Finding it tough to find a work-life balance behind the computer? There's a nifty feature inside OS X Leopard called Spaces to keep your horseplay and work time separate.

Are you tempted to procrastinate on Facebook, look at the latest funny video on YouTube that shows yet another man getting hit in the groin while you should be working? Or, are you a work-a-holic who can't sit in front of a computer without checking your work email, just for a second, and then wondering where half of your Saturday went?

As the separation between work and home life has diminished, technology has acted as a double-edged sword. On one hand it has eliminated many chores to allow more time for other activities. Unfortunately, this "extra" time has meant working longer hours and the average working week has steadily increased in almost every western country over the past 10 years. New communication channels such as the Web and mobile devices have largely contributed to this increase. With this in mind, the emphasis of separating work and leisure has increased.

Spaces is a new feature released in Apple's OS X Leopard operating system that can help separate work and play with multiple desktops. Power users may already be familiar with similar technology offered by third-party application vendors on the Mac and PC, and the technology has been available inside Linux desktop computers for years. With the release of Leopard, Apple created this functionality inside the operating system.

The advantage of using Spaces rather than having multiple applications open on the desktop is simple; multiple desktops can break your computer life into work and play with the flip of a switch. All of your entertainment applications can be viewed on one desktop, while a serious work space can be viewed on another. It's like having two different computers in one.

Enable Spaces
By default, Apple's operating system has Spaces disabled. To enable it, click on System Preferences from the Dock and choose Exposé and Spaces. The fresh screen will automatically bring you to Exposé. Click on the tab next to Exposé that says Spaces.

This screen will allow you to set all the commands you'll need to enable and tweak Spaces. To start Spaces simply select "Enable Spaces" in the top left of the screen. It's also a good idea to click on the box on the top right that says "Show Spaces in menu bar". As the name suggests it will show which desktop you are currently using in the top menu bar which is handy if you've forgotten or not sure.

Setting up your desktops
By default there will be four boxes enabled and represent one virtual desktop each. You can add or subtract desktops as you see fit by clicking on the plus (+) or minus (-) icons. For the purposes of this exercise we'll set up two simple desktops — one for work and the other for entertainment — so delete one row or one column, it doesn't matter as long as there are only two Spaces on the screen.

At this stage we're ready to assign different applications to each Space. This isn't a permanent setting and you can assign applications, such as a browser, to both desktops if needed. Firstly, we'll set up the work desktop which will be the number 1 screen. Under the box "Application Assignments" click on the plus (+) sign which will bring up a dialogue box to select an application. For the purpose of this exercise we've added Microsoft Word, Apple's Mail program, Photoshop, and Safari. Once you've added the applications you want for your work space you need to assign it to a virtual desktop. For each application make sure you assign it to Space 1, or if you want, both Spaces.

Now adding a virtual desktop for procrastination, entertainment, or social networking is as easy as adding applications and assigning them to Space 2, or both if needed. Once finished, you will now have two virtual desktops saved and will stay that way until you change the settings.

Driving multiple desktops
Now we've set up the two virtual desktops it's time to learn how to drive them. You can navigate between your desktops in two main ways. Using the mouse you can click on the Spaces icon in the menu bar, as shown in the second image above, and select which screen to work in. A faster way to navigate your new virtual desktops is by learning the keyboard shortcuts. There are three keyboard shortcuts to remember. The first is F8 which will show a birds-eye view of all of your virtual desktops. This is handy if you can't remember where an application is, especially if you have more than two virtual desktops set up.

The second is switching between Spaces which is ctrl and an arrow key (up, down, left, or right). Lastly, you can use ctrl plus the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 on the keyboard to go directly to an allocated Space. In our example above we'd simply press ctrl plus 1, and ctrl plus 2 to toggle between our work and play desktops. If at any time you want to change these keyboard shortcuts they can be changed in the Spaces settings screen. Simply use the drop down menu to change to a keystroke that better suits your typing style.

With your new virtual desktops, we've removed clutter and separated your work and play time on your Mac efficiently. If managed correctly you'll score points with your boss and your friends, partners, and family. No more updating your Facebook status message while you're supposed to be working or checking your work email at home, right? Right? If you have a serious problem with separating the two it might be time to take a holiday or get familiar with the parental controls on your Mac.