Organize Your Desktop for Web Development
Losing Keys and Windows
I cannot count how many times I’ve lost my keys or glasses and ran around the house looking for them. Searching for a lost item usually takes two or three minutes. When measured in time, the cost of these small events is trivial. However, these small interruptions collectively stress my mind and decrease my productivity and satisfaction throughout the day.
Computers have similar problems. Searching for lost windows frustrates me. It is difficult for the human brain to track the location of a moving object. Not only do we move windows, but we minimize them, maximize them, resize them, and layer them on top of one another. When I lose my terminal window, I move many windows in order to find the terminal. Once I find it, my entire desktop will be a mess. Next time I look for a window, I will have to do that all over again.
Inspiration
On a flight from San Francisco to Atlanta, I was reading The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin. The author lists the negative impact of these small daily interruptions. Luckily, he also presents a solution to the problem of losing my keys. The solution is to buy a key holder and attach it to my door. As simple as it sounds, it is extremely effective. The key holder adds a restriction to the key location space. Now, I grab the keys on my way out without giving it a thought.
Customizing a Window Holder
I set forth looking for the perfect holder for my windows. After trying different applications, I chose BetterSnapTool. My favorite features are the hot-keys and the snap areas. There are hot-keys for almost anything, like moving a window to one-third or two-thirds of the screen. Snap areas allow me to designate a part of a monitor to hold a window.
My Organized Desktop
I use a three-monitor setup for web development at Redfin. The image above shows my screen’s layout. The left screen is for fiddling with the browser. Chrome usually takes up the left two-thirds of the screen, and the developer tools take up the remaining third. My text editor or IDE is always on the central monitor. The right monitor has Slack for chat, Notational Velocity for note-taking, and Terminal app for the terminal. BetterSnapTool’s snap areas make it easy to place the notes app and the terminal app in their respective locations.
Like with my eye glasses, I want to be able to take a window and “wear” it. When I am done, I want to be able to put it back in its case. BetterSnapTool lets me expand a window to full height, expand it to full-screen, or move it to the central monitor and put it back in place easily.
Reaping the Benefits
Since I adapted to this setup, I have never lost a window again. Now that I do not have to worry about windows, I can cruise through my work and ship projects faster.
