Offloading keyboard shortcuts to a programmable macro keypad is the very best productiveness hack I’ve ever achieved.
Down the keyboad shortcut rabbit gap
I first obtained into keyboard shortcuts with easy macOS triggers, akin to @@ for my major e-mail deal with, and related ones for my full title, residence deal with, cellphone quantity, zip code, and so forth.
Then, I made a decision to take issues up a notch with Keyboard Maestro and began setting keyboard shortcuts to open just a few of the folders and packages I used extra typically.
From the Desktop to Downloads to folders associated to work, it grew to become pure muscle reminiscence to press Fn+F1 all the best way to Fn+F6, to immediately land the place it used to take me just a few clicks earlier than. The opposite operate buttons have been devoted to opening frequent packages and web sites, in addition to accessing Keyboard Maestro’s Clipboard Historical past Switcher.
That developed into automating a few of my workflow, together with opening QuickTime and beginning a brand new audio recording, in addition to opening Shure PlusMOTIV every time I plugged in a particular USB-C microphone.
Quickly, I used to be additionally setting customized shortcuts for instruments, settings, and panels on Adobe Audition, a few of which I shortly moved to my Logitech MX Grasp for even sooner modifying.
Kicking issues up a notch
This setup served me effectively for fairly a very long time, till at some point, 9to5Mac’s personal Gui Rambo instructed me a couple of small, 12-key and 3-knob macro keypad he had purchased. I used to be offered, and did simply the identical factor.
When it arrived, I shortly realized that setting it as much as work accurately on macOS required some further work. Fortunately, this GitHub mission did all of the heavy lifting, and ChatGPT did the remainder to assist me set it up correctly.
One wonderful thing about this setup is that having a customized keyboard to invoke Keyboard Maestro shortcuts means not having to memorize them or preserve them ergonomically pleasant.
And due to the truth that this particular keyboard lets you’ve got as much as 3 layers of 12 keypad shortcuts, plus the knobs, which may additionally act as buttons, implies that I can have it behave in a method once I’m utilizing Adobe Audition, and a very completely different method when interacting with the system.
When utilizing Adobe Audition, utilizing this macro keypad mixed with the MX Grasp makes switching between instruments, exporting information (or simply particular segments), making use of results akin to normalization, compression, deReverb, deEsser, ripple delete, and rather more, orders of magnitude sooner and extra streamlined than with common keyboard shortcuts, or, God forbid, no shortcuts in any respect.
When utilizing the system, I can use the identical keyboard on a distinct layer to vary audio enter, modify the amount, modify the show luminosity, mute/unmute the microphone, and entry generally used folders simply as simply.
Granted, it did take me a bit to memorize all of those instructions, however that turns into second nature extra shortly than you’d assume. Greater than that, it truthfully feels just like the Mac is damaged when I’ve to work with out that.
What’s extra, there are numerous configurations and choices for macro keypads, with completely different shapes, sizes, keys, knobs, mild colours, and rather more. It is a rabbit gap that actually feels infinite, and in case your work entails any form of repetitive actions (and whose doesn’t?), I sincerely recommend you are taking a peek inside.
Accent offers on Amazon
FTC: We use revenue incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.
