Lifestyle Soup

11 February 2008 | Productivity, Technology | ray

Image by riddian

A few years ago I read a great article about the power of muscle memory. Unfortunately I can’t remember the source, but it made me start brainstorming how I could make maximum use of muscle memory when using my computer. I’m sure that I’m not the first person to come to these conclusions, but what I came up with really improved my productivity. I must mention though, the technique I mention below applies to the Mac. I’m sure a resourceful Windows user could find a comparable application to provide the techniques I’m going to talk about.

Muscle Memory

Muscle memory, in a nutshell, is our ability to do tasks without consciously thinking about it. Walking involves muscle memory. We don’t have to think about every step we take. Brushing our teeth involves muscle memory. Try brushing your teeth with your other hand one of these days. If you’re not used to it, it’s very awkward because you have to think about every movement involved.

Muscle memory is our brain’s way of offloading tasks that normally distract our conscious thought into our subconscious instead. If a person couldn’t develop muscle memory, they couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time because they would lose track of what move to make next. We most likely couldn’t even walk to begin with.

Modern Computing Ignores Our Greatest Asset

I would argue that modern graphical interfaces are antithetical to our natural way of interacting with the world in regards to how we control them. Sure, in a visual sense GUIs are great. But if muscle memory is such an integral part of our lives, why don’t we make better use of this crucial human characteristic in modern computing as well? What really kills me is when I see people operate their computers and tell me they don’t use hot keys. They will use their mouse for every single thing they want to do. When I watch some of my friends work, I see them spending 3 seconds with every task switch while they select the application they want to use. This applies doubly to somebody like me who writes software and develops websites, with the constant switching between applications.

Application Hot Keys Are The Missing Ingredient

I downloaded a shareware app that allowed me to map hot keys to an action. The first thing I did was create a convention for my hot keys. They are as follows:

• OPTION-CMD for Applications
• SHIFT-OPTION-CMD for Folders
• SHIFT-CTRL-CMD for iChat buddies

I set up an initial set of hot keys for my most commonly used applications. Here are the hot keys I defined:

• OPTION-CMD-A for Address Book
• OPTION-CMD-3 for iTunes (3 as in mp3)
• OPTION-CMD-C for iCal
• OPTION-CMD-return for Terminal
• OPTION-CMD-Z for TextMate
• OPTION-CMD-M for Mail
• OPTION-CMD-W for Safari

Then I created a couple for folders:

• SHIFT-OPTION-CMD-tilde for my home directory
• SHIFT-OPTION-CMD-A for Applications folder
• SHIFT-OPTION-CMD-D for my Downloads folder

I created a simple Applescript that would either open a window for an iChat buddy or bring it to the foreground if it was already open. Here’s an example of my iChat hotkeys:

• SHIFT-CTRL-CMD-C for Cory
• SHIFT-CTRL-CMD-A for Anthony

Just to be clear, with every hot key I have mentioned, if the application, chat window or folder is already open, it simply brings it to the foreground. If it’s not open, it opens it. Either way, by pressing one of the hot keys, I can be sure that I get what I want: the window I requested.

Using Quicksilver To Create Hot Keys

About a year ago, I found Quicksilver and started using it for my hot keys via triggers. Here’s how I did it:

1. Install Quicksilver.
2. Go to the preferences in Quicksilver by activating Quicksilver (OPTION-space) and pressing CMD-, (comma)

   

3. In the preferences, click on the Triggers tab.

   

4. Click the plus icon to add a new Hot Key.

   

5. Select the application you’d like a assign a hotkey to.

   

6. Click on the right column where it says “None”



7. A drawer will open and show prompt you to set the key. Simply press the key combination you want to use. In my case, I used CMD-OPTION-A. Make sure not to use a hotkey that Mac OS X or another application already uses.

   

8. Close the window because you’ve added your hotkey. Now try it out anywhere. It should work perfectly.

   

I have used this setup for about three years and have had absolutely amazing results. Gone is the clunky way of switching apps; I have managed to tap into the power of muscle memory! I have found that I’ll simply think “I want Mail” and there it is, because I’ve developed such a habit of using the hot keys to activate it that I’ve stopped thinking about the act of actually getting to the application.

Now when I use somebody else’s computer it’s painful to not have my hot keys, and watching others work without them is painful to watch as they stumble around with their mouse to do everything. I get what I want INSTANTLY because I use hot keys for every possible thing. I will describe some of the other more interesting uses I have found for hot keys in the future if people are interested.

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