5 Tips for Working Remotely With a Mac

A laptop is the best choice for working from home, especially if it’s a Mac. It’s light-weight and portable, so you can take it anywhere and work where you feel comfortable. When it comes to user experience, that’s where a Mac truly shines. Still, there’s always room to make your Mac experience even better. In this post, we will look at ways to help you stay productive and comfortable when you work remotely with a Mac.

Take care of your posture

Do you work sitting at a desk, hunching over your Mac? That’s not the best working position, as hunching for hours on end may lead to back pains. Consider the following ways to mitigate the health risks.

  • Prop up your Mac with a stable stack of books to bring it to eye level. Ideally, when you look directly, your eyes should be on the top third of your monitor.
  • Connect your Mac to an external monitor. This way, you’ll have your back in a proper position.
  • Get a laptop stand, which lets you bring the screen up to a healthy eye-level.

Now that you’re sitting comfortably, let’s take a look at how your Mac can improve other remote work aspects.

Set up your notification preferences

The sound of incoming messages and constant pop-ups are a major distractor, so it’s a good idea to dial down a bit on your notifications when you’re trying to concentrate on work. Here are some recipes you can use to mute those annoying notifications.

  • Use the Do Not Disturb feature. When you turn this mode on, you’ll disable all of your notifications and calls in one fell swoop. Don’t worry, though – the Notification Center will harbor all your missed messages, so you’ll be able to dive into them later.
  • If the Do Not Disturb mode sounds too drastic for you, try disabling pop-ups in specific applications, such as Skype, Slack, etc. You can do it in the System Preferences – Notification.
  • Turn off Safari notifications. While it’s convenient to let a website send you notifications, it might get annoying. Fortunately, you can disable them in a few clicks by going to the Safari browser – Preferences – Website – Notifications. Then, select websites you’d like to mute.

If disabling notifications isn’t enough to create a distraction-free workspace, try quitting apps that distract you. When you look at your Dock, a dot below the app’s icon signals that an app is active. You can quit your active apps by clicking on their icon with two fingers and then choosing Quit.”

Speed up your Mac

At its best, your Mac is lightning-fast, which is why it’s so amazing. On the other hand, a lagging Mac can throw a wrench into your productivity and can lead to foiled plans and deadlines. Luckily, in most cases, speeding up your Mac doesn’t require any tech prowess.

You can do it in a few simple steps:

  • Update the system and apps. Even if the timing isn’t right, it’s best to hit the update button and have a cup of coffee as you wait for the progress bar to complete. You can see if any system updates are pending in the Apple menu.
  • Check if your storage limit is full, as the lack of space may put a damper on your Mac’s speed. You check the status of your storage and manage it in the About this Mac section.
  • Close unneeded apps and tabs. If your Mac is slow, it’s probably swamped with redundant processes. Check your Dock for active apps and press Quit. If that doesn’t help, consider diving into Activity Monitor to track and end resource-heavy processes.

Use Siri

Siri is an excellent way to automate your mundane tasks and complete them faster.

Here is how you can use Siri’s help:

  • Siri can set up a reminder about the material (email, article, etc) you want to go over later. The voice helper will schedule the event and send you the link.
  • Schedule (and reschedule) a meeting automatically, given that a person(s) is on your contact list.
  • Checking your Calendar for appointments with Siri is as simple as asking, “Do I have anything planned for today?”

Organize your day with apps

Although there is a wealth of third-party tools out there waiting to be installed, your Mac already has something to offer when it comes to productivity. For example, the Reminders app lets you set notifications and create to-do lists. Don’t forget about the time-tested Calendar where you can schedule deadlines and meetings and generally stay on top of your activities. Since Calendar synchronizes with your contacts, you can easily share it with the rest of the team.

Summing up, your Mac has a great potential to help you make the most of your work-from-home experience. Hopefully, these tips will help you stay productive, while taking care of your health as well.

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