How I turned my Mac into a productivity machine

Video ID: Ew4VBHvg2vA

YouTube URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew4VBHvg2vA

Added At: 13-06-25 21:16:33

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Sentiment: Positive

Categories: Education, Tech

Tags: productivity, mac setup, file organization, cloud storage, external hard drive, clean my mac x, computing

Summary

• The video is about how the creator sets up their Mac to maximize productivity and efficiency.
• They use file organization, cloud services, and external hard drives to keep their files organized.
• They also use an app called Clean My Mac X to clean up their computer's performance.

Transcript

all right in this video I'll walk you
through exactly how I set up my Mac to
maximize productivity and ensure that
I'm using it as effectively and
efficiently as possible I've been a Mac
User for my entire life and my Mac is
really the core device that I use to
create YouTube videos manage my finances
organize my life take notes Etc over the
years I've come across a number of
shortcuts applications and various ways
to optimize my Mac setup to reduce
friction minimize distractions and get
the most out of this powerful Machine by
the way if you're new here my name is
Miles and I make videos about my
experiences navigating life in my mid
20s while sharing any tactics tools and
insights that have helped me along the
way click subscribe right now to see
more videos like this all right let's
get into file organization and this is
another very important part of my Mac
setup and it makes sure that I basically
maintain this nice clean desktop there's
no clutter files don't get lost I know
where everything is because it's nicely
well organized and my approach to this
is very similar to how I approach other
parts of my productivity system if
you've seen any other videos and that is
to essentially organize my files by the
different aspects of my life and so on
my calendar and task manager I'll do
something similar but for my computer I
have basically one master folder here
just called miles and it's divided into
personal and professional and these are
kind of the two main areas of my life
and within each of these there are
different subfolders at as needed so
this really depend on what you use your
computer for and what are the main areas
of your life but applying this concept
and having a simple intuitive file
structure is a must in my opinion
otherwise things will just get really
cluttered super quickly you'll start to
run out of storage and you won't feel
comfortable deleting anything because
you won't know what's important what's
not and where everything is it'll just
be a whole mess and another thing I
would take advantage of is this
favorites bar on the side here so I have
specific folders within my file
structure that I might access really
frequently like maybe the active videos
that I'm working on and I don't want to
have to go to this master folder and
click through every single time to find
that folder and look for the files that
I want to access so instead what I can
do is just take a folder let's say it's
this one and I can just drag it onto
this favorites bar here and then now I
can just quickly click on this folder
and it'll open it up right away rather
than having to navigate through the
whole structure so if there's a project
with lots of files that I'm constantly
accessing I'll just drag that folder
into my favorite bar here so I can just
quickly access it and then once I'm done
with that project I'll remove it now
it's definitely unrealistic for our
computer to maintain this perfect file
organization at all times you know
throughout the week when we're in the
middle of a deep work session we're not
going to want to worry about which
folder a particular file goes into we're
just going to want to download the
folder get on with our work and not get
interrupted so what I'll use for that is
this downloads folder and this will
basically add act as an inbox for my
computer so the same mindset with having
an inbox for your notes or your task
manager where you quickly capture any
tasks that come to mind just so you can
get on with your day I apply the similar
concept to my computer so any files that
I've downloaded or I don't really want
to worry about organizing right now and
I just need to quickly access them or
use them I'll just throw it into my
downloads F uh folder here and then at
the end of the week during my weekly
review I'll go through this downloads
folder I'll delete a lot of things I'll
organize it into the proper file
structure Etc now continuing with file
management I would highly recommend
signing up for some kind of cloud
service there's a bunch of different
options out there I think the main ones
are probably Google Drive Dropbox iCloud
drive maybe one drive too although I
don't really use any Microsoft stuff so
for me I use both iCloud and Google
Drive my setup's a little more
complicated than you might need because
I have stuff from my YouTube channel I
also have personal things but honestly
there's not a huge difference between
the different cloud services I would say
whichever one you already use a good
amount I would just stick with that
because it's a huge pain to transfer
things between services so if you use a
lot of Google Sheets Google applications
and things although I'm an apple Fanboy
