6 Ways To Stay Focused On Your Work

Sometimes, when there’s an important paper or project that needs to be finished, your Mac can be the biggest thing in your your way from working productively. Accessing the consuming websites and apps we all use can be very distracting. Here are some apps and tips to help you stay focused on your work.

1. Think allows you to limit your attention to any one application and easily change focus if necessary. Think uses an Illumination Panel, allowing you to choose an application on which to focus. The Think Backdrop shields you from outside distractions, as the Desktop and other applications are hidden behind it to keep you focused on your work. Think is a free app and can be downloaded here.

2. Concentrate helps you work more productively by getting rid of distractions. Concentrate allows you to create activities and select actions that correspond to each activity. With Concentrate, you can quit any distracting apps, block distracting websites, add sound alerts, make sound messages to keep you on task,  run scripts to remove any unique distractions and more. Concentrate’s 60 hour free trial is available for download here.

3. WriteRoom is a distraction free writing program that emulates the simplicity of the typewriter. WriteRoom offers different colors, fonts, page layouts, an optional scroll-bar and optional spell-checking. With WriteRoom, its just you and the text without any distractions. WriteRoom’s free trail can be downloaded here.

4. PresentYourApps is an application that allows you hide the Dock and menu bar. PresentYourApps opens up a lot of extra screen space that allows you to work better. PresentYourApps is free and can be downloaded here.

5. Spaces is a great component of OS X Leopard that allows you to assign applications to individual desktop Spaces. It is a great way to keep your desktop organized and keep you focused on the apps you’re using. For example, I assigned a space to my productivity applications such as Word, Excel etc. and a separate one to my internet browsers to keep me focused on my work. Spaces can be set up in System Preferences in the Exposé and Spaces section.

6. Turn off your Airport – If you’re like me, you repeatedly switch off between accessing the internet and working. If you have to force yourself to work, I’d suggest turning off your Airport completely.

This concludes today’s tips on staying focused in OS X.

– Alexander Garovi

Tip 11: Keep Your Screen From Dimming With Caffeine

Sometimes it’s nice to have a fully lit screen that doesn’t dim down. Lighthead’s Caffeine is the perfect solution to prevent your Mac from falling asleep. Caffeine is a tiny application that is situated in the menu bar. Simply click on the mug icon and your Mac will not start screen savers or dim the screen. You can also set a time limit from five minutes to two hours for Caffeine to run. Caffeine is definitely one of my favorite OS X apps and I highly recommend it to all Mac users. It’s a free download and can be found on the Free Apps page.

Caffeine allows you to set the amount of time it runs for

– Alexander Garovi

Tip 10: Quick Picture Converting With Preview

Have a picture that you want to convert into a different format? With a couple clicks you can convert a picture to your desired type with OS X’s Preview. Here’s how you do it:

1. Open the picture in Preview

2. Go File > Save As

3. From here, there are numerous photo formats you can save your picture as

Using Preview as an image converter is a lighter alternative to using Photoshop any other large photo editing programs to change a photo type. Sometimes photo conversion is especially necessary when uploading pictures to some websites that only take certain photo formats.

– Alexander Garovi

Control Multiple Cameras With Cameras

Cameras by Flexibits is a System Preferences application that lets you manage your cameras when you connect your camera, iPhone, digital media reader or any other photo device to your computer. In addition, you can select which applications will open when a camera is connected and set your images to download automatically. If you have multiple cameras, Cameras is the right tool to use. This app is very easy to use and is free to download.

– Alexander Garovi

Tip 09: Transferring Bookmarks With Firefox, Opera & Safari

If you want to change internet browsers, you don’t have to re-bookmark your favorite websites. Transferring bookmarks between Firefox, Opera and Safari is very easy to do. Here’s how you do it:

Firefox –

To export bookmarks
1. Open FireFox

2. On the menu bar go Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks

3. On the bar at the top of the window, click on the button with the star

4. Select Export HTML and select where you want to save the file

To import bookmarks

1. Go Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks

2. Select the star button in the bookmarks window toolbar and select Export HTML

Opera

To export bookmarks
1. Go Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks

3. Click on File (The floppy disc icon)

4. Click on Export As HTML

To import bookmarks

1. In Opera, go File > Import and Export > Import Netscape/Firefox Bookmarks

2. Now locate and select your bookmarks.html file

Safari

To export bookmarks

1. Go File > Export Bookmarks

To import bookmarks

1. Go File > Import Bookmarks

– Alexander Garovi

How To Create An iMix In iTunes

Here’s another iTunes how-to – making iMixes. iMixes are playlists that are published in the iTunes store and can be purchased. Making one is fast and easy. Here’s how you do it:

1. Open iTunes and create a playlist of selected songs

2. After creating the playlist, on the menu bar click Store > Create an iMix

3. Name and give a description of the playlist

You will be notified when when your iMix is published.

