One of the constant battles in my life is between the side of me that wants to be structured, focused, and lead a minimalist life and the ADHD that I try to control, much like Flash Thompson controls the Venom symbiote.
Between my main job, side gigs, and passion projects, I use various tools to manage everything. Unfortunately, that has led to my dock becoming larger and larger, which means more distractions throughout the day. Just seeing an icon for email, my to-do list, calendars, etc., can be distracting.
Idea #1: Avoid native apps and use web interfaces.
Result: FAIL. This resulted in being in my browser more, which offers even more tempting distractions.
Idea #2: Hide the dock.
Result: FAIL. When I do need to access the dock, the temptations are still there.
Idea #3: Remove everything from the dock and remember which programs you need to use, and use Finder to open them.
Result: This one didn’t even make it out of the gate. There are some apps that I frequently use that I don’t remember their names. I rely on their icons, so this would have been a mistake.
Idea #4: Create folders on my dock based on a theme.
Result: WINNER! I thought about creating folders based on which company or project is most likely to use it, but that would have led to one folder being huge (for my main job). The other folders would end up being so small that it wouldn’t make sense to have the others’ folders.
How to create folders for your dock:
1. Open Finder and go to the Applications folder.
2. Create a new folder on your desktop (I named mine “Communication & Planning”).
3. Open the newly created folder next to your Applications folder.
4. In the Applications folder, find the app you wish to add to the new folder and “right-click” to bring up the options.
5. Select “Make Alias.”
6. Drag and drop the newly created Alias to the new folder. You may need to rename the Alias in the new folder and/or delete the Alias from the Applications folder once you’ve added it to the new folder.
7. Continue steps 4-6 for all apps you wish to add to your new folder.
8. Drag and drop the new folder into your Applications folder.
9. Drag and drop the new folder from your Applications folder to your dock.
10. SUCCESS!
