Tips & tricks

Filter your Teams activity down to just @mentions

The Activity feed can show only messages where someone mentioned you. Everything else is mostly noise.

Teams in meetings: mute and camera from the keyboard

Ctrl+Shift+M

Ctrl+Shift+M toggles your mic, Ctrl+Shift+O toggles your camera. When it's suddenly your turn to talk, you're not hunting for a button.

Teams: Ctrl+E to search, and jump anywhere from there

Ctrl+E

The search bar at the top finds people, messages, and files — and a slash launches commands.

The up arrow fixes your last message

↑

Typo in a message you just sent? Press the up arrow and you're editing right away — no hunting through menus.

Custom channel sections: important on top, noise below

Split your sidebar into sections — Projects, Team, Noise. Channels you don't need to see get collapsed.

Reply in threads, not in the channel

A threaded reply keeps a discussion together and doesn't flood the channel. A team that threads has half the noise.

Saved items: bookmarks for Slack

The bookmark icon on a message adds it to Later — your personal list of things to come back to.

Set working hours for notifications in Slack

A notification schedule automatically quiets Slack outside working hours. It leaves you alone in the evening — and shows colleagues when you're reachable.

Slack search: from:, in:, before:

Operators narrow a search to a specific person, channel, and time period — instead of scrolling through history.

Formatting in Slack: code, quotes, lists

Backticks turn text into code, three of them make a code block. A readable message saves time on both ends.

Remind yourself about a message when you'll have time for it

“Remind me about this” brings a message back at a time you choose. Slack stops being the place where tasks get lost.

Slack: Ctrl+K jumps to any channel or teammate

Ctrl+K

The quick switcher finds a channel, a message, or a person in a few keystrokes. Slack's single most important shortcut.

Color categories: an email's status at a glance

A category like “Waiting on reply” or “Client A” colors emails across folders — and you find them with one click.

The two-minute rule for your inbox

Anything that takes less than two minutes, do right when you read it. Longer things go to your task list — and archive the email.

Email three times a day in blocks, not sixty times in drips

Constantly checking your inbox shreds your focus into pieces. Three fixed blocks a day are enough for 95% of jobs.

Delayed delivery in Outlook

Even in Outlook, an email can wait until Monday morning. The new version has Schedule Send right next to the Send button.

Essential Outlook shortcuts: reply, send, switch modules

Ctrl+R

Ctrl+R replies, Ctrl+Enter sends, Ctrl+1/2/3 switches between mail, calendar, and people.

Quick Steps in Outlook: three actions in one click

A Quick Step can move a message, mark it read, and forward it all at once. Turn a repeated sequence into a single button.

Outlook rules: let your inbox sort itself

Automatic rules move system notifications, reports, and CCs into folders — your inbox stays reserved for messages that actually need you.

Drag an email onto your calendar and it becomes a meeting

In Outlook, drag a message onto the calendar icon — it creates an event with the email's text inside. No more retyping.

Switch keyboard languages instantly without touching the mouse

Ctrl+Space

Ctrl+Space switches between two keyboard layouts. A must for developers and anyone writing in more than one language.

Half- and quarter-screen window layouts

Newer macOS versions support window snapping — drag a window to the edge, or hold Option over the green button for instant layouts.

Stage Manager: one window on stage, the rest wait in the wings

An alternative to window-switching — the active window sits center stage, the rest lined up at the edge. Helps you keep one thing in focus.

Look up a word with three fingers: the built-in dictionary

Ctrl+Cmd+D

Tap a word with three fingers (or Ctrl+Cmd+D) and up pops a definition, translation, and Wikipedia entry — without leaving the text.

Control dialogs from the keyboard: Enter, Esc, and Space

Esc

Enter confirms the blue button, Esc means Cancel — and Space checks a box. Handle dialogs without ever touching the mouse.

AirDrop: a file on the next device in two seconds

Don't email files between Apple devices. AirDrop is faster, doesn't compress anything, and has no size limits.

Smart folders: a search that updates itself

Save a search as a smart folder — say, “PDFs from the last week.” The contents keep themselves up to date by the rules you set.

Safari Reader: an article without the ads and clutter

Cmd+Shift+R

Reader view strips an article down to nothing but text and images. Read without blinking banners — with your own font size.

Quick edits to PDFs and images without Photoshop

Preview handles arrows, boxes, text, and blurring sensitive info. For 90% of everyday edits, you don't need anything else.

Focus modes: every activity gets its own rules

Set up a Work mode that lets through only colleagues and family — synced to your iPhone and Apple Watch too.