[blog] Optimize your Mac for a gig

In this post I will write some of my personal Mac preferences. Basically, I like to turn off or disable everything that I don’t use or need (“less is more”). Open your System Preferences:

General

  • Allow wallpaper tinting (turn off)
  • Show scroll bars (always)
  • Recent items (none)
  • Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices (turn off)

Desktop and Screen Saver

  • I use a custom (non dynamic) desktop image
  • Screen Saver (turn off)
  • Hot corners (turn off) (I selected “-” for all four corners)

Dock and Menu Bar

  • Minimise windows using “Scale effect” (“Genie effect” I find distracting. Too bad I cannot set this to “None”)
  • Animate opening applications (turn off)

Mission Control

  • Turned off everything

Accessibility

  • Reduce motion (turn on)
  • Reduce transparency (turn on)
  • Shake mouse pointer to locate (turn off)

Screen time

  • Turned off

Keyboard

  • Dictation: Off

Displays

  • Automatically adjust brightness (turn off)

Battery

  • Slightly dim the display while on battery power (turn off)

Date and time

  • Set date and time automatically (turn off)
  • Set time zone automatically using current location (turn off)

Sharing

  • Everything is Off.
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