Top 10 BEST Macbook Tips for Productivity!
About this video
Jeff Su walks through Mac productivity tips centered on Spotlight, Safari, AirDrop, and Notes after recent macOS updates. In Spotlight he filters searches with operators such as kind:setting (and notes he most often filters for contacts, events, folders, PDFs, and images), uses the arrow keys and spacebar to preview, presses command-enter to reveal a file in Finder, and command-B to search the web directly; he also toggles the Focus do-not-disturb shortcut from Spotlight, drags the Spotlight bar to a preferred position, and unchecks Siri suggestions, tips, and websites to declutter results. For Safari he creates web apps via File, Add to Dock and launches them from Spotlight (his route to ChatGPT), uninstalls them from Finder with the free AppCleaner app, sets tabs to close automatically after one week, and uses DuckDuckGo for private browsing search. For AirDrop he adds the AirDrop button to the Finder toolbar, enables Handoff so copied text, links, and images paste onto his iPhone, and uses the free DropZone app as a staging shelf for batches of files. In Notes he links between notes with command-K or the double angle bracket shortcut, organizes with tags feeding smart folders (meeting notes file themselves automatically), and enlarges the default note text size in accessibility settings. Bonus settings: hold shift when triggering a hot corner to avoid accidental activation, force-quit an unresponsive app from the Dock with option held, and turn off inline predictive text and automatic spelling correction.
Key takeaways
- Filter Spotlight searches with kind: operators and reveal files instantly with command-enter
- Turn frequently used websites into Dock web apps and launch them from Spotlight instead of a browser
- Stage file batches in DropZone and enable Handoff to move content between Mac and iPhone
- Link Notes together with command-K and let tags plus smart folders organize them automatically
- Disable inline predictive text and autocorrect if they keep mangling what you meant to type
Episode details: published December 12, 2023 · 6:25 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Jeff Su’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.
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