Working keyboard only

I’ve tried working keyboard only (no mouse) for two weeks and learned to live with shortcuts. Here are my tips-and-tricks.

my keyboard with shortcuts on Post-it notes

Just do it

Put your mouse out of reach. Disconnect it. Turn it off. Just do it.
You’ll feel helpless for a minute or two and then you start to learn how to do it.

Tools

My main computer is a MacBook. The tools listed below work on Apple machines.
Alfred helps me start my apps and automate a lot of steps. I added a script to connect to my AirPods with a command.
On my main monitor I remote desktop “full screen” into my work computer. With Amethyst I can switch the mouse focus between my two monitors. Only with the mouse focus on the right place I can use my keyboard for input …
Every application I use has different shortcuts. CheatSheet displays the shortcuts for the active app by long pressing ⌘

My company runs Windows machines. Sometimes Windows and MacOs have the same shortcuts. I run Autohotkey on Windows startup to blok Windows acting on ⌘+space (alfred) and ⌘+ctrl+c (Windows Color filter)

Other

I have an awesome Logitech K800 that has a dedicated key to toggle the mouse context menu. Sometime the context menu is easier than the shortcut.
Found this Post-it template so I can print my most used shortcuts on stickies. Download my shortcut post-it as pdf.
I Learned that navigating a webpage is easiest when searching for the text of the link and than hist ESC to see the link being selected. Now I can open the link with ENTER.

Image courtesy of ratch0013 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My journey continues. I’am not 100% mouse free, more like 95%. To setup the tools (alfred and amethyst) the mouse is needed – only once. Some websites and apps only work with use of the mouse (you know who you are)

About erictummers

Working in a DevOps team is the best thing that happened to me. I like challenges and sharing the solutions with others. On my blog I’ll mostly post about my work, but expect an occasional home project, productivity tip and tooling review.
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