---
title: '10 MUST-KNOW Productivity Hacks for Your Stream Deck!'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=bFz4y0JiT9w'
video_id: 'bFz4y0JiT9w'
date: 2026-06-15
duration_sec: 0
---

# 10 MUST-KNOW Productivity Hacks for Your Stream Deck!

> Source: [10 MUST-KNOW Productivity Hacks for Your Stream Deck!](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bFz4y0JiT9w)

## Summary

The video presents 10 stream deck automations to boost productivity, covering audio switching, dark mode toggling, smart home control, notion shortcuts, project folders, focus mode, emoji insertion, USB ejection, Spotify controls, and Final Cut Pro shortcuts. The creator emphasizes that stream decks are useful beyond streaming, especially for content creators.

### Key Points

- **Switching Audio Outputs** [00:31] — Use the free Audio Switcher plugin to toggle between headphones and speakers with one button.
- **Quick Toggling Dark Mode** [01:28] — Use an AppleScript (generated via ChatGPT) to toggle dark/light mode.
- **Controlling Smart Home Devices** [02:26] — Link smart lights via HomeKit or native plugins like Philips Hue.
- **Shortcuts to Notion Pages** [03:07] — Use the website action button to link frequently used Notion pages.
- **Creating Folders for Specific Projects** [03:49] — Organize project files, Notion pages, and Riverside recordings into folders.
- **Focus Mode** [04:48] — Multi-action switch activates Do Not Disturb, headphones, Spotify rain sounds, and Pomodoro timer.
- **Frequently Used Emojis** [06:34] — Use text action buttons in a folder to quickly insert emojis.
- **Ejecting USB Devices** [07:17] — AppleScripts (via ChatGPT) to eject all USB devices or just SD cards.
- **Spotify Controls** [08:01] — Native Spotify plugin for play/pause with album artwork display.
- **Final Cut Pro Shortcuts** [08:42] — Hotkeys and CommandPost integration for advanced editing shortcuts.

### Conclusion

These 10 automations can significantly boost productivity for content creators and professionals, with the stream deck serving as a powerful tool beyond streaming.

