Single Screen Efficiency

My single screen work setup for efficiency on MacOS

Until a few months ago, my work setup used to be have a laptop and 2 27-inch monitors. A screen for slack, a screen for browser, and a screen for code editor. While I used to think that it made me more efficient, it was also kind of distracting on every slack message or email.

Then I tried using a single screen for all my work and being efficient at it. Here’s my setup:

1. Always open 10 spaces on startup (Settings > Desktop and Dock > disable Automatically arrange Spaces based on recent use)
2. Dock is divided into spaces by using a simple called vertical-bar.app which is copied 9 times and kept on the dock.
3. Each application is assigned to a space (for each application, open it in the space you want to always open in, and right click to assign it to current space)
4. Disable animations (Accessibility > reduce motion)
5. Shortcuts to switch between spaces (Option + <space-number>) (set by: Keyboard Shortcuts > expand Mission Control > enable options like “Switch to Desktop 1”, etc)

This is how I have setup my work and personal devices, and helps me focus on one thing at a time and switch between applications seamlessly.