Multitasking
Today I was catching up on my RSS feeds in Google Reader when iTunes started playing a song I didn’t feel like hearing. Without taking my eyes off the article I was reading, I typed Cmd-Space-n-e-x-t-Enter (Pull up Quicksilver, run “Next Song” script). I think that’s the first time I’ve done that without looking, and that seems significant.
Yes, there’s no such thing as true multitasking. But this makes me think that good software can dramatically reduce the overhead of switching tasks. When I run a task through Quicksilver, it preserves my foreground window, and keeps my hands on the keyboard. If I’ve memorized the command I want to run, I don’t even have to move my eyes to the Quicksilver dialog. Just think, type, go. And then continue what I was doing.
Skipping a song is something I do a lot. However, I just have a fast-forward key on my (admittedly Microsoft) keyboard that tells any GNOME music player to skip to the next song.
Yours seems like too much friction still in comparison.
Comment by Thomas Vander Stichele — May 22, 2007 @ 8:36 am
Quicksilver has an iTunes plugin that will let you map a much shorter keystroke “trigger” to the same action. The default is Opt-Cmd-RightArrow, which clashes with my VirtueDesktops configuration, but it is easy to change.
Comment by Doug — May 24, 2007 @ 2:17 pm
Thomas and Doug - You’re right, there could be quicker ways to achieve this particular task. I pause iTunes more than I skip songs, and I have a faster shortcut set up for play/pause: Cmd->. I use it all the time.
The important thing is that there’s a way to do these simple tasks with an absolutely minimal loss of context. With Quicksilver I can do all kinds of common things without having to move my fingers or my eyes.
For example, here are the keystrokes I use to set my status in Adium: Cmd-Space-Period-[Status message]-Enter. No touching the mouse, no switching applications. It’s micro-multitasking :)
Comment by Abe — May 25, 2007 @ 1:29 pm