What is the no-click principle?

It is the idea that taking your hand of the keyboard to reach for the mouse will significantly reduce your productivity. This is because of the time and context switch costs:

  • The Time Cost: Every reach for the mouse is a few seconds lost.
  • The Context Switch Cost: More critically, you interrupt your flow state. You have to visually locate and track the cursor, and when you return to the keyboard, you have to mentally and physically reset your typing position.

Even though it might only take a couple seconds to do all the above and then get back to typing, if you add up those few seconds for all the times it happens in a day, week, or month, it can start to become hours of time that you could have otherwise spent working or thinking.

But this idea isn’t only for clicking on buttons, it also applies to how you navigate text, how you fix a typo, how you open apps, or even how you browse the web. It is about reducing the amount steps there is before the task that you are trying to accomplish is completed. For example, if I want to search amazon for the best 60% keyboard:

  • With a mouse: locate and click on my browser in the taskbar, type amazon, click on the link to amazon that loads, click on the search bar, type 60 percent keyboard, and start scrolling with the mouse wheel.
  • Keyboard only: Open spotlight search (command + space), type the name of my browser to automatically open it, type amazon.com to go directly to the site, type 60 percent keyboard, and scroll with the arrow keys.

The keyboard-only way is already faster and requires no extra software. But as you can see, it still involves several distinct steps. What if we could eliminate even more of that friction?

This is where do things at the speed of thought comes in. The goal is to be able to subconsciously do a task, only using the keyboard, when I think of doing it. This removes the hassle of navigation and allows me to focus only on what I need to, like the writing that I am doing, rather than having to lose my flow in order to get a link or to check an email quickly.

Also, how fast you should be able to do a task should depend on how often you do it. For example, I use youtube to search how to do something very often, therefore I should be able to do that much faster than something that I do less often (like searching amazon).

Apps that allow you to work at the speed of thought

  • Raycast
  • Homerow
  • Shortcat
  • Vimuim

There are many more apps that are for specific things, but those are ones that apply to anything that you do and are more general.

Raycast is a spotlight replacement, so if I type command + space it will open up a little search bar. This allows me to search for apps that I want to open, or search for commands. The power comes in the Raycast store where I can install commands that allow me to things in less steps, for example, I have an extension that when I activate it will allow me to search youtube, once I hit enter it will automatically open a new browser tab with youtube and the search that I typed; allowing me to search youtube in only two steps.

Next is Homerow and Shortcat, both of which prevent me from ever having to click on a button using my mouse. these apps will assign a temporary, unique letter code to every clickable item on your screen. You hit a hotkey, type the code for the button you want (e.g., AS or JK), and it’s clicked instantly. Both apps also allow you to type the letters that are on the button to find it and click it (e.g. this is a button). It’s keyboard-driven clicking for your entire os.

Lastly we have Vimuim which does exactly what Shortcat and Homerow does except only for your browser. However, it is not only for clicking on links and buttons, it also allows you to use vim bindings to navigate the page (go to the top or bottom of the page and more) this gives you no excuse to ever have to touch your mouse.

Vim keybindings

Vim is more than just a code editor in the terminal now days, instead it is the best way to use your keyboard to efficiently navigate anything from text to web pages. It is the best because it is super simple and easy to learn and it is extremely fast to use.

The reason Vim allows for such speed is that its core commands are designed around the home row of your keyboard. This ensures that every keypress you use for navigation is in the closest, most optimal position for where your fingers currently are.

Vim is also modal, which means that there is a different mode depending on weather you want to type, navigate, or select. This structure is what allows you to navigate super quickly without it being too complicated to learn or use.

Another reason Vim is easy to learn is that the keys are mnemonic (easy to remember). For example, w is for “next word,” and b is for “back a word.” This intuitive design makes the commands easy to memorize and often allows you to guess the correct key even if you haven’t explicitly learned it.

For all these reasons, you should dedicate a little time to learning Vim keybindings. It’s one of the highest-leverage skills you can acquire, that will provide consistent time savings daily. In fact, I used Vim keybindings to write this entire post.

Ending

This is just the first of many posts to come about how to use your keyboard as a tool to interface with your device at the speed of thought. There is so much that I haven’t covered and such as tiling window management, words per minute, keyboards and chording, and much more.

My hope is that you start experimenting today. If you implement just one of these apps or concepts a day, you will begin to master your digital environment and unlock hours of extra time—allowing you to accomplish more than you previously thought possible.

Thanks for reading, and I can’t wait to see you tomorrow!