thing at a time. Spaces helps you get work done, and it doesn’t even cost you a dime. If you’ve never used Spaces, you’re really missing out. Give it a try, and your focus will improve, allowing you to get more done in less time. Go ahead, try it, and let me know what you think.