Easily distracted...
Nige Danton
new email arriving, downloads completing etc, when I should be concentrating
on a particular application and topic. Is there an application that I could
use to give me a blank desktop save for the specific application window(s)
that I'm working on?
I know I could simply close all of the other non essential apps, but I'd
rather not, unless there is not an alternative.
Any ideas?
--
Nige Danton
email: swop the obvious for g_m_a_i_l
Jaimie Vandenbergh
<nige....@nospam.com> wrote:
>As the subject line: I find that on occassion I can be easily distracted by
>new email arriving, downloads completing etc, when I should be concentrating
>on a particular application and topic. Is there an application that I could
>use to give me a blank desktop save for the specific application window(s)
>that I'm working on?
>
>I know I could simply close all of the other non essential apps, but I'd
>rather not, unless there is not an alternative.
I used Spirited Away for a while, but it's not quite the same thing.
Cheers - Jaimie
--
#include "clue.h"
Elliott Roper
Nige Danton <nige....@nospam.com> wrote:
> As the subject line: I find that on occassion I can be easily distracted by
> new email arriving, downloads completing etc, when I should be concentrating
> on a particular application and topic. Is there an application that I could
> use to give me a blank desktop save for the specific application window(s)
> that I'm working on?
>
> I know I could simply close all of the other non essential apps, but I'd
> rather not, unless there is not an alternative.
Does not cmd-opt-h work for you?
("Hide others" more or less system wide shortcut that lives in each
application's menu)
--
To de-mung my e-mail address:- fsnospam$elliott$$
PGP Fingerprint: 1A96 3CF7 637F 896B C810 E199 7E5C A9E4 8E59 E248
zoara
> As the subject line: I find that on occassion I can be easily
> distracted by
> new email arriving, downloads completing etc, when I should be
> concentrating
> on a particular application and topic. Is there an application that I
> could
> use to give me a blank desktop save for the specific application
> window(s)
> that I'm working on?
Try isolator.
It gives a little clicky box in the menubar which toggles isolation
on/off (or you can use a hotkey). There's a few settings you can tweak
to define exactly what isolation means, including hiding the dock,
blurring or tinting the background (you can tint it completely black, or
blur it completely out of focus), and/or hiding inactive applications.
> I know I could simply close all of the other non essential apps, but
> I'd
> rather not, unless there is not an alternative.
Isolator is brill when I really want to focus on one app for a while.
Give it a go, it's free.
http://willmore.eu/software/isolator/
-zoara-
--
email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
Justin C
> As the subject line: I find that on occassion I can be easily distracted by
> new email arriving, downloads completing etc, when I should be concentrating
> on a particular application and topic. Is there an application that I could
> use to give me a blank desktop save for the specific application window(s)
> that I'm working on?
>
> I know I could simply close all of the other non essential apps, but I'd
> rather not, unless there is not an alternative.
>
> Any ideas?
I use both Spirited Away and Backdrop, oh, and "not menushade"
(menushade didn't work when upgraded to Leonard) I can't remember which
"not menushade" it is because I don't need it at home.
<URL:http://www.johnhaney.com/backdrop/>
<URL:http://drikin.com/spiritedaway/>
<URL:http://www.xybernic.com/> <-- there it is, "not menushade".
I find these help me focus.
Justin.
--
Justin C, by the sea.
Bruce Horrocks
> As the subject line: I find that on occassion I can be easily distracted by
> new email arriving, downloads completing etc, when I should be concentrating
> on a particular application and topic. Is there an application that I could
> use to give me a blank desktop save for the specific application window(s)
> that I'm working on?
>
> I know I could simply close all of the other non essential apps, but I'd
> rather not, unless there is not an alternative.
>
> Any ideas?
Spaces? Just put the distraction apps into their own space.
--
Bruce Horrocks
Surrey
England
(bruce at scorecrow dot com)
Nige Danton
> Does not cmd-opt-h work for you?
> ("Hide others" more or less system wide shortcut that lives in each
> application's menu)
That's useful and to be honest I hadn't thought of that. It does still leave
my desktop and icons visible though, and presumably Growl notifications would
still appear too. I guess it would also lose its advantage when I need to have
two seperate applications open.
Nige Danton
>
> Isolator is brill when I really want to focus on one app for a while.
> Give it a go, it's free.
>
> http://willmore.eu/software/isolator/
Yes, it's good. I've got it running here now. Very nice indeed. The only thing
that seems to be missing (for me) is that occassionally I need to have two
apps open at the same time e.g. a wordprocessor and and a spreadsheet and
Isolator will only let me have one app.
And indeed re-reading your original post more closely I can see that's exactly
what you said.
It's rather nice though. thanks.
Nige Danton
> <URL:http://www.johnhaney.com/backdrop/>
Backdrop is just the ticket. Thanks.
And thanks to all for the other suggestions too.
Gwynne Harper
> That's useful and to be honest I hadn't thought of that. It does still leave
> my desktop and icons visible though, and presumably Growl notifications would
> still appear too. I guess it would also lose its advantage when I need to have
> two seperate applications open.
What about a seperate user account with a plain desktop & all the items
turned off in finder -> prefs -> general? No need to install growl on
that account, but with fast user switching (or WinSwitch if it still
works under Snow Leopard) all your usual apps are still available.
If you really want to take this to extremes, enable parental controls
for this account and turn off access to all of the really, really
tempting distractions.
I should do this for MacSoup.
Gwynne
--
My real email is net, not line.
