1. Supercharge Quick Actions

Quick Actions are basically Automator workflows that live in your right-click menu. Most people ignore them because the default options are boring. But once you add your own, it’s like having superpowers.

How to create one: Open Automator (it’s in your Applications folder), select Quick Action, and build whatever workflow you want.

Batch Resize Images

I write a lot, which means I take a lot of screenshots. And every screenshot from my MacBook is absolutely massive. This Quick Action lets me right-click any image (or group of images) and resize them all to a sensible width or a specific size that I want.

In Automator:

1. First select the right document type -> “Quick Action” and then hit “Choose”

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2. Set “Workflow receives current” to Image Files

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3. Add action: Select Copy Finder Items and drag it to the workflow builder area.

4. Add action: Scale Images (set to your preferred width, like 480px or 800px)

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5. Hit “Cmd + S” and Save the workflow as “Image Resize”

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6. Now for the Fun Part — Navigate to a folder with images that need resizing. Select them, hit right click and look for “Quick Actions -> Image Resize”

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7. The Results

While my chosen images were in the “Downloads” folder the resized images landed in the “Desktop” folder as that was the destination chosen in the “Copy Finder Items” Action inside Automator

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Honestly, Quick Actions deserve their own deep dive — there’s so much more you can do with them that I’m putting together a follow-up post dedicated entirely to Automator and Quick Action workflows!

We’re talking batch file renaming, automatic watermarking, custom text processing, and a bunch of other automations that’ll make you wonder why you were ever doing these tasks manually. If you’ve built any Quick Actions that you swear by, drop them in the comments — I’m always on the lookout for new workflows to steal (I mean, be inspired by).

2. Finder Power User Moves

Finder is fine out of the box. But with a few tweaks, it goes from “fine” to “actually helpful.”

Add “Recents” to your Sidebar

Finder → Settings (Cmd + ,) → Sidebar

Check the box for “Recents” under Favorites. Now you have one-click access to everything you’ve recently opened. No more digging through folders trying to remember where you saved that file yesterday.

Cut-and-Paste for Files

You’ve probably been using Cmd + C to copy files and Cmd + V to paste them. But did you know you can CUT files? Like users of Windows can?

Cmd + C to copy the file, then Cmd + Option + V to MOVE it (paste at the new location and remove it from the original).

This is the Windows equivalent of Cut and Paste for Macs, and I cannot believe it took me two years to learn this.

Add File Paths to Finder

Finder → View → Show Path Bar

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Now you’ll see the complete file path at the bottom of every Finder window. Useful for knowing exactly where you are in your folder structure, and you can click any folder in the path to jump directly to it.

3. Safari Reader Mode 

I don’t know when it happened, but at some point every website decided they needed nineteen pop-ups, three autoplay videos, and a newsletter signup that covers half the screen before you even get to the second paragraph.

Safari’s Reader Mode strips all that noise away, leaving you with just the actual article you came to read. Clean text, no ads, no distractions. It’s like putting on noise-cancelling headphones for your eyeballs. The problem is, you have to manually enable it every single time by clicking the little Reader icon in the address bar. Which, after about the third article of the day, gets old fast.

Here’s the fix: make Reader Mode turn on automatically for every site that supports it and block it for the sites where you know you don’t want it

Safari → Settings (Cmd + ,) → Websites → Reader → Turn ON “When visiting other websites”

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Now every article you open will automatically load in that clean, minimal view. If you ever need to see the full page just click the Reader icon to toggle it off.

It’s one of those settings that seems small but genuinely makes reading on the internet less exhausting. Your eyes will thank you, and you’ll actually finish articles instead of rage-closing tabs because you can’t find the content buried under all the garbage.

4. Trackpad Zoom

I don’t know how or why or when everything got so small, but sometimes you just need to see something bigger. Maybe it’s tiny text on a website, maybe it’s a detailed image, or maybe you’re just squinting at your screen. Instead of leaning forward like you’re trying to read hieroglyphics, you can use a simple trackpad gesture to zoom in on anything on your screen.

System Settings → Accessibility → Zoom → Enable “Use trackpad gesture to zoom”

Once enabled, double-tap with three fingers to toggle zoom on and off. Even better, double-tap with three fingers and drag to zoom in and out dynamically. It works everywhere — Safari, PDFs, images, literally any part of your screen. It’s one of those features you don’t think you need until you use it once, and then you wonder how you ever lived without it.

Disable Background App Refresh (Your Battery Will Thank You)

Your Mac is constantly refreshing apps in the background. Apps you haven’t opened in weeks. Apps you forgot you installed. All of them, quietly draining your battery like tiny vampires.

System Settings → General → Background App Refresh

Turn off the toggle. Or at least scroll through and disable it for apps you rarely use. Your battery life will improve noticeably.

Audit Your “Open at Login” Apps (The 30-Second Boot Time Fix)

Every app you’ve ever installed has probably asked if it can “start automatically when you log in.” And like a fool, I said yes. Multiple times. To apps I no longer use.

Now my Mac takes 60 seconds to boot up because it’s launching Spotify, 1Password, a notes app I haven’t touched in six months, that utility I installed once for a specific task and forgot about, and approximately ten other SetApp apps that I don’t use every day.

The Fix —

System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions

Disable Dock Animation (Or: Why Is My Computer Moving in Slow Motion?)

For months, I thought my Mac was just… slow. Every time I clicked an app in the Dock, there was this bouncy animation that felt like watching paint dry. Turns out, you can just… turn that off.

Simply copy, paste and run the below commands in a terminal window:

To disable:

defaults write com.apple.dock launchanim -bool false; killall Dock

To re-enable (because you’ll panic and think you broke something):

defaults write com.apple.dock launchanim -bool true; killall Dock

Pro Tip: If you’re using Raycast or Alfred (and if you’re reading this blog, you probably are), create a snippet for these commands. I have mine set to !dockon and !dockoff because I change my mind about this approximately once a month.

6. Turn Off Animations (Make Everything Feel Faster)

Animations are pretty. They’re also slow. If you want your Mac to feel snappier, reducing them makes a surprising difference.

System Settings → Accessibility → Display -> Enable “Reduce motion”

This doesn’t eliminate ALL animations, but it tones them down significantly. Windows will open faster, Mission Control will respond quicker, and everything will feel more immediate. It’s the difference between feeling like your Mac is thinking about your request versus just doing it.