45 Insanely Useful Mac Keyboard Shortcuts  – The Ultimate Guide

How mac keyboard shortcuts have helped me achieve my business goals

It’s funny how breakthroughs in productivity come from the most unlikely turn of events.

One of my goals is to grow my business profitably.

There are many ways to go about building a profitable business such as:

• Creating and launching an online course
• Building a (paid) community of like-minded people, and then nurturing them within that community
• Offer consulting services where you use your knowledge and skills to help people get specific results in their business

The list goes on and on.

But to do all of the above things more effectively it pays to develop your own personal productivity.

The story of the two woodcutters illustrates this point really well.

If you spend time sharpening your axe you're more likely to cut down more trees. It's a lot more effective than chopping down trees with brute force using a blunt axe.

Developing a consistent habit of using keyboard shortcuts has helped me to "sharpen my axe" and be a LOT more effective!

If you'd like to learn more about how to develop a consistent habit you might want to check out my conversation with James Clear on the Productive Insights podcast. 

One of the best tools I've seen when it comes to learning Mac Keyboard shortcuts and developing that muscle memory is the one below 

This one tiny habit of using keyboard shortcuts saves me at least $2000 each year. 

Here's how ...

How mac keyboard shortcuts save me at least $2000 a year

Each time I want to switch between applications, I just use the "Command + Tab" keys rather than grabbing the mouse and moving it to the dock and then finding the application in the dock (assuming the application is already loaded into the dock)

Sure it only saves me about half a second each time. But if I'm doing that 100 times a day (which I would easily do given the fact that I spend several hours at the computer each day and I use a LOT of applications) I've saved myself at least 50 seconds that day. 

Over a year that works out to be 15,000 seconds which works out to be 250 minutes or 4.17 hours a year. 

I charge $497 per hour of my time so that works out to be $2,072.49

The benefits of these tiny incremental changes have accumulated over time and helped me achieve my 

I invite you to implement them into your business and your life as soon as possible. 

If you'd like some help embedding these shortcuts into your business or your life, I'm offering a few free 30-minute calls for a limited time. 

Just click the button below to grab a time that suits you

Several years ago, after having consumed a few too many beverages, I ended up with a broken finger.

How’d that happen? Well, let’s just say I made a few poor choices. (If you’d really like to know the whole story then you’ll have to buy me a beer sometime and I’ll be happy to share the gory details with you.)

But for now, let’s get back to the story.

There I was at work, the day after a ridiculously long surgery on said broken finger (I had an evil boss who wouldn’t give me more than a day’s leave), pecking away pathetically at my keyboard with one hand in plaster.

I was a sorry sight.

Trying to use the keyboard and the mouse with a solitary functioning hand. Things were painfully slow (pun intended).

I had to find a way of working smarter.

Well, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Before long I had mastered keyboard shortcuts on my PC (which is what I was using at the time). My digital life was never the same again.

Using keyboard shortcuts is one of the best time-saving hacks I’ve come across. It’s probably right up there with my other favorite hacks which include using voice to text to save time in typing on the keyboard, Divvy for screen management which saves oodles of time in minimizing and resizing screens, or my Top 15 iPhone Siri voice commands to save you an hour a week on your iPhone.

Listed below are some very useful keyboard shortcuts for your Mac

(Are you a PC user? Check out these 57 keyboard shortcuts to turn you into an Excel Ninja!)

At a guess, I’d say I save over 15 minutes each day using keyboard shortcuts by using my keyboard instead of reaching across to my mouse each time I want to open a new window or launch an application. 

Over a period of a week, this adds up to 75 minutes assuming a 5 day work week – which is well over an hour in saved time. 

And as they say … time is money, right? 

And so I present to you …. (*drumroll*)

Note: these shortcuts were first created for Mac OSX Mavericks as of 24th Jan 2014 but I’ve recently gone through and updated them for 2021. Please email me if you find any errors in this list and I’ll be happy to fix them 🙂

Keyboard shortcuts

• Control + Command + Space Bar – Show character viewer from which you can choose emojis and other symbols
• Command+ tab – Flip between open applications or switch to the next most recently used app among your open apps
• Command+` – Flip Between Windows in Current Application
• Command+ M – Minimize the current window to the dock. (Option + Command + M minimizes all windows on the app)
• Command + H – Hide all windows of the front app (Command + Option + H – Hide all other app windows)
• Command + W – Close current window
• Command + Option + H – Close all other open windows (besides currently open application) 
• Command + , – Bring up the preferences window in the application you’re currently in
• Command + Option + D – Hide and unhide the Dock
• Command + Space – Activate Spotlight on your mac –  (Check out the Alfred app – it’s an awesome alternative to spotlight and includes incredible workflows. Highly recommended!)
• Control + Up Arrow – Activate Mission Control
• Command + L – Select Safari’s address / URL field to quickly enter a URL
• Command + Shift + U – Mark messages as read or unread in Mail app
• Command + I – Check for information on a particular file within Finder
• Command + Option + I – Check for information on multiple files within Finder – (just keep clicking on different files to show information related to that file)
• Command + Down Arrow – To open a file in its native application without clicking (from within finder)
• Option + Left Arrow (or Right Arrow) – To jump across the whole word quickly
• Shift + Option + Left Arrow (or Right Arrow) – To select a whole word at a time
• Command + T – Open a second tab within a Safari session
• Command + Shift + ] (or [) – Jump between open tabs in Safari
• Put your Mac to sleep – Command + Option + Eject (If your keyboard doesn’t have an Eject button then use the power button)
• To grab a screenshot of the entire screen and save the image to your desktop – Command + Shift + 3
• Command + Shift + 4 – To grab a screenshot of a selected area of your screen (and then drag the cursor over the area you want to take a screenshot of. Once you release the mouse the screenshot will automatically be copied to your desktop)
• Command + Shift + 4 + Spacebar – To take a screenshot of just one window on your screen
• Command + Shift + Delete – Empty trash when in Finder
• Command + Option + Shift + Delete – Force computer to Empty trash (so you don’t get warnings)
• Shift + Command + I – To automatically generate a new email message with a link to the page you’re browsing when in Safari

Keyboard shortcut symbols

• Option + =  To create not equals to symbol (≠)
• Shift + Option + + – To create a plus or minus sign (±)-  
• Option + 5 – To create the infinity symbol (∞)
• Option + ; – To create ellipses (…)
• Option + ? – To create the dividing symbol (÷)
• Option + > – To create equal to or greater than symbol (≥)
• Option + < – To create equal to or lower than (≤)
• Option + P – To create a Pi sign (π)
• Option + I – To create a circumflex (ˆ)
• Option + N – To create Tilde (˜)
• Option + Shift  + ? – To create an inverted question mark (¿)
• Option + R – To create a registered trademark symbol ((®)
• Option + G – To create a copyright symbol (©)
• Option + 8 – To create a bullet point symbol (•)
• Option + T – To create a dagger for footnotes (†)
• Option + D – To create the Greek letter delta (∂)
• Option + S – To create the Greek letter Beta (ß)
• Option + Z – To create the Greek letter Omega (Ω)

What Keyboard shortcuts do you use to save yourself time? Is there anything you’d like to add to this list? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below!