Siri Shortcuts are a game-changer for automating tasks and streamlining your daily workflow. With macOS Sequoia, Apple has made shortcuts even smarter by integrating AI-powered Siri, making your Mac more intuitive and efficient. In this article, I’ll share 20 of the most useful Siri Shortcuts you can start using to boost your productivity. But first, let’s see how to access them on your Mac!
How to set up Siri Shortcuts on your Mac
Getting started with shortcuts on your Mac is super easy. You can either use ready-made shortcuts from the Shortcuts app or create your own custom ones. You can also download shortcuts shared by others on platforms like Reddit or Routine Hub.
Here I have shared built-in shortcuts in the Shortcuts app. To set them up, open Launchpad and select Shortcuts, or simply search for it using Spotlight (Command + Spacebar). Now, click Gallery on the left panel to find the pre-made shortcuts.
You can now explore different shortcut categories. Click on any shortcut that interests you, then select Add Shortcut. It will now appear in the My Shortcuts section, ready for you to use. Simply, invoke Siri and ask her to run the shortcut.
20 Useful Shortcuts for macOS to boost your productivity
Now, let’s explore some of the best and most useful shortcuts you can start using right away. These will help you automate daily tasks, save time, and boost productivity.
1. Morning Brief: Start your day organized
This shortcut is my daily go-to for staying informed with a quick daily summary. With this shortcut, Siri will tell you the date, current weather forecast, traffic conditions, etc., and play your favorite podcasts. Whether you’re heading out or working from home, this shortcut ensures you get a snapshot of your day without opening multiple apps.
Personalization – You can customize the briefing message and the play order of your chosen podcast. From the editor window, click Show More next to Play Podcast and choose Playback Order.
2. Where’s Next: Get effortless directions
With the Where’s Next shortcut, you’ll always know the details of your upcoming journey. It shows the location of your next calendar event on Apple Maps. You will also see estimated travel time with directions. So, it’s perfect for staying organized and planning your commute efficiently.
Personalized – If you always take public transport or use your bicycle, you can change the default direction’s mode. In the editor window, click Driving and select between walking, transit, or biking.
3. Make PDF: Convert content on the go
I find this shortcut useful because I work with a lot of content. It lets you create PDF versions of web pages, documents, and anything from an app. Simply select the item, click the Share button, select Shortcuts, and choose Make PDF.
Personalization – The editor lets you add media and files as input. Click Images and checkmark the content type.
4. Download File: Save documents from URLs
With this shortcut, you don’t need any extra steps to download files from the web. Simply copy the file’s URL, activate the shortcut, and the file will be saved in your designated folder. It’s great for quickly saving images, videos, or documents without needing to open Safari.
Personalization – You can download photos by selecting Images as the input content type in the editor window.
5. Remove Background from Portrait: Become a pro editor
Do you want to create professional-looking images but don’t know advanced editing? The ‘Remove Background from Portrait’ shortcut instantly eliminates backgrounds from your photos and lets you share them. I use this to make profile pictures or create thumbnails without complex editing tools.
Personalization – In the editor window, you can click Portrait in the “Album is Portrait” section and select Recents. Now, you can remove the background of any image you want.
6. Split Screen: Multitask with split view
I know a split screen on a Mac takes about five seconds. But if you are someone like me, who can’t survive without the side-by-side view, this shortcut is God-sent.
It instantly invokes the split screen of the two chosen apps. Interestingly, macOS Monterey also offers some split-screen presets; search the term in the Gallery section to find them.
Personalization – You can change the selected apps and even the split-screen ratio (click show more) from the editor window.
7. Stop Distractions: Quit & Mute
True to its name, the shortcuts help you stay focused on the work at hand. They turn on Focus mode and quit all other distracting apps except the ones you are working on.
However, the shortcut allows you to keep only one app open. But thanks to my inquisitive nature, I have found a workaround.
Personalization – In the editor window, tap the app name after except and select Ask Each Time. When you run the shortcut, it will bring you a list of apps; check the ones you want to keep open.
8. Batch add reminders: Great for creating lists
Nested reminders are a gem, especially if you want to make a to-do or shopping list. This shortcut further enhances the feature’s ease of use.
The shortcut allows you to add multiple reminders at once. Just copy/paste or enter multiple lines of text; each line will be added as an individual reminder, as shown in the screenshot below.
Personalization – The shortcut does not set an alert; you can make changes from its editor window or Reminder app.
9. Start my next meeting: Must-have for Zoom lovers
The shortcut is designed to help you set up the next virtual meeting. It scans your calendar for an upcoming meeting and auto-connects the call at the right time.
Additionally, it creates a new note in the Notes app with meeting details (mentioned in the event) and turns on DND for the meeting duration.
Personalization – The shortcut does not set an alert. You can make changes from the editor window or the reminder app.
10. Reflect on the day: Best shortcut for journaling
Quite like a good journaling app, the shortcut asks you five questions that cover your mood, today’s achievements, and plans for the next day. And it doesn’t stop at that!