## Transcript

are you tired of all those boring daily
repetitive tasks slowing you down well
today I'm going to show you 10 stream
deck automations that will supercharge
your workflow and boost your
productivity I think people often think
of stream decks as being just for
streamers but I've had one for the past
few months and honestly it's been a game
changer for me make sure you stick
around for the last one because it's a
game Cher for Content creators like you
and me and I'm going to show you how I
stream seamlessly using Riverside my
go-to platform for all my content
creation needs all right let's start out
with a pretty simple but powerful button
on the stream deck and that is switching
audio outputs now I personally am
constantly switching throughout the day
between my headphones and my MacBook
speakers particularly when I'm switching
between just my normal everyday tasks
and then jumping into an editing session
or a recording session with Riverside
and so instead of having to go through
multiple clicks with my audio output
setting in my Apple toolbar I've got it
set up just as a single button on my
stream deck that automatically switches
between my headphones and my MacBook
speakers this one is actually super
easier to set up it's just a free plugin
called audio switcher that you can get
on the Elgato Marketplace you just
download and install it and then you can
select which outputs you want to switch
between you can even set up multiple
different switches if you've got
multiple outputs I always prefer using
headphones when I'm recording in
Riverside because then I can hit
everything in the best quality possible
and because Riverside records all of my
content to my computer locally before
uploading it to the cloud I can make
sure I'm monitoring everything in its
native high quality audio all right so
number two is quick toggling dark mode
and this gets into some kind of more
advanced but really powerful stuff in
the Stream deck so on my Mac I've got it
automatically set to switch to dark mode
in the evening but sometimes again when
I'm recording or doing some color
grading I need my room to be really dark
and so having the option on my stream
neck to just switch to dark mode with
the single press of a button is super
handy the way I've got this set up is
with a simple apple script if you're not
familiar with coding and scripting and
all that kind of thing don't worry all
you need is chat GPT I personally have
no background in scripting especially
Apple scripts or anything like that but
literally all you have to do is ask chat
to create an apple script for you the
togg is between the dark and the light
mode it will create it for you just copy
and paste it straight into Apple scripts
editor save it as an application and
then open that with a button on your
stream deck I'm going to go through a
few more automations that I created with
apple scripts but seriously I highly
recommend looking into this because
there's so many different things you can
do and it's super powerful all right so
number three is controlling smart home
devices so for me I personally have
three different smart lights in my
office and so in the morning it's really
nice to just be able to hit a single
button and all of my lights turn on I've
also got a button link to my living room
so I can turn that on and off if I want
to but again you can link this to all
sorts of different smart home devices
this is just what I've got linked up in
terms of setup this can get a little bit
more complicated depending on the smart
home devices that you've got I
personally run everything through home
kit that's running on my NZ which again
is a little bit more complicated to set
up but there's lots of good tutorials
online or some brands have native
plugins on the Elgato Marketplace like
the Phillips Hue lighting which are just
plug and play so that's a lot easier to
set up all right number four is setting
up shortcuts to your notion Pages now
most people I know who are pretty
organized tend to use notion and I'm no
exception it's where I plan all of my
content pretty much it's like my central
hub for all of my productivity but what
this often means is that I've got a lots
of different projects happening all at
once in my notion workspace and it can
be kind of tedious having to dig through
all my different pages to find specific
spefic pages that are linked to certain
projects and so I've set up links to my
frequently used notion pages right on my
stream deck it's really easy you just
use the website action button and then
copy the link from your notion page into
that website action button and you're
good to go it seriously saves me so much
time searching through all of my
different notion pages to try and find
the ones that I want all right so Ida
number five is kind of the next logical
step from the notion shortcuts and
that's creating entire folders for
specific projects so again you can use
this for literally whatever you want in
terms of your own projects for me I've
organized a few different things on my
stream deck into folders including video
project files all of my notion files and
all of my Riverside recordings for
example I have a folder dedicated to my
Riverside podcast recordings I can just
hit a single button and it automatically
opens up my Riverside Studio where I'm
ready to record my podcast in high
quality or even live stream to multiple
platforms all at once in terms of
setting it up it's actually really
straightforward you just create a folder
in the Stream deck software and then
within that you can have pretty much as
many links as you like and a pro tip you
could actually even link your smart home
automation with one of these buttons so
for example I could set up the stream
deck so that when I open my Riverside
Studio it will automatically switch up
my lighting scenario so it's ready for a
recording for example all right number
six is one of my favorites and this is
focus mode now if you're like me
sometimes you might find it a little bit
hard to stay focus might be a bit
distracted by notifications popping up
on your screen or certain apps you might
find particularly distracted and so I've
set up a button on my stream deck that
activates a fully custom Focus mode so
what happens when I press my focus mode
button first of all it puts the Mac into
Do Not Disturb mode so I don't get any
notifications then it sets my audio
output to my headphones because again
when I'm focusing I like to use my
headphones to block out distractions
next it'll open Spotify and
