LeaderKey.app is a very good launcher

I've been using LeaderKey.app for a few months now and it's been a big improvement over my old workflow.

I spend my day switching between about 9 apps - Firefox, Fantastical, Ghostty, Mimestream, Discord, Todoist, Signal, Slack, and Obsidian. I only use two window sizes - full screen and half-screen, so I can't just keep all of the applications visible.

Previously I used a combination of Cmd-Tab and Alfred to switch between applications. Cmd-Tab is inefficient because the order of applications isn't consistent and I have to look at the row to see what I'm selecting. Alfred is nifty but it's easy to pull up the wrong thing because its quick-search list also includes system settings and other kinds of shortcuts.

LeaderKey is better than both in important ways:

• It's as fast or faster than Alfred
• I can hit the same key combination and get the same result - Cmd+J o will always open Obsidian
• It's open source, which means it might have longevity depending on contributors and interest.

My configuration looks like this. The main stumbling block early on was figuring out what the leader key should be. A lot of keyboard shortcuts are already taken, and I couldn't find a way to map an unconventional shortcut like Cmd Cmd. I ended up with Cmd+J, which I wasn't using for anything, and is nicely on the home row of a QWERTY keyboard.

It's nifty. Eventually, those milliseconds I'm saving will add up and I'll have bought myself another five minutes of free time, which I'll use to make a sandwich.