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Guides

Practical guides: techniques, setups and how things work — written to be used, not just read.

Maxim with an open guidebook, diagram cards rising from its pages; the holographic cat points at one

All guides

  1. · 9 min read · The Boot USB Stick, part 2 Your Own Debian Live Image: Boot It and SSH Straight In A Debian live image that boots from a USB stick and lets you in over ssh with your keys: building with live-build, the live.local name, pitfalls and security. System administration
  2. · 4 min read · The Boot USB Stick, part 3 Windows 11 Without a Microsoft Account: Enterprise and LTSC Home and Pro demand a Microsoft account, and Microsoft keeps closing tricks like bypassnro. Enterprise and LTSC create a local account by design. Here is how. System administration
  3. · 13 min read · The Boot USB Stick, part 1 Ventoy Multiboot USB: One Stick for Linux and Windows One 32 GB stick with Debian, Ubuntu and Windows: what Ventoy is, which images to carry, checking sha256, updating with a script and what to do on a Mac. System administration
  4. · 4 min read WindowServer High CPU on a Mac: Why and How to Bring It Down WindowServer taking 30–80% CPU in Activity Monitor? It's the process that draws your windows. What loads it — displays, windows, effects — and how to test each. Mac PerformancemacOS
  5. · 5 min read System Data Taking Up Space on a Mac: What It Is and How to Shrink It System Data in Mac storage at 100 GB or more? What's in it — Time Machine snapshots, caches, swap — how to find what grew and what you can safely remove. Mac PerformancemacOS
  6. · 5 min read MacBook Battery Health: Capacity, Cycle Count and When to Replace Where to check MacBook battery health, maximum capacity and cycle count, what Service Recommended means, and how to slow battery aging with macOS settings. Mac PerformancemacOS
  7. · 4 min read Mac Fan Loud: When It's Normal and What to Do MacBook or iMac fan loud for no reason? When fan noise is normal, how to find the app heating your Mac, and what to do on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. Mac PerformancemacOS
  8. · 4 min read kernel_task High CPU on a Mac: What It Is and What to Do kernel_task at 300% CPU, fans loud, Mac slow? That's the macOS kernel cooling the processor. How to find what heated it up and what to do next, step by step. Mac PerformancemacOS
  9. · 7 min read Stats vs iStat Menus vs Activity Monitor: Compared An honest table: what Stats, iStat Menus, Activity Monitor and Mac Resources show, what they cost, where they live — and which monitor fits whom. Mac PerformancemacOS
  10. · 3 min read · Life Balance Wheel, template Wheel of Life Template: Fill It In Online or Print It Free wheel of life template: fill it in online on this page or print a blank 8-area PDF in A4 or US Letter. No sign-up; your scores stay on your device. Productivity
  11. · 5 min read How Much Space an App Takes on a Mac and How to Remove It How to see an app's size on a Mac, where to find all apps sorted by size and how to remove an app completely, with its settings, caches and login items. macOSMac Performance
  12. · 6 min read · Life Balance Wheel, part 4 From Wheel of Life to Goals: Plans, Habits and Check-Ins Turn low scores on your wheel of life into a goal for the quarter and a weekly habit, give them a place in your calendar, and know when to redo it. ProductivityFocus
  13. · 6 min read · Life Balance Wheel, part 3 How to Read Your Wheel of Life and Decide What to Change Your wheel is done, now what? How to read its shape, why a perfect circle is not the goal, and how to pick the one or two areas to start with. Productivity
  14. · 6 min read · Life Balance Wheel, part 2 Wheel of Life Categories: 8 Life Areas and How to Pick Yours Which life areas to put on your wheel: a starter set of eight explained, when six or twelve work better, and how to define what a 10 means in each. Productivity
  15. · 5 min read How Much Has Been Written to a Mac SSD: Checking Wear macOS shows only the S.M.A.R.T. status. smartctl shows terabytes written, Percentage Used and Available Spare. How to read them and when SSD wear is a concern. Mac PerformancemacOS
  16. · 5 min read How to See Network Traffic on a Mac: Who Is Downloading Who is using the network and how much: per-app traffic in Activity Monitor and nettop, live speed in a desktop widget, and Low Data Mode. Mac PerformancemacOS
  17. · 5 min read · Life Balance Wheel, part 1 The Wheel of Life: What It Is and How to Fill It In The wheel of life exercise in 20 minutes: pick your life areas, score each from 0 to 10, draw the wheel and see what to do with the result. Productivity
  18. · 6 min read MacBook Battery Drain: What Uses the Charge and Where to Look MacBook draining faster than usual? Where macOS shows battery usage by hour and by app, how to check battery health and what actually helps. Mac PerformancemacOS
