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Turn off the clock on your menu bar

scottkle.in

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Re: Turn off the clock on your menu bar

#11

Post by shizcakes »

knowtheory wrote: post #8

The two things in my mac menubar i definitely know i can do without are the two things i can't remove: - Searchlight icon - TimeMachine icon Everything else in my menubar is either removable myself, or indicate state about my machine that i need to track (input mode, wireless connection, volume level and the like)

System Preferences > (System Row) Time Machine > Uncheck "Show time machine status in Menu Bar"

Re: Turn off the clock on your menu bar

#12

Post by rbritton »

I actually use the clock for something other than time: it tells me when the computer is bogged down/frozen. If the seconds stop updating, it means something else is sucking the resources (usually some loop in the latest build of whatever app I'm working on).

Re: Turn off the clock on your menu bar

#13

Post by forgotusername »

Recently (and I suspect, at all times in the past) I've had trouble focusing with even one epileptic app throbbing in the background, or even redrawing some pointless animation or status update. For me one of the criteria for a desktop program is whether it can be prevented from audibly or visually disturbing me with its desires.

It may occasionally mean an impatient peer being upset at the lack of a speedy reply, but my thoughts are guaranteed to be uninterrupted unless the conversation is of sufficient importance to hold my attention after returning to real work.

The only 'active' notifications I have are mail and calendar, on my phone, which can be silenced temporarily with a single swipe. On the desktop, the only notification is Adium's small, static icon in the menu bar, which raises its wings to politely remind me of some ongoing IM.

I'd suggest disabling that almost pointless thermal monitor and the many similarly looking distracting icons long before I'd hide the clock, as it's the only reliable gauge of progress throughout the day.

Re: Turn off the clock on your menu bar

#15

Post by burgerbrain »

knowtheory wrote: post #8

The two things in my mac menubar i definitely know i can do without are the two things i can't remove: - Searchlight icon - TimeMachine icon Everything else in my menubar is either removable myself, or indicate state about my machine that i need to track (input mode, wireless connection, volume level and the like)

If you can do without them, then why can't you remove them?

Re: Turn off the clock on your menu bar

#16

Post by ugh »

shizcakes wrote: post #11
knowtheory wrote: post #8

The two things in my mac menubar i definitely know i can do without are the two things i can't remove: - Searchlight icon - TimeMachine icon Everything else in my menubar is either removable myself, or indicate state about my machine that i need to track (input mode, wireless connection, volume level and the like)

System Preferences > (System Row) Time Machine > Uncheck "Show time machine status in Menu Bar"

More to the point, every icon in the menu bar except for Spotlight can be turned on or off in the System Preferences. If hunting down those checkboxes is too much work, you can also Command-click on any of Apple’s icons [0] and drag them out of the menu bar. This also allows you to rearrange icons. (That works also for buttons on toolbars.)

Super User has a hacky way of disabling the Spotlight icon: http://superuser.com/questions/32593/remove-spotlight-icon-f...

[0] I only have one third-party icon in my menu bar (Dropbox) and it can’t be dragged out of the menu bar. I don’t know whether that’s the case for all third-party icons.

Re: Turn off the clock on your menu bar

#17

Post by spicyj »

burgerbrain wrote: post #15
knowtheory wrote: post #8

The two things in my mac menubar i definitely know i can do without are the two things i can't remove: - Searchlight icon - TimeMachine icon Everything else in my menubar is either removable myself, or indicate state about my machine that i need to track (input mode, wireless connection, volume level and the like)

If you can do without them, then why can't you remove them?

The system doesn't allow you to remove the Spotlight icon, but Time Machine's icon is removable (just Cmd-drag it off or disable it in System Preferences).

Re: Turn off the clock on your menu bar

#18

Post by jefe78 »

I like this idea. I have a 3 monitor setup(across 2 computers) using Synergy. This affords me the luxury(distraction) of always having my IM clients/browsers open. I've taken to using a focus/fader application so that when I'm not on the screen, only my coding monitor is focused. It helps a lot. I'll try killing the clocks next!

Re: Turn off the clock on your menu bar

#20

Post by jkahn »

I'm sure this idea will help some people become more productive. Not people like me, though. Maybe I just get easily distracted, but I make small deals with myself when working through a mundane (but important) task.

Deals like:

- "15 more minutes and you can get a coffee".

- "You can't look at HN until 4pm".

- You get the picture.

A clock helps immensely with this. Sometimes a task feels like it's taking forever, but it's only been half an hour.

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