The One-Shortcut Workflow: Turn a Single Key Combo into a Daily Time-Saving Superpower

Most productivity advice tells you to learn more shortcuts.

You get a giant cheat sheet with 50 keyboard combos, try them for a day, remember three, and go back to your old habits.

There’s a better way: instead of memorizing dozens of shortcuts you barely use, design one “hero” shortcut that you can use dozens (or hundreds) of times a day.

Then, remap and rearrange your tools so that this one shortcut becomes a universal trigger for your most common actions. When done right, this “one-shortcut workflow” can realistically cut 20–30% off your repetitive tasks in browsers, editors, terminals, and daily work.

This post will show you how.

Why One Shortcut Beats Fifty

Keyboard shortcuts are powerful because they:

• Remove mouse travel
• Reduce context switching
• Turn multi-step sequences into a single action

But there’s a catch: cognitive load. Every new shortcut is a micro-decision: “What was that combo again?” If you don’t use it often enough, you forget it.

The one-shortcut workflow takes a different approach:

• Pick one shortcut you can use constantly (your hero).
• Remap the world around it so it triggers your most valuable actions.
• Make it effortless to press, so it becomes muscle memory.

Instead of shallow familiarity with 30 shortcuts, you get deep automation with one.

Step 1: Choose Your “Hero” Shortcut

Your hero shortcut should be something you can press all day without strain.

Good candidates:

• A single modifier key (like Caps Lock, remapped)
• A simple two-key combo (e.g., Alt+Space, Ctrl+Space) that doesn’t conflict with critical OS shortcuts

What makes a great hero shortcut?

1. Easy to reach with minimal finger movement
2. Not heavily used by your OS or main apps already
3. Distinct enough that you don’t press it accidentally

Many power users turn Caps Lock into a hero key because:

• It’s large and centrally located
• It’s rarely useful in its default form
• It’s perfect as a “hyper” trigger for other actions

You can also use combos like:

• Alt + Space (popular for app launchers)
• Ctrl + Space (often free, but check your system)

Whatever you choose, this hero shortcut will become the gateway to your most common workflows.

Step 2: Remap It to Be Effortless

You want pressing your hero shortcut to feel automatic.

On Windows, a great tool for this is PowerToys’ Keyboard Manager. It lets you:

• Remap individual keys (e.g., Caps Lock → Ctrl or a custom combo)
• Remap shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl+Shift+L → Caps Lock)

On macOS, you can use:

• Karabiner-Elements (for deep key remapping)
• System Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts (for simple remaps)

Your goal here is:

Take an awkward but powerful shortcut and attach it to your hero key.

Examples:

• Map Ctrl+L (focus address bar in browsers) to your hero key
• Map Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P (command palette in editors) to your hero key

Now your brain only has to remember: “Hit the hero key” instead of “Ctrl+Shift+P in VS Code, but Cmd+Shift+P on Mac, and something else in another editor…”

Step 3: Turn App Launching into a One-Shortcut Action

A massive amount of daily friction comes from:

• Searching for apps in the Start menu or Dock
• Clicking around to open files or projects
• Repeating the same navigation every day

App launchers like Raycast (macOS) and Alfred (macOS) or tools like PowerToys Run (Windows) let you:

• Bind a global hotkey to open a command bar
• Launch apps by typing a few letters
• Open files, folders, or projects directly
• Trigger workflows and scripts

Now connect this to your one-shortcut idea:

1. Set your global launcher hotkey to your hero shortcut (or hero + a simple extra key).
2. Use launcher features to create named commands for your routines:
   • “work” → open your main editor, browser, and project folder
   • “notes” → open your notes app and today’s daily note
   • “standup” → open your standup document and task manager

The experience becomes:

Press hero shortcut → type a few letters → hit Enter → entire workflow opens.

Instead of clicking through menus or searching manually, you’ve turned multi-step actions into one consistent trigger.

Step 4: Standardize Shortcuts Across Apps

One of the biggest sources of friction is inconsistent shortcuts:

• Clear console is Ctrl+L in some tools, Cmd+K in others
• Open command palette is different between apps
• Switching tabs or focusing the search bar varies

You can fix this by standardizing shortcuts using remapping tools.

Principle:

The same physical key (or combo) should trigger the same type of action across all apps.

