HELPER TECH

Shortcut Cards: The Twenty That Actually Save Time

Printed cards for the shortcuts worth committing to memory, made to stand under a monitor instead of hiding in a browser tab you closed weeks ago.

A set of printed shortcut cards standing against a monitor foot

Everybody knows shortcuts save time. Almost nobody learns new ones, because the moment you need one you are mid-task, and looking it up costs more than the slow way.

That is a memory problem, and the fix is physical.

Twenty, not two hundred

Every shortcut list on the internet is exhaustive, which makes it useless — you cannot learn from a reference, only look things up in one. These cards each carry twenty, chosen for how much time they save multiplied by how often you would use them. Learn a card in a fortnight and turn it over.

Why printed

A reference on your screen competes with the work on your screen. A card standing under the monitor is in your eyeline while your hands stay where they are, which is the only reason a glance is cheaper than a search.

Both key sets, always

Windows and Mac columns on every card. Most desks are mixed now, and a reference card that is wrong for the machine in front of you is just clutter.

What you get

  • Six cards: system, text editing, browser, files, windows and screenshots
  • Twenty shortcuts per card, not two hundred — the point is what to learn
  • Both key sets printed on every card, so a mixed desk needs one order
  • Scored to fold into a stand, or ring them and hang the set off a monitor

Questions

Because a card with two hundred shortcuts on it is a poster you stop seeing. Twenty is roughly what a person can absorb over a fortnight, and the twenty chosen are the ones with the highest saving per use. Once they are automatic, turn the card over.
Both key sets are printed on every card, in two columns. Mixed desks are the normal case now, and shipping somebody the wrong version of a reference card is a support ticket waiting to happen.
Not as a separate product, and honestly a PDF of this defeats the point — a shortcut reference that lives on the screen you are trying to use is the problem it is meant to solve. That is the whole reason this one is printed.
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Printed & shipped
$16

Ships in 3–7 business days. Shipping calculated at checkout.

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Cards
6, double-sided
Size
4 × 6 in, scored to stand
Stock
350gsm matte
Ships in
3–7 business days