How to blot out those distractions, stay organised and get more done on your Apple Mac

Staying focused on any device that can do many different tasks is far from easy. With messages coming in from a host of apps and networks it is likely that you have experienced an inability to work for more than a few minutes countless times, but there are tools in macOS, and in particular in Ventura, that can help. macOS has always been about bringing the app you are working on to the forefront while leaving the others ready to be opened up from the Dock, but this can have the adverse effect of taking too long to switch between apps when you are working on projects or tasks that include text and multiple types of media creation. The new Stage Manager feature is ideal for helping you to jump between a selection of running apps that you are working with and there are many other tools that you can use to keep the focus deep and your productivity high.

We’ll take you through the most useful features in macOS that can help you concentrate and hopefully you will benefit from a more focused future with extra productivity included as a valuable bonus.

The smoother redesign

Apple does not redesign its software or hardware just to makes things look nicer. It is almost always done to achieve material benefits and when you are using a system that looks and feels smooth it does make a genuine difference to your emotions when working. Don’t ignore these seemingly small visual changes because they do make a difference.

Better dictation

Once you get used to dictating text it can help you to focus on the work you are doing. You should not need to worry about spelling or the formatting until you review the document later and Apple has made efforts to make the experience even more fluid and accurate than previously. You can now dictate any word you need.

1 Enable it

You need to enable dictation in Settings> Keyboard by scrolling down to the Dictation section. It will then come live whenever you click the microphone key.

2 Speak and work

Simply start speaking and you will see the words appear in the app you are using. It is one of the most powerful features for bringing extra focus to your work.