The Mac fanboys out there (including me) just watched Steve Jobs preview the latest iteration of OS X, called Lion. One of the neater features is “fullscreen apps,” which basically just makes the application window take over your whole screen. Apparently people really like that on various iDevices, so they’re adding it to normal Macs.
I really like it too: it’s amazing how much less cluttered your mindspace can be if you’re only focusing on one thing at a time onscreen. In fact, I’ve been using this feature for months already on my MacBook Pro, even though it hasn’t been released yet…
Yep, ye olde “maximize window” will do wonders for your concentration. Just click and drag your application window to fill up the screen, et voila! Instant simplicity. (I use Apple-Tab to switch between apps.) The experience may not be as pretty as the one coming in Lion, but you won’t have to buy a whole new OS to get it.
I also like the free app “Think,” which blacks out everything save for the application you’re working on. It’s great when I’m composing something in Word and don’t want to stretch the compose window all the way to the edges of the screen.
“Spirited Away” is also good — it’s a background app that auto-hides any windows that have been idle for X amount of time (you can set the interval to taste), leaving only the one you’re focused on.