When it comes to my digital life, I like to have things down to a science. I constantly search for systems of efficiency and organization. I try to abide by an ideology of digital minimalism — I use only what I need, and nothing more. I check my email in a certain way. I stay connected with friends in another, and so on, and so forth. Here is a glimpse into my current digital setup.¹

Menu Bar

 

I have deleted extraneous icons such as the Character Palette and AirPort utility, leaving only the menu bars icons that I use and refer to on a daily basis.

• QuickCal - Possibly my favorite application. Allows me add tasks and events to my calendar without ever opening iCal.
• Twitter for Mac - I rarely visit Twitter.com these days. With this app, there is just no need to. Control/Option/Command/T (^⌥⌘T) opens up a new tweet box. The menu bar icon lights up blue whenever I receive a notification. Tweets appear in the bottom-right corner via Growl. It’s as simple as that.
• Sparrow - My personal and school email are consolidated into one Gmail account, which I access via Sparrow. Like Twitter for mac, the menu bar icon lights up blue whenever I receive a notification.
• Dropbox - An easy way to sync files online between multiple computers.
• Droplr - The easiest way to share files online. Just drag a file to the Droplr icon in the menu bar and it spits out a URL that you can share with people.
• F.lux - Automatically adjusts your computer screen’s color after sunset for optimal viewing comfort. Great app. Highly recommended. 
• Facebook Notifications - This menu bar icon lights up blue whenever I receive a notification. Then and only then do I visit Facebook.com. ^⌥⌘space allows me to update my status right from my desktop.

The Dock

Again, I have deleted all extraneous applications from the dock, leaving only the applications that I use on a daily basis. My dock is anchored to the right and bottom of my desktop. I have disabled purely visual elements such as the 3D mirror effect and animations. Although this is merely a matter of preference, you can accomplish this aesthetic using OnyX.

• Google Chrome - I’ve tried Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Flock, and RockMelt. I use Chrome. 
• NetNewsWire Lite - My RSS reader of choice.
• Byword - Minimalist text-editor.
• Custom Apps Folder – I created a custom apps folder for applications that I do not use as often as others. You can accomplish this simply by creating a new folder with the aliases of applications and dragging it to the dock.
• The other icons are obviously Finder, iCal, Twitter for Mac, Downloads, and Trash.

Chrome Extensions Bar

The extension bar is a sort of alternative to bookmarking. Although I still use bookmarks, of course, these extensions facilitate my web browsing experience.

• iReader – Strips out advertisements and displays articles in an easy-to-read format.
• Tumblr for Chrome - An extension version of the Tumblr Bookmarklet.
• Tumblr Dashboard – Quite simply, this extension either opens up the Tumblr dashboard in a new tab or flicks to it if it is open already.
• StumbleUpon – E’ryday I’m Stumbl’in.
• Instapaper – My favorite extension. Clicking this icon adds the webpage to my Instapaper queue. Double clicking it brings me to Instapaper.com.
• Shareaholic – An extension that makes it incredibly easy to send my favorite blog posts to Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Reddit, and LinkedIn.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Hotkeys can make life so much easier. Here are some keyboard shortcuts I use to manipulate my favorite apps. 

• ^⌥⌘T - Opens up Tweet box for new Tweet.
• ^⌥⌘C - New event/task in QuickCal.
• ^⌥⌘N - New email.
• ^⌥⌘space - Facebook status update.
• ^⌥⌘↑ - Show/hide Sparrow.
• ^⌥⌘→ - Show/hide Twitter for Mac.
• ^⌥⌘↓ - Show/hide QuickCal event/task list.

Final Thoughts

Staying organized is one of the most effective methods of staying relaxed. Here are a few great resources for doing both:

• Office Buddha
• Minimal Mac
• Zen Habits

As always, thank you for reading. I hope you found this post helpful and relevant in some way to your own life. If so, please share this link with your friends and family.