Our brains all work differently. Mine? I find I can focus better when I don’t see a taskbar, so I’ve started hiding it. So far, I don’t regret it.
A Taskbar Is a Distraction
A taskbar, by default, is always present. It stretches across the entire bottom (usually) of the screen, inviting you to switch between apps or check your notifications.
Telling the time is perhaps the least distracting thing the taskbar does, and even that can be suspect. Not many of us, when writing in a physical notebook, choose to plop a digital clock down in the corner of the page. Personally, I check the time on my smartwatch anyway, regardless of whether I’m at the computer.
Fortunately, there’s a way to avoid having so many distractions visible at once, one that’s available regardless of which computer you’re using—auto-hiding the taskbar. How you do this varies. You cancustomize the taskbar on Windowsin theSettingsapp. On a Mac, checkSystem Preferences. If you’re like me and happen to be using Samsung DeX, you may find the setting by right-clicking on the taskbar.
Keeping My Focus on What I’m Doing
I haven’t been quick to hide the taskbar because, on its face, this feels like a step backwards. I’m taking part of an interface designed to be always visible and making it less accessible. Yet I’ve come to find that sometimes friction is a good thing.
With the taskbar invisible, my eyes aren’t wandering off to it. I’m less likely to think about the other apps that are running and switch software unnecessarily. I know I’m not the only one who sees a web browser icon, thinks of something I wanted to look up earlier, and 30 minutes laterI’ve somehow ended up on a hilarious subreddit.
I also have the habit of opening the app drawer, forgetting why I opened it, swiping back and forth between pages to see if something triggers my memory, only to end up opening YouTube and attempting to stream a video while I work.
If hiding the taskbar makes it harder to multitask, that works out in my favor. I have a big enough monitor to typically see all the windows I need at once. If I need more apps than that, chances are I’m attempting to juggle too much anyway.
Yes, auto-hiding can put an extra step between productive tasks, but it can slow down the unproductive ones as well. Waiting an extra second for the taskbar to appear works out to my benefit if it reduces the likelihood that I switch away from what I’m working on.
I Open Apps More Intentionally
Since pulling up the taskbar takes a little bit longer, I’m now less likely to use my mouse to open apps. Instead, I tap the keyboard shortcut that opens the app drawer, type the first few characters of the app’s name, and hit enter.
If the app isn’t open yet, this opens the app. If the app is already open, this quickly switches to the already open window. I value this way of managing windows so much that, when I was in college, I installed third-party software for this type of feature. Now it’s just baked in to the way computers work. All you need to know are the necessary shortcuts. On Windows, press theWindowskey. On a Mac, it’sCommand + Space.
Auto-hiding the taskbar doesn’t help me work faster. Rather, it helps me stay on task. Ultimately, they’re one and the same. If a job can take me an hour to do, but it ends up taking two, distractions are usually the reason.
Just like the desk in my home office, I work better when there isn’t a great deal of clutter around me. A taskbar gets filled with icons very quickly, and I can do more deep work if I take a moment to take all of that distraction and tuck it away.
