There are two groups of Mac users: those who are quite happy to have dozens of files on their desktop, a mail inbox full of unread messages, and the Documents folder as untidy as it is disorganized, and those for whom only a clear desktop and an organized to-do list will do.
While an obsession with being neat and tidy might seem over the top, there are some very good reasons for a minimalist approach to using your Mac. For example, cluttering your desktop with files actually slows your Mac down. And a menu bar full of icons makes it difficult to find the tool you want to use. It’s time for a clean-up!
Think of this as a gratitude list. Typical things you might include are: your partner, your kids, your parents, your pets, etc. I recommend writing this list at least once a month. And most importantly—make sure you’re giving the 20 things plenty of room in your life. Stop Playing Different Roles. MinimaList is a simple yet powerful to-do list and reminder app.
Keep your Mac tidy with best minimalist apps
Fortunately, there are plenty of apps to help you maintain a healthy, happy, and organized working environment. And they’ll boost your Mac’s performance too! Here is our list of the best minimalist apps.
Clean menu bar with Bartender
IIt seems that more and more apps these days insist on putting icons in the Finder’s menu bar. https://rentarenew.weebly.com/blog/mac-app-to-flip-photos-that-are-reversed. Whether it’s cloud storage, password managers, or backup tools, our menu bars are becoming ever more cluttered. Bartender solves that problem at a stroke by keeping your menu bar well-arranged.
Bartender allows you to take full control. You can choose which apps to display in the menu bar and which to hide behind Bartender’s icon. Or you can choose to display items for a period of time after they update. It also allows you to reorder menu bar items, search for them, and navigate with a keyboard rather than a mouse or trackpad. For the complete minimalist look, you can even hide the Bartender menu bar item itself!
Organize desktop automatically with Spotless
Spotless is one of those apps you never knew you needed until you start using it. Then you wonder how you lived without it! In fact, daily use apps don’t come any more useful than this. Spotless makes clearing your desktop and keeping it clear so easy, yet doesn’t just dump files in a folder you’ll need to sort out later — it files them away exactly where you want them to go. All you have to do is drag files onto its menu bar item.
Before you start, you’ll need to teach Spotless where to put files, of course. You do that by creating tasks and adding rules to them. Don’t worry, though. It’s very simple to do. Creating tasks is just like creating a custom search in the Finder. You create a new Task and then fill in the blank boxes to tell Spotless what kind of files you want to act on (for example, those that have the word “work” in their name) and where you want them to be filed. There’s no excuse now to have files lurking on your desktop.
Forget switching between messengers with IM+
A cluttered dock and tens of open tabs in a browser not only bring a Mac to knees, but also ruin your minimalist style. IM+ is an aggregator that collects the messaging apps you use in one place. From Slack to Telegram to Instagram, you build your custom all-in-one messaging platform that has it all. Whenever you need to go through notifications or reply to messages, there’s only one app to launch. IM+ also allows you to be a bit of a perfectionist: you can use color tags to keep the apps in order, hotkey for convenience, and fine-tune push notifications.
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Filter online distractions to get more done with Focus
One of the best things about Focus is that you’ll barely know it’s there, but it will help you work and get much more done. It’s designed to filter out distractions for a set period, so you won’t be able to check Twitter or post to Facebook (for example) while you’re supposed to be finishing that essay or presentation. You choose which apps or websites to block and either switch it on and off manually, or schedule it for preset periods.
Focus keeps track of how much time you spend working and displays it in graphs, so you can challenge yourself to keep improving. What happens when you try to go to a website or open an app that’s blocked? It shows you a motivational quote from its huge library of wisdom. Now back to work!
Monitor your Mac with iStat Menus
Perhaps, the most useful app you could have on your Mac, iStat Menus takes up almost no room at all, making it perfect for minimalists. The idea is simple, iStat Menus monitors your Mac’s battery, processor, RAM, temperature, and a host of other metrics, and allows you to check them at the click of a menu bar item. You can keep an eye on how your Mac is performing or work out why it’s running slowly, without cluttering up your screen.
Free up space with CleanMyMac, the best one-button Mac cleaner
CleanMyMac is a must for minimalists. It’s the perfect way to keep your Mac free from junk files or applications you no longer need. Not only will it save storage space and keep your Mac well organized, it can help it run faster too.
CleanMyMac scans your Mac for files that can be deleted safely. These might be old system files that are no longer needed, mail attachments, or things in iTunes and Photos that aren’t necessary. Its app uninstaller completely removes all traces of an app from your Mac and its Malware Protection keeps you safe. And it’s easy to use, too. Just a few clicks and your Mac is free from junk.
Write better with Focused, the non-distractive writing app
When it comes to writing, there’s no shortage of beautiful minimalist writing tools on the Mac. But Focused is the one worth trying out. Not only does it look gorgeous, it has full support for Markdown, a Zen-mode that fills the screen with paper and plays relaxing music to help you concentrate, and a custom focus mode that highlights only the sentence or paragraph you’re working on.
As you can see, the minimalist ethic Apple brings to its hardware is alive and well-supported by macOS software. There are lots of apps for minimalists to help you clear the clutter, focus, and be more productive, no matter what you’re working on. Best of all, all these apps are available for a free 7-day trial with Setapp, so download them now and enjoy a serene experience.
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As a minimalist, I own more than you might think.
