In  the posting The Principles of Personal Productivity (on the Mac), I introduced the fact that: The keyboard is faster than the mouse. So let me repeat this: The keyboard is faster than the mouse. And just in case you missed it, here it is again: The keyboard is faster than the mouse.

There you are, I’ve said it thrice, and what I say three times is true.

We have developed bad mousing habits. For many of us, it happens in the following way. The mouse is a brilliant exploring device and it is necessary for many activities. That’s particularly the case for choosing items from menus. So when we begin using a new application, we get familiar with it by mousing through the menus and selecting commands.

Some of us are like those drivers (they tend to be male, I’m afraid) who refuse to use maps or even ask directions because they have a magical extrasensory radar, which will get them to their destination - you often see them reversing out of dead-end streets. “Hell, it’s only software - I’ll pick it up as I go.” So there’s no sense in reading the manual and no sense in going through the video training course. “If this software is any good, I’ll be able to work it out.”

Most of us don’t learn how to use software, we just dive in and start brawling with it. “Damn it! I paid good money for this app. Don’t expect me to put in learning time and effort as well!”

Doing the training and reading the manual is actually the key to being productive. But you do need to combine that with a genuine desire to be productive, so that you not only learn how to use the capabilities of an application, but how to fit them in with your particular style of being productive.

So if we learn to use an application by mousing about, which is possible to do, and which I tend to do with applications that I think are simple, then we will learn the way to make things happen with the mouse. And that is likely to be the slow boat to China.

If we never consider our personal productivity, the first way we learn to do anything will be the way that we always do it.

That’s why rats have such problems getting through mazes once they’ve learned a route and the experimenter changes the maze slightly. (See this posting if you want to know how to make monkeys behave insanely - it’s connected)

Improve your Mac productivity IMMEDIATELY, RIGHT NOW and AT ONCE.

Here’s how. Use the Command Key standards for using common commands. It’s not called the Command key for nothing. For just about every OS X application the following keyboard commands will do the following things:

• Command A: Select All
• Command C: Cut
• Command F: Find
• Command H: Hide Window
• Command M: Minimize
• Command O: Open File
• Command P: Print
• Command Q: Quit
• Command S: Save File
• Command V: Paste
• Command W: Close Window (or Close Tab)
• Command X: Cut
• Command Z: Undo

There are a few exceptional circumstances for one or two of these, but none I know of are troubling. So start using these instructions. Don’t worry about any other commands, just these. If you never use Hide Window, forget about that one, but you’ve got to use the rest at some time or other.

These are not hard to memorize. With most of them, the letter is the first letter of the commands name. So memorize them. Any time you find yourself doing any of these things with a mouse, stop, slap yourself on the wrist and use the keyboard.

Good Mousing Habits

The personal computer was designed for human beings with three hands. You need two for the keyboard and one for the mouse. Those of us who were unlucky enough to be born with only two hands find ourselves going to and from the mouse pretty regularly. It’s really quite difficult to avoid doing that. However it is possible to have good mouse habits. Here’s a list:

• Exploring an application with a mouse to see what it does, if you “click on this or click on that”, is a good idea.
• Exploring drag and drop possibilities is a good idea, because drag and drop is often a very fast way to achieve something.
• Don’t assume that because an application is fundamentally mousy, like PhotoShop or a drawing program, that the keyboard wont give you a faster route to doing some things in that program than the mouse.
• The best mice have at least two buttons and a scroll wheel. It’s best to use them when you can in contexts where your hand is already on the mouse.
• The scroll wheel can be particularly useful, so it’s best to become familiar with how an application uses it.
• The right mouse button often has “unexpected commands” hiding beneath it, some of which you may find very useful. You’ll never find them if you don’t explore. No app I’m aware of documents them, because they are usually tied to the context of where the pointer actually is. Did you know this?

If you read this and don’t act on it, then you wasted your time reading it.

Click on this link: PDQ Mac to see a list of other postings on Apple Mac productivity.