“People should see how we’re living.” – Lorde, Buzzcut Season

I made this revelation on twitter today:

you guys. moving my dock from hidden at the bottom to exposed at the left might be a game changer. #boringtweets

— Jason Toney (@misterjt) November 6, 2013

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I was sure this was a boring tweet. A meaningless little victory of efficiency for me that had no bearing on anyone else. I was wrong. It sparked a conversation for the rest of the morning about mac setups and app choices and the approach to work.

It was sparked, for me, by this MacWorld article. I was surprised to see how many people don’t use things I use on the regular and how unique our setups are. This line was the most fascinating:

What?! Perhaps our desktops are windows into our minds.

So, here, let me open the blinds…

I’m currently using a 13 in. Macbook Air. At work, I have a large monitor that I use as a second screen. At home, I mostly stick with just the laptop screen although, occassionally, I use my iPad as a second screen using Air Display and, once in a blue moon, I’ll use our gigantor HDTV just because I can but that’s just me being silly.

As of today, I have my dock exposed and mounted to the left side. Previously it was docked at the bottom and hidden. So far, I like this new placement.

My dock is sorted by apps in order of usage and only features apps I use regularly. I use Chrome, Rdio, my mail program (as of today, trying out postbox), iCal, tweetbot, and evernote most. I just recently bought the MS Office suite after tiring of having to convert my beloved Keynote presentations into less awesome powerpoints that I couldn’t fix after conversion without opening a different laptop. When I’m at work, these all are open on the laptop screen.

My desktop stays pristine. I do not leave files up here.

On the second monitor, I place my browser windows. Usually a standard chrome window and a chrome incognito. If I’m testing something, firefox and safari will go over here, too.

I use full screen apps on both monitors (thanks Mavericks) and do a lot of swiping.

I use Launchpad a lot, too. I’m learning to use Spotlight more but it doesn’t come to mind first.

I use a program called EVE to remind me to use keystrokes over mouse strokes. This is a habit I’ve found hard to break.

Wallpaper is by Sam Ellis and from The Desktop Wallpaper Project.

So, that’s me.

What’s your brain, uh,  desktop like?