Taking Spaces to a New Level

I’m a big fan of Shawn Blanc’s Sweet Mac Setups series. His recent spotlight of Ian P. Hines, a ” 23-year old technology geek and Baltimore Enthusiast”, gave me a great idea about using Spaces.

From Hines:

I’ve taken to using Spaces to keep my desktop strictly organized. I currently have twelve spaces, most of which are always active.

Up until today, I’ve used a handful of spaces. I had Mail, Address Book, iChat, Things, BusyCal and other planning/communication apps in Space 1; NNW and blogging apps in Space 2 and then did project work in other spaces.

What I found with my way of using Spaces was a cluttered, disconnected “organization” that never really made me happy. I was constantly moving things to other spaces and was never really “focused” on the job at hand.

So I have adopted Hines’ approach to Spaces for a test. In theory (which is me thinking it over in my head for a few minutes), it seems a better approach for me. It’s like the idea behind contexts within Getting Things Done, which says you work on one thing at a time, not one project at a time.

Therefore, when I’m blogging (as I am now) I’m in Space 7, and the only thing I have in front of me is MarsEdit. NetNewsWire, where I was reading Blanc’s post, is in another Space readily available but is not behind my writing window as a distraction.

Here’s my Spaces setup:

1. Browsers. Mostly Safari 4, but Firefox 3 is a backup. I spend quite a bit of time in Safari, working in web apps or doing research.
2. NetNewsWire. I have a space dedicated solely to NNW because I spend a good bit of time reading various feeds.
3. Social Apps. Here is where Tweetie lives, along with a Fluid app for Facebook.
4. Communications. Mail, iChat, Skype and Address Book.
5. Planning. Things keeps me on track, and BusyCal keeps me scheduled.
6. Notes. Evernote runs here, along with DevonThink Pro Office.
7. Blogging and Writing. MarsEdit is always up and running. Scrivener lives here for my fiction writing.
8. iWork and Office. This is where I do my “work” when it comes to word processing and spreadsheets. Mainly, I live in Numbers for either planning, comparing or crunching data.
9. Music and Media. iTunes and Pandora (Fluid app) are always open. QuickTime runs here as well. I’ve got iMovie plugged into here, for when I’m working on some quick videos for YouTube.
10. Photos. iPhoto, Aperture, Pixelmator, Skitch and PhotoShop. I use iPhoto for personal pics and Aperture to organize professional artwork and photos. Pixelmator is my tool of choice for most photo work. I use PhotoShop for heavy lifting on design projects. Skitch does all my screenshots.
11. Design. I still do a bit of web work and some print design. I run the Adobe suite, CSS Edit, Coda and Transmit.
12. Junk Drawer. System Preferences, 1Password, AppZapper, Transmission etc. come to life here.

A few apps live where ever they are opened, such as TextMate and Pukka. Launchbar, Growl and Caffeine run in the background.

There are only two apps that I have living in every space: Hulu Desktop and a Fluid app for Netflix to watch streaming movies. If I don’t have music going, I’m usually keeping my ADHD down with mindless TV or movies playing.

We’ll see how this works, but I have high hopes. My only concern is that I get “switching fatigue” as I bounce from app to app. But so far, that hasn’t happened.