Too many icons and windows on your Mac can distract you from getting work done. Apple has some rudimentary tools to help, but you might need some third party programs to stay focused and clutter-free.

Mac’s Free Tool: Hiding Other Windows and Spaces

Hocus Focus 4 alternatives Website. Free Mac Website. Keep your desktop clutter free with Hocus Focus, a Mac menu bar utility that hides your inactive windows. Rocket is a free Mac app that makes typing emoji faster and easier using Slack-style shortcuts. Features: The fastest, smoothest Slack-style emoji picker for your Mac. The Unarchiver is a power file extractor tool for Mac. It can unzip ZIP files, extract RAR files and much more. If you’re prone to having a bunch of windows open at once but would rather your desktop stay neat and tidy, Hocus Focus does just that — automatically. Download, Install, or Update the best Mac apps - MacUpdate. Home Productivity Hocus Focus Download. Downloading Hocus Focus. If your download didn't. Keep Your Mac Desktop clutter free with Hocus Focus I usually start out the day with a nice clean Mac desktop free from the clutter of application windows. Over the cource of the day that changes until by the end I have so many app windows open I often lose track of which application window I need to work in. While Hocus Focus is only built for MacOS, you can use it with both Chrome and Safari. Freedom is an app that's available on both Android and iOS along with Mac and Windows.

If all you need is some windows temporarily moved away, the Mac OS has that functionality built-in. When you’re in a program, head on over to the program menu and select Hide Others from the menu. You can also command+option+H to hide all the others windows.

Tip: If you want to switch to another app and hide windows at the same time, click on the app in the dock and hold down command+option at the same time. You’ll switch to the app and hide the other windows.

Another option is to use Mission Control and Spaces. If you want to stay focused on one app, then just move that app to its own space. We have a complete guide to using OS X Spaces. Both of these need discipline and manual intervention to organize your stuff. If you’re distracted, you might forget to do this. That’s where automated software comes in.

Running El Capitan? Check out Split View to keep two windows open and hide the rest automatically.

Hocus Focus (Free): Hide the Stuff You’re Not Doing

This free program’s goal is to keep you focused on just the current window. That function is just like Apple’s Hide function. What makes Hocus Focus different is you can customize the time-delays and grouping of windows. For example, if you need to quickly check Safari while writing a report, you can keep both windows open.

Hide all windows and the desktop? We covered Hides which combines both functions.

After the time you specify (the default is 30 seconds), the other windows hide themselves. If you need to keep just a few programs open, but hide the rest, Hocus Focus does that. It’s the same as creating Spaces on the fly. When you’re done with your focused work, you can just change your profile to disable hiding. It sits up in the menu bar ready for you to hide the other windows.

Vitamin-R 2 ($24.95): Natural Focus Enhancement

If your focus is too weak for manual control, Vitamin-R 2 automates it all for you. The program guides you through staying focused. First, you set your task or as they call Time Slice.

Then you tell it which programs to hide during that time period. It even offers to quit some apps if you don’t have enough self-control.

Then you give it how long you want to stay focused. If you use the Pomodoro method, you’ll set the timer for 20 minutes. All your distractions will fade away and you’ll begin work. Vitamin-R motivates you on the way and encourages you to continue. It even lets you play white noise while working.

Need more control? Check out some of our other Mac productivity boosters that encourage you to take breaks and block access to the some websites.

When the timer’s up, you can take a timed break, an open-ended break, or just continue on.

If you get inspired during your work and want to remember something, you can leave yourself a note in the scratch pad. That area lets you track a thought and then get back to work. When you’re done with the time slice, Vitamin-R 2 lets you review your notes and record what you were doing when you stopped.

Bonus: Act Like a Parent

Even with all these techniques, you might still have trouble. If you have to do research on the web, you’re one click away from Facebook. Apple’s built-in Parental Controls can help block content that’s distracting you.

Whichever combination of methods you pick, don’t work too hard. We all need a break occasionally.

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#productivity #time management Focus

Did You Know

Notion, the productivity app, was founded in 2013.

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Today's Hocus Focus

I usually start out the day with a nice clean Mac desktop free from the clutter of application windows. Over the cource of the day that changes until by the end I have so many app windows open I often lose track of which application window I need to work in.

If you’re like me then you should check out Hocus Focus – a Mac menu bar app which automatically hides inactive apps.

Hocus Focus Mac App Review

On launch, Hocus Focus will default to hiding inactive apps after 30 seconds. I’m currently trying it out so that’s a reasonable default setting for me. If you want more fine grained control over your applications Hocus Focus let’s you configured the settings on a per-app basis. You can also disable hiding for certain applications.

I can see me using these extra controls to hide things like Glui after I’ve taken a screen shot but keep Omnifocus open all day because I’m always bouncing in and out of it.

Hocus Focus

Due to restrictions that Apple imposes on developers, Hocus Focus isn’t available in the App Store. You can download it for free directly from the developers website.