Intro
Chapter 1
- Naming something lets you identify it more easily
Part 1: Mechanics
The tools that could help any power-user.
Chapter 2: Acceleration
- The longer a list of applications, the less useful it becomes
- Use a launcher instead, i.e. SpotLight, Launchy, Alfred
- I prefer a custom launcher like Alfred to Spotlight because of its enhanced functionality
- Avoid using finder as much as possible, and prefer the cmd line or launcher
- In Windows, use tab to autocomplete file paths in explorer
- Use cmd + shift + G in Finder to use tab auto-complete functionality
- You don’t need to use terminal/finder exclusively — you can drag a folder from Finder into the cmd-line to mimic a
cd
command - Ctrl+f2 highlights menu, press a letter to jump to that menu item
- Ctrl+f8 highlights services (clock side of the menu bar)
- Use a clipboard manager because context switching eats time. I recommend BTT on Mac, or Breevy/PasteExpress on Windows
- Use shell history — this is the major advantage of using shell over GUIs; you can easily repeat actions. Use ctrl+R to search history.
- Pressing
Q
while alt-tabbing in Mac, close the app - Use “command prompt here” in the context menu
Development Accelerators
- The easiest target to click is by not moving the mouse at all and right-clicking
- Learn keyboard shortcuts more easily by using a key-promoter extension
- Say the shortcuts out loud while trying to memorize them to force more parts of your brain to activate, increasing the chance you’ll remember it
- Using a plugin like “key promoter,” which tells you whenever you use the mouse for an action that can be done using a keyboard shortcut
alt + up-arrow
will…