I don't think I've gotten more mileage out of $2 than I have with Magnet. The Mac app has been an important staple of my workflow for months, helping me keep my workspace organized and under control at all times. If it suddenly disappeared, there would be chaos.
Available for $2 from the Mac App Store, Magnet makes it easy to resize windows and applications, either with customizable keyboard shortcuts or by dragging windows to the edge or corners of the display. I primarily take advantage of the keyboard shortcuts, which by now are like second nature.
On a daily basis, I have anywhere from 5 to 10 apps open at once, and while Apple's Spaces and Exposé features are helpful, they don't completely fulfill my needs. Magnet completes my workflow by allowing me to quickly resize windows on my desktop with minimal effort.
On the main space on my desktop, I typically have open Ulysses, Chrome, Notes, and Reminders. Magnet allows me to see all of them at once without me having to manually resize them. It means I spend less time fiddling around with windows and more time writing, making me more productive.
In a lot of cases, I'll have Ulysses open on one half of the display while I'm conducting research on the other half. If breaking news drops, I can easily fact check my work and write at the same time — all thanks to Magnet. On days when I want to unwind, I can snap a YouTube video to the left side of the display while I catch up on the latest news on the right side.
Mac has its own simplified version of Magnet; if you hover over the full screen button in an application, you can tile a window to the left or right side of the screen. It's essentially like Split View on an iPad. You can even move the divider to the left or right if you want one app to take up more screen real estate.
Magnet is a more powerful option, however, because it gives you so many different options. The left, right, top, and bottom halves of the screen are support; left, center, and right thirds of the screen are supported; left two thirds and right two thirds of the screen are also supported. That's a lot of ways to keep your desktop organized.
Maybe my love of Magnet is due to my fascination with Things Organized Neatly, which features image of products that are neatly arranged on a floor or tabletop. I like my desktop to be organized neatly, rather than having windows on top of windows on top of windows. And if it makes me more productive, all the better.
Magnet has been one of the top-selling productivity Mac apps in the App Store over the past few months, so I'm not the only one who finds it useful. You can grab Magnet from the Mac App Store for $2.
How to manage your windows like a pro in macOS
Keep your workspace organized with Magnet, and easy-to-use app that allows users to snap windows with keyboard shortcuts and by dragging apps to the display edges. It beats manually resizing windows, which can really put a stop to productivity.