  19. · 5 min read Mac Temperature: Where to Check It and When to Worry Is your Mac running hot, and is that a problem? What macOS shows about heat on Intel and Apple silicon, where to get degrees and what to do. Mac PerformancemacOS
  20. · 6 min read · The Pomodoro Technique, part 6 What to Do on a Pomodoro Break Five minutes of break vanish into a feed and you come back tired. What actually restores you, the 20-20-20 rule and how to spend a long break. FocusProductivity
  21. · 6 min read How to Set Up Focus on a Mac for Work How to set up Focus on your Mac: which people and apps get through, schedules, filters and Focus status — so notifications stop breaking your work. macOSFocus
  22. · 7 min read Menu Bar System Monitor for Mac: Which One to Choose CPU, memory and network load, even temperature, right in the Mac menu bar. What macOS shows by itself and what Stats, iStat Menus and Mac Resources can do. Mac PerformancemacOS
  23. · 5 min read Mac Slow After a macOS Update: What's Normal, What Isn't After a macOS update, Spotlight indexing, Photos analysis and iCloud sync run for days. How to help them finish and when a slow Mac means a real problem to fix. Mac PerformancemacOS
  24. · 5 min read Swap on a Mac: How Much Is Normal and When to Worry Activity Monitor shows gigabytes of Swap Used? The number alone is no diagnosis: check memory pressure and whether swap grows. What's normal, what to do. Mac PerformancemacOS
  25. · 6 min read How to Keep Your Mac Awake: Settings, caffeinate, the Lid Stop a Mac from sleeping with one setting in System Settings or the caffeinate command in Terminal. Display sleep vs. system sleep, and what a closed lid does. macOSMac Performance
  26. · 6 min read Why Is My Mac So Slow? A Step-by-Step Diagnosis Mac or MacBook running slow? Before you install a cleaner app, check memory, CPU usage, disk and heat in order and find the real cause. Mac PerformancemacOS
  27. · 5 min read Memory Pressure on a Mac: What Yellow and Red Mean Used memory on a Mac is almost always high, and that's fine. How to read the Memory Pressure graph, swap and compressed memory, and when RAM really runs short. Mac PerformancemacOS
  28. · 5 min read Mac Desktop Widgets: How to Add Them and Which to Keep How to add widgets to your macOS desktop, which ones are worth keeping — from calendar to CPU and memory load — and what to do when widgets disappear. macOSProductivity
  29. · 5 min read Time Blocking and Pomodoro: How to Plan a Working Day Time blocking decides what to work on, Pomodoro decides how. A daily setup: blocks in your calendar, pomodoros inside them, and a plan for when it slips. ProductivityFocus
  30. · 6 min read How to Check CPU Usage on a Mac: Activity Monitor Guide To check CPU usage on a Mac, open Activity Monitor, the Mac's task manager. What the CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk and Network tabs show and who is to blame. Mac PerformancemacOS
  31. · 5 min read Is 8 GB of RAM Enough for a Mac, or Do You Need 16? Other people's opinions on 8 vs 16 GB won't help. A week of watching memory pressure shows whether RAM is enough for your work and worth paying for. Mac PerformancemacOS
  32. · 6 min read · The Pomodoro Technique, part 5 The 52/17 Rule and 90-Minute Cycles: Longer Pomodoros The 52/17 rule and 90-minute cycles: where they come from, what holds up, who they suit, and how to set a longer rhythm when 25 minutes is too short. FocusProductivity
  33. · 5 min read How to Customize the Mac Menu Bar: Icons and the Notch Menu bar icons hide behind the notch and clutter the screen. How to reorder and hide them with built-in settings, and what is worth keeping in view. macOSProductivity
  34. · 3 min read · The Pomodoro Technique, part 4 Pomodoro and Focus on macOS: Silence Notifications How to silence notifications automatically for each pomodoro using macOS itself: a Focus mode, two shortcuts and no third-party blockers. FocusmacOS
  35. · 4 min read · The Pomodoro Technique, part 3 What to Do When a Pomodoro Gets Interrupted Why pomodoros get interrupted, how internal distractions differ from external ones and what to do about each: write it down or negotiate — without guilt. Focus
  36. · 3 min read · The Pomodoro Technique, part 2 How Long Is a Pomodoro: 25/5, 15/3 or 50/10 The classic 25 minutes don't suit everyone or every task. Three proven pomodoro rhythms — 25/5, 15/3 and 50/10 — how to pick yours and when to change it. ProductivityFocus
  37. · 3 min read · The Pomodoro Technique, part 1 The Pomodoro Technique: What It Is and How to Start What the Pomodoro Technique is, how a cycle of four pomodoros works, and how to get through your first day with it — no extra rules, no required apps. FocusProductivity