Are you tired of repetitive tasks eating into your valuable time on Mac? Your Mac is a powerhouse, and with a few clever tweaks, you can unlock its hidden ability to automate those tedious chores. From simple settings tweaks and shortcuts to powerful workflows, the tips below will make your digital life smoother and more efficient. First, I will start with the usual System Settings tweaks for your basic tasks and move to third-party apps to fly through complex workflows.

6 Automate Focus profiles

Create a distraction-free environment

macOS offers different focus profiles to create a distraction-free environment. You can use DND profiles like Work, Gaming, Sleep, Driving, and more. There is also an option to create a custom Focus profile, such as Writing, Coding, Meditation, and more, as per your preferences.

Instead of manually enabling and disabling a Focus profile, you can automate the entire process based on a specific condition. Simply head to System Settings > Focus > Select a Focus profile > Add Schedule. You can turn on and off Focus based on set hours, a particular location, or when you open an app.

For example, I have set my Mac to enable Writing mode whenever I launch Slack or Outlook. During my work hours, the Focus profile disables notifications from social media apps and allow calls from my favorite contacts only. The possibilities are endless here. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can share Focus profile on it as well.

5 Dark mode and other display settings

Create an ideal display setup

You can enable and disable dark mode based on the time of the day and even tweak a couple of display settings to adjust the brightness and colors automatically.

Head to System Settings > Appearance and select Auto. Now, scroll to Displays and enable the Automatically adjust brightness and True Tone toggles. You can even schedule a Night Shift with a specific color temperature during set hours.

4 Launch apps at startup

Access your favorite apps at fingertips

This is another neat Mac automation hack you need to follow from day one. You can automatically launch your preferred apps during system startup. I've set my Mac to open Slack, Outlook, WhatsApp, Edge, and OneNote at startup. Here is how you can do it for yourself.

Launch System Settings and head to General > Login Items & Extensions. Click + and pick your favorite apps from the following menu. This is the crucial setting you didn’t know you need to change on Mac.

3 Explore text replacements

Fly through frequently used sentences and phrases

Text replacement is one of the Mac productivity hacks I wish I knew earlier. If you frequently type your email address, a long phrase, or a specific code snippet, instead of typing it out every time, create a shortcut from Mac System Settings.

For instance, you could set @@em to automatically expand into "email address". Or, if you often type a standard closing like "Sincerely, [Your Full Name], [Your Title]", you could create a shortcut like @@sig. This seemingly small trick saves countless keystrokes over time. You can even type frequently used special characters with this trick.

2 Get the best out of your keyboard

Keyboard Cowboy to the rescue

So far, I have only talked about built-in methods to automate your Mac. Now, let’s have a word on a third-party utility I use to enable keyboard-driven automation – Keyboard Cowboy. It goes beyond standard macOS shortcuts and includes launching applications, opening files and folders, triggering system commands, and even executing complex scripts.

You can even create application-specific shortcut configurations. This means you can have different shortcut sets active depending on which application you are currently using. Beyond simple keyboard shortcuts, Keyboard Cowboy enables automation based on application events. For example, you can set up actions to occur automatically when an application is launched, closed, or brought into focus.

The setup process does seem daunting at first, though. You can refer to the official documentation on GitHub (from the link above) to learn all its tips and tricks.

1 Utilize the Shortcuts app

The ultimate automation app on Mac

Speaking of the Mac automation, how can I leave Shortcuts app out of the discussion? It is basically a visual scripting tool to automate complex tasks with drag-and-drop actions. It is easily the best way to enable automation on Mac.

Being an official offering from Apple, Shortcuts integrates seamlessly with macOS and allows you to automate actions across various apps and system functions. This includes controlling apps, manipulating files, managing system settings, and even interacting with web services.

Apple also offers a dedicated gallery of shortcuts for some inspiration. Suppose you want to convert a batch of images to a specific format and resize them for your website. Instead of manually performing these steps for each image, you can create a Shortcut that resizes, converts, and saves your images with a single click only.

Stop wasting your time

Automating your Mac doesn’t require rocket science (and eye-watering subscriptions). With the built-in tools and several handy third-party apps, you can unlock a host of automation capabilities at your fingertips. Among these apps, I highly recommend spending some time with the built-in Shortcuts app. It does require a learning curve, but once you get past it, the potential benefits are endless.

While you are at it, check out my top open-source picks to boost your productivity on Mac.