Workspace Management

Context-orientated Workspace Switching

Throughout the day, I bounce back and forth between various tasks that each may require specific applications, web sites, and files. For example:

• Budget Planning: Budget planning might involve a budget spreadsheet, a VPN connection, a remote client connection to the finance system, and several local folders for invoices and quotes for the current year

• Cyber Planning: Working on cyber security might involve connections to a staff training system in one browser, several cyber-related folders and documents in Google Drive in another browser, an assessment app, and a project management app focused on your cyber security project

• Account/Device Troubleshooting: There may be scenarios where you are troubleshooting a user account and device that are not working properly, and the you need to look into the entire system chain: open browser windows for your SIS, your account provisioning system, your roster server, Apple School Manager, Google Admin, and your MDM

In order to work with all of the applications and windows for a given task, you will also want to arrange all of the windows into specific locations across multiple monitors to allow for a consistent and efficient use of screen real estate. I use Keyboard Maestro and Stream Deck to automate task switching: with one press of a button, all of my currently open windows are minimized, and the windows I need to perform a specific task are opened in exactly the layout that I want.

Consider this scenario: You might be reading emails, and you receive a new quote that you have been waiting for. With one button, you can minimize all of your current windows and open your budget planning workspace. While getting ready to place an order, somebody may come into your office with a problem that you need to troubleshoot. You can press another button and all of your windows again minimize and the account device troubleshooting windows open in their pre-determined locations, allowing you to easily focus on helping them. This system also makes it makes it much easier to switch back to your budgeting work once you have finished helping someone troubleshoot their problem.

Custom Home Page Website of Bookmarks

I have many bookmarks that are commonly used, some of them several times a day. I have found that using a larger portion of the computer screen to laying them out into a custom, organized arrangement is much easier to use than selecting individual bookmarks from bookmark folder menus. I have essentially created a highly-customized homepage of bookmarks, organized and focused on common tasks.

The other advantage to creating this homepage of frequently used links is you can configure multiple browsers on multiple devices to use it, essentially keeping your most common bookmarks synced across browsers.