How To Create a Minimal Mac Experience in 4 Simple Steps

Simple and useful.  That’s how I would describe my Mac setup.  I have removed everything that I don’t need – everything that is a potential distraction.  I didn’t remove *everything*, though – some OS X features are amazingly useful.

If you feel overwhelmed every time you turn on your Mac, this article is for you.  If you have tried every highly advanced, convoluted, and just plain complicated filing system known to man, and still can’t get organized, this is for you.

Step 1: Simple Wallpaper.

Your wallpaper matters.  How can you expect to relax if you have a very busy wallpaper that just screams action?  Stick with something very, very basic.  Something simple, calming.  Perhaps an image of a waterfall, or a very short inspirational phrase.  Even a single person, relaxing.  It doesn’t really matter *what* you use for a wallpaper, but it does need to be calming.

For months I had a plain black wallpaper with the phrase “Stop Complaining.”  Very simple, very basic, and yet inspiring.  These days I have a very simple Apple logo, white on black.

While not wallpaper related, this last bit is directly related to your desktop.  There should never be any icons on your desktop.  None, zero, zilch.  Move any files that are currently on your desktop into your download folder.  If your hard drives and CD drive are showing, they need to go.  Open up Finder Preferences, go to the General tab, and un-check all the boxes under “Show these items on the desktop.”

Step 2: Clean up your Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is the area to the left of your clock.  Applications love to put little icons there, for some reason i cannot grasp.  Save one application, I have never clicked on an icon in that bar – have you?  Since these icons are useless, they simply must go.  Many of these icons can just be dragged off the bar.  Hold the command key, drag the icon off the menu bar, and it goes *poof*.  Some are a little trickier – especially one of my favorite apps called Dropbox.  Fortunately, there’s a way to remove this one too.  Here’s a screencast that details the steps.

You’ll notice that my lone menu bar icon is for Mozy.  This is my automatic, online backup service.  I keep the Mozy icon there so that I can check in on it now and again.  While it’s pretty good at doing what it’s supposed to in the background, it forgets sometimes.

Step 3:  Clean up your Dock

When I see a screenshot of a dock running “edge to edge”, maybe 30 applications long…. I die a little inside.  Only your absolutely most-frequently used applications should sit unopened in your dock.  Currently I have these applications in my dock: Finder, Mail, iCal, and Safari.  As you can see in the screenshot, I currently have iTunes and Text Edit open, though they don’t have Dock shortcuts.  My Documents and Downloads folders are also in the dock, just to make document access handy.

Removing unneeded Dock icons is very simple.  Hold Option and drag these icons off the dock – they will go *poof* and disappear.  The Dock is not the most efficient way to launch applications anyway – go nuts here.  You can always add apps back if you really feel the need to later.

The last, optional step is to auto-hide the dock.  Option-Command-D is the shortcut, and it will make your Dock disappear except when you hover over the area where it sits.  When I’m writing or coding, I like to be focused.  Not having a row of icons staring at me is definitely a benefit.

Step 4: Re-Learn how to File

Since we use our Macs to work, we tend to have tons of files.  Text files, spreadsheets, images, .PHP files, whatever the case may be for you… the fact is you probably have all sorts of files.  There are many schools of thought on how to best organize your files.

I’ve heard suggestions to create a folder for each letter of the alphabet… or for each month of the year…. or for each category / subcategory of files.

Before you go off and start creating dozens of folders to “organize” your files, stop for a moment.  Is that really going to help you? Sure, your files will be pretty.  But will it help you find them in a timely manner?  Or, more likely, will you just rack your brain trying to figure out which sub-folder your stuffed the particular file you need into.

Instead of creating an intricate filing system, do something different.  Do something better.

Don’t file.

There is no good reason to organize your documents in any sort of complicated manner.  None.  Mac OS X has a built in feature that you should be very familiar with – Spotlight.  Spotlight is the best application launcher on a Mac, and it can also find any file you need with a few simple keystrokes.  Hit Command-Space, and you get a little search box.  Type the first few letters of the file name you need, and Spotlight finds it for you.  No need to sift through dozens of folders; just type the name.  Simple and elegant.

If I’m actively working on a  project, I keep the needed files right in my Documents folder.  Anything else gets put in an “Archive” folder inside the Dropbox folder.  It’s out of sight, but accessible at a moments notice using Spotlight.

Step 5: Enjoy your Simple, Productive Mac.

There are plenty of other things you can do to simplify your Mac experience, including using Dropbox and Evernote.  I’ve written about Evernote before, and I’ll get to Dropbox one day.  But following these four simple steps will help you unleash the power of your Mac, and the productivity that you’ve been missing.