How I Set Up My Mac for Productivity.

Here's how you can turn your Mac into the ultimate productivity machine and get way more done in way less time in 8 simple steps. Starting with a clean setup. What does your Mac look like right now? Neat and tidy or more like this? You might feel the same way. The more clutter, the more I'm distracted searching instead of working. And let's be honest, it's just not inviting to work on a messy computer. So, let's start the clutter cut counter and take 60 seconds to clean this thing up. For starters, I keep only my most used apps in my dock to make spotting and opening those as quick as possible. Now many swear by this, but I never throw random files onto my desktop. It looks more professional when screen sharing and immensely helps me to focus. That's why on every new Mac, one of the first things I do is hit command, shift and 5 to get up the screenshot toolbar and change the saving location because by default, all screenshots automatically pile up on the desktop. If you do want to keep files on the desktop but still keep things clean, you can. In the desktop and dock settings, uncheck show items. This way files are hidden when we're in apps but pop right back up when we're on the desktop. Oh, and now that everything's so tidy, trust me, a clean wallpaper can do wonders to our focus. Or take this to the next level by immersing yourself in nature with spatial audio. But we'll get to that in just a bit. The point being, a clutter-free Mac can certainly help you with that zen-like focus. Productivity boost on the certified Mac win scale, at least a solid 10%. If you're doing something over and over again on your Mac, like creating the same document 10 times a week, then it's time to find the most efficient way to do so. You see, productivity isn't really about cramping more stuff into each and every hour, but identifying repetitive tasks and then optimizing them. Of course, this always depends on your work, but let me show you a few examples. Starting simple, back to the document, let's create a file with placeholders once and then save it as a template file in a template folder. This works both in Word and Pages, but you can actually turn any file type into a template by hitting Command and I to get up the Info panel and checking Stationary Pad. From now on, whenever you open the file, it automatically creates and opens a copy. No more, oops, it looks like I've made some changes to the template. If there's a folder you need all the time, drag it into the favorite sidebar in the Finder or even into the Dock for quicker access. And to take all this optimization one step further, use the powerful Shortcuts app. To launch two apps you often multitask with in split-screen, open your passwords in the settings or eject all connected disks at once with one click from the menu bar. You'll find the shortcuts linked down below in the description. I mean, you get the idea. Optimize your repetitive tasks and I would say we get a big 15% productivity bump. But it's only when I compounded that with actually good file organization that things may deter. The more organized my Finder was, the less time and energy I spend looking for documents. There's no perfect system for this, but just for inspiration, here's how I do it. I use iCloud Drive so I can access all my files from whatever device, wherever I am. And this is core to my whole system. Whenever I receive a document like an invoice via email, I save it straight away. When I get a paper document, I instantly scan it in with my iPhone, even if I keep a physical copy. This way, you're never without any of your documents, no matter where you are. Now I stick to a few main folders like private, work and finances. Inside we've got more detailed ones like invoices, taxes and payroll. I name each file by year, month and date and a quick description. Now whatever system you choose, stick with it across every single folder and document. Now those basics already give us a solid 5% productivity boost. And we'll add to that with 5 lesser known Finder features. For starters, to directly rename any file, hit the return key and start typing. If you select multiple files, you can batch rename them in one go and either replace any words in the file name, add text to them or choose a completely new format. Instead of copying a file, pasting it somewhere else and going back to delete it in the old location, simply copy it as normal with CMD-C but paste it with OPTION-CMD-NV. This directly moves the file. And on the same note, the quickest way to make a copy of a file is by holding down OPTION while dragging and dropping it. And not many people know this, but you can hold down CMD and grab any document, folder or even app and pin it to the toolbar to open it there. Plus, pro tip, you can then drag a document onto that app in the toolbar to directly open it in that app. But here's the twist. I'm not perfect. Sometimes I forget to save an attachment from an email or let a random file rot in my downloads folder. But that's okay, because Spotlight Search finds it all. We can use it to look for any file name and even search for text within files. If you want to filter the results, just add kind and then any file type. And as this searches the entire system, it will even find attachments in mail or messages. Oh, and before I forget, hit the spacebar to peek at any file to make sure it's the right one, hit enter to open it or CMD and enter to show it in its location in the finder. Productivity boost, small change, but probably one of the most significant ones, 15%. But the more I tried to optimize my Mac, the more I realized you can't control everything. There are days when you just can't concentrate and would rather start binge-watching Friends. That's when you might need a little extra help. So here are my top 4 apps that help me focus. Apple doesn't ship its MacBooks with willpower, so we can use the completely free and open source app Self Control to block certain websites like Instagram or YouTube and set a timer and start working. From now on, there's no way to open those sites, even if you restart your Mac or delete the app. But sometimes you need to research stuff on YouTube, so blocking it completely doesn't work out. What's so addictive, though, are all the recommendations down the side. Focus for YouTube lets you transform YouTube into a search engine and nothing else. It's a super simple Safari extension, but there are alternatives for Chrome as well like Focused YouTube. They do the same thing and hide video recommendations or even comments and end screens. This makes YouTube a hundred times less addictive when you're trying to get work done. It's a dollar on the App Store. And back to those immersive nature wallpapers. Those are from an app named Portal, which lets us travel to 60-plus beautiful places in nature, choose any location from your menu bar, and an 8K video takes over your desktop together with calming nature sounds in spatial audio. And if you combine this with noise-cancelling headphones on, it really helps to concentrate and get in the zone. But sure, productivity is not just about focus and concentration, but also about motivation. One thing is another free App Store app that lets you add any piece of text to your menu bar like the number one task you want to focus on today or a cheesy motivational quote. Again, it's free, so you've got nothing to lose, except for a bit of that precious menu bar space, of course. I mean, none of those apps are total game-changers, we all know that, but they can help to make work slightly more focused and enjoyable. Total productivity boost, probably a solid 5%. And that's not even touching focus modes and filters, which Apple has baked natively into macOS. You can create a new focus in the settings and customise it by blocking out notifications from certain apps or contacts. Now, focus modes totally changed last year. With focus filters, we can choose to only see a certain email account or a specific calendar in the respective apps. Plus, this gets even better when we add a Safari profile for, let's say, work, which separates your history, cookies, bookmarks, and even Safari extensions from your normal free-time browsing, as soon as you activate the focus. I mean, blocking out anything that's not work-related, that's at least another 10% productivity boost. But sure, productivity is not always about, it's also about taking regular breaks from your work. If you're not doing any colour grading or photo editing work on your Mac, in the display settings you can customise a night shift schedule. This tints your screen to a warm yellow, given by how much time we spend in front of it every day. This can actually help you with your sleep-wake rhythm. You get lots of blue light during the day to keep you awake, and then almost zero at night. Plus, last summer, Apple finally gave us a clock app for the Mac. And what I love to do is set a timer to work for 60 minutes, which will always show up here in the menu bar. This way, I take regular breaks, even when I'm completely in the zone. So, not an instant significant productivity boost, but definitely a long-term one. 5% up. But this last one is certainly the most game-changing of them all. If you don't use AI tools on your Mac, you're missing out on a huge time-saver. It can be as simple as adding the ChatGPT website to your dock to quickly get there with one click. But AI is at its best when you bake it into your Mac, and therefore into your workflows. So, just for example, we can generate any picture locally on your Mac for a PowerPoint presentation or automatically transcribe anything that's being said on your Mac in a meeting. And if you want to find out where to get those plus 6 further insanely useful AI apps for your Mac, you should watch this video next. Alright, I'll see you there. Thank you so much for watching, and have a productive day.