Rectangle is excellent at what it does: snap windows, resize them with keyboard shortcuts, and tile your screen layout. But if you're still manually reopening apps, hunting for browser tabs, and rebuilding your workspace every time you switch projects, that's not a Rectangle problem. That's a context persistence problem.

Getting pulled in different directions during deep work on a Mac has two distinct causes, and most people only fix one. A complete deep work setup on Mac needs to address both. Ikuna solves the environmental layer by saving and restoring your entire workspace state in under three seconds.

Context switching reduces your productive time by up to 40%, according to the American Psychological Association. That's not a productivity tip you missed or a time management hack you need to learn. It's a systems problem.

macOS doesn't save workspace state natively. When you close apps or restart your Mac, everything resets. Virtual desktops (Spaces) remember window positions only while apps stay open, but they don't track which apps belong to which project, and they don't restore closed windows. If you're managing multiple projects- client work, personal tasks, research, you're manually rebuilding your setup every time you switch.

Context switching kills deep work because it fragments attention and creates cognitive overhead.
The solution isn't to eliminate context switching. It's to make it deliberate. Create named work contexts that represent distinct mental modes. Save your complete project environment for each context. Use a context manager to automate the switch.

Ikuna was built to solve this specific problem: reducing the friction of planned context switching so knowledge workers can do their best work without the cognitive tax of constant mental resets.

A deep work system on Mac is not just a collection of productivity apps. It is an operating model for how focused work is prepared, entered, protected, and sustained across the day.

This guide breaks down the most useful app categories for multi project work on Mac and shows how to build a setup that reduces context switching, cuts setup time, and makes it easier to stay focused across clients, departments, or workstreams.

Most Mac apps only move windows around. A workspace manager saves your entire project environment — apps, tabs, positions, sensory cues — and restores it in 3 seconds. Here's how Ikuna, BetterStage, Rectangle, and macOS Spaces compare.

Context switching, or the constant shifting of focus between tasks, is a common problem in today's fast-paced work environment. However, it is also a significant hindrance to productivity, as it takes time for the brain to switch its focus, leading to decreased efficiency and increased stress levels.

The contemporary work environment presents a significant paradox. Digital tools, designed and marketed with the promise of unprecedented efficiency and connectivity, often seem to deliver the opposite: fragmented attention, information overload, and diminished productivity. The proliferation of remote and hybrid work models further complicates this landscape, introducing unique cognitive demands as the boundaries between professional and personal life blur. We find ourselves navigating a digital maze, equipped with powerful technologies yet struggling to harness our own cognitive resources effectively.