I've been doing this for >10 years with https://manytricks.com/butler/. Works great! You can also bind snippets of text, scripts, etc. I can't overstate how important it is to have a keyboard that groups function keys into "islands" of (generally) 4 so you can touch-type them. An ergonomics consultant once observed that the source of my neck pain was that I looked at the keyboard while typing. As a touch-typist, I... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

I’m currently starting a job using windows after being on Mac for many years and have settled on AHK to replace part of my workflow from a program called Butler that I absolutely could not do without on Mac. It can do text expansion but isn’t really its main selling point. It can trigger site specific searches amongst other things that I’ve only found AHK able to replicate. Source: over 1 year ago

For task/app launching, LaunchBar, QuickSilver, and Butler (and of course Alfred that you already mentioned). I use LaunchBar. Alfred is probably more powerful, but LaunchBar is the snappiest for the way I use it. It's not as much about saving seconds/milliseconds as it is being able to stay in a flow. Source: over 2 years ago

Siracusa also developed an app to get Classic Mac window layering behavior on MacOS. - https://hypercritical.co/front-and-center/ And one that gives him an application switcher that works the way he likes: - https://hypercritical.co/switchglass/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago

Hide the dock and use http://hypercritical.co/switchglass/. Doesn’t solve everything but might add some flexibility to your setup. Source: over 3 years ago