– Alexander Garovi

How To Have Multiple iTunes Libraries

Most iTunes users use its well known playlist feature, allowing you to make playlists of selected songs. Not only can you customize your iTunes with playlists, but you can even have multiple libraries. Some reasons for having multiple libraries would be to separate music based on genre, or occasion. Different libraries can also be used to separate lossless from lossy files. Here’s how you can set up multiple iTunes libraries:

1. Before opening iTunes, hold down Alt.

2. A popup will come up, giving the option to select or create a library

Note:
iTunes will open the library that was last opened. In order to select another library, repeat the steps above.

– Alexander Garovi

3 Useful Websites for Photoshop Work

Photoshop offers plenty of fonts and brushes that you can use to fully personalize your masterpieces. However, sometimes you need that special brush, font or render to add to your work. Here are some useful websites that can help you with your Photoshop work.

1. PlanetRenders.net is a render sharing website where users post their self-made renders. This website is extremely useful if you need renders for your signatures or other pictures. The website is free to register and has a great selection of renders for pretty much anything.

2. DaFont.com is a free font website with a huge selection of fonts that can be used in Photoshop. Da Font selection ranges from all sorts of font styles. To install a font:
a. Download the font
b. Unzip the zip font file
c. Open the unzipped .ttf file
d. Click Install Font

3. Brusheezy is a free website, where artists download and vote for custom Photoshop brushes. New creative brushes are added daily and range from a variety of designs. To install brushes:
a. Download a brush

b. Unzip the zip brush file
c. Open Photoshop
d. Select the brush icon on the panel
e. Select the brush option icon on the upper-left panel (Arrow 1)
f. Click the right arrow button on the window and select Load Brushes (Arrow 2)
e. Load the brush

These websites are very helpful for  Photoshop design. I especially use these sites for my Photoshop signature work and highly recommend them for yours.

– Alexander Garovi

Tip 08: Customizing The Menu bar Clock

As you might already know, the Mac clock is usually located at the top right corner of the menu bar, next to whatever other menu bar applications you have. This clock can be customized, or even removed if so desired. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open System Preferences and select Date & Time. You can also click on the menu bar clock and select Date & Time from there.

2. Select the Clock tab

3. From here you can modify any of the existing settings to manipulate the clock. To remove the clock, uncheck the Show the date and time box.

You can select between a digital or analog clock, with the choice of the AM/PM shown, seconds, day of the week, flashing time separators and a 24-hour clock.

– Alexander Garovi

How To Set A GMail Account In Mail

Have a Gmail account, but want to use it with Apple’s Mail? It’s actually quite easy and requires just a couple of steps to set up. Personally, I do not use the Mail client. I prefer to use the Gmail from the Gmail website, but this tutorial is for anyone who wants to use Mail. Here’s how you do it.

1. If you have a Gmail account, click on Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP

2. Select Enable POP for all mail

3. You have three options to select from in the When messages are accessed with POP section – Keep Gmail’s copy in the inbox, Archive Gmail’s copy and Delete Gmail’s copy. You can chose whatever configuration you want. I chose to keep Gmail’s copy in the inbox.

4. Click Save Changes

That’s it – you are done with Gmail. Now open Mail

1. Go into Mail’s System Preferences (Command-,)

2. Click on the + button on the bottom left-hand corner of the preferences window to create an account.

3. Fill in the given spaces – If Mail doesn’t automatically select the type of account you’re using, select POP. At this point, it hasn’t asked me to do so but I believe that older versions of Mail do.

4. Fill in the given spaces if Mail hasn’t automatically done so

If you must manually configure the accounts section, the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) will be smtp.gmail.com:YOUREMAILADDRESSHERE WITHOUT@DOMAIN

5. Click on the Advanced tab and check that Use SSL is selected and make sure that the port is configured to 995

That’s it, now you can access your Gmail account through Mail. Mail will now begin to download your messages. The loading time may take a while, depending on how big your inbox is.

– Alexander Garovi