From the category archives:

Simplicity

Spaces for Mac OS X

Spaces for Mac OS XI’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.


Mac vs PC

The difference between Mac and PC can best be summed up by what happens when you try to print something.

When I print something on my iMac, which is rare because I like to be as close to paperless as possible, printed sheets come out of the printer.

I’ll say it again. When I tell my iMac to print a document, magically the requested documents appear on my printer. No fanfare, no fuss, it just does exactly what it’s told.

At my day job, I’m forced to use an ancient Windows XP box. I need to print quite a bit more at work than I do at home, but this is unavoidable. So, what happens when I tell Windows XP that I want to print something?

OOOH OOOH Look at me! I’m printing! I’m doing what you said! OOOOH LOOKIE LOOKIE LOOK AT ME!!!! Did you see what I did? I PRINTED!! OOOH!

Windows XP feels the need to announce to the world, via a large pop-up dialogue box, that it did exactly what I told it to do.

Why in the world would I need this box? The pages coming out of the printer should tell me that the request worked. I don’t need an additional, *extremely* annoying popup to tell me what I already know.


Stop Filtering the Noise

So much of our time online is spent filtering the noise. We sift through mountains of crap to find a few gems worth reading.
What an incredible waste of time.
There are too many wonderful things to do (including doing nothing) to waste hours reading crap. If time was infinite, perhaps it wouldn’t matter. But time is [...]

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Letting Go is the Answer

Learning to let go of things is such a huge key to simplifying your life. Letting go of material possessions to reduce clutter. Letting go of obligations to free up time. Letting go of ideas and goals to reduce stress.
It’s all very important if your goal is simplifying your life.
It’s also extremely difficult.
No one ever [...]

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Simple Software

Distraction can destroy productivity and send your stress levels through the rough. A lot of modern software is very full-featured, which is great if you use those features. Many of us don’t use all those features, so those extra features become distracting clutter.
Simple Software is a site with several minimalist style applications. The height of [...]

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Ask what you can take away

Often in life we look at add things to improve our situation. Software designers add features all the time. Web developers add features, widgets, links, and pictures. Interior designers add furniture, decorations, paintings.
It’s as if everyone is saying “We don’t have enough. We need to add more; that will make it better.”
I have news for [...]

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