Minimal Mac
I consider myself a minimalist, not because of aesthetic preferences like many people, but because I like simplicity; I like achieving the most while using the least. I am the kind of person who does not take notes in class, and if I need to remember something in particular, I prefer to write down just one word. Reading that word later will allow me to remember what I had to research or do. When I write work documents, I like to keep them as straightforward and simple as possible. I am annoyed by what I call filler: padding whose sole purpose is to fatten documents with redundant remarks, using technical or formal vocabulary to make the author look more professional. I firmly believe that the richness of a document lies not in its number of pages, but in the quality and relevance of its content. I am the same way when developing websites; my eternal battle is convincing clients to remove information that is not necessary, which I see as visual pollution on the site. Minimalism is a way of life.
Those who know me also know that I am a collector, a concept that might sound completely opposite to being a minimalist—and yes, perhaps it sometimes is. I am not a collector because I devote myself to collecting one specific thing; rather, I like collecting everything. I like having the complete discographies of the artists I enjoy, having every known image by a particular street artist, and collecting software. I am always downloading and buying software I do not need purely for the pleasure of trying it. I like gathering everything I see on the web that I find interesting, taking pictures of everything, and keeping records. I even maintain a photographic record of my favourite meals. Those iPhone applications have made me even more addicted to the art of collecting and recording everything.
As you can imagine, my minimalist side is constantly fighting my collector side. At least in my digital life, minimalism always wins because, beyond being a style or preference, it represents a work tool for me. Digital minimalism saves storage space, uses fewer resources, and provides better organization. How many people do you know who cannot find files on their own computer? How many people live overwhelmed by the disorder of files on their computer desktop?
This brief guide to digital minimalism focuses on how to simplify and organize the workflow on a Mac, although many of its ideas can be applied to iOS devices or even other operating systems. This guide is simply the result of my experience over several years, refining the productivity of my workflow more and more. I am no guru, but some of these tips may be useful to someone.
1. Empty desktop. One of the things I love about my Mac is the ability to have a completely empty desktop. I feel that the desktop is not the right place to store files; it is instead a temporary place where it is sometimes necessary to put documents while working with them, but not to keep them there. My Mac’s desktop is a reflection of my physical workplace. When we designed our current office, we decided to furnish it around collaboration. That is why, instead of individual desks, we have a large wooden table, like a conference table, where we can all work and receive clients or other visitors to meet with them. On the wooden table there are two metal lamps, and apart from that, all one sees are our MacBooks, iPads, and the occasional sheet of paper we are working with at the time. At the end of the day, the table is always left empty. We each have space in a cabinet where we keep our things, and the goal is for the table always to be free of papers. My Mac desktop works the same way: I put files there only temporarily, always making sure that the desktop is empty before I put my machine to sleep.
I have a folder in the Dock called “ToReview,” where I put everything I need to review later, but the desktop must always remain empty. The problem is that files on the desktop become a plague: once you let one live there, more and more begin to arrive, and before you know it, you will have a desktop crammed with files and will not know where else to put them.
Even hard drives or removable disks never appear on my desktop. I have disabled that option in Finder’s general preferences so that the desktop is always empty.
2. Clearing out old files. It is common for us to accumulate a great many files on our hard drives that should not be there. They are old files that are no longer useful or that we do not remember exist. What I do is keep an external hard drive where I put old files so that I can delete them from my hard drive. For example, if I have several folders for projects that ended more than a month ago, I compress them in Zip format, prefix their names with “[OLD],” move them to the external hard drive, and delete them from my Mac. The goal is to keep only the files I am currently working with and store the old ones where they do not get in the way. This cleanup must be carried out constantly in order to identify all files that are no longer in use and store them outside the Mac.
3. Order and cleanliness in the file system. After getting rid of old files, the file system can be reorganized, making sure there are folders with descriptive names for each kind of file. For work projects, I have a folder for each client, and inside it a folder for each project, as well as one called “info,” where I keep all information about that client that does not belong to a specific project. Another example is a folder of personal development projects that I have organized with folders for each language: c, html, ruby, ruby on rails, css, and xml. I also have folders for certain recurring types of files. For example, I have one called “LearningResources,” where I keep all the manuals and tutorials I have.
While organizing the file system, many files that are rubbish and can be deleted from the hard drive can be detected. The fewer files we have, the better we can organize them and find them later.
4. From separate files to a database. Another practice I have found very useful is putting as many files as possible into databases. This helps simplify the file system even further. A database with very specific features can be created using FileMaker, or even a very simple one with Bento.
