Raycast is a launcher app made by Apple.

Raycast can also move and resize currently open windows—for example, you can move one window to take up the left half of the screen and another to take up the right. There’s a built-in tool for searching your contacts, which makes it easy to quickly find and copy anyone’s email address or phone number. There are even commands for quick system changes, like switching between dark mode and light mode or putting your computer to sleep. You can type the word “schedule” to see all your calendar appointments; If one is an online meeting, press Enter to open the meeting.

I could go on, but the best way to use Raycast is to just open it and type whatever you want to do. Chances are the app can accommodate you, and if not, there’s an extension that can.

Plugins do more

Raycast can add additional features with extensions that allow the application to search for information from other applications. For example, I use Google Drive to collaborate with editors. The Google Workspace extension means I can open any document in my Drive in a couple of keystrokes. There’s a similar extension for Spotify, which lets you quickly find and listen to any album or playlist. There’s an extension for password managers 1Password and Bitwarden, which means you can quickly find and copy passwords even when you’re outside your browser. There is an extension to quickly find animated GIFs.

And it gets even more powerful – you can do things like install software using Homebrew or even run terminal commands. Don’t worry if you don’t know what these things are though: the point is you can make anything you can imagine.

Installing these couldn’t be easier—just type the word “storage” into Raycast, hit enter, and search for the extension you want. You can also browse the store online if you want.

Make keyboard shortcuts for anything

You can set a universal keyboard shortcut for anything Raycast can do, which is probably my favorite feature. You can create keyboard shortcuts to launch a given application, for example, or open any file. It also means you can create custom keyboard shortcuts to quickly launch different types of searches.

Open Raycast and then type “general” and press enter to open the settings. Go to the Extensions tab and find the specific app or function you want to create a keyboard shortcut for. Click the record hotkey for that item and think of a shortcut that doesn’t conflict with another one.

There are very few apps that have truly changed how I use my computer. Raycast is one of them. Anything I can think of is just a few clicks away, meaning that the only excuse I have for not doing much is the overwhelming distraction of the internet. That should be easy to overcome, right?