Although this essay is a somewhat parodic interpretation of my friend Dave Bruno’s 100 Thing Challenge, it is not entirely about “counting your stuff.” Rather, I’d like to touch on the idea of being conscious about what we do own by appreciating what we already have.
Other minimalists have taken the counting challenge to the extreme. Among these brave souls are Colin Wright and his 51 things, Leo Babauta and his 50 things, Tammy Strobel and her 72 things, and Nina Yau and her very impressive 47 things.
But if minimalism were a game in which the person with the fewest things wins, then you can consider me a loser before the opening bell. I have no desire to live with only X things. But, just for fun, let’s pretend to count my stuff together.
Ready. Here goes.
Unlike many folks who count their possessions, I literally counted everything I own, including things like the clock on the wall, my toothbrush, photo frames, my solo oven mitt, the trash can under the sink, salt and pepper shakers, cooking utensils, and even that metal thingy in the shower that holds shampoo. I even counted items that other people leave off their lists—my couch, chairs, dining table, and other furniture—because they are considered “shared items,” I live by myself, so these things needed to be counted.
But, of course, just like some of our aforementioned counting friends, I cheated. Yes, I cheated by grouping many things into sets: My underwear counts as one thing, right?. My clothes hangers are only one item—obviously. And food, yep, that’s one item, too, because, why not? Books? Yeah, let’s count those piles of books as one thing. My game, my rules.
Let’s be clear, I don’t plan on owning 50 or 100 things, and while I started this experiment as a joke, I also wanted to count my stuff so I could, in all honesty, get rid of any superfluous or unused items. As I started counting, I discovered that when you write down everything you own, it puts everything into a different perspective and helps us realize we can jettison so many things we don’t use but we’re holding on to just in case. After getting rid of tens of thousands of items last year (2009), I ended up counting 288 items today (December 2010).
Does 288 not sound very minimalist to you? Me either—especially because I cheated! But I challenge you to count your stuff (and be honest when counting it). I bet you have much more than you think (according to the Los Angeles Times, the average American household has more than 300,000 items in it).
With only 288 items, my apartment looks like this:
By the way, my place always looks this way—I didn’t have to clean it up to take this picture (another benefit of minimalism: less stuff to clean).
Below is a list of my 288 items—everything I own. (Note: I originally wrote down every signal item individually, but it made for a very long and boring list. So, for the sake of attenuation, I shortened the categories by adding a count with examples of items underneath each category.)
Life Tools & Accessories. 33 items, including my car, guitar, books, hairbrush, toothbrush, etc.
Consumables. How to delete all app data on mac. 5 groups of items, including food, cleaning supplies, hygiene supplies, office supplies, and paper goods.
Kitchen Items. 19 items, including pots, pans, utensils, coffeemaker, toaster, oven mitt, etc.
Bathroom Items. 6 items, including my bathroom scale, rugs, trash can, shower caddy, etc.
Electronics. 10 items, including my BlackBerry, MacBook, Printer, iPod, etc.
Furniture. 18 items, including my bed, couch, coffee table, desk, chairs, etc.
Decorations. 14 items, including decorative plants, artwork, digital picture frames, wall clock, etc.
Casual Clothes. 79 items, including jeans, hoodies, T-shirts, button-down shirts, etc.
Dress Clothes. 50 items, including suits, ties, dress shirts, etc.
Clothes (Miscellaneous). 58 items, including shoes, socks, underwear, belts, gym shorts, coats, etc.
That’s everything I own. 288 things. Count them if you’d like. The nicest thing about creating this list is that I actually use everything I own: everything serves a purpose or brings me joy. There is not a kitchen utensil or piece of furniture or article of clothing that I do not use regularly. What an amazing feeling.
Yes, I know I have plenty of clothes, but rest assured, I wear every article on this list. And believe me, this year I got rid of five car loads of clothes (no exaggeration) that have been collecting dust in an old basement and piling up over the last decade. All of my clothes now fit nicely in my closet, and everything I own actually gets worn. Plus, it’s all in one convenient place—not sitting in some storage container somewhere—which means I don’t have to unpack my “cold-weather clothes” in the winter or my “summer clothes” come May. How awesome is that.
Most important, I’m not attached to any of my possessions. Sure I have a favorite pair of jeans, a favorite pair of shoes, and a favorite teeshirt—but those items don’t define me. I’m not attached to these things, which means I could get rid of any of them without being upset or experiencing some sort of deep, existential loss. After embracing minimalism as a lifestyle, I now know that I am not my blue jeans or my furniture or my cooking utensils.
I’m certain this list will change over time. Next month I might own 284 things, and then 285 things the following month, and then maybe I’ll have 190 things sometime next year—who knows. I still plan on getting rid stuff if it’s not adding value to my life, but I don’t plan on updating my list every time I get rid of something. Rather, this list is a point of reference for me—an inventory of my life for December 2010. https://rentarenew.weebly.com/how-to-enable-3-finger-app-switching-on-mac.html.
Minimalist List App Mac Download
Again, the ostensible subject here—counting your possessions—is not the true subject. Counting is not the point. The point is that taking a physical inventory of your life, albeit a bit silly, is eye opening, and it helps you get rid of unnecessary items so you can appreciate what you do have. I truly appreciate what I have now, even though I’m not attached to it.
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