[tweetmeme]If you think about it, the original Macintosh was the hallmark of minimalism. But minimalism isn’t about having less instead of more. The original Macintosh was minimal because it was powerless by modern standards. Today’s iMac is infinitely more powerful, both in hardware and software, yet we can achieve that same level of minimalism on a modern man, without sacrificing on its power and potential.

Pursuing a minimal workflow in software, hardware, and work environment can greatly enhance your productivity and state of mind. It takes away what’s not important, but more specifically, it highlights what’s important, thereby allowing you to focus. But we all knew that already, didn’t we?

There are fine sites [1. You might also want to read up on my buddy Brandon's philosophy behind minimalist software.] dedicated to minimalism—Minimal Mac arguably the best one to follow. Minimal Mac has been cataloguing minimalism right from software, to ideologies, to minimalist quotes. There are times when I think he overdoes it, but I’m sure that’s only because he wants to show you every possible, so you can make your own decisions. Different people have different needs, after all.

The philosophy of minimalism, as I see it, is having exactly what you need, when you need it, for as long as you need it. It’s not about just less, it’s about just right. — Patrick Rhone, Minimal Mac

I don’t think my desktop will make its way into Minimal Mac, but if you’re interested, here’s what I believe is a magical minimal desktop.

My Digital Desktop

The Mac ships with a clean desktop. The menubar, while ever-present, blends into the hardware. The Dock is a piece of art by itself, relying on icons to indicate its applications. The desktop itself features just one single hard drive icon, giving you access to your system. But, as time goes by, it becomes clear that even this simple desktop can become insanely cluttered. Files strewn all over the desktop, the dock housing pretty much every app ever used, and the menubar, well, some people don’t have room in their menubar anymore, given the number of apps running any given time. It’s mostly a do because you can do way of working with computers.

The Dock was the first thing I looked at. Most people think a minimal Dock involves throwing out every icon but the Finder and Trash icons. I’m sure they’d throw out those two as well, just that they can’t. The problem is, you are going to launch apps, and they will show up in your dock. They also pop up on the right side of the dock, so after every restart, your Dock is arranged differently. Moreover, as you launch apps, the dock expands. The only way to solve this is to try and keep your Dock as constant as possible, without inviting clutter. For instance, if I want to drag a file from Finder to Photoshop in the dock, it’s much quicker when you know where the icon is rather than having to search for it. The second thing about the Dock, is that it’s a waste of space, and a source of distraction. Hiding it is very awkward at first, but give it a week and you’ll be an expert in no time.

I love saving files to the desktop, if only for the handy Cmd+D shortcut that can be used in the Open/Save dialog of any given application. But the desktop is no place to access your files from. It relies to much on visual navigation, messes up your wallpaper, and requires you to leave your application window to access that file. Files on the desktop are best hidden (If you don’t like hiding the desktop, try arranging them in a list instead of a grid); I use Desktopple or HyperSpaces, depending on my mood.

Window management plays a big role in keeping the clutter down. Broadly speaking, there are two modes of working with a computer. The busy mode, and then there’s focussed mode. The Mac is exceptionally good at busy mode, where you want to work with a lot of windows at once, shuttling around using Expose and any of the other user interface workflows. But when it comes to focussing on a task, things can feel a little clutterred. There is Spaces, but that’s just another step that’s not needed for everyone. The absence of a maximize button means you have a bunch of windows floating around behind your frontmost application. Don’t get me wrong, maximizing an application that’s not designed to run maximised is a bad idea, especially on a high resolution screen. So what’s the best way to clear window clutter? Cmd+Opt+H. Once I get out of busy mode, and have settled in any application, I merely hit Cmd+Option+H and all applications but the foremost one disappear out of sight.

Which brings me to keyboard shortcuts. Best way to minimalism. Do you need a delete key in your Finder toolbar, when you can just hit Cmd+Delete? How about the four view-switcher tabs when you can just use Cmd+1 through 4? The best way to learn keyboard shortcuts is one day at a time. Delete a toolbar item you use often, and program yourself to use the keyboard shortcut instead. Give it a few days, and then move on.

The Mac and its applications allow for a lot of customisation. Cocoa applications have a standardised way of customising the toolbar, where you can just Cmd+Drag out items that you don’t use. You can even click the grey pill and hide the toolbar altogether. Give it some serious thought, and you’d be surprised how much of stuff can be chucked out. For instance, flinging out the saved searches in my Finder sidebar made a world of a difference. Even Carbon applications like Photoshop allow you to customise the menus. Took me about ten minutes to weed away stuff I didn’t require, but the resulting workspace feels so much more personal; useful.

There’s a fine line between minimalism for productivity, and minimalism for the sake of it. I don’t take minimalism to the extreme. I like having the actions menu in my Finder toolbar, and I like having the path bar visible. I like having Mail’s toolbar visible, even though you can get Mail to look like two panes of white. Sometimes I want to have the Dock visible even though I can manage with it hidden, but I’m not afraid to hit the keyboard shortcut and bring it in full view. They’re useful UI elements that I could do without, but it wouldn’t have a positive influence on my workflow.

Most importantly, minimalism is not a one step action, but a way of life. If Marilyn Manson were talking about clutter he’d tell you that he doesn’t like the clutter, but the clutter likes him. No matter how minimalist you try to be, clutter will creep in, and you will forget what it’s like to have a clear workspace. Every few weeks take some time to look at your workflow, and think about what you need and what you don’t. I myself did a whole lot of cleaning up since deciding to write this article. And if you need a reminder (pretty sure you do), subscribing to blogs like Minimal Mac and Simple Desks can give you that much needed knock on the head.