Examples:

• Hero key → "Go to universal command/search"

  • In browsers: map it to Ctrl+L (focus address bar)
  • In IDEs/editors: map it to Ctrl+P or Cmd+P (quick open)
  • In terminals: map it to your “command palette” or history search

• Hero + another key → "Clear/reset context"

  • In terminals: clear console
  • In logs viewers: clear output
  • In notification centers: dismiss all

By using PowerToys’ Keyboard Manager (Windows) or Karabiner/BetterTouchTool (macOS), you can:

• Map different underlying shortcuts in different apps
• To the same hero key or hero-based combo

The result: Your fingers stop caring which app you’re in. The same motion always does the same kind of thing.

Step 5: Target Repetitive Actions and Collapse Them

To get the most benefit, focus your hero shortcut on high-frequency, repetitive actions, especially those that:

• Require several clicks or key presses
• Break your flow
• Happen many times per hour

Common targets:

1. Navigating to the address bar

   • Map hero → address bar / omnibox
   • Now, any time you want a new site, search, or URL: just tap hero and type.

2. Clearing a console or log output

   • Map hero → clear terminal
   • Repeat for all terminal-like tools so it’s always the same.

3. Opening a project or workspace

   • Use your launcher + hero shortcut to: hero → type "client-x" → Enter
   • Automatically open the right editor, directory, and docs.

4. Jumping into search or command mode

   • Map hero → search bar in apps (email, task manager, notes)
   • Use it as your “universal search” key.

Each time you take a 3–5 step sequence and replace it with one tap + minimal typing, you’re removing seconds from actions that may happen hundreds of times a day.

Multiply that out, and it’s very reasonable to see 20–30% time savings in tools you live in (browser, editor, terminal, email, etc.).

Step 6: Respect OS-Reserved Shortcuts

Not every key combo is fair game.

Some shortcuts are reserved by your operating system and cannot (or should not) be remapped. For example:

• Windows

  • Win + L – lock screen
  • Ctrl + Alt + Del – security options
  • Some Win + combos are deeply baked into the OS

• macOS

  • Cmd + Space – Spotlight (unless you intentionally reassign it)
  • Cmd + Tab – app switcher

Design your one-shortcut workflow around these constraints:

• Don’t fight system-level shortcuts that are genuinely useful.
• Choose hero bindings that don’t collide with them.
• If you override something, do it intentionally and know how to revert.

The goal is to create harmony, not constant friction with your OS.

Example: A Simple One-Shortcut Setup

Here’s a practical example you could implement in an afternoon.

Platform: Windows

1. Use PowerToys Keyboard Manager to:

   • Remap Caps Lock → a custom shortcut (e.g., Ctrl+Shift+Space)

2. In your browser:

   • Map Ctrl+L (focus address bar) to your custom Caps Lock combo
   • Result: tap Caps Lock → cursor jumps to address bar

3. In your editor (VS Code, for example):

   • Map Ctrl+P (quick open) to the same Caps Lock combo
   • Result: tap Caps Lock → quick file/project open

4. In your terminal:

   • Map Ctrl+L (clear) or a custom clear command to Caps Lock
   • Result: tap Caps Lock → clean console

5. Set PowerToys Run to a global shortcut, and optionally:

   • Remap that to Caps Lock + another key (e.g., Caps + Space)
   • Result: Caps → in-app command; Caps+Space → cross-app launcher

Now you’ve built a tiny system:

• Single tap hero key → “act in this app” (search, open, clear)
• Hero + extra key → “act across all apps” (launch, switch, workflows)

You’ve standardized behavior, minimized travel, and created a core movement your hands will learn deeply.

Conclusion: Make One Shortcut Do the Heavy Lifting

You don’t need to be a shortcut encyclopedia to work fast.

By designing a one-shortcut workflow, you:

• Pick a single, easy-to-press hero key
• Remap awkward combos onto it so they feel effortless
• Use app launchers to turn multi-app workflows into one action
• Standardize behavior across tools so your fingers don’t have to think
• Target repetitive actions and compress them into a single motion

The payoff is real: shaving a few seconds off actions you perform hundreds of times per day easily adds up to 20–30% faster work in your core tools.

Start small: pick your hero shortcut, give it one high-value job (like focusing your browser address bar or opening your editor’s command palette), and use it obsessively for a week.

Once it becomes second nature, expand. Bit by bit, you’ll build a workspace where one shortcut quietly does the work of dozens—and your future self will thank you every single day.