I recently purchased a second monitor. For some reason, this felt like a decadent, hedonistic act to me, like buying Teslas for the police while education budgets get cut. It’s possible that I have just been inside too long, though. :~)
As a result of this purchase, I have started thinking more about ergonomics, productivity, and workflow. Mostly how to use each monitor. I decided it would be super helpful to see my daily calendar in one portion of the screen. Ideally, it would act more like an app than a browser window.
I’ll start by saying that I’m on a Mac and I have an aversion to Outlook. Additionally, I do like Apple’s Calendar app. It is clean-looking (like most Apple products) and it sits right on my dock. It doesn’t get lost in my endless tabs.
But there are downsides of using it, too. I prefer working in Google for a variety of reasons, including the cute graphics they put on my calendar and the ease of adding a Hangout to a meeting.
Today I decided to Google “Add Google Calendar to Dock on a Mac”. Within seconds I found a StackExchange article about how to do this and installed a program called Fluid. Fluid allows users to create an “App” out of any web link and add it to their dock.
I installed the software and, in five minutes, had a new icon on my dock.
Step 1: Install the software
You can install the software here: https://fluidapp.com/
Step 2: Create the App
Note: I used a custom icon because the favicon option didn’t work. The downside of this is that it’s statically saying it’s the 31st, instead of changing with the date like Apple Calendar does.
Step 3: Add to Dock
I added the icon to my dock. It’s not exactly transparent on the edges but good enough.
This Fluid app has some other use cases as well. For instance, I can make “Apps” for my Salesforce CRM homepage or a list of common links I use. I can also have them launch when I turn on my computer.
I find it really valuable to take inventory of things that bother me about my setup at work and at home – whether it’s that I can’t see my little screen or I don’t know how to store a lint roller. I usually spend some time every month trying to fix these issues. I realize that with certain tasks, these small annoyances create a lot of avoidance and stress. Sometimes taking the time to Google something can prevent a lot of pain later.
I remember reading about this in The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin a few years ago. She mentions that although it’s common knowledge that spending excessively won’t bring true joy, sometimes spending money on tools to fix (or taking time to troubleshoot) day-to-day issues is extremely gratifying.
Do you have a small annoyance inventory? What small annoyance can you alleviate today?
MT-ing My Head 