Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?

I remember the 90's, having to delete solitaire games from my computer because I wasted too much time playing them. Now with the web always there....

Also, morning walks are good. Leave the phone at home (I only take the cellular-less Apple Watch with me that is recording my "workout").

Use the Accessibility Color Filters to make your machine greyscale. Works fine. Reduces brightly colored distractions.

But... really, read Cal Newport's stuff on Deep Work and stop using a computer for a lot of those tasks.

[0]: https://selfcontrolapp.com/

Using apps in full screen mode helps also. I use spaces for web browsing, communications, writing, etc. so that I'm not constantly bombarded by irrelevant windows.

Do you mean how to make your macOS less distracting?

Hide your Dock, Dark Mode ( if that is your thing ), go into Full Screen Mode. Make your Apps act like a Full Screen Single purpose program.

This doesn't sound like a computer problem so much as an attention / habitual problem (perhaps even addiction to the noted distractions). That said, there are numerous aspects of MacOS designed specifically for this...

1. MacOS has its do not disturb functionality, use it.

2. You can also hide your dock so you're not seeing those pesky red dots constantly.

3. Leverage the virtual desktop functionality of your OS. On MBPs, 4-finger swipe functionality makes it extremely smooth to switch between desktops and use "Mission control" to peek at your open apps for a given desktop.

Have one virtual desktop set up for browsing/communication apps (Safari or Edge + slack, discord, email, etc), then additional virtual desktops for your other, more focused tasks, e.g. your text editor of choice, design software, cad software, or whatever else.

On my 'main' virtual desktop, I use Rectangle (window position management) to have Edge on half the screen, with chat applications on the right upper/lower quarters). Then on my second virtual desktop I'll have VS Code on half the screen, and Terminal / Finder in the quarters on the right, Maximized Fusion360 on the third, etc...

Having all notifications go through the Macs native Notifications is great, because now I have only a single place to ignore. I effectively set Notifications to "off" by setting a schedule of 4:00am until 3:59am. When I want to check notifications (which is almost never) I simply enable Notifications temporarily with a shortcut on the touchbar.

The only thing that remains is non-native notifications like Java's "Update now or the world ends!". Window focus stealing is completely unacceptable, and I suspect the reason Apple does nothing to fix it is to coerse you into using full screen, which I think is grooming you for their locked down iOS-like world for the Mac.

- Get rid of as many of the notifications as you can. Quit or log out of desktop email, discord, messages, whatever. Stuff shouldn't intrude when you're trying to focus. The relationship I try to have with social media is that I check it, it shouldn't check me.

- Instead of cutting distractions completely out of my life, I set aside specific times and places for them. I usually browse forums and things for about 30 minutes while I sip coffee in the morning, and then I'm done until just before bed. I find that making that place means I don't really get the urge to check the forums intruding into my workday. Sometimes if there's high drama or if I'm having a really pleasant interaction it might intrude, but I try to keep that confined to lunch.

- When I'm at work, I check Outlook near the bottom of each hour to see if there's anything I need to deal with, and when I'm done I close the program. This frequency works for me because nobody typically emails me about something that needs to happen asap, your mileage might vary. I usually leave a single, less-distracting "work channel" open. In my case, that's Zoom. If someone needs to message me on this, it's a work thing and it's not really a "distraction" to me. Nobody really messages me for fun on it, anyway.

- At home, when I'm working on classwork using my own computer, I just "get rid of" everything. Shut off all the desktop notifiers. Since Chrome's logged in to all my gmail/twitter/whatever accounts, I switch to Firefox to get stuff done. I haven't put the Bitwarden add-on to Firefox, so it's just mildly more difficult to log in and get distracted. While the barrier isn't really that much higher, it's just enough that I have to think twice before letting myself get sidetracked. Opening reddit and finding myself logged out is enough to remind me that I did this on purpose, and taking any more steps to pursue that distraction just feels like losing which is usually enough to dissuade me. I think there's "focus" software you can use to enforce your rules if you need a higher barrier?

- I do Pomodoro splits when I have trouble motivating myself to focus. It's easier to make a small promise to try for 25 minutes than it is to make the large promise to focus for a few hours. A lot of the time I find that it just takes getting started to actually get interested, and then I don't need the crutch to keep going. I use a physical timer for this because it's less to fiddle with on my computer i.e. alt-tabbing, using the computer at all if I'm trying to read a textbook, etc.

- I try not to put my phone on the desk when I'm working & I don't wear a smartwatch. I gave the smartwatch thing a shot a while back since people were saying they were less distracting than a phone but I found the notifications really intrusive and distracting. The phone's usually in my pocket on do not disturb at work, with a few specific people who I usually do want to talk to allowed through. I'm okay with getting a little distracted if my girlfriend texts me at work.