I would just say stick with Google Drive
so you don't have to worry about it
although I do like iCloud drive for my
photos specifically just because you can
get a lot more storage at at a fairly
cheap rate compared to other cloud
services so I think I can get up to like
12 terabytes or something I think I
maybe have 3 or 6 terabytes and the
price isn't too bad considering and I
also use Google Drive for my YouTube
work and whichever cloud service you
choose I would highly recommend
installing the app on your computer so
that you can integrate your cloud files
with your finder so what this means
exactly is normally I would have to go
to the Google Drive website to access my
files I would have to go into these
folders and and you know click download
and and stuff like that with this once I
have the Google Drive app here installed
you can see it at the top I can access
all of these same folders just within my
finer window and I don't have to like go
onto the website to download them I can
just drag them directly from here and
they download Super quickly and it's
it's great for me it's especially useful
when it comes to editing my YouTube
videos because I can just go into my
Boll Library here which I have uploaded
all to Google Drive so none of these are
stored on my computer and I can go into
a particular
folder look for a file let's say I want
to use this one in my edit I can just
take it and drag it straight into my
editing software just like that and it's
super nice and convenient now another
key tool that I use for file management
isn't actually on the computer itself
but it's separate and that would be
these Samsung SSD so I've got I think
this is the t7 here I also have like
like some old t5s I believe it wants to
focus yeah Samsung T5
SSD and these are basically external
hard drives that are super fast and
allows you to run entire applications
video files project files at normal
speeds as if they were on your computer
but they're on an external drive and the
reason this is so great is because Apple
charges so much money to get more
storage on your MacBook I think if you
want to get like one terab 2 terabytes 4
terabytes or whatever it's extra like
$800,000 or something and this SSD cost
me something like I don't know $100
maybe $150 for an extra 2 terabytes and
I can take this and plug it into another
computer my iPad my iPhone even and
they're just super useful and must have
if you are running out of storage or you
use a lot of large files a key part of
my weekly review is going through my
desktop and downloads folder and
cleaning up any files that have
naturally accumul ated throughout the
week we already know the value of
keeping our physical environment nice
and organized so that we can stay
focused on the task at hand but I think
it's just as important that we keep our
digital workspace clean and organized
otherwise it's very easy for things to
quickly pile up and hinder our
productivity one piece of software that
has really helped me organize large
amounts of files and keep my Mac
performing at its best is called clean
my Mac X now this app does more than
simply scan your computer for files
clogging up your hard drive it's really
kind of like a mini personal assistant
for your Mac I think my favorite feature
is this little menu app at the top that
we can click and it'll give us a bunch
of real time updates about my Mac
performance everything from Storage to
memory usage CPU load even the
temperature Wi-Fi speeds battery health
etc for example the battery monitor here
tells us not just the percentage but the
actual time that we have left on our
battery along with temperature and
health and things like that and this is
super helpful because sometimes I will
take my laptop to work at coffee shops
where I don't really have access to
outlets and I need to know how much time
I have left on my battery we can also
see things like Wi-Fi speeds and very
quickly just run a quick speed test to
see what our speeds are like and if
you're like me and you use a bunch of
different apps simultaneously the CPU
and memory monitors here are super
helpful it'll show you exactly which
apps are using up most of your CPU you
can quickly quit them if you need to or
same goes for memory if you need to free
up some Ram that's kind of just the
beginning of what this tool can do I
know you can update and manage
applications you can also I believe yeah
scan your Mac for large files that you
haven't really used in months which is
super helpful way of freeing up that
valuable space and we can also scan for
malware potential viruses look for other
system junk that you might not need on
your Mac it's kind of like an all-in-one
application for managing the different
files and performance of your Mac so
whether you're in the middle of a deep
work session and just need to to quickly
clean up some storage or free up some
memory or if you're doing a more routine
cleanup of your Mac's files clean my Mac
X is really kind of like a jack of all
trades tool that will help you practice
digital minimalism and keep your Mac
running at Peak Performance I connected
with the team and macul who developed
clean my Mac X and was able to get you a
free 7-Day trial if you click the link
in the description you can also use the
code miles to get 20% off the first app
that I think every Mac User needs to
