Why Raycast Is the Only App Every Mac User Needs

My screen when someone asks “How did you do that so fast?”

Let me paint you a picture: you take a screenshot, copy a link, hit a shortcut to jump straight to your colleague in Slack, then paste both the image and the URL in one go. Up arrow, T to thread, add your context, done. You didn’t touch the trackpad once. That’s Raycast and that’s why I install it before anything else on a new machine. Here’s how to steal some of my setup.

1. Clipboard History (⌘ + ⌥ + V)

This is the one. I use it so often I forget it’s not built into macOS, and it’s the first thing I would install.

The basics: copy something, copy something else, need the first thing back, done. But it goes further than that. Raycast can extract text from a screenshot, so if something’s buried in an image, you don’t have to retype it. Just grab the screenshot and pull the text straight out.

The move I use constantly: take a screenshot, copy a link, then hit ⌃ + ⌥ + ⌘ + V twice. That shortcut pastes in clipboard order, so you get the image and the link dropped in one go. Genuinely one of those things that sounds small until you’re doing it a few times a day.

2. Slack Without the Tab Switching (⌥ + S)

⌥ + S and I’m in. (⌥ + K) for any Slack channel instantly via the Slack extension. No more ⌘ + Tab roulette.

3. Schedule Always in View (⌘ + Space)

Next meeting, front and centre. Good for those moments where you’ve completely lost track of the day.

4. Inbox Zero More Often Than Not (⌘ + ⇧ + U)

Gmail’s unread view mapped to U. Cold email? Archived before it has a chance to ruin your morning.

5. Linear Issues on the Fly (⌥ + L)

Bug report mid-standup? Feature request before you forget it? The Linear extension lets me file a ticket before super quick. ⌥ + L for this one (see a pattern?).

6. Todo Lists That Don’t Suck

My Raycast todo list is where small tasks go to either get done immediately or get deleted when I realise they don’t matter. No notifications, no guilt, just a clean conscience. (⌘ + ⇧ + ?)

7. Internet Speed Tests (Because)

“Is the WiFi slow or am I just impatient?” The Speedtest extension knows. One shortcut and you have your answer.

Why This Beats Spotlight

Spotlight finds files. Raycast replaces workflows. Everything above lives in one place, mapped to shortcuts that become muscle memory fast. I’m still finding new extensions that quietly shave minutes off my day, which at this point feels like the whole point.

Get Raycast here - not sponsored, just don’t want you to suffer fr.