automatically play a rain sounds
playlist that's what I personally like
to focus but you can set it to whatever
you like and then last but not least it
opens a Pomodoro Timer in my web browser
I find pomodora Tim is really helpful
for just focusing for a certain amount
of time and again you can set this to
whatever you want so if you have a
dedicated pomodora app you could get the
app to open this guy is really the limit
like for example if you're a streamer
combining this button with Riverside
could be a game changer for you because
you get even link opening a Riverside
studio with the focus mode so that when
you're live streaming to multiple
platforms there's no distractions and
you can just be really dialed into what
you're doing plus with Riverside it's
really handy because you can see all of
your chats from multiple Platforms in
the one place and it will record your
entire ire stream into your Riverside
studio and I've personally found this to
be much easier than using OBS for
example to stream because you can manage
everything in one place and then later
when your stream is over you can
automatically edit clips from your
stream using the Riverside editor which
again just really streamlines your whole
process and helps you be more productive
in terms of set up this one uses a
multi-action switch on the stream deck
the way it works is it's got two modes
on and off and then you just set up all
the different actions you want to happen
when you've got it switched on or when
you've got it switched off again I use
an apple to activate the Do Not Disturb
mode but you can fully customize a multi
switch with whatever you want all right
so number seven is kind of fun and that
is adding frequently used emojis now
personally I actually really miss the
old MacBook Pro Touch bar from like 2017
or whatever it was because I really
liked being able to just quickly add
emojis and this finally brings that
feature back I personally actually hate
having to manually open the Emoji menu
and scroll through or search and find
the different ones that I want this one
is also really easy to set up I've got
all the Emojis set up in a folder and
then it's easy as using a text action
button to just quickly insert emojis I
personally find this really helpful when
I'm replying to all of your comments on
my YouTube videos because it's super
easy for me to just quickly tap and add
some more emotion to my replies speaking
of which make sure you leave a comment
and hit the like button if you're
finding these ideas helpful all right so
idea number eight is one of my new
favorites and that is ejecting
particular USB devices so again because
I'm constantly moving in and out of my
office doing different types of work I'm
also constantly having to eject my
external drives my SD cards because I
have so much footage that I'm managing
between different storage locations but
again I use chat PT to set up some apple
scripts that allow me to eject
particular drives so I've currently got
two buttons set up one is designed to
eject all of my USB devices all at once
and then the other one is designed to
just eject SD cards so if I'm working at
my computer and I finished transferring
some footage for example I can just
eject my SD cards or if I want to leave
my desk all together and go and work in
a different room I just hit the all
devices eject button and I'm good to go
number nine is Spotify controls
particularly a play and pause button
I've got this on my home stream deck
screen and the reason I like this so
much is that when I use the play pause
button on my keyboard it actually
doesn't always seem to know which media
source to go with so if I've got a
YouTube video open plus Spotify open
sometimes it'll play pause Spotify
sometimes it'll play pause my YouTube
video and I never know for sure which
one is going to pick so be having the
button on my stream deck I know for sure
it's always going to play or pause my
music this one's super easy to set up
there's a native Spotify integration
plugin on the elgo marketplace it also
shows the album artwork on the button
while it's playing which is kind of nice
and you can even map other buttons like
next or previous for even more control
all right so last but definitely not
least I highly recommend adding some
Final Cut Pro shortcuts to your stream
deck if you're a video editor like me or
whatever platform using to edit whether
it's Riverside or Premier Pro anything
like that you can set up heaps of
different shortcuts all the way from
basic up to really advanced personally
I've got my stream deck set up so that
when I open funnel cut it automatically
opens a whole bunch of different
shortcuts that I frequently use this is
actually really easy to set up it's
pretty much as simple as adding a hotkey
shortcut for some more advanced controls
you can combine it with command post
which is what I've done which is another
free Mac app and then from there I've
personally got it set to do a whole
bunch of different things including
stabilize footage copy and remove
effects from Clips add basic titles loot
playback you can really get super
Advanced especially if you're using mult
action shortcuts for more complex edits
the guy is really the limit I say it all
the time but if you're looking to
increase your productivity when it comes
to video editing shortcuts are really
the way to go and then once you finish
editing your video to speed up your
workflow even more again I like to use
Riverside to create short form Clips I
just upload my edited video into
Riverside and then let the AI decide
which parts of my long form video are
best for short form Clips then I just
need to download them and then I can
reupload them to YouTube and Instagram
so there you go there's 10 ideas for
automation to hopefully boost your
productivity and your content creation
let me know in the comments if you've
got other suggestions I'm really Keen to
continue fleshing out my stream deck for
even more shortcuts and make sure you
check out Riverside using the link in
the description if you're looking for a
centralized content creation platform
that let you record live stream
repurpose and edit all of your content
in the one place it's a huge time saer
especially for live streamers and
content creators you can sign up for a
free account using the link in the
description and then if you decide to
upgrade to a subscription you can use my
code nick2 20 to get a 20% discount and
then in the meantime if you're looking
for more videos on YouTube setups then
make sure you check out this video right
here