I’m kind of a sucker for menu bar apps. I’m not sure why, but there’s tons of software that I would never just leave running in my Dock, but I’m more than happy to reduce to an icon up at the top of my screen.

Over the years, I’ve accumulated a wide variety of these programs, and though in I’ve occasionally tried to cut back and slim down, in the last year or so, I may have gone a bit overboard—even for my 27-inch iMac and its expansive display. I chalk that up to finally becoming a Bartender convert1; it’s made me far less picky about what I’m willing to have in my menu bar, since it doesn’t really clutter up my screen.

So, starting from the rightmost and moving to the left, let’s take a quick survey through these menu bar widgets, some of which may even surprise you,

An analog clock? I can see why that seems like a weird choice, and I’ll admit: the only time I ever interact with this is when I rarely—and usually accidentally—open macOS’s less-than-useful Notification Center. Unfortunately, you can’t totally get rid of the system clock anymore, thanks to it pulling double duty, but I’ve reduced it down to its smallest footprint, for reasons I’ll get into a moment.…

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