One tool that has helped me greatly is Evernote. Every file I can put there is stored in special notebooks and is no longer inside my file system. For example, I keep copies of my personal identification documents in Evernote. Whenever I pay the rent for my apartment, I keep a scanned copy of the deposit slip, and those copies are in the application. I do the same with a large image bank I have for use on websites: instead of keeping the images in folders, I keep them inside Evernote.
5. Reduce the number of applications. Sometimes we have several applications that do the same thing; it is advisable to choose the best one and use only that. By having fewer applications, we can save a great deal of hard-drive space and make our system more efficient. For example, I used to have one application for notes, one for storing work images, another for saving links, another for PDFs, and another for my university notes. Those 5 applications were replaced by a single one, Evernote, which also lets me synchronize with my iPad and iPod, keep a backup in the cloud, and access my files from any computer with internet access.
Any applications that are not used frequently can be removed. In reality, we keep them only because we think we might need them someday. The truth is that if we have not used them for two months, there is no point in keeping them. They should be deleted and, in the worst case, if we eventually need them, we can reinstall them. One very useful application for this is AppZapper, which, besides deleting applications with all their preferences and libraries, allows us to see which applications have not been used for a given period, for example 2 months.
6. Watch startup applications. Some applications open automatically every time we log in. These applications can be seen in System Preferences, under Accounts. Many applications add themselves to this list when they are installed, causing us to have many applications open that we are not even using.
With fewer applications open, we can have a faster system.
7. Take advantage of system applications. The operating system has some very practical applications we can use, such as TextEdit and Stickies. On many occasions, these two applications can spare us from using heavier programs such as those in Office. Personally, I always try to write using plain-text files, .txt, because I can synchronize them with a wide range of applications on the iPad and iPod through Dropbox, as well as share them with users of other operating systems.
Images, links, sound files, and video can be embedded within TextEdit and Stickies; they are an ideal, lightweight container.
8. A clean Dock is a healthy Dock. The Dock is a double-edged sword: it can be very useful, but it can also be a great nuisance, especially because of the temptation created by a new application whose icon would look perfect as a decoration there. I have seen people with dozens of icons in the Dock, all miniaturized, who have trouble finding the icon every time they launch an application. The purpose of the Dock is not to become work, but to save us work. I try to keep only the applications I always have open, such as iTunes, Sparrow, and Chrome. The cleaner the Dock can be kept, the better it fulfils its purpose. For almost instant access to any application, I use Quicksilver, which is free and is undoubtedly the best application launcher.
9. Simple toolbars. One of the things I love about Mac applications is the ability to modify their toolbars, adapting them to our tastes and needs. An exercise I do with every application is to simplify the toolbar as much as possible, leaving only the icons for the functions I use constantly and getting rid of those I do not use or that I access through keyboard shortcuts.
10. Hide menu-bar icons. Many applications we use are designed to work out of sight while we use our Mac. Applications such as TextExpander work this way, and their preferences allow both the Dock icon and the menu-bar icon to be hidden, keeping the Dock clean and the menu bar free from so many distractions.
Some applications, such as Twitter for Mac or email applications, have menu-bar icons that alert us to new messages. I have realized that these alerts are often an enormous source of distraction that reduces productivity, since they usually attract your attention when you are concentrating on a task and cause you to interrupt it to see the message.
The ideal menu bar will have as few icons as possible. It is a good idea to clean up the applications that live there, leaving only those we truly use.
11. Automate to simplify. Automating certain tasks or processes within our system can help us simplify our workflow considerably, achieving with a keyboard command or one click what previously took several actions. Automation is always good when it allows us to achieve the same result in fewer steps.
The Mac OS X operating system includes several tools that make it possible to automate many of our frequent tasks. Those who master these tools achieve great speed and minimal effort in their work. Among these tools is Apple Script, for the geekier users, which makes it possible to automate a great variety of tasks with as much complexity as necessary. There is no need to program the scripts, however, because a great many of them can be downloaded free from the internet for use with our favourite applications. Another very useful tool is Automator, which basically allows us to create scripts through a graphical interface and “compile” them—I mean that figuratively—as small applications. Finally, one of my favourite tools is found in System Preferences, specifically the keyboard preferences, because from there we can create our own shortcuts for all system applications, using keyboard commands to activate the menus we need.
One of my favourite tools for automating text and code specifically, although it is not included in the operating system, is TextExpander.