have installed if they want to optimize
their workflows and productivity is
going to be either Alfred or
raycast and the reason I say or is
because they pretty much do the same
thing I've been a longtime user of
Alfred for many years but I recently
came across raycast which appears to be
a somewhat more updated honestly more
intuitive version of alfrid but both are
great and we'll get the job done um but
lately I have been using Rass now what
do these actually do well what they do
is basically replace the spotlight
search function on your Mac so if you
don't have these installed and you press
I believe it's command space right now
you'll see this little popup window for
me this is my raycast search and what
this does is a number of different
things at a basic level what you can do
is essentially search across your entire
Mac for files applications anything and
very quickly access them and open them
up so for example let's say we're at our
desktop here and we press command space
which is a global key command that you
can access anywhere if you have these
installed and we type in C HR and we
press enter that opens up Chrome let's
say we want to open up Spotify all we
have to do is do command space or
whatever shortcut you set to open up
raycast type S P enter spotify's open
chat GPT I can type that in quickly open
it Final Cut Pro enter opens that uh
notes opens very quickly like that but
you get the idea using our keyboard is
going to be way faster than trying to
navigate our computer with our Mouse so
like what normal people will do is
they'll come down to the dock here
they'll look for their application
they'll click on it they'll open it up
blah blah blah and that is just so slow
you have to kind of move your hand from
your keyboard to your mouse if that
makes sense and so in general one of the
fastest ways to improve your efficiency
and reduce fr on your Mac is to use
keyboard shortcuts like this and raycast
makes it super easy to navigate with
your keyboard and you can actually
assign specific hotkeys to open up
certain apps so for some of my most
frequently used apps like Arc my
calender finder reminder Spotify I'll
have specific key commands where if I
press them at any point on my computer
it will open up that app so for example
Arc control command C I have set I press
that and Arc opens up there's no more
going down to my doc I don't even have
to type it in that's kind of slow at
this point I can just press the key
command and instantly open that up also
got one for Spotify finder just shift
command F that opens up my finder
control command
W opens up my calendar you get the idea
and we can also assign keyboard
shortcuts not just to opening apps but
to do a number of different commands on
our computer so if you want to search
emojis control command space it opens up
this nice Emoji search window I also
have a hotkey set to open up my
clipboard history and you probably don't
realize how much of work that we do on
computers is just like copying and
pasting things around and so it's super
useful to have this clipboard history it
can have links in here images that
you've copied and you can scroll back
and access them later super great
feature if you use shortcuts just
regular Apple shortcuts like I have one
to add a new reminder to
my Apple reminders set to shift command
R and that will run that specific
shortcut which is super awesome can have
other functions like shift command
Escape I've set to put my Mac to sleep
so when I'm done for the day I don't
need to like go up to the top here and
then press sleep I can just command Shi
Escape goes to sleep I'm not going to do
it now cuz my computer will shut down
and another really helpful thing is
quickly resizing windows and so I have
all these various keyboard shortcuts set
up to basically
easily move around windows so let's say
I have different things that I want to
look
at I can
quickly just put Windows next to each
other I can make them different sizes
move them all around like this rather
than having to kind of drag like I don't
remember the last time I've gone like
this to resize a window and this is a
feature that normally you would have had
to get another third party application
that would have costed money to do I
know Apple did implement it in their
recent Mac OS Sequoia update but it's
not quite as good and it leaves this
weird little space in between Windows
that I don't really like so much prefer
this and also because you can just use
the keyboard to resize things which is
way more efficient now another feature
of raycast that I've just now started to
explore more is the extensions and this
makes it a lot easier to set up than
Alfred was for me back in the day so for
example I have this extension installed
to generate a high quality password so
anytime I'm making an account all I need
to do is type GE and it says generate
password I press enter can set the
length use numbers special characters if
I press command enter it now copies that
password to my clipboard you can see it
right here on my clipboard history and
then I can quickly go and paste that
into whatever website I need to paste it
to and there's so many other extensions
that I haven't even explored too much
yet like Google translate Arc
integration chat gbt Spotify slack
notion obsidian oh yeah one thing I
think I did install was this timer one
which is super useful you can just
