A few tips to better organize your computer
Postcard #23
Hello and welcome back to another edition of THE POSTCARD, Unregistered’s fortnightly roundup of recommendations.
Thoughts, tools, and treats
Last week, I promised to share some hacks I found helpful during my computer reset. Here they are.
Data backup versus data synchronization
Apple's iCloud syncs data across different devices. If you delete a file on one of these devices, it disappears on all of them. You need an additional service like Backblaze to back up data in the cloud.
Optimize search
To improve search, you can have your Mac re-index its drive. Open System Preferences, go to Spotlight, click on the Spotlight Privacy tab, add your hard drive to the list (by clicking the + and selecting the hard drive), wait a moment, and then remove the hard drive from the list again. (Pro tip: Type a letter in the Mac search field. If a progress bar appears above the results, the Mac is indexing.)
Don’t make up workflows
Align the settings of individual apps with your actual workflow instead of inventing workflows based on the many available features—for example, only display functions you use regularly in the menu bars. Less is more.
Set and forget
Standardize file names, create templates and standard responses for recurring requests. Your initial effort will be more than compensated by the daily savings in time and energy.
Use smart mailboxes
Apple Mail offers the option to set up smart mailboxes. They help reduce context switching when replying to emails and thus decrease attention residue. Do yourself the favor.
Noteworthy
“I love deleting code.
Select, delete. Bam. You are the weakest method, goodbye. Build. Errors. Fix errors. Re-factor. Select, delete. Au ’voir.
If you work like I do, then your projects always get to a point where the main features are all there and all that’s left are bugs—and clean-up.
Look, there’s some lovely filth right here. Select, delete, auf wiedersehen.”
—The software developer Brent Simmons, who happened to have retired last week.
A mystery link leading into the unknown
The web is small, creative, and handmade.
As always,
Dirk
P.S.: Feel free to send me pointers to articles, books, sites, pods, tools, and treats that could be interesting for this roundup. While I cannot promise to link them, I read and appreciate every hint.