12. Do not over-automate. Although automation is good, there can be a point at which it becomes bad. There is something I call “over-automation,” which, to me, is the desire to automate everything to such an extreme that people try to automate tasks that do not need it. As mentioned in the previous point, the best sign of good automation is that it allows us to achieve the same result in fewer steps, but when the automation itself involves more work, it is “over-automation.” By “over-automation,” I generally mean seeking a digital solution to a problem that does not exist or does not require one.
There are many examples of “over-automation,” but one I see frequently is that some people specify tasks in their to-do lists in such detail that it becomes impractical, for example: “Find my client’s email address,” “Write an email to my client to request an appointment,” “Send the email to my client.” It seems laughable, but many times we fall into the temptation of making things more complicated than they should be. In this case, it would have been more practical simply to write “Send an email to my client,” since that step assumes you have already found the address and written the message. There is no need to write down those steps, and it is also likely that in the time you spent writing the task, you could have sent the email. Do not write it down; do it. Only write down tasks when, for some reason, you cannot do them at that moment. To-do lists can contain so many tasks that they become overwhelming, and instead of doing what we should do, we spend our time writing it down.
Another good example of “over-automation” is applications that create the need for us to carry out a task we did not do before. For example, applications for inventorying the things we have at home—furniture, appliances, clothes, and so on—have recently become abundant. Even barcodes and serial numbers can be recorded. All this does is add extra work; it does not remove work, it gives us more work. It is the antithesis of simplification: trying to automate a task that we did not even perform manually. As I mentioned in the introduction, I am a collector and I do keep some records, but I make sure they concern relevant things and are useful to me. For example, there is no point in inventorying my clothes because, if I want to choose what to wear, I only have to open the wardrobe and see what is inside. On the other hand, I have many films, and it is practical to keep an inventory in Delicious Library so I can check which films I have and publish the inventory online to share it with my friends. There are many iPhone applications that allow all kinds of things to be recorded; I basically concern myself only with recording my weight and my visits to the gym. I am the one who chooses what is relevant and what is not. I do not commit myself to a new task merely to use the application.
13. Work in full screen. Today many applications have a full-screen mode that provides a more focused view by avoiding distractions from other applications. I am writing this article in Byword, a word processor that works in full screen and eliminates distractions.
With the next Mac operating system, Lion, we will see more and more applications that use full screen. The concept works as it does in iOS: use one application at a time. In the meantime, we can take advantage of applications with this mode, such as Byword, Pages, Scrivener, Aperture, or Chrome. Those without a special viewing mode can be enlarged to fill the entire screen and, although this does not eliminate every distraction, it eliminates most of them.
Working in full screen makes it possible to concentrate better and let inspiration flow.
14. Constant cleanup. It is necessary to clean up the system constantly: store old files outside our Mac, delete rubbish, organize our file system, and trim our applications. This constant cleanup can give us the opportunity to maintain our equipment.
Once a week, I clean up and maintain my Mac using Onyx and CleanMyMac. I have also found that erasing the hard drive every 6 months is good practice. It provides an opportunity to reinstall only the most essential applications and remove a great deal of rubbish.
15. Live paper-free. A few years ago, I resolved to live without paper. It is very rare for me to print anything; I do so only when it is absolutely essential. It is also very rare for me to write or draw anything on paper. The iPad allowed me to give up notebooks entirely, although I still have a couple of Moleskines, purely for nostalgia.
Living without paper is a transition between physical and digital minimalism. Anything I have on paper for some reason, I digitize and store in Evernote. If, for example, someone takes a message for me at the office that includes information such as a telephone number and a name to contact, I take a photograph of the paper and get rid of it, keeping the digital copy for future reference. The same can be done with business cards. There are even dedicated iPhone applications for this, but no special applications are needed because a photograph can be taken with Evernote, which will also recognize the text on them.
16. Travel light. Bringing simplicity into the physical world, it is important always to travel light when our Mac is portable. I use a backpack to carry my Mac, and it has become progressively smaller over time. I used to carry every cable and accessory, and over time I carried fewer and fewer things until reaching the present day: I carry only the computer, the charger, the cable for connecting my iOS devices, and the iPad. I do not take this backpack everywhere with me; it is only for carrying my things to the office on Monday and bringing them home on Friday. During the week, when I have to take my Mac somewhere, I carry it in a small fabric case that also serves as a sleeve when I put it in the backpack. This small case is exactly the size of the computer; it is almost as if I had attached handles to the machine itself. It is very light.
The best way I have found to travel light is to replace my Mac with my iPad for as many tasks as possible. In fact, my Mac is almost always at the office, and what I always carry with me is the iPad. I can do almost everything on it, and I carry it in a small shoulder bag containing only the iPad and a stylus.