The answers are recorded in the Notes app so that you can review them later. It also turns your next-day goals into reminders to encourage a healthier workflow.
Personalization – It would be wise to edit the note locations so they are separate from your other work, well organized, and secure.
11. Search list: Batch Google search
No matter what you do, a Google search is undoubtedly part of your workflow. And when you have to do multiple searches, this shortcut is a time- and energy-saving wizard.
When you feed a list of search terms to the shortcut, it treats each line as a query and opens several Google tabs in Safari with the individual search results.
Personalization – If you wish to switch the search engine, edit the coding and change Google’s URL to the one you want.
12. Block off: Instant event scheduling
You can quickly create an event in the Calendar app and block an hour off for personal or professional tasks. Just ask Siri to run the shortcuts and pick a date and time.
Since Macs don’t have a built-in timer like the iPhones, this shortcut can be an excellent substitute for that. Apart from my professional engagements, I sometimes set reminders for breaks this way.
Personalization – Depending on your preference, you can change the default one-hour timing and ensure that alerts are active.
13. Reading mode: Awesome shortcut for bookworms
When run, the shortcut turns on DND, enables Dark Mode, plays a chosen playlist, and opens up your preferred reading app. What more could a reader want?
Remarkably, it asks you the minutes you want to devote to reading. Once that is over, it turns off the DND. The only issue is that it does not switch to Light Mode automatically.
Personalization – If you don’t like music in the background or Dark Mode, remove them from the shortcut’s code and add your preferred options.
14. Browse top news: For news buffs
Do you love reading multiple news sources to stay updated? Then you’ll love this one. It fetches RSS feeds from CNN, BBC, NPR, the New York Times, or Techmeme.
When run, the shortcut will ask you to select the news source; then, it will show you the top 10 headlines from the platform. You can select one or more articles to open in Safari tabs.
Personalization – You can increase or decrease the number of headlines you see and change their sorting order.
15. Remind me at home: A blessing for the forgetful ones
Do you often forget important tasks during the long commute from home or office? Don’t worry! The Shortcuts app has you sorted with a location-based reminder.
Add your list of tasks to the shortcut, and it will remind you of them once you reach home. Notably, you can use two variants of the shortcut: Remind me at home and Remind me at work.
Personalization – You can edit the radius and priority of the reminder. This could be a good tweak if you plan to use the shortcut on your iPhone or iPad.
16. Sort lines: Handy for everyone
Although a menial task, sometimes sorting a list of names or things in alphabetical order can be a pain. The Sort Lines shortcut makes it a breeze, saving both time and energy.
Just enter the text you want to sort as input, and as soon as you press Done, it’s done. But I hate that you can’t copy the said text. It kind of defeats the purpose, so I have a workaround.
Personalization – In the editor window, remove the last action and add either Copy to Clipboard or Create Note in its place. Tada! Problem solved.
17. Search GIPHY: For GIF lovers out there
The title says it all! Thanks to this Siri shortcut, you can find a fitting GIF without opening any browser or subsequent website. Plus, share it via email, iMessage, and more within the shortcut itself.
Notably, depending on your internet connection, the shortcut may take some time to load all the GIFs and open the selected one in Preview.
Personalization – Why settle for just one GIF? In the shortcut’s editor window, click Show More and select Multiple to choose and share more than one GIF.
18. Dictate & Share: Convert voice to text
You may be a fast type, but sometimes you feel lazy, or your hand is busy or hurting. Dictation can be a convenient tool at such times, and this shortcut is proof.
It converts your speech in real-time and allows you to share the text via the Mail, Messages, Notes, and Reminder apps. The Shortcuts app also offers another option, Dictate to Clipboard, which copies your words to the Universal Clipboard.
Personalization – By default, the dictation stops when you take a pause, which is quite inconvenient. So go to the editor window, click Show More on Dictate text, and select On Tap.
19. Make new playlist – New weekly playlist
This Siri shortcut is crafted for Apple Music users who love discovering new music and fresh playlists. It will present you with a new playlist every Monday, ensuring the blues are kept at bay.
But if you don’t want to experiment and stick to your favorite tunes, either try Auto Playlist or Top 25 Playlist shortcuts from the Shortcuts Gallery.
Personalization – The shortcuts code does not have much to change, though I recommend you rename the shortcut, as it’s quite a mouthful.
20. What did they say: Amazing shortcut for discovering lyrics
Can’t catch the lyrics of the songs in the background or over YouTube? Instead of asking your friends, colleagues or Google, ask Shazam and quickly get the answer.
However, it will just show you a snippet of the lyrics currently playing, not the whole song. So, it is excellent to confirm certain parts; for the complete lyrics, go to Apple Music or Spotify.
Personalization – After discovering the lyrics, if you want to add the song to a playlist or playing queue, search and select either the Add to Up Next or Playlist action.
Signing off…
Well, these are some of my favorite macOS shortcuts. Remarkably, they are just the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to the built-in gallery, automation support, and third-party gems, there is an excellent time-saving shortcut for everyone and almost every task.
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