Better Organize Your Mac's Dock and Desktop: Make the Most of Your Time

Stop for a moment to consider how busy our lives are. Even though computers have made everything fast and more convenient, and portable devices have allowed us to accomplish much more on the go, we still manage to fill up our time with stuff to do. The computer and digital age has done nothing to slow us down. That is why it is always helpful when the things we have to do can be done in the most efficient way possible.

One of those things would be our daily personal computing tasks. As we take precious time to check email, check online news or stocks, update our blogs and websites and perhaps catch a youtube video or two just for fun, it is necessary that we arrange our computer's work space so as to get the most out of our time at the computer. If you are using a Mac there are some valuable tips and tools that can help you accomplish this. Hopefully this tutorial will help you take advantage of every spare moment!

The first item to focus on is the dock. This great tool sits at the bottom (or the side) of your screen and you can easily drag folders, file, or applications into the dock for easy access. The first thing you need to do to really take advantage of the dock is to put all of the applications you use frequently in the dock. If you look closely you'll notice that close to the right side of the dock there is a dividing line. This simply divides applications from files and folders. Applications reside to the left of the dividing line and files/folders to the right. To drag applications to the dock simply click on the Finder icon in the dock (it's the blue and gray smiley face). Once the Finder is open click on the Applications folder and the Finder will display your Applications in the Finder window. One by one take the applications you want and drag them into the dock. You may place your applications in any location as long as it is to the left of the dividing line. If you drag an application to the dock and later decide that you do not want it there, simply grab it in the dock and drag it off and it will simply "poof" away.

Now that you have all of your apps in place on the dock, the real efficiency comes when you group them together according to type. You can rearrange items in the dock by simply grabbing them and dragging them from side to side. Other dock items will shift and create space for the item you are dragging (is that smart or what?). An ideal grouping would be to first put all of your organization and "daily life" applications together. This would include Mail, Address Book, iCal and Stickies (which can be used for creating To-do lists and making notes to yourself). This group would include any app that you use to communicate with others and organize or plan your life. Next include any chat clients that you use such as MSN Messenger, Twitter, Adium, or iChat. After these come your iLife apps (iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, iWeb). These are the basic groups that most users have. You may have other types of apps such those used for blogging and web page authoring or software development tools. And you put the groups in any order you wish. You can for example put iLife apps before your chat clients. But you will find that this organization will create work spaces right within your dock and you can easily get to what you need.

Another great tip is to put your Applications folder itself in the dock. This way you can easily access any other apps that you did not drag to the dock quickly and easily without launching the Finder. Simply open the Finder and then click your Macintosh HD in the top half of the Finder's sidebar. Now take the Applications folder and drag it to any spot on the right side of the dock. You can now hold the control key and click the Applications folder in the dock and navigate to the app you need from the dock.

This last tip involves organizing your downloaded files and keeping your desktop clutter-free. Most of the time your browser when you download files will simply dump them on the desktop. To better handle your downloads all you need to do is create a new folder called Downloads. You can put this folder anywhere. An ideal spot would be in the Documents folder (which you can access from the Finder). Now drag that new Downloads folder to dock (being sure that it goes to the right side of the dividing line). Now simply go into the options (usually under Tools) in your browser and tell it to save downloads to the Downloads folder. Now whenever your browser downloads a file you can get to it easily by control-clicking the Downloads folder in the Dock.

I hope this has helped you and that with this new knowledge you will become more efficient on your Mac and that it will free up more of your precious time. Good luck!