Your hands leave the keyboard, reach for the mouse, navigate a menu, click, then move back to typing. That round trip takes about two seconds. Do it 200 times a day, and you've burned nearly seven minutes on nothing.
Keyboard shortcuts fix that. The best ones become muscle memory within a day or two, and then you never think about them again — you just move faster.
Here are ten macOS shortcuts worth committing to memory, from the obvious ones you might be skipping to a few that most people have never heard of.
1. ⌘ + Space — Spotlight Search
You probably know this one. But are you actually using it?
Spotlight isn't just for finding files. Type an app name to launch it. Type a math equation to get the answer. Type a unit conversion ("25 USD in EUR") and get the result without opening a browser. Type a contact name to pull up their details.
If you're still clicking the Finder icon in the dock to open applications, stop. ⌘ + Space, type the first few letters, hit Return. It's faster every single time.
2. ⌘ + Tab — Switch Between Apps
Hold ⌘ and tap Tab to cycle through your open apps. Keep holding ⌘ and you'll see the app switcher — tap Tab or ⇧ + Tab to move forward or back, then release ⌘ to jump there.
Here's the trick most people miss: while the switcher is open, press Q to quit the highlighted app, or H to hide it. You can clean up your workspace without touching the mouse.
3. ⌘ + ` — Switch Windows Within the Same App
This one is criminally underused. You have three Finder windows open, or two Word documents, or five Safari windows. ⌘ + Tab won't help — it switches apps, not windows.
⌘ + ` (the backtick key, above Tab) cycles through windows of the current app. Once you know this, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
4. ⌘ + ⇧ + 4 — Screenshot a Selection
⌘ + ⇧ + 3 captures the entire screen. But ⌘ + ⇧ + 4 is far more useful — it lets you drag a crosshair to capture exactly what you need.
And there's more: after pressing ⌘ + ⇧ + 4, hit Space to switch to window capture mode. Hover over any window and click — you get a perfectly cropped screenshot with a nice drop shadow. Perfect for presentations, bug reports, or sending someone exactly what you're looking at.
5. ⌃ + ⌘ + Space — Emoji & Symbols Picker
Need an emoji? Don't Google "thumbs up emoji" and copy-paste it. Press ⌃ + ⌘ + Space and the character picker pops up right where your cursor is. Search by name, browse categories, or find special symbols like arrows, currency signs, and math operators.
Works in every text field on macOS — email, Slack, Notes, your browser.
6. ⌘ + ⌥ + Esc — Force Quit an App
When an app freezes, your instinct might be to right-click the dock icon and wait. ⌘ + ⌥ + Esc is faster — it opens the Force Quit window immediately. Select the unresponsive app, click Force Quit, move on.
No need to reboot. No need to wait. The macOS equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+Delete on Windows, except it actually works smoothly.
7. ⌘ + , — Open Preferences
Almost every macOS app follows the same convention: ⌘ + , (comma) opens its preferences or settings window. Safari, Mail, Slack, VS Code, Finder — it works everywhere.
Instead of hunting through menus for "Settings" or "Preferences," one shortcut handles them all. Small thing, but you'll reach for it constantly once it's in your muscle memory.
8. ⌃ + A and ⌃ + E — Jump to Start or End of a Line
These come from the Unix world, and they work in almost every text field on macOS — including Terminal, Safari's address bar, and the Messages app.
⌃ + A moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line. ⌃ + E moves it to the end. Faster than holding the arrow key, more precise than reaching for Home/End (which many Mac keyboards don't even have).
Pair them with ⌃ + K (delete everything from the cursor to the end of the line) and you've got lightning-fast text editing without ever touching the mouse.
9. ⌘ + ⇧ + . — Show Hidden Files in Finder
Ever needed to find a .env file, an .htaccess, or some config file that starts with a dot? By default, macOS hides these in Finder.
Press ⌘ + ⇧ + . (period) in any Finder window and all hidden files appear, slightly grayed out. Press it again to hide them. No need to mess with Terminal commands or change system settings.
If you do any kind of development or system administration, this shortcut is essential.
10. ⌥ + ⇧ + Volume/Brightness — Fine-Tune Adjustments
When you press the volume or brightness keys, macOS adjusts in big steps. Sometimes that's too much — one notch is too quiet, the next is too loud.
Hold ⌥ + ⇧ while pressing the volume or brightness key and macOS adjusts in quarter steps. Four times the precision. Perfect for dialing in the exact right brightness in a dark room or getting the volume just right during a call.
Bonus: Make Text Editing Even Faster with Schriftly
Shortcuts are about removing friction between what you want and what happens on screen. That's exactly the idea behind Schriftly — a desktop app that adds AI-powered text shortcuts to every application on your Mac.
Select any text, press ⌥ + F to fix spelling and grammar, or ⌥ + P to make it more professional. These work in Mail, Slack, Word, your browser — anywhere you type. The shortcuts are fully customizable, and you can add your own prompts for things like translating, summarizing, or changing tone.
It runs locally on your Mac (and Windows), uses your own API key or a hosted plan, and takes about 30 seconds to set up. If you're the kind of person who values keyboard shortcuts, it's worth a look.