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Ask HN: What are your best productivity tips (shortcuts/keybings/workflowithetc)?

6 points by vonklaus ↗ HN
I am going back inside in 5 minutes and will include mine. I am having a bit of trouble adjusting from Yosemite and the GUI is slowing me down. I still mean this thread to be general tips and tricks for being efficient, but I personally am lacking in displaying programs in workspaces and efficient traversal of opened Windows/Desktops/programs on OS X.

tips about:

* keyboard shortcuts (program/global) * general workflows. * helpful programs & resources * general productivity * general productivity on OS X/UNIX (or Windows)

Would be awesome.

Tags might be helpful for position/environment etc.

Example

[OS X El Capitan / Web Dev / JS]

Or whatever you feel comfortable disclosing. Just think it could be helpful for others to parse.

Cheers.

Cheers

5 comments

[ 0.72 ms ] story [ 22.4 ms ] thread
sold
Alias often used commands, I have g = git, sl = ls (common typo).

Git: set up aliases. I can type "g co = git checkout", "g st = git status". Git configuration: pull.ff only (then "git pull" does not cause an accidental merge), fetch.prune (then "git pull" = "git pull -p").

Chrome: Ctrl+L for URL bar, Ctrl+T new tab, Ctrl+Shift+T to reopen closed window, Ctrl+W to close tab

Bash: use Alt+. for last argument (e.g. type "vim x.py"; then "python " and press Alt+. to get "x.py"), Ctrl+R to search last commands. "cd -" = undo last "cd"

Gmail: use keyboard shortcuts (enable in settings). ? to see help, most important: "c" compose, "r" reply, "a" reply all, "f" forward

Use a password manager such as keepass, remember only a few passwords.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
miguelrochefort
Ergonomic keyboard: Kinesis Advantage

Ergonomic keyboard layout: Dvorak

Powerful IDE: Visual Studio 2015

Efficient communication: Slack

RaitoBezarius
Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + I => Inspect the element (Open the DevTools). Ctrl + Tab, next tab.

HTTP: pip install httpie && http get someapi

OS X / Linux: tmux (layout management in terminals).

Vim: :set wildmenu => :e ../[TAB] (auto-complete for most of vim commands). And CtrlP.vim plugin.

General productivity: TaskWarrior for managing personal tasks.

React.js Web Dev workflow: HMR + Webpack (https://github.com/RaitoBezarius/react-spawn)

Python: virtualenvwrapper is pure awesomeness. mkvirtualenv new_project -a $(pwd) && pip install stuff

Python: export a PYTHONSTARTUP file and import some of your most used libs in it (requests, etc..). You will grow to love type python to try stuff.

twelvedesign
Mac: I remapped screenshot taking to a single key: F3 and F4 for saving to clipboard and saving to file respectively. Saves a lot of finger gymnastics. Works only on non-Apple keyboards... Have to use Fn+F3 and Fn+F4 on Apple keyboards. Still easier than default.

Also I defined where all the screenshots go, and defined a simple naming scheme for them: screenshot XY...