quickly start a timer so if you're going
to do like a 90-minute deep work session
all I need to do is go here boom start
90 minutes I see it up at the top so
much you can do with Alfred and all of
this is just with the free plan I'm not
sponsored or anything I don't even know
what the paid plan offers it seems like
okay it's like some of AI features but
all this stuff is things that I'm pretty
sure I had to pay to do with Alfred and
so definitely recommend checking this
app out all right so continuing with
ways to make our workflow as efficient
and frictionless as possible on our Mac
I want to continue with some more
keyboard shortcuts and these are all
built into our Mac so you don't even
have to install raycast or Alfred to run
them and I really think that keyboard
shortcuts are the best way to just
simply save time when it comes to
navigating your computer so the first
one command Shift 4 allows you to just
quickly create a screenshot like this
you can just draw a little box and it'll
take a screenshot and before you do that
actually I would do command shift 5 and
this will open up some different options
for different types of screen captures
and also screen recording but most
importantly I would go to options and
select where you want screenshots to be
saved by default I think it saves them
to your desktop and if you take a lot of
screenshots what you end up with is I'll
show you an example
here A bunch of screenshots just
appearing and clogging up your desktop
like this we don't want any of that we
can go ahead and delete these so what I
do is I like to save it to my clipboard
or you can save it to your downloads
folder and that'll make file management
a lot easier and we'll get more into
file organization in a second now
another one I use a lot is just command
Tab and this opens up this
little window here where we can quickly
cycle between the different applications
we have open so I can just hold command
press Tab and move to the next
application I can keep pressing tab if I
want to select a different one and
whichever one I end up on once I let go
of command it'll kind of just open that
application if that makes sense once you
play around with it a little bit you'll
get used to it you can also hold shift
to go
backwards like that so you can navigate
between them and this makes it way
easier to navigate
and pick which application you want to
look at you don't have to click around
like this I rarely use the mouse for
anything anymore and also if you have a
bunch of applications open like this
while you're holding command if you
press Q it will quit that application so
if you want to quickly quit all the
applications you have open you can just
cycle through and press command Q like
that and they will all quickly close
down another one that's super helpful is
let's say you have a bunch of Windows
within the same application open like
this similarly to command tab you can
press command Tilda whatever the
squiggly line is called and this will
cycle between the windows within that
application so same works for Arc let's
say I have a bunch of different windows
open like this and I want to go between
them I can press command squiggly line
and cycle between them just like that if
you have a window open and you want to
just quickly click close it you can
press command W like this and see these
windows are just closing and for finder
specifically let's say you have a bunch
of finder windows open sometimes this
happens to me when I'm like doing a
bunch of file organization you can do
option command W and it just closes
everything and another useful one that I
use quite a bit is just command M and
that will minimize the window and it'll
go down into this little dock down here
all right now let's quickly go through
some settings that I would recommend
changing on your Mac so if we open up
system settings
and we search for
Doc what I like to do is turn on
automatically hide and show the doc so
what this does if we unclick it you'll
see that the dock with all these apps
shows up here but we don't really need
this anymore as I talked about earlier
with raycast and Alfred we can just
quickly open up applications by typing
them in and it's way way faster so I
just turn this on and if I really need
to I can just hover my mouse over here
and it will appear but this just gives
me more real estate on my screen which I
much prefer prefer now another thing I
do is just honestly turn off all the
notifications on my Mac this is a big
one for productivity purposes again my
Mac is really the core device that I use
to get my deep focus work done and so
there's really no need for me to be
bombarded with various notifications if
I really wanted to get notified about
something I can put that on my phone or
my Apple watch or set an alarm or
something there's no need to have some
random notification that doesn't really
add anything to my life take me out of
some deep Flow State that I'm in all
right let's quickly cover some
recommended apps and the first one is a
classic and that is flux this will
really help indirectly improve our
productivity by ensuring that we get
better sleep and basically what this
does is it's like the built-in night
shift mode that's on the Mac except when
I turn this on hopefully you can see it
gets a little dimmer and like this
orange Hue but it's not very much and
late at night this still looks pretty
Bright Now what flux does it takes
things to the next level and will bring
it all the way down to this kind of dark
red color and cut out a lot of blue
light which if you didn't know if you
view a bunch of bright lights in
particular blue light late at night it
can kind of trick your brain into
thinking that it's supposed to be awake
and it can mess up your whole circadian
rhythm and sleep schedule so I just have
this set and it's automatically turns on
as it goes to Sunset and then it gets
even darker at night so everyone should
have this installed on their Mac it's
completely free where this app is super
simple but it's just another one of
those quality of life things so let's
say all right this next app is super
simple but definitely comes in handy and
it's become something that I really
can't live without on my Mac and that is
called drop over and how this basically
works is let's say we have a file that
we want to move to another folder but
it's kind of deeply embedded inside our
file structure normally what I would
have had to do is maybe move this window
window to the side open up another
window take that file navigate to the
folder I want to go to and then drag
that file in that takes forever you get
cluttered up with all these different
windows but with drop over what I can do
instead is take the file kind of shake
my mouse a little bit drop it onto this
little platform that appears then
quickly go and navigate to the folder
drag it in and it's way faster like that
super simple but believe me it really
comes in handy when you're moving things
around on your Mac all right so for my
browser what I've recently done is
switch from chrome to what's called Arc
which is this new kind of innovative
browser that uses Ai and things at first
it felt a little weird but now that I've
gotten used to it I really like it and
the first thing is you've got this kind
of clean interface on the side here with
these vertical tabs you can add folders
you can have favorites and manage your
extensions and stuff and you can hide
this whole sidebar with just uh pressing
command s and then you get like a nice
clean full screen window so you can see
a lot more on the page you can also
treat it kind of like an AI search by
pressing shift enter and what it does is
it'll search the web for you if you saw
that it took me directly to this
unsplash website which I guess is a
bunch of royaltyfree images and if I
don't know about you but lately Google
search has been kind of bad for me
lately you search something and you just
get a bunch of random websites where you
have to click through things scroll
through a bunch of ads and takes you
minutes to get an answer this will
basically browse the internet for you
and find the perfect web page to answer
whatever your search was now another
super cool thing is that when you
download anything within Arc so let's
say I want to just download this image
you'll see it pop down to the bottom
left here and actually intelligently
renames the file to something that makes
more sense and can actually be readable
so you can see normally when you
download things especially images it'll
be like all this random text this is
like lur cross ktj y7 blah BL BL blah
and then when you're going through your
files especially when you're cleaning
out your downloads folder at the end of
the week you'll just see all these
different files that you have no idea
what they are whereas now this has just
quickly renamed it to Sydney Laura cross
so I know this is probably a jake Peg
image of Sydney and that's just a super
nice quality of life thing that is
definitely making me stick with Ark
browser another thing I use is chat GPT
of course but specifically the Mac app
because what this does is as you can see
if I press shift command space is the
hocky I've set it opens up this little
chat GPT window I can ask it whatever I
want make me a meal plan for for
night and it opens up its answer in this
nice little side window that I can drag
to the side here and if I do want to
open up the full window I can just click
here and it'll open up the full chat GPT
thing so that's super helpful I use that
a lot for for various things in my
workflow now these next three apps I
actually use simultaneously if I really
want to go indepth reading or
researching about a particular topic and
that is first the Kindle app and I also
will open up Apple notes and
occasionally Spotify as well and how my
workflow kind of works here is I'll read
the book on the Kindle app here while
also simultaneously playing the Audi
book and I've really enjoyed doing this
lately because I think it just one makes
the reading process more fun but I also
feel like I retain the information a
little better because I'm getting it
through these two input channels and
then I'll also be taking notes as I'm
reading if especially if it's about on a
book that is like a non-fiction book
where I'm really trying to learn things
and rather than just kind of read for
pleasure now in addition to Apple notes
I will also use Apple calendar and apple
reminder so I'm a big fan of Apple's
entire sort of productivity App Suite
here I think they all are Super Simple
and Clean they work great offline and
and sync nicely between devices click
this video right here to learn more
about my simple apple productivity
system do something today that your
future yourself