I know this question is about macOS, but you could consider how to have this method implemented in your Mac. I recently installed FreeBSD on my MBP 2015 since it was quite dead anyway. The wifi on it doesn't work, I haven't tried to see if Bluetooth works, but it feels like my computer in 1998-2005. This has become my primary driver to learn new technologies.

I have a USB wifi adapter that I can use to get temporary Internet connection. I usually use it to download PDFs of books I am using to learn, or to load a full HTML formatted book, and disconnect the adapter. This has also made me a more structured learner because I have to think of all the sites I need open before I disconnect the adapter. My learning process has never been this efficient in so long. Also, keep your phone away, or check once every 25 mins using Pomodoro app.

In the first 2-3 days, I instinctively used to open a new tab and just try visiting Twitter (I am also not logged in to any of my accounts on this machine) only to be greeted by a "no connection" screen.

Also, going through the solutions in other comments, I think the easiest thing to control is to turn off Internet access -- no additional software required.

> constantly check email, messages, read toxic forums

I think no Internet during the phase of learning is the perfect solution for this. I had very little issue with this on (non-Internet) computer applications but websites/forums are much more addictive in nature as opposed to applications IMO.

Harsh but fair.

More seriously, just turn the computer off. Print papers to read, write notes when you're thinking rather than typing them, and use your time actively.

You might find some interesting ideas and links in the README which is quite generously verbose.

https://github.com/reducecombine/work.sh

    focusTimer = nil        -- A timer for when we are in "Focus Mode"
    function focusModeOff()
        all = hs.window.allWindows()
        for _, w in pairs(all) do
            if(w:isMinimized()) then
                w:unminimize()
            end
        end
        applyStandardLayout()
        if(focusTimer ~= nil) then
            focusTimer:stop()
            focusTimer = nil
        end
    end

    -- Focus mode
    function focusMode()
        if(focusTimer == nil) then
            hs.alert("Setting focus for 25mins.")
            local focused = hs.window.focusedWindow()
            if(focused ~= nil) then
                focused:centerOnScreen()
            end
            all = hs.window.allWindows()
            for _, w in pairs(all) do
                if(focused ~= nil and w:id() ~= focused:id()) then
                    w:minimize()
                end
            end
            focusTimer = hs.timer.doAfter(25 * 60, function()
                focusModeOff()
                hs.alert("Take a 5min break. Record what you just did.")
                --TODO: Make a pomodoro recording thing
            end)
        else
            local remaining = focusTimer:nextTrigger()
            local remainingSec = math.floor(remaining % 60)
            local remainingMin = math.floor(remaining / 60)
            hs.alert("Focus timer expires in " .. remainingMin .. "m " .. remainingSec .. "s.")
        end
    end

    --focus mode
    hs.hotkey.bind({"cmd", "ctrl"}, "Return", focusMode)

This is a focus problem. Everyone have a different way of solving this. For me, the best way is to write what I want to achieve on paper and start doing it right away. I don’t do anything else until I cross out all of them.

• use Spaces and put all the chattery apps in one Space (right click in Dock > only this space)

• Hide the Dock

• Set cmd-lower right corner of screen (in screensaver prefs) to turn off screen, so you can easily create a void when you need to think

• Turn off all extra toolbars in programs, reduce visual clutter as much as possible

• Hide Desktop icons (simple Terminal command, Google it)

• Use Sticky Notes App to jot down quick thoughts — you can get in and out instantly

• Launch apps w/ Spotlight (cmd space) so you don't see cluttered Dock or Launchpad or Apps folder

• Solid color dark gray desktop so it's not a distraction

• Mute the computer

• Accessibility > display > reduce transparency makes the system more bland

• prefs > general set graphite accent color

On the other hand if you were to step out for 15 minutes and then come back, just walking and looking around, thinking of what you'll be doing when back at the computer; then when you're back you'll have something to do. Good luck not getting stuck doing that. Because you will.

Turn off all notifications, time-box all calls and emails to twice a day, and reduce the use of color in the UI. Don't let yourself be prompted into getting stuck on something. You have your own agenda and the world around you can manage for 3-4 hours without your input. It really can. Make sure it can.

Being prepared is half the job.

then quit the finder... forever : p

Seriously changed my relationship to mac os. As semi-non-voluntary mac user from 199X to present. It used to be a love-hate relationship. Now macs are just aesthetically appealing unix hardware vectors.

Idunno Im sure some other HN entities have smarter thoughts on this.