Elliott Roper
Nige Danton <nige....@nospam.com> wrote:
> Elliott Roper wrote:
>
> > Does not cmd-opt-h work for you?
> > ("Hide others" more or less system wide shortcut that lives in each
> > application's menu)
>
> That's useful and to be honest I hadn't thought of that. It does still leave
> my desktop and icons visible though, and presumably Growl notifications would
> still appear too. I guess it would also lose its advantage when I need to have
> two seperate applications open.
.... cmd-tab (here I am in Thoth! Warning, this post is
self-describing, read on)
cmd-v
Excuse me if I seem to beating this topic to death, but keeping
distractions under control on my Mac is something I pay lots of
attention to.
I don't have any magic for Growl, since I've always avoided anything
with Growl under the superstitious belief that it is meddling too much
with the innards of the OS.
For keeping the desktop tidy, I, well, just keep it tidy. If I'm
especially irritated by all the crud on there, I stuff it all in a
single folder till I get round to cleaning it up properly.
Two applications at once is a simple extension of the cmd-opt-h method.
Cmd-opt-h while in one of them, then when you want the other, cmd-tab
to it. From then on, you have just the two on screen at once, and a
single cmd-tab swaps focus between the two. F'rinstance, I'm editing
this in Aquamacs and reading and posting news with Thoth. C-x h M-w
... and here's my post ready for sending. cmd-tab and I'm back in
Aquamacs to see if it caught he same spelling errors and another
cmd-tab and I'm back in Thoth adding still more drivel to this post.
Nige Danton
> that account, but with fast user switching (or WinSwitch if it still
> works under Snow Leopard) all your usual apps are still available.
I didn't know about fast-user switching - it sounds really useful, thanks.
I think the only drawback with it as an anti-distraction measure is be that
the files would not be easily available to my standard account.
> If you really want to take this to extremes, enable parental controls
> for this account and turn off access to all of the really, really
> tempting distractions.
>
> I should do this for MacSoup.
Usenet can sure be a distraction sometimes and difficult to resist.
Chris Ridd
> I don't have any magic for Growl, since I've always avoided anything
> with Growl under the superstitious belief that it is meddling too much
> with the innards of the OS.
Growl itself is fine - AFAICS it is just a daemon using distributed
objects that things can talk to. Getting things like Mail talking to it
is obviously a hack, but apps that are properly Growl-enabled are fine.
--
Chris
Peter Ceresole
> Excuse me if I seem to beating this topic to death, but keeping
> distractions under control on my Mac is something I pay lots of
> attention to.
And it's pretty easy to do, using just the supplied tools, isn't it?
I do it quite differently from you, especially as I'm not as
keyboard-oriented as you are and don't mind occasionally touching the
mouse (love to Mary by the way) but it all seems pretty clear to me that
using Cmd-tab, the Dock and allowing some quiet windows to live on the
desktop (like iChat's buddy list) it's pretty simple.
For those that insist on having just one application visible, then a bit
of initial tidying helps, but the secret seems to me to have a large
enough screen (mine's a 17" iG5 and it's still a techno love affair) to
keep the secondary windows in a harmless place, but readable if need be.
I suppose, when I was doing all this stuff to actually earn a living,
the greatest simplifying factor was that I was using an Amstrad CPC with
a green screen; one colour at a time and one application was all she
rote. But I still reckon that with my clackety Matias keyboard and my
plain blue desktop, I can still stop my mind wandering.
Most of the time. Hello Mary.
--
Peter
Elliott Roper
Ceresole <pe...@cara.demon.co.uk> wrote:
<fx = scuffle at keyboard>
Hello Peter!
</fx>
Nobody can accuse you of not being a smoothie.
Jochem Huhmann
You can get Mail talk to Growl in a totally safe manner by just using a
filter rule that has "Run Applescript" as the action and have it run a
script that calls Growl. Much better than any Growl-Plugin for Mail
since it does in no way meddle with any innards of Mail, works with all
versions of Mail *and* you can easily tune the rule criteria to match
only mails you want to get told about.
Jochem
--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Peter Ceresole
> > Hello Mary.
>
> <fx = scuffle at keyboard>
> Hello Peter!
> </fx>
> Nobody can accuse you of not being a smoothie.
Nobody ever has...
The other day (well; Wednesday) I was waiting at King's neurology unit
to have my Cyborg bit seen to, and got into conversation with a
delicious, perfectly '60s woman who looked remarkably like Julie
Christie, complete with the hair do, the eye makeup, the elegant slacks
and the deliciously tight blue and white striped T-shirt. She had
Parkinson's, you could just see the tremor when she walked, and she
wasn't terribly happy. But we had a lovely long talk, and exchanged life
stories although I bet I was more interested in her than she was in me.
But it's wonderful how much it seems to help when you tell a sixty five
year old woman that she's still sexy after all these years. And she was;
I meant it.
--
Peter
Woody
news:1j9ufkl.1ybjjk41vas4ygN%pe...@cara.demon.co.uk...
Can't let you out anywhere!
--
Woody
Peter Ceresole
> > But it's wonderful how much it seems to help when you tell a sixty five
> > year old woman that she's still sexy after all these years. And she was;
> > I meant it.
>
> Can't let you out anywhere!
Sadly, it went no further.
--
Peter
Gwynne Harper
> You can get Mail talk to Growl in a totally safe manner by just using a
> filter rule that has "Run Applescript" as the action and have it run a
> script that calls Growl.
Now that is a good idea. I already use a small AppleScript to call
MacSoup too - I might explore things further here.