> Fine–tune your desktop and Dock

1 Adjust sorting

Ctrl–click an empty desktop area and pick View Options. Items are sorted by date added (or where you dragged them manually), but sorting by name can make things easier to find. Increasing the icon size and spacing can avoid clutter.

2 Group desktop files

In macOS Mojave, Ctrl–click the desktop and select Use Stacks. Documents will be grouped by type. Choose an item in Group Stacks By to pick a different attribute on which to organize files. To see a stack's contents, simply click on it.

3 Add menu bar items

Many apps add icons to the right end of the menu bar. macOS itself offers more than are shown by default. To find them, type ‘menu bar’ in System Prefs’ search bar. Try Opt– clicking those icons, which sometimes reveals extra options.

4 Manage the menu bar

Most items in the menu bar can be rearranged by holding Cmd and dragging left or right. Hold Cmd and drag one off the bar to remove it. For a fuller menu bar management solution, take a look at Bartender 3 ($15, macbartender.com).

5 Stay informed

Click the menu bar’s rightmost icon to see recent notifications. Click Today to view info from apps and the web, and Edit at the bottom of that tab to add to and reorder the widgets. Notification Center remembers the tab you viewed last.

6 Get quiet and rest eyes

In either of those tabs, scroll up to reveal switches that turn on Night Shift (a blue light–reducing screen mode) or Do Not Disturb (to stop alerts popping up on the desktop) — useful outside of their scheduled active times in System Prefs.