Project Environment Manager for Task-Switching Freelancer
March 6, 2015 10:59 AM Subscribe
As a freelance marketing copywriter, what kind of thingie do I need in order to save different computer work environments for different projects—browser tabs, accounts logged into, files open in applications, etc.—and easily switch between them?
This kind of thing is costing me almost half an hour when I switch between projects. Unacceptable!
My environment is OSX Yosemite/iOS 8.1/Firefox/Google. Super bonus for a solution that also works on iPhone/iPad.
This kind of thing is costing me almost half an hour when I switch between projects. Unacceptable!
My environment is OSX Yosemite/iOS 8.1/Firefox/Google. Super bonus for a solution that also works on iPhone/iPad.
You could probably script something up in Keyboard Maestro that would do all of this. Once you had the template down, it probably wouldn't be too hard to modify it for each project.
A more straightforward but less ambitious way would be to use Spaces, which is built into OS X: Get Space 1 set up the way you like for Project 1; get Space 2 set up the way you like for Project 2. You'd still need to log into/out of some accounts, I imagine.
You could also use file aliases and .webloc files collected in a folder for each project. Just open the folder, select all, and hit command-down. Boom. Again, you'd need to log into accounts.
Control Plane might be part of your puzzle. You can organize your computer setup into multiple "contexts"—usually this is used to change your environment for when you have your laptop at home, or a coffee shop, etc, but it might help.
I can't help but think there probably is something closer to what you want, but I'm not aware of it.
posted by adamrice at 11:54 AM on March 6, 2015
A more straightforward but less ambitious way would be to use Spaces, which is built into OS X: Get Space 1 set up the way you like for Project 1; get Space 2 set up the way you like for Project 2. You'd still need to log into/out of some accounts, I imagine.
You could also use file aliases and .webloc files collected in a folder for each project. Just open the folder, select all, and hit command-down. Boom. Again, you'd need to log into accounts.
Control Plane might be part of your puzzle. You can organize your computer setup into multiple "contexts"—usually this is used to change your environment for when you have your laptop at home, or a coffee shop, etc, but it might help.
I can't help but think there probably is something closer to what you want, but I'm not aware of it.
posted by adamrice at 11:54 AM on March 6, 2015
I just create new users for each project and have OSX save states. I also use multiple browsers for different logins, eg, Chrome for personal Google account, Firefox for other Google account, Safari for third, etc.
Unfortunately, this doesn't do anything for mobile.
posted by General Malaise at 12:22 PM on March 6, 2015
Unfortunately, this doesn't do anything for mobile.
posted by General Malaise at 12:22 PM on March 6, 2015
This is why they have created then concept of user accounts. Just create a user account for each project. This applies to anything. E.g. Even firefox has accounts.
posted by flexiverse at 2:09 PM on March 6, 2015
posted by flexiverse at 2:09 PM on March 6, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
There are session savers to create groups of browser tabs, but as far as entire environments go, the only way I can think of off the top of my head is to create different user accounts with auto-start apps for each.
posted by rhizome at 11:40 AM on March 6, 2015