“Turn dock hiding on”, wow. That feels much better… Why didn’t I think of that before? Duh!

[…] It has to be said that the default Mac desktop + Dock + menu bar with addins + some downloads you haven’t yet removed from your desktop is pretty busy. Here are some nice tips from 43 Folders plus others on how to unclutter. Full screen mode + dock hiding really make sense (especially on what feels like a tiny 1024×768 screen - even if it is a 28 inch LCD TV!). […]

A clean workspace…

Synergy is great - thanks for the suggestion…

Hmm, guess I was wrong about MenuShade not working in combination with Desktop Manager. I gave it another try and now it’s working like a charm.

I use BackDrop all the time for taking screenshots for my book. It’s been a huge help. :-)

Quick mention for good ol’ Microsoft Word: Alt-V,U triggers Word’s excellent full screen mode. It’s possible to Alt-Tab in and out without leaving the mode. It’s a lifesaver.

for windows, the equivalent to hide ALL windows is

WINDOWS - D (show desktop)

or

WIINDOWS - M (minimize all)

-

you can also press it again and it will show you all your windows again.

I think Lifehacker once wrote about a program that allowed you to choose specific applications, choose a specified time period, and presto, those apps will be unavailable to you for that duration. Does anybody know what that program is?

I love MacJournal also, but for different reasons. I don’t use it for writing full texts that much, and I totally forgot about the fullscreen mode. I use it primarily as a brain dump. The journal metaphor works perfectly with the way I organize various bits of text - it’s just structured enough, but not as restricting as an outliner for example. Whenever my mind wanders and I start thinking about everything except what I should be concentrating on, I write or paste it into MacJournal. I also love the autosave, which means I don’t have to worry about losing things because I forgot to save it.

Paul:

I use HumaneText.service to convert Markdown formatted text to XHTML and vice-versa. I believe it also works with Textile if you prefer that flavor. As a service, it’s usable with TextMate and any other OSX app.

Sol:

Win-M will minimize all windows on the desktop.

Mithras, no, but you’ve piqued my interest. I’d love to use something like that.

Save yourself $12 and use Opera (www.opera.com) which has full screen mode for free and a host of other features.

Opera is now ad-free.

Most of these apps have focused on preventing a distraction, but one I’ve found that is VERY helpful for breaking a distraction that has already started is Time Out! (http://www.dejal.com/timeout/). It will fade the screen out every 10 min or so (user setable) for about 10 seconds.

When the break comes up, the first thing I ask myself is “Am I doing what I should be doing at this moment?” If the answer is “yes” and I’m working hard then it reminds me to rest my eyes for a minute and shift to a distant focus and take one or two deep breaths. However, if I’m in the middle of a distraction, then in order for it to continue, I have to consciously acknowledge that I am choosing to sacrifice productivity (and resultant contentment with work) for a few more minutes of READING about productivity and SEARCHING for productivity holy grails.

Oh…my screen’s fading out now…and this is not what I should be doing at this moment.

Cheers

Desktopple hides all the icons on your desktop, and if you desktop is clean, then you’ve got less distractions.

DeskShade also does an excellent job of hiding the desktop, and can play movies & rotate wallpapers in the background as well (although that’s probably not going to help out your productivity much).

If you type defaults write com.apple.Finder QuitMenuItem 1 in Terminal, the Finder gets a quit menu item. If you quit the finder, all the clutter on the desktop goes away. Clicking on the Finder in the Dock relaunches it, but in the meantime, “hide others” will leave just your one program running, with no distracting clutter on the desktop. Now if I could only do that to my real desktop…

I use Desktop Manager, and devote a special desktop to work-related activities. Similar to the Hide Others trick, but I have the piece of mind knowing that all my distractions are waiting for me as a reward for work-completion. I write a bit about it here.

If you’re scared of Terminal like I am, you can get a Quit option in the Finder menu using Tinkertool.

My biggest distraction-killer is Synergy. If I’m going to be listening to iTunes while I work (and I am), it’s great to be able to control it without having to bring the iTunes window to the front. Reaching for a function key to pause or skip or whatever is way less distracting.

The Dock distracts me even when it’s hidden because when it’s at the bottom of the screen (and my windows are stretched all the way to the bottom of the screen)) I mistakenly mouse-over and launch the Dock time after time after time, especially when I’m trying to scroll a web site or document. Very distracting. I made the Dock small (the icons are now approx. 30x30) and placed it on the left side of the screen rather than bottom. It still auto-hides and I never accidentally launch it now.

I find the Apple-H (Hide Window) along with the witch to avoid the distraction of having too many windows open.

I’m curious how to get “Markdown” to work with TextMate? Merlin mentioned it in his paragraph about MacJournal. I have TextMate and downloaded Markdown, but don’t know how to install it. Help?

[…] So by way of 43 Folders I came across MenuShade, a small app for OS X which simply fades down the brightness of the OS X menu. Try it out, it’s really quite nice. […]

Spirited Away automatically hides background applications after a fixed period of time. I use that and a grey icon-less desktop to maintain focus. It’s free too.

Similar to Back drop is Peter Mauer’s Desktop Curtain. I don’t use it (currently) but his other software is excellent. I recently discovered him via 43folders via Hawk Wings. I did a brief review on my site of the couple I am using, but I find his stuff very Life Hackable (is that a word?).

BTW…I tried writing this in MarkDown and the preview came out as the raw text. I figured 43folders, of all places, would allow (possibly require) Markdown in comments.

DevonThink Pro also has a full-screen editor, which I don’t use often enough. Perhaps I need to look into it some more!

I’ve started using the command-option-plus “Zoom” feature (enablable in the universal access prefpane) to focus in on one window to the exclusion of all else. If I can’t see the rest of the desktop (including bouncing dock icons), they can’t distract me, but as soon as I’m done, I just zoom out with command-option-minus, and there’s everything I’m not ready to be distracted by. This has the added bonus of making text a reasonable size without having to scramble about in font settings, etc.

Of course, this makes the mouse semi-useless for mousing purposes, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially when I’m writing.

Sounds like someone’s making a case for bringing back the scorned purple button in Mac OS X windows.

It’s not an app, but I gotta say that keeping a completely clean desktop (unchecking even the HD from showing and auto-hiding the dock) creates not only a thing of serene beauty, but something very helpful in making one decide what actually needs to be done, not what is visually the loudest.

Also, didn’t Gina at Lifehacker talk about some Greasemonkey scripts she wrote to restrict visiting certain websites (say, flickr) to certain times of the day? I can’t find it, but that seems like a lovely idea.

Saft got a mention, however so should Inquisitor. No need to scroll endlessly through Google results when the majority of the time the top 5 hits in Inquisitor are all that’s needed. And they contain concise and relevant information.

I made an (admittedly lame) two-photo set on flickr of my word processor (yes, it’s Word, I just hate saying that out loud) running before and after using these tips.

I was initially skeptical (although not so skeptical that I didn’t try it), but it actually helps a lot.

Thanks for the excellent advice